Grateful Dead - Stella Blue (5.1 surround sound mix)
I created this 5.1 mix from lossy multi-tracks/stems. Like all other online platforms, YouTube streams surround sound music at a low bitrate so that the file size is usually 10-times smaller than the original lossless audio. If you would like to hear my surround mixes as lossless and/or a more immersive format, such as 7.1 or Dolby TrueHD Atmos, you can join my free Telegram here: https://t.me/SweetDiscreteMusic/188 ___ Although first released on Wake Of The Flood (1973), this hauntingly beautiful ballad had been written several years earlier. In terms of song writing, “Stella Blue” stands as the quintessence of Robert Hunter (lyrics) and Jerry Garcia’s (guitar/vocals) collaborative efforts. Right from the opening lines, there is a glimpse into Hunter’s intricate literacy: “All the years combine/They melt into a dream/A broken angel sings from a guitar/In the end there’s just a song come a’ crying up the night/Through all the broken dreams and vanish years”. In a rare synergy for the Dead, the studio version is quite enjoyable and features some nice harmony backing vocals -- which were rarely as angelic in concert -- from Bob Weir (guitar/vocals) and Donna Jean Godchaux (vocals). Although delicate, the melody is perfectly suited for the Grateful Dead. The openly arranged instrumental passages allow the band to take advantage their unique ability for real-time spontaneous collaborations. Deadheads were immediately drawn to the introspective and unassuming nature of “Stella Blue” and it quickly became a performance standard for over two decades. Rather than becoming an anathema, age and maturity only deified the ballad. During the waning years, Garcia’s fragile health added an additional undercurrent of melancholy when he sang lines such as “There is nothing you can hold for very long” and “It seems like all this life was just a dream”. The obvious question is who Stella Blue was. No one knows. Because of the September 2019 death of Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, who wrote the words for this one (Jerry Garcia did the music), we'll likely never know. Maybe that's for the best. It's a sad song. Some have speculated that the "blue" is meant in the sense of the blues, being bummed and broken down. The song doesn't seem to be about lost love but rather meditations on the transience and seeming meaninglessness of life. And when you hear that song come crying like the wind it seems like all this life was just a dream One note Hunter did elect to leave us is found in Box of Rain, his book of lyrics. In there he says simply that he wrote this song in the Chelsea Hotel in 1970, which makes the Chelsea one of the "blue-light cheap hotels" mentioned in the song. Over the years, New York City's Chelsea Hotel has figured into many songs and is a sort of musical landmark. In the late '60s and early '70s, it was the extended home of the Dead, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Tom Waits, and many others. In the Italian language, "stella" means "star." The Dead first performed this song live at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, California, on June 17, 1972. They played it live a total of 328 times. The final show came at Maryland Heights, Missouri's Riverport Ampitheatre on July 6, 1995. David Dodd at Dead.net, a true Dead scholar if there ever was one, thinks "Stella Blue" may represent the apex of the songwriting partnership between Hunter and Garcia. Oteil Burbridge, the bass player in Dead & Company (which also includes Mickey Hart, Bob Weir and John Mayer), released his own version of Stella Blue on his 2023 solo album Lovely View Of Heaven, a collection of ballads written by Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia.
I created this 5.1 mix from lossy multi-tracks/stems. Like all other online platforms, YouTube streams surround sound music at a low bitrate so that the file size is usually 10-times smaller than the original lossless audio. If you would like to hear my surround mixes as lossless and/or a more immersive format, such as 7.1 or Dolby TrueHD Atmos, you can join my free Telegram here: https://t.me/SweetDiscreteMusic/188 ___ Although first released on Wake Of The Flood (1973), this hauntingly beautiful ballad had been written several years earlier. In terms of song writing, “Stella Blue” stands as the quintessence of Robert Hunter (lyrics) and Jerry Garcia’s (guitar/vocals) collaborative efforts. Right from the opening lines, there is a glimpse into Hunter’s intricate literacy: “All the years combine/They melt into a dream/A broken angel sings from a guitar/In the end there’s just a song come a’ crying up the night/Through all the broken dreams and vanish years”. In a rare synergy for the Dead, the studio version is quite enjoyable and features some nice harmony backing vocals -- which were rarely as angelic in concert -- from Bob Weir (guitar/vocals) and Donna Jean Godchaux (vocals). Although delicate, the melody is perfectly suited for the Grateful Dead. The openly arranged instrumental passages allow the band to take advantage their unique ability for real-time spontaneous collaborations. Deadheads were immediately drawn to the introspective and unassuming nature of “Stella Blue” and it quickly became a performance standard for over two decades. Rather than becoming an anathema, age and maturity only deified the ballad. During the waning years, Garcia’s fragile health added an additional undercurrent of melancholy when he sang lines such as “There is nothing you can hold for very long” and “It seems like all this life was just a dream”. The obvious question is who Stella Blue was. No one knows. Because of the September 2019 death of Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, who wrote the words for this one (Jerry Garcia did the music), we'll likely never know. Maybe that's for the best. It's a sad song. Some have speculated that the "blue" is meant in the sense of the blues, being bummed and broken down. The song doesn't seem to be about lost love but rather meditations on the transience and seeming meaninglessness of life. And when you hear that song come crying like the wind it seems like all this life was just a dream One note Hunter did elect to leave us is found in Box of Rain, his book of lyrics. In there he says simply that he wrote this song in the Chelsea Hotel in 1970, which makes the Chelsea one of the "blue-light cheap hotels" mentioned in the song. Over the years, New York City's Chelsea Hotel has figured into many songs and is a sort of musical landmark. In the late '60s and early '70s, it was the extended home of the Dead, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Tom Waits, and many others. In the Italian language, "stella" means "star." The Dead first performed this song live at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, California, on June 17, 1972. They played it live a total of 328 times. The final show came at Maryland Heights, Missouri's Riverport Ampitheatre on July 6, 1995. David Dodd at Dead.net, a true Dead scholar if there ever was one, thinks "Stella Blue" may represent the apex of the songwriting partnership between Hunter and Garcia. Oteil Burbridge, the bass player in Dead & Company (which also includes Mickey Hart, Bob Weir and John Mayer), released his own version of Stella Blue on his 2023 solo album Lovely View Of Heaven, a collection of ballads written by Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia.