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Grateful Dead - Stella Blue Montage vers2 (1974, 1980, 1991, 1993) LoloYodel

2,381 views · Published 30 November 2014 · 9:14 · Indexed 12 November 2026

Channel: LoloYodel · 2014 · Music

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a 1993 version, more intense.
... relax, just a voyage through time !

"Stella Blue" (The Grateful Dead) : a LoloYodel video montage using 4 concerts (see below)

TWO different auditive interpretations of the same song.
The 1st, using the audio from the Oct 1974 concert, is dripping of emotion & serenity.
The 2nd, using the audio from the March 1993 concert, while still remaining hauntingly mysterious has notably a ferocious end-jam !
To each their own ! Peace.

First played live on 06-17-1972 at the Hollywood Bowl (Hollywood, CA), it was played a total of 326 times in concert until 1995 (with only the exception of 1975).
By the end of 1972, early 1973, "Stella Blue" found virtually it's eternal spot within the 2nd set and by 1980, or so, was often nestled between a Truckin', The Other One ... and segued into another of Weir's show closures such as Good Lovin', "Sugar Magnolia", "Lovelight" et al ... 

Interpretation : 
As David Dodd wrote : “This Robert Hunter / Jerry Garcia song seems to me to constitute the apex of their joint songwriting partnership.  … there’s that perennial question, “Who (or what) is Stella Blue?” What if Hunter’s answer was “I just liked the way the words sounded together.” … Maybe it’s just a variant on the words “dark star,” only “blue star.” That would neatly link “Dark Star” to “Standing on the Moon,” with its three blue stars. Or maybe it’s a blue guitar, with the Stella trademark … or a blues guitar. 
The Annotated Lyrics book goes on for quite some time about all the various associations with “Stella Blue” as a name, even pinpointing an actual fictional character by that name from a Vladimir Nabokov novel, Pale Fire.
[Otherwise] the words “blue light cheap hotel”, [is certainly a reference to] the Chelsea Hotel where Hunter wrote the song.
In performance, “Stella Blue” could take on a number of moods, or, more likely, fit easily into a number of moods I might be bringing to the show as a listener. It could be wistful, mysterious, even angry once Garcia got to the solo. 

Watch :
... and listen throughout !
3:33 Bruce Hornsby's amazed look

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Audio : 1993 03-14 Richfield Coliseum, Ohio (with a more discreet "Matrix" soundboard). 

Videos :
1974 10-17 Winterland Arena, SF ("GD Movie") begins really at 1:50... 
1980 10-31 Radio City Music Hall, NY (Vault Video)
1991 06-14 RFK Stadium, Wash, DC (Vault II)
1993 03-14 Richfield Coliseum, Richfield Ohio (Two Angles : "Lazy Cow" & an unknown angle)

PS : Could have used 1983 & 1987 concert videos as well but they wouldn't have brought better viewing pleasure ...

Enjoy !
Buy all of those commercially available GD Vault videos.

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For noncommercial, educational, and archival purposes under Law of Fair Use as provided for in section 107 of the US copyright law. No copyrights infringements intended***

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