The traditional trappings of a wedding – ‘something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue’ constitute Jim’s keywords for Song Lyric Sunday this week.

This has nothing to do with nuptials, but ask me what’s my favourite Grateful Dead song and although I would be hard-pressed to make a single choice, this would always be on the shortlist – the rueful, elegaic ‘Stella Blue’.

All the years combine, they melt into a dream,
A broken angel sings from a guitar.
In the end there’s just a song comes cryin’ up the night
Thru all the broken dreams and vanished years.
Stella blue. Stella blue.

When all the cards are down, there’s nothing left to see,
There’s just the pavement left and broken dreams.

In the end there’s still that song comes cryin’ like the wind.
Down every lonely street that’s ever been
Stella blue. Stella blue.

I’ve stayed in every blue-light cheap hotel, can’t win for trying.
Dust off those rusty strings just one more time,
Gonna make them shine, shine

It all rolls into one and nothing comes for free,
There’s nothing you can hold, for very long.
And when you hear that song come crying like the wind,
It seems like all this life was just a dream.
Stella blue. Stella blue.

Written by Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia

Song Lyric Sunday 6 June 2021