4 Meanings
Add Yours
Follow
Share
Q&A

Dress Blues Lyrics

What can you see from your window?
I can't see anything from mine
Flags on the side of the highway
and scripture on grocery store signs

Maybe 18 was too early
Maybe thirty or forty is too
Did you get your chance to make
Peace with the man
Before he sent down his angels for you?

Mamas and grandmamas love you
'Cuz that's all they know how to do
You never planned
On the bombs in the sand
Or sleeping in your dress blues

Your wife said this all would be funny
When you got back home in a week
You'd turn 22 and we'd celebrate you
In a bar or a tent by the creek

Your baby would just about be here
Your very last tour would be up
But you won't be back
They're all dressing in black
Drinking sweet tea in styrofoam cups

Mamas and grandmamas love you
American boys hate to lose
You never planned on
The bombs in the sand
Or sleeping in your dress blues

High school gymnasium's ready
Full of flowers and old legionnaires
Nobody showed up to protest,
just sniffle and stare
There's red, white, and blue in the rafters
There's silent old men from the corps
What did they say when they shipped you away
To fight somebody's Hollywood war?

Nobody here could forget you
You showed us what we had to lose
And you never planned on
The bombs in the sand
Or sleeping in your dress blues

You never planned on
The bombs in the sand
Or sleeping in your dress blues
4 Meanings

Add your song meanings, interpretations, facts, memories & more to the community.

Add your thoughts...
Cover art for Dress Blues lyrics by Jason Isbell

Great song Very sad though. About one of jasons' highschool friends who went to war and didn't come back.

P.S. my brother, Jimbo, is jasons' bassist in his band The 400 Unit.

@HoodedHippy

Love Jimbo!!!

@HoodedHippy Saw them in Cologne Germany lässt November. Great show.

@HoodedHippy I love Jimbo he’s so awesome. He took time with my son who Is a musician and was so sweet to him. It meant a lot

Cover art for Dress Blues lyrics by Jason Isbell

This song just digs at me like none other can. I have too many friends over there and I can't go a day without being overwhelmed with the fear I'll never see them again.

Cover art for Dress Blues lyrics by Jason Isbell

I wish they'd bring home our troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Cover art for Dress Blues lyrics by Jason Isbell

"High school gymnasium's ready Full of flowers and old legionnaires Nobody showed up to protest, just sniffle and stare There's red, white, and blue in the rafters There's silent old men from the corps"

Best part of the song..the respect most Americans give to the young men and women who give their lives for the hope of better times ahead.

 
Questions and Answers

Ask specific questions and get answers to unlock more indepth meanings & facts.

Ask a question...