US Blues

[Old and In the Way]

"U.S. Blues"
Words by Robert Hunter; music by Jerry Garcia
Copyright Ice Nine Publishing; used by permission

Red and white/blue suede shoes
I'm Uncle Sam /how do you do?
Gimme five/I'm still alive
Ain't no luck/I learned to duck

Check my pulse/it don't change
Stay seventy two/come shine or rain
Wave the flag/pop the bag
Rock the boat/skin the goat

Wave that flag
Wave it wide and high
Summertime
Done come and gone
My oh my

I'm Uncle Sam /that's who I am
Been hidin' out/in a rock and roll band
Shake the hand that shook the hand
Of P.T. Barnum/and Charlie Chan

Shine your shoes/light your fuse
Can you use/them ol' U.S. Blues?
I'll drink your health/share your wealth
Run your life/steal your wife

Wave that flag
Wave it wide and high
Summertime done
Come and gone
My oh my

Back to back/chicken shack
Son of a gun/better change your act
We're all confused/what's to lose?
You can call this song/the United States Blues

Wave that flag
Wave it wide and high
Summertime done come and gone
My oh My
Summertime done come and gone
My oh My

[Itascapark]

1. That's Frigging Spooky

I am just listening to it NOW!

[Old and In the Way]

2. Never really thought much of that tune......always thought it was a Top 40

filler for their album. But it seems mighty relevant today. I suspect if it was released today, it'd become our national anthem.

[Itascapark]

4. I think it's deceptively "popish"

It's dripping with irony and a straightforward sarcasm.

[short bus president]

3. Bizarre!

That song earwormed the hell outta me two days ago. I've never much liked it, either. One of the weak points of Mars Hotel. Here's what's replaced it earworm-wise recently: Althea & Donna "The West."

The West is gonna perish, indeed!

[Itascapark]

5. Unbroken Chain Now... n/t

[darkstar]

6. Been in my head a lot lately since

picking up the Grateful Dead Movie on DVD. Have watched the opening animation section a couple of times, shown it to friends, etc., teased them w/ the sound qality of the music by finishing out U.S. Blues (we're all gonna watch the whole movie Thankgiving, it looks like....)

Yeah and that song was something in the face of The Big Old Bicentennial Year. It really was. Hearng that song on the car radio radio that summer and singing along "wave that flag" and "summertime done come and gone" as July 4, 1976 approched was something else, and odd juxtapose, the idea America's glory days, or perhaps simply youthful innocence, were behind us even as bunting and flag colors draped from everyting, dripped off billboards, etc. As if the fact that we we papering over a sad little secret had to be hidden in that a bouncy sing-a-long....