Dress Blues Lyrics - Jason Isbell

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 eighteen was to 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 

[Chorus 1] 

Mama's and grand mama's love you 

Cause that's all they know how to do 

But you never planned on the bombs in the sand 

Or sleeping in your dress blues 

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Your wife said this all would be funny 

when you came back home in a week 

you'd turn twenty-two and they'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 ain't comin' back 

They're all dressing in black 

drinking sweet tea in styrofoam cups 

[Chorus 2] 

Mama's and grand mama's love you 

American boys hate to lose 

But you never planned on the bombs in the sand 

or sleeping in your dress blues 

The high school gymnasium's ready 

full of flowers and old legionnaires 

nobody showed up to protest 

just to sniffle and stare 

Photos 

Red white and blue in the rafters 

The silent old men from the corps* 

what did they say when they shipped you away 

To fight somebody's Hollywood war. 

[Chorus 1] 

And 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.