Dress Blues
By Jason Isbell
Written By Jason Isbell
CD: Sirens Of The Ditch (2007)
Tabbed By Larry Mofle
7/11/2015


Intro chords:
G Em G Em


G                          Em
What can you see from your window
G                         Em
I can't see anything from mine
G                        Em
Flags on the side of the highway
    C                            G      D/F#
And scr i pture on grocery store signs

Maybe eighteen 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


Chorus:
Em       D/F#      G
Mamas and grandmamas love you
       Em             D/F#       G  D/F#
Cause' that's all they know how to dooo
Em                      Bm
You never planned on the bombs in the sand
   C           Cm        G      D/F#
Or sleepin' in your dress blues


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

Your baby would just about be here
When your very last tour would be up
But you won't be back, they're all dressin' in black
Drinking sweet tea in Styrofoam cups


Chorus 2:
Mamas and grandmamas love you
American boys hate to lose
But you never planned on the bombs in the sand
Or sleepin' in your dress blues


The 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
And there's silent old men from the Corps
What did they say when they shipped you away
To fight somebody's Hollywood war


Chorus 3:
Nobody here could forget you
You showed us what we had to lose
And you never planned on the bombs in the sand
or sleepin' in your dress blues

Tag:
You never planned on the bombs in the sand
Or sleeping in your dress blues