Dress Blues by Lyric and Guitar Chords

Another one of my favorites by Jason Isbell. This is such a deep song that has
lyrics. Every time he plays it live he makes sure to let the audience know that he wrote this
for his friend from high school, Matt Connolly,who joined the marines and was killed by
roadside bomb in Iraq.

I’m not exactly sure what the names for each of the chords used are so I figured I’d
write them out here instead. He also plays a melody throughout the song in between the
and verse so I put a few little variations of that at the bottom.

Chords Used:

G: 3×0033
Em/G: 02×033
C/G: x3x033
D: xx0232
F#/G: 2×0033
Bm: x24432
C/G2: x32013
Cm: x31003

Intro:

[Em/G] [Em/G]
Verse:

What can you see from your [Em/G]window?
I can’t see anything from [Em/G]mine.
Flags on the side of the [Em/G]highway
and [C/G]scripture on grocery store signs.
Maybe eighteen was too [Em/G]early.
Maybe thirty or forty is [Em/G]too.
Did you get your chance to make [Em/G]peace with the man
before he [C/G]sent down his angels for you?

Chorus:

[Em/G]Mamas and [F#/G]grandmamas love you
‘caus[Em/G]e that’s all they[F#/G] know how to do.[F#/G]
[Em/G]You never planned on the bombs in the sand
or [C/G2]sleeping in your dress blues.

— Alright now I’m going to show you a few variations on the bridge he plays… play all
these kind of loosely (except the album version)

Bridge Variation 1:

e|-3--------------------3-----------------------------------------|
B|-3--------------------3-----------------------------------------|
G|-0-------0---0--0-----0-----------------------------------------|
A|-0--0----0---2--0--0--x-----------------------------------------|
D|-x--0h2------3-----3--2-----------------------------------------|
E|-3--------------------0-----------------------------------------|

Bridge Variation 2:

e|--------------------------------------3-------------------------|
B|--------------------------------------3-------------------------|
G|----0-----0-----0-----0-----0------0--0-------------------------|
A|-------------------2-----0------------x-------------------------|
D|-------0-----2------------------3-----2-------------------------|
E|-3------------------------------------0-------------------------|

Album Version (not played by guitar):

e|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
B|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
G|-----------------0--0~-------------------------------------------|
A|-----------0--4--------------------------------------------------|
D|-----0--2--------------------------------------------------------|
E|--3--------------------------------------------------------------|

-The Verse, Chorus, and Bridge are all the same for the rest of the song.

Verse:

Your wife said this all would be funny
when you came 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.
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.

Chorus:

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.

Bridge

Verse

Now the high school gymnasium’s ready,
full of flowers and old legionnaires.
Nobody showed up to protest,
just sniffle and stare.
But 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

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