• https://www.dead.net/features/greatest-stories-ever-told/greatest-stories-ever-told-us-blues
    Greatest Stories Ever Told - "U.S. Blues"

    By David Dodd

    Here’s the plan—each week, I will blog about a different song, focusing, usually, on the lyrics, but also on some other aspects of the song, including its overall impact—a truly subjective thing. Therefore, the best part, I would hope, would not be anything in particular that I might have to say, but rather, the conversation that may happen via the comments over the course of time—and since all the posts will stay up, you can feel free to weigh in any time on any of the songs! With Grateful Dead lyrics, there’s always a new and different take on what they bring up for each listener, it seems. (I’ll consider requests for particular songs—just private message me!)

    “U.S. Blues”

    There’s a wonderful scene in The Grateful Dead Movie, where one particular Deadhead is right on the rail during the opening number, perfectly lip-synching the entire rendition of “U.S. Blues” that opens the live concert portion of the movie. Who is that guy? Someone must know. I would like to say “thank you for a real good time” several times over to that particular person, for permanently blazing onto my consciousness a face imbued with the ecstasy of being in the front row at a Dead show. Hurray, whoever you are!

    And that thing of knowing all the words, like the GD Movie guy—that impressed me so strongly at my very first Dead show, how everyone knew all the words to every song (except me). Made me determined to learn the songs.

    I love this song for many reasons. At times I have grown tired of it (there was a period when it seemed like every show ended with it…probably my imagination), but there has always been something great about putting on Mars Hotel and hearing those first notes boom out. It’s good for dancing, for singing along, and for setting the mind off on a variety of directions, largely through a wide range of lyrical allusions.

    Right off the bat, for instance, the listener gets the sense that this will be a rock and roll tune, since the reference to “Blue Suede Shoes” is unmistakable. So begins a lyric by Robert Hunter that went through a long evolutionary process, beginning as “Wave That Flag,” (see /song/wave-flag) and ending up as a collision of Americana from all directions, amazingly summarizing some things about our national character, if there is such a thing.

    Who would argue that we are a mish-mash of diverse cultures? This song refers to so much musical, theatrical, and political figures that we are left feeling both proud and somewhat bemused by our own past as a country.

    “Blue Suede Shoes” kicks it off, putting both Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis into our heads, but the lineup of references moves quickly along, as Uncle Sam, the song’s narrator, announces himself. Yes, Uncle Sam wears blue suede shoes, apparently. (Returning briefly to the Grateful Dead Movie, these are transformed into Converse high-tops for the animated Uncle Sam skeleton who dances his way through the opening sequence.)

    The figure of Uncle Sam has always been a fairly dire one in my experience, looking out from lowered eyebrows, telling us that he wants us for the army. Yikes. This Uncle Sam is more charming, but not altogether benign, being ready to run our lives and steal our wives, despite the fact that he has learned to duck and seems to be hiding out in a rock and roll band.

    For me, (and as always, I must stress how reluctant I am to even say what a song means to me, for fear that anyone might think it has any authority beyond my own brain…), the song speaks to waning empire.

    Written by Hunter, with music by Garcia, over the course of the 1973, as the U.S. role in Vietnam was winding to a less-than-triumphant close, the song always included the line about summertime having come and gone. The “summer” of US power seemed at the time to be on the way out, indeed. Early lines in “Wave That Flag” include “Feed the poor, stop the war,” and “Live in shame, die in vain.” (That version is ripe for a hip-hop remake, seems to me…)

    But Hunter keeps it light. He threw out the most overtly political lines for the final version, and we are left with more of a romp than a stomp.

    It doesn’t hurt, in terms of keeping it light, that he brings in P.T. Barnum and Charlie Chan. (And the very way he phrases their introduction, “shake the hand, that shook the hand…” is itself a reference, however obscure, to an old song called “Shake the Hand That Shook the Hand of Sullivan,” from 1898.)

    Phineas Taylor Barnum (1810-1891) was a showman and something of a charlatan, who started his illustrious career with the less-than-illustrious purchase of an elderly female slave whom he then exhibited as a 161-year-old who supposedly nursed George Washington. That was in 1835. Over the course of the next half-century he opened a “museum” in New York, The American Museum, which was home to his exhibits, which included the Fiji Mermaid (half monkey, half fish), General Tom Thumb (a midget less than three feet tall), and the original Siamese Twins, Chang and Eng. It wasn’t until1871 that he launched his circus, having served in the meantime as mayor of Bridgeport, and as a member of the Connecticut legislature. After a decade running “The Greatest Show on Earth,” he merged with Bailey’s to become Barnum and Bailey’s. The franchise is still going strong, as Ringling Brothers & Barnum and Bailey.

    Charlie Chan is a fictional character, the creation of Earl Derr Diggers, immortalized in film, and possessed of a large family, living in Hawaii and solving crimes as a private detective. While hardly the most realistic or charming of images to summon up, Charlie Chan somehow exemplifies the American habit of assimilating our subcultures—often in a manner that could only be called misappropriation. But that, too, is part of the American character.

    (A few times in 1979-1980, Garcia substituted “The Shah of Iran” for “Charlie Chan” in performances.)

    “U.S. Blues” debuted on February 22 (George Washington’s birthday!) at Winterland in San Francisco, as the opener. Also appearing for the first time that night were “It Must’ve Been the Roses” and “Ship of Fools.” Its final appearance was at the band’s next-to-last show, on July 8, 1995, where it was the encore. In between, it was played 323 times, often as the closing encore.

    It appeared on Grateful Dead From the Mars Hotel, released June 27, 1974. It was also released as a single, backed with “Loose Lucy.”

    A note I received from Alex Allan in 2003, following the publication of Dennis McNally’s biography of the band, pointed out the following passage from the book, and added a comment from Alex:

    "[Weir and Hunter] clashed again over "One More Saturday Night." Having gotten Hunter's lyrics, Weir rewrote them--badly in Hunter's opinion--and then asked to call the resulting song "U.S. Blues," which Hunter refused to permit. In the end, he declined any association with the song and it was credited to Weir alone." [p393]

    This throws as interesting light on the line:

    "You can call this song the United States Blues"!

    Happy Fourth of July, everyone! Wave that flag!

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  • befreeman
    7 months 4 weeks ago
    For what its worth

    It’s red, white and blue. We wouldn’t say red and white and blue. When we say red and white, this is an interesting counter cultural reference that intersects and not always favorably with the Grateful Dead, the Hells Angels. Not saying Hunter is making this allusion, just what comes to mind when I listen.

  • Default Avatar
    carol_siriusb
    10 years 7 months ago
    That head in the coverall's
    His name is Greg. He has been on the bus since the early days. Still bopping around in North Carolina and still a sweetie.
  • ddodd
    10 years 8 months ago
    Perkins!
    You are so right, Bill!
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By David Dodd

Here’s the plan—each week, I will blog about a different song, focusing, usually, on the lyrics, but also on some other aspects of the song, including its overall impact—a truly subjective thing. Therefore, the best part, I would hope, would not be anything in particular that I might have to say, but rather, the conversation that may happen via the comments over the course of time—and since all the posts will stay up, you can feel free to weigh in any time on any of the songs! With Grateful Dead lyrics, there’s always a new and different take on what they bring up for each listener, it seems. (I’ll consider requests for particular songs—just private message me!)

“U.S. Blues”

There’s a wonderful scene in The Grateful Dead Movie, where one particular Deadhead is right on the rail during the opening number, perfectly lip-synching the entire rendition of “U.S. Blues” that opens the live concert portion of the movie. Who is that guy? Someone must know. I would like to say “thank you for a real good time” several times over to that particular person, for permanently blazing onto my consciousness a face imbued with the ecstasy of being in the front row at a Dead show. Hurray, whoever you are!

And that thing of knowing all the words, like the GD Movie guy—that impressed me so strongly at my very first Dead show, how everyone knew all the words to every song (except me). Made me determined to learn the songs.

I love this song for many reasons. At times I have grown tired of it (there was a period when it seemed like every show ended with it…probably my imagination), but there has always been something great about putting on Mars Hotel and hearing those first notes boom out. It’s good for dancing, for singing along, and for setting the mind off on a variety of directions, largely through a wide range of lyrical allusions.

Right off the bat, for instance, the listener gets the sense that this will be a rock and roll tune, since the reference to “Blue Suede Shoes” is unmistakable. So begins a lyric by Robert Hunter that went through a long evolutionary process, beginning as “Wave That Flag,” (see /song/wave-flag) and ending up as a collision of Americana from all directions, amazingly summarizing some things about our national character, if there is such a thing.

Who would argue that we are a mish-mash of diverse cultures? This song refers to so much musical, theatrical, and political figures that we are left feeling both proud and somewhat bemused by our own past as a country.

“Blue Suede Shoes” kicks it off, putting both Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis into our heads, but the lineup of references moves quickly along, as Uncle Sam, the song’s narrator, announces himself. Yes, Uncle Sam wears blue suede shoes, apparently. (Returning briefly to the Grateful Dead Movie, these are transformed into Converse high-tops for the animated Uncle Sam skeleton who dances his way through the opening sequence.)

The figure of Uncle Sam has always been a fairly dire one in my experience, looking out from lowered eyebrows, telling us that he wants us for the army. Yikes. This Uncle Sam is more charming, but not altogether benign, being ready to run our lives and steal our wives, despite the fact that he has learned to duck and seems to be hiding out in a rock and roll band.

For me, (and as always, I must stress how reluctant I am to even say what a song means to me, for fear that anyone might think it has any authority beyond my own brain…), the song speaks to waning empire.

Written by Hunter, with music by Garcia, over the course of the 1973, as the U.S. role in Vietnam was winding to a less-than-triumphant close, the song always included the line about summertime having come and gone. The “summer” of US power seemed at the time to be on the way out, indeed. Early lines in “Wave That Flag” include “Feed the poor, stop the war,” and “Live in shame, die in vain.” (That version is ripe for a hip-hop remake, seems to me…)

But Hunter keeps it light. He threw out the most overtly political lines for the final version, and we are left with more of a romp than a stomp.

It doesn’t hurt, in terms of keeping it light, that he brings in P.T. Barnum and Charlie Chan. (And the very way he phrases their introduction, “shake the hand, that shook the hand…” is itself a reference, however obscure, to an old song called “Shake the Hand That Shook the Hand of Sullivan,” from 1898.)

Phineas Taylor Barnum (1810-1891) was a showman and something of a charlatan, who started his illustrious career with the less-than-illustrious purchase of an elderly female slave whom he then exhibited as a 161-year-old who supposedly nursed George Washington. That was in 1835. Over the course of the next half-century he opened a “museum” in New York, The American Museum, which was home to his exhibits, which included the Fiji Mermaid (half monkey, half fish), General Tom Thumb (a midget less than three feet tall), and the original Siamese Twins, Chang and Eng. It wasn’t until1871 that he launched his circus, having served in the meantime as mayor of Bridgeport, and as a member of the Connecticut legislature. After a decade running “The Greatest Show on Earth,” he merged with Bailey’s to become Barnum and Bailey’s. The franchise is still going strong, as Ringling Brothers & Barnum and Bailey.

Charlie Chan is a fictional character, the creation of Earl Derr Diggers, immortalized in film, and possessed of a large family, living in Hawaii and solving crimes as a private detective. While hardly the most realistic or charming of images to summon up, Charlie Chan somehow exemplifies the American habit of assimilating our subcultures—often in a manner that could only be called misappropriation. But that, too, is part of the American character.

(A few times in 1979-1980, Garcia substituted “The Shah of Iran” for “Charlie Chan” in performances.)

“U.S. Blues” debuted on February 22 (George Washington’s birthday!) at Winterland in San Francisco, as the opener. Also appearing for the first time that night were “It Must’ve Been the Roses” and “Ship of Fools.” Its final appearance was at the band’s next-to-last show, on July 8, 1995, where it was the encore. In between, it was played 323 times, often as the closing encore.

It appeared on Grateful Dead From the Mars Hotel, released June 27, 1974. It was also released as a single, backed with “Loose Lucy.”

A note I received from Alex Allan in 2003, following the publication of Dennis McNally’s biography of the band, pointed out the following passage from the book, and added a comment from Alex:

"[Weir and Hunter] clashed again over "One More Saturday Night." Having gotten Hunter's lyrics, Weir rewrote them--badly in Hunter's opinion--and then asked to call the resulting song "U.S. Blues," which Hunter refused to permit. In the end, he declined any association with the song and it was credited to Weir alone." [p393]

This throws as interesting light on the line:

"You can call this song the United States Blues"!

Happy Fourth of July, everyone! Wave that flag!

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There’s a wonderful scene in The Grateful Dead Movie, where one particular Deadhead is right on the rail during the opening number, perfectly lip-synching the entire rendition of “U.S. Blues” that opens the live concert portion of the movie. Who is that guy? Someone must know. I would like to say “thank you for a real good time” several times over to that particular person, for permanently blazing onto my consciousness a face imbued with the ecstasy of being in the front row at a Dead show. Hurray, whoever you are!

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I always pictured uncle sam as an acronym for united states or us, us as the united states or us as "us", you and I. Us, or we, are hiding out in a rock and roll band. Good place to be during those times, I mean who wouldn't rather be in a rock band than the military, who the sam of the recruiting poster wants you to join. I always preferred the psych sam from the dead movie, a free spirit who follows the band, is part of the band and represents the best of what the dead had to offer. A free spirited prankster with a big heart.Shake the hand that shook the hand of PT Barnum and Charlie Chan, both very different characters from the American landscape. Barnum was quoted as saying "there's a sucker born every minute, never give a sucker an even break, opinion's are like assholes, everyone's got one, and was the first to show people the exit from the establishment by fooling everyone that there was one more attraction thru the door "This way to the egress" which many thought was another weird and wonderful exhibit, not knowing that the word egress means to escape or exit. I often wondered if Bill Graham had been a follower of Mr. Barnum's philosophy, he sure had a way to offer up the best and most diverse performers available at the time and didn't mind mixing up different types of music all in the same night and sure could control a crowd. Perhaps a tip of the hat to old Bill by Mr. Hunter. Charlie Chan on the other hand is an Americanized version of a philosophical old Chinese gentleman, with his proverbs and sayings which always seemed to confound his "number one son" who was as American as you and I, even calling his father "pop" This seems to show us that the old usa was a great place, better than the homeland that pop loved and number one son thought was old and unimportant. In one generation, the Chinese people had become Americanized, had shed their old beliefs and had embraced the American way of life. To this day, many Chinese dream of being Americans. This is Hunter at his best, playing with words to invoke pictures that we all know and love, it is a testament to the united states, delivered by Hunter with all the good and bad rolled up into one big fun song. What's not to love? So I will wave my flag, my freak flag, today along with the old stars and stripes, it's possibly one of the last places in the world where you can still do that, unfortunately, that is also being eroded to the point where you can say you are free, but if you start acting free, watch out. Happy fourth of July to all.
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Yeah it was overplayed as an encore. Enough to earn itself a few groans from the audience. And an indignant nickname. However I still love hearing it from time to time.
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Listened to 7/13/77 first time yesterday. Good timing with The Other One and U.S. Blues encore, 4th of July.
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I was also caught by the fun that this guy was having. I also wonder what ever happened to the person that told the guard that he was doing work at bobby's house and the guard let him in. That was my very first exposure to the circus that was a grateful dead show, I was watching Don Kirshner's Rock Concert and they played the opening animation sequence and then U.S. Blues and there was that guy just bopping and singing along. They also played One More Saturday Night which led me to getting Europe 72' which led me with a thirty odd year fascination with this group.
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a Where Are They Now documentary on some of the Heads in that movie. I bet a lot of us actually know one or two of 'em. Even I, who came along years later, know one or two, still living even. Of course, all too many are no longer with us.
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Does anybody remember Uncle Sam on Stilts, handing out 23 dollar bills from the 23 bus? This was East Coast, late 70s, early 80s.. I like them US Blues. I'll take the lyrics from Wave That Flag over it any day though. And on this 4th, anyway, I'm ashamed to wave that flag. Try reading The People's History Of The United States by Howard Zinn.
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I thought this song took on extra meaning after Jerry's coma and recovery. "Gimme five; I'm still alive. Ain't no luck; I learned to duck...Check my pulse, you know it don't change. Stay 72, come shine or rain." Seems to me they played it the first show back, or around then anyway, and more frequently thereafter. It's always sounded optimistic and defiant to me for that reason. Summers come and go, but I'll wave that flag as long as my heart is beating.
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The US Blues lip syncher guy w/ the overalls, can also been seen in a few other parts of the movie! During "Truckin" he is the one saying "Happy Home!!!" A few minutes later he is the guy eating Chicklets (what ever happened to Chicklets? Do they still make it?). Then later on, after "Sugar Magnolia" he's seen with a few other guys discussing the "old days" of the GD San Francisco scene. Man, a lot of people used to wear overalls back in '74. The Grateful Dead Movie is filled with 'em!!! I've never been hip to that trend, I hope it never makes a comeback!!
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some call it "useless blues", but I always welcome it. listen to 7/7/78's version.
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I remember seeing footage of US Blues on MTV back in the early 80's. I'm guessing that it's from the GD Movie? Overalls went out with being able to buy loose joints and nickel bags!!!
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whenever I've had the need to get my pulse taken I always tell the nurse it "stays 72 come shine or rain". I love the looks I get in return, but in almost 30 yrs., I haven't run into a deadhead nurse yet....at least I'm pretty sure :)) Love US Blues. Just a fun GOGD song. Love hearing Jer say "pop a bag".....not sure why; I just get a kick out of it.
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Way back in 1998 there was a looooong thread on DeadNetCentral about the identities of the various lovable characters in the movie. I made a copy of the whole thing, and - lo and behold - it's still sitting in the GD folder on my computer (not the same computer, though).The sing-along guy is mentioned several times, but (perhaps predictably?) there are two opinions about his identity (taglines deleted): Rob Bleetstein - 05:15pm Oct 16, 1998 PDT (#108 of 163) ....I hear that everybody's favorite, the guy singing U.S. Blues up front and who is eating "chicklets", is named Victor and is like a painter in Palo Alto. katdance - 02:12am Jun 7, 2001 PDT (#150 of 163) The way out there dude leaning on the stage(many close ups)doing the major head bop is a freind of mine from N.H. Krispy_ - 07:58am Jun 7, 2001 PDT (#151 of 163) Is that the overall guy with the HUGE smile?? I find myself smiling right back at him every time I watch that movie!! Arrow - 07:45pm Jun 7, 2001 PDT (#152 of 163) You mean, "Mr Chicklets®", Krispy? katdance - 06:25am Jun 13, 2001 PDT (#153 of 163) Right!!!HA HA!! katdance - 06:26am Jun 13, 2001 PDT (#154 of 163) His name is Tom,btw.Great guy...sooooooo much fun to be around! **************************** So it seems to be either Victor or Tom. Anyone need the whole thread (6p. Word doc.), just PM me.
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I learned how to play this song for the 4th this year. Ive always loved the song but my neighbor claimed its his absolute favorite. Pretty fun song to play!
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This is by far one of my all-time favorite 'Dead songs. It's also the first 'Dead song my daughter heard, played on the speakers of my smart phone through my wife's pregnant belly and directly into the ears of my little girl. She's over 9 months old now, and she still dances up a storm whenever I crank this tune. I guess what they say is true, the 'Dead is music for all age groups. Even those yet to be born love 'em!
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The line makes me think of Elvis and Carl Perkins.
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You are so right, Bill!
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His name is Greg. He has been on the bus since the early days. Still bopping around in North Carolina and still a sweetie.
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It’s red, white and blue. We wouldn’t say red and white and blue. When we say red and white, this is an interesting counter cultural reference that intersects and not always favorably with the Grateful Dead, the Hells Angels. Not saying Hunter is making this allusion, just what comes to mind when I listen.