Lyrics to
Readjustment Blues

This version of Readjustment Blues was released by John Denver in 1972.

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Just out of the infantry this morning, I had to pay my dues across the sea.
No one back in boot camp ever warned me
what the readjustment blues would do to me.
“Welcome to Havannah”, said the pilot.
“We must have made a wrong turn on the way.
Let’s buy some cigars and keep it quiet,
if they don’t know we’re here we’ll get away.”

Just as I had realized he was joking, I saw we were in Washington D.C.
‘Cause there was all the patriotic buildings, just like I had seen them on TV.
It must have been a holiday, ’cause there was this parade.
People carried signs, I couldn’t read, that they had made
‘Till I got closer and my heart fell to my socks,
there was a battle raging and the air was filled with teargas and rocks.
There was the flag I’d fought against so often,
the one I fought for hanging upside down.
The wind was blowing hard, the dirt was flying,
it made the city sky look dark and brown.

I saw a girl, she could have been my sister,
except her hair was long and in her face.
She explained this was a demonstration against the war and for the human race.
Now, I’ve seen a lot of strange things in my travels. Cannibals, yes, and aliens galore.
But I never thought I’d see so many people saying we don’t want your war!
The troops all had on uniforms just like the one I’d worn,
but they were all domestic and my duty chose war.
They carried guns just like the ones across the sea,
except this time, I was the citizen, and they were pointing their guns at me.
Yes, I was just a citizen, and I was walking down the street,
And it was just that night, the readjustment blues got through to me.

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John Denver has released many songs over the years besides Readjustment Blues. John Denver released songs from 1969 to 1998 spanning across albums like Rhymes And Reasons, Take Me To Tomorrow, Whose Garden Was This?, Poems, Prayers And Promises, Aerie, Rocky Mountain High, Farewell Andromeda, Back Home Again, Rocky Mountain Christmas, An Evening With John Denver, Windsong, Spirit, I Want To Live, A Christmas Together, John Denver, Autograph, Some Days Are Diamonds, Seasons Of The Heart, Rocky Mountain Holiday, It's About Time, Dreamland Express, One World, Higher Ground, The Flower That Shattered The Stone, Christmas, Like A Lullaby, Different Directions, All Aboard!, and Forever, John. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by John Denver.

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About Lyrics and Readjustment Blues by John Denver

The lyrics for Readjustment Blues are defined as the words making up the song released by John Denver in 1972. It also includes the verses and words used by the background chorus in the song. Like many hit songs, the lyrics to Readjustment Blues have different meanings to different people. While it is clear in some of the lyrics what the artist is trying to really say, only John Denver and those working with them know all of the meanings behind all of the lyrics to their songs.

Some folks are interested in word and phrase etymology. It is easy to understand the lyrics to Readjustment Blues by John Denver if you think through it. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to Readjustment Blues" means the words set to the music of Readjustment Blues, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by John Denver. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to Readjustment Blues and the lyrics to Readjustment Blues are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of John Denver who came here looking just for the lyrics to Readjustment Blues, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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