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Cover of From the Mars Hotel by The Grateful Dead
Cover: From the Mars Hotel

Song · The Grateful Dead

“U.S. Blues” by The Grateful Dead

From the album From the Mars Hotel (1974)

“U.S. Blues” by The Grateful Dead appears on 21 radio countdowns from 8 stations between 1991 and 2025. It was first released in 1974 on the album From the Mars Hotel. Its best result is #164 on the WNEW Firecracker 500 (1996). In the combined RockLists rankings it is #4,897 indie & aaa song of all time.

21countdowns
8stations
#164best position
0#1 finishes
0top 10 finishes
1991–2025years charted

Watch

U.S. Blues (2003 Remaster)

Video from YouTube (Grateful Dead - Topic). Pressing play loads YouTube's player. Watch on YouTube

"U.S. Blues" kicks the door open on From the Mars Hotel, the Grateful Dead's seventh studio album, and went out as a single in August 1974. It's the Dead at their most carnival-barker, Jerry Garcia's bouncy tune strutting along while Robert Hunter's words mix sideways jabs at the state of the nation with images straight out of a fever dream.

It took a while to get there. Through 1973 the band played an earlier draft called "Wave That Flag" onstage, darker and more openly political, and Garcia and Hunter kept filing it down all year, a stretch that David Dodd, writing for the band's website, lines up with the sour end of the Vietnam War. What came out the other end is a flag-waving romp with a wink, the kind of whimsical patriotism AllMusic's Lindsay Planer heard in it. The band produced it themselves, with Roy Segal engineering.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.

RockLists rankings

Indie & Adult Alternative

Classic Rock

All Rock Formats

All-time and decade countdowns

Year#StationCountdownof
1991 384 WNEW-FM WNEW Firecracker 500 (1991) 500
1996 164 WNEW-FM WNEW Firecracker 500 (1996) 500
1997 541 102.3 WBAB WBAB Top 1,023 Rock and Roll Songs of All Time (1997) 1023
2001 1322 WFPK WFPK 2001 Greatest Songs of All Time 2000
2010 489 WXPN WXPN 885 Ultimate Road Trip Songs (2010) 885
2011 639 100.7 WZLX 100.7 WZLX Top 1100 Countdown (2011) 1100
2012 654 100.7 WZLX 100.7 WZLX Top 1200 Countdown (2012) 1200
2012 665 WXPN WXPN 885 Greatest Rock Songs (2012) 885
2013 417 100.7 WZLX 100.7 WZLX Firecracker 500 (2013) 500
2013 652 100.7 WZLX 100.7 WZLX Grand Jam 1000 (2013) 1000
2014 561 100.7 WZLX 100.7 WZLX 1K Countdown (2014) 1000
2015 656 100.7 WZLX 100.7 WZLX Top 1007 Classic Rock Countdown (2015) 1007
2015 347 102.9 The Whale 102.9 The Whale Hartford 500 (2015) 500
2016 434 100.7 WZLX 100.7 WZLX Top 1007 Countdown for 2016 1007
2019 868 102.5 KZOK KZOK Top 1025 of 2019 1025
2020 1642 WXPN WXPN 2020 Greatest Songs of All Time 2020
2021 716 Q104.3 Q104.3 Top 1,043 Classic Rock Songs of All Time (2021) 1043
2022 903 Q104.3 Q104.3 Top 1,043 Classic Rock Songs of All Time (2022) 1043
2023 636 Q104.3 Q104.3 Top 1,043 Classic Rock Songs of All Time (2023) 1043
2024 811 Q104.3 Q104.3 Top 1,043 Classic Rock Songs of All Time (2024) 1043
2025 770 Q104.3 Q104.3 Top 1,043 Classic Rock Songs of All Time (2025) 1043

Also listed as: US Blues; U.s. Blues.

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