Stars And Stripes Forever

Lyrics: John Philip Sousa
Music: John Philip Sousa

Played as a between-songs "tuning" jam by the Grateful Dead a few times in the early 1970s.

It is normally thought of as an instrumental march, but Souza did compose lyrics for it:

Let martial note in triumph float
And liberty extend its mighty hand
A flag appears 'mid thunderous cheers
The banner of the Western land
The emblem of the brave and true
Its folds protect no tyrant crew
The red and white and starry blue
Is freedom's shield and hope

Other nations may deem their flags the best
And cheer them with fervid elation
But the flag of the North and South and West
Is the flag of flags, the flag of Freedom's nation

Hurrah for the flag of the free
May it wave as our standard forever
The gem of the land and the sea
The banner of the right
Let despots remember the day
When our fathers with mighty endeavor
Proclaimed as they marched to the fray
That by their might and by their right
It waves forever

Let eagle shriek from lofty peak
The never-ending watchword of our land
Let summer breeze waft through the trees
The echo of the chorus grand
Sing out for liberty and light
Sing out for freedom and the right
Sing out for Union and its might
O patriotic sons

Other nations may deem their flags the best
And cheer them with fervid elation
But the flag of the North and South and West
Is the flag of flags, the flag of Freedom's nation

Hurrah for the flag of the free
May it wave as our standard forever
The gem of the land and the sea
The banner of the right
Let despots remember the day
When our fathers with might endeavor
Proclaimed as they marched to the fray
That by their might and by their right
It waves forever