Annotated lyrics for The Hold Steady song 'Positive Jam' - Woke up in the '20s and there were flappers and fruits in white suits / It was right before the crash, we got thrashed throughout the '30s / Queuing up for soup with scabby sores / Then they sent us off to war / We came back in the '40s and there were wheelchairs, guns and tickertape / We poured it on the floor and we made love to the interstates / We got shiftless in the '50s, holding hands and going steady / Twisting into dark parts of the large midwestern cities / Tripped right through the '60s with some blissful little hippie / Some Kennedys got shot while you were screwing San Francisco / And the '70s got heavy, we woke up on bloody carpets / Got tangled up in gaslines, and I guess that's where it started / The '80s almost killed me, let's not recall them quite so fondly / Some Kennedy OD'd while we watched on MTV / And in the '90s we were wired and well connected / Put it all down on technology and lost everything we invested / We gotta start it off with a positive jam / We gotta start it with a positive jam, man / Gotta start it with a positive jam / All the sniffling indie kids: hold steady / And all you clustered-up clever kids: hold steady / And I got bored when I didn't have a band / And so I started a band, man / We're gonna start it with a positive jam / Hold steady