'Scooter Blues' by Johnny Blue Skies – Lyrics & Meaning

It feels like the end of an era as we say so long to Sturgill Simpson and hello to Johnny Blue Skies.

The reclusive singer-songwriter has traded in his government name for the latter moniker, as he releases his latest album, Passage Du Desir, and embarks on a new chapter.

On said record, there's no better song to soundtrack Simpson's departure and Mr. Blue Skies' arrival than 'Scooter Blues,' a cathartic opus about leaving, letting go and learning to simply be.

'Scooter Blues' is a surprising but, overall, refreshing departure from Simpson's hallmark artful country. The Blue Skies tune is eloquently beachy, brightened by a delightful buoyancy and washed in a contagious ease.

It's by no means groundbreaking in sound, but it didn't need to be. It's an effortlessly fun tune to go along with its carefree lyrics.

I’ve been feeling like a piece of rice paper
Think I’ll move to an island and turn into vapor
Get a scooter and a house on a hill
Fish all day just to fill up the grill

Against the breezy arrangement and bop-along groove, ‘Scooter Blues’ opens on a predicament.

Mr. Blue Skies admits to feeling like “rice paper,” recently feeling thin, maybe even a little fragile. Because of this, he seeks a setting more suited to his needs at the moment, the desire to disappear into himself for a while or “turn into vapor,” he sings.

He ponders island life for a change, liking the sounds of easy mobility and a simple existence where he can “spend my morning making chocolate milk and Eggos / My days at the beach, my nights stepping on Legos.”

Either way, he’s made up his mind to leave without a trace, simply “wave to the world screaming, ‘Hasta luego.’”

‘Scooter Blues’ seems to parallel Simpson’s journey to Johnny Blue Skies. For a while, the artist had expressed a desire to depart from the weight of his celebrity and pursue a creative shift, one that can be heard playing out now under his alias and throughout Passage Du Desir.

As the song goes, maybe “everybody back home will say where the hell did he go,” but who cares? As long as he got there, right?

Gonna hop in a boat and throw the paddle away
Offer my heart up to the break and the sway
Wake up every day in the sun
Kick off my flip-flops and go for a run
Gonna hop on my scooter and go down to the store
When people say are you him I’ll say not anymore
With the wind in my hair
I’m gonna scooter my blues away

There’s no looking back for Blue Skies as he sets his sights on seaside living.

He longs for an escape, to relish in the sun and the surf, but not in a Kenny Chesney, ‘No Shoes, No Shirt’ kind of cheesiness. He seems to be in search of simplicity, a place where life isn’t so complicated and demanding. He wants to find contentment in just scootering on down to the store, unrecognizable and uninhibited along the way.

He name drops a number of oceanside destinations in Thailand –Phuket’s Chalong, Kata Noi and Karon, as well as Nakhon Si Thammarat – planning to fill his time there with kickboxing, coconuts and checkers.

But whatever he does, he assures listeners:

I'm gonna scooter my blues away...

I’ve been feeling like a piece of rice paper
Think I’ll move to an island and turn into vapor
Get a scooter and a house on a hill
Fish all day just to fill up the grill
Spend my morning making chocolate milk and Eggos
My days at the beach, my nights stepping on Legos
Gonna wave to the world screaming, "Hasta luego"
Everybody back home will say where the hell did he go

Gonna hop in a boat and throw the paddle away
Offer my heart up to the break and the sway
Wake up every day in the sun
Kick off my flip-flops and go for a run
Gonna hop on my scooter and go down to the store
When people say are you him I’ll say not anymore
With the wind in my hair
I’m gonna scooter my blues away

I hear those islands calling my name
Since the first time I saw em’ Lord I ain’t been the same
Maybe I’ll end up in Chalong
Or over in Kata Not or up in Karon
Buy me a bar in Nakhon Is Thammarat
Learn how to kickboxing so I don’t get fat
Suck on some coconuts and play me some checkers
Lay on the beach ‘til all my freckles connected

Gonna hop in a boat and throw the paddle away
Offer my heart up to the break and the sway
Wake up every day in the sun
Kick of my flip-flops and go for a run
Gonna hop on my scooter and go down to the store
When people say are you him I’ll say not anymore
With the wind in my hair
I'm gonna scooter my blues away

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For more on Johnny Blue Skies (Sturgill Simpson), see below: