In light of actions around the world, it is time for some good protest music. Woody Guthrie was one who was not afraid to speak up on behalf of those who are mistreated. Here is his song "Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)" is a protest song with lyrics by Woody Guthrie and music by Martin Hoffman detailing the January 28, 1948 crash of a plane near Los Gatos Canyon, in Fresno County, California. Guthrie was inspired to write the song by what he considered the racist mistreatment of the passengers before and after the accident. The crash resulted in the deaths of 32 people, 4 Americans and 28 migrant farm workers who were being deported from California back to Mexico.
Woody Guthrie
Bruce Springsteen
The Highway Men
Lyrics
Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)
Words by Woody Guthrie, Music by Martin Hoffman
Contact Publisher - TRO-Essex Music Group
The crops are all in and the peaches are rotting,
The oranges piled in their creosote dumps;
They're flying 'em back to the Mexican border
To pay all their money to wade back again
Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye, Rosalita,
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria;
You won't have your names when you ride the big airplane,
All they will call you will be "deportees"
My father's own father, he waded that river,
They took all the money he made in his life;
My brothers and sisters come working the fruit trees,
And they rode the truck till they took down and died.
Some of us are illegal, and some are not wanted,
Our work contract's out and we have to move on;
Six hundred miles to that Mexican border,
They chase us like outlaws, like rustlers, like thieves.
We died in your hills, we died in your deserts,
We died in your valleys and died on your plains.
We died 'neath your trees and we died in your bushes,
Both sides of the river, we died just the same.
The sky plane caught fire over Los Gatos Canyon,
A fireball of lightning, and shook all our hills,
Who are all these friends, all scattered like dry leaves?
The radio says, "They are just deportees"
Is this the best way we can grow our big orchards?
Is this the best way we can grow our good fruit?
To fall like dry leaves to rot on my topsoil
And be called by no name except "deportees"?
© 1961 (renewed) by Woody Guthrie Publications, Inc. & TRO-Ludlow Music, Inc. (BMI)
Recordings
The song has been recorded by many artists, including:
- Peter, Paul and Mary on LifeLines (1995) and LifeLines Live (1996)
- Dave Guard and the Whiskeyhill Singers (featuring Judy Henske) on Dave Guard and the Whiskeyhill Singers (1962).
- The Kingston Trio on Time To Think (1963).
- Cisco Houston on Cisco Sings the Songs of Woody Guthrie (1963).
- Judy Collins on Judy Collins #3 (1964), and the live album A Tribute to Woody Guthrie (1972).
- Odetta on Odetta Sings of Many Things (1964).
- Julie Felix on her first album Julie Felix (1964).
- The Brothers Four on Sing of Our Times (1964).
- Joni Mitchell: a 1964 live recording on the Joni Mitchell Archives – Vol. 1: The Early Years (1963–1967) (2020)
- The Byrds on the Ballad of Easy Rider (1969).
- Alex Campbell on Alex Campbell Sampler (1969)
- Joan Baez on Blessed Are... (1971) and live on Bowery Songs (2004).
- Paddy Reilly on The Life of Paddy Reilly (1971).
- Nana Mouskouri in a French translation with title "Adieu mes amis" on Le Tournesol (1970).
- The Bergerfolk on The Bergerfolk Sing For Joy, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings (1973).
- Barbara Dane on I Hate the Capitalist System (1973).
- Arlo Guthrie on Arlo Guthrie (1974) and with Pete Seeger on Arlo Guthrie and Pete Seeger: Together in Concert (1975).
- Christy Moore for BBC LiveSession from 'As I Roved Out' (1979) and The Spirit of Freedom (1986).
- Billy Bragg on Talking with the Taxman About Poetry (2006 reissue).
- Dolly Parton on 9 to 5 and Odd Jobs (1980).
- The Highwaymen and Johnny Rodriguez on The Highwaymen, Columbia Records (1985).
- Los Super Seven on Los Super Seven (1998)
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