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13 Dec 08 - 04:13 PM (#2514513) Subject: Lyr Req: Harvest Gypsies From: astro I just heard this recently on Folk Alley online music stream. Is this a contemporary song or traditional? This was done by Kris Drever. astro |
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14 Dec 08 - 09:08 AM (#2514881) Subject: Lyr Add: HARVEST GYPSIES (Boo Hewerdine) From: MoorleyMan It's a Boo Hewerdine song actually. Here's the words: HARVEST GYPSIES (Boo Hewerdine) In October we will come A hundred and fifty thousand strong When the picking's over we'll be gone They call us the harvest gypsies We only come because we must We are driven here by dust And they won't even look at us They call us the harvest gypsies The hardest that it's ever been I sold my blankets for gasoline And it's only hunger I have seen Now I'm a harvest gypsy There's apricots in Santa Clare Kern County they have apples there And grapes they're growing everywhere All for the harvest gypsies In a walnut grove I met a man Who lost a child before San Fran We're strangers they don't understand We are the harvest gypsies And the gondolas and railway lines Filled with men when it is time Drawn by the orange and the lime All harvest gypsies They hate it when their taxes rise And the squatter camps that they despise Without us they would rot and die Without the harvest gypsies And the Holbrooks we were farming men And I dream one day we will again To miss the soil's a curious pain When you're a harvest gypsy |
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16 Dec 08 - 02:32 AM (#2516546) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Harvest Gypsies (Boo Hewerdine) From: GUEST MoorleyMan These words really take me back to growing up in Idaho where migrant workers were used and many times abused by the locals, but were so important to getting the crops out. In most cases, they were just overlooked by us all and were invisible in some sense. The humanity was not seen. The loneliness of being in a different country, underpaid, and definitely not appreciated by most. It shames me to some degree realizing the neglect from me and from family and neighbors. Thanks for providing this... astro (from Idaho), but for many years a transplant in California (where the same conditions exist)... |
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16 Dec 08 - 11:22 AM (#2516877) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Harvest Gypsies (Boo Hewerdine) From: GUEST,Mike Morris minus cookie Harvest Gypsies was the title of a slim book by John Steinbeck (a collection of articles, really) detailing the plight of migrant workers in Depression-era California. |
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19 Dec 08 - 05:20 PM (#2520141) Subject: RE: req/ADD: Harvest Gypsies (Boo Hewerdine) From: GUEST,astro I will look this up at the library...anyone who grows up in farmland US will see difficult lives right up close. There was a lot of drinking in the community of workers, which I always attributed to being a long way from home and loneliness...not a part the local community... Thanks Mike... Astro in Tucson for the holidays.... |
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22 Jan 17 - 09:23 AM (#3834077) Subject: RE: Lyr Req/Add: Harvest Gypsies (Boo Hewerdine) From: GUEST,Quebecker Fan of Steinbeck There is another song about the Harvest Gypsies. It was written and performed by Woodie Guthrie, and is titled "Dust Bowl Refugee". It is even more folksy than the Hewerdien song. Must listen! |