The actual title of "Crop Duster's Lament" is "The Grape Pickers Tragedy"
Sung: Seeger, Peggy. From Where I Stand. Topical Songs from America and England, Folkways FW 8563, LP (1982), trk# A.05


THE GRAPE PICKERS TRAGEDY
(Jack Warshaw)

The nighttime is hot and the city is sleeping
Ramon Sanches takes Maria his wife by the hand
The American border's a mile down the highway
The border they gotta cross over to work on the land
Cross over to work on the land

Ramon and Maria just follow the footsteps
To a place called "the Hole" where ten thousand stand in a line
If you look like you're strong you'll get work in the vinyards
Where fruitflys are thicker than dust or the grapes on the vine
Than dust or the grapes on the vine

At four the bus starts on another day's journey
At six see the sun in the hlls and the sky glowin' red
At eight they arrive, by nine they are weary
By eleven the drone of the duster is heard overhead

You work in a blizzard of fruit flies and hoppers
You bend and you bleed and you sweat and you choke and you crawl
Your lungs fill with dust and your body is broken
The life of a picker, you know it ain't no life at all
You know it ain't no life at all

The duster plane circled low over the vineyard
Ramon knew the sound that means run for the trucks or the shed
It came down like rain where Maria was working
Maria worked on, but a few hours later fell dead
A few hours later fell dead

Ramon, said the grower, we're all mighty sorry
She must have been sick long before she come up from the South
The spray can't hurt people and we don't want trouble
So here's your day's pay, dont come back and don't open your mouth
Don't come back and don't open your mouth

He threw down the money, walked out of the office
Maria was taken to town and they gave him her things
There's nowhere to go now but over the border
Adios mi Maria, it's their death the next harvest brings
It's their death the next harvest brings