Lyr Req/Add: Manzanar (Tom Russell)

Subject: Lyr Req: Manzanar
From: Pilgrim
Date: 10 Aug 07 - 09:41 AM

Does anyone know the lyrics to this song. There is a song of the same title out there on the internet, but this is a much gentler song entirely. The only part that I can remember at the moment is in the chorarse; "And we'd dream of apple blossom, far beneath the desert stars". Hope someone can help, it really is a cracking song.

With kind regards,

Pilgrim

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Manzanar
From: GUEST,Mary Katherine
Date: 10 Aug 07 - 10:42 AM

Try searching for Manzanar plus James Keelaghan, who wrote a song by that title.

Subject: ADD: Manzanar (Tom Russell)
From: GUEST,Jay
Date: 10 Aug 07 - 11:20 AM

This song is about the internment of the local Japanese in southern California during WW2 - pretty shameful but understandable. The conditions were barrack-like but they proved model prisoners and built a complete, democratic American township behind the barbed wire fences. Laurie Lewis has recorded this song on 'Seeing Things' - Rounder CD 0428.

Words for Manzanar as follows:

Manzanar
(Tom Russell)

He said, my name is Nakashima and I'm a proud American,
I came here in '24 from my homeland in Japan,
And I picked your grapes and oranges, saved some money, bought a store,
Until 1942, Pearl Harbour and the War.

Came those relocation orders, they took the house, the store, the car,
And they drove us to the desert to a place called Manzanar,
The Spanish word for apple orchard, though we saw no apple trees,
Only rows of prison barracks with barbed wire boundaries.

Chorus:
And we dream of apple blossoms waving free beneath the stars,
'Til we wake up in the desert, the prisoners of Manzanar, Manzanar.

Fifty years have all but vanished and now I am an old man,
And I don't regret the day that I came here from Japan,
But on moonless winter nights I often wish upon a star,
That I'd forget the shame and sorrow that I felt at Manzanar.

Chorus:
#

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Manzanar
From: GUEST,Jay
Date: 10 Aug 07 - 11:41 AM

Oh - and this Manzanar is by Tom Russell. James Keelaghan must have written a different one.

This is a beautiful song and Laurie Lewis sings it wonderfully.

Cheers, Jay

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Manzanar
From: C. Ham
Date: 10 Aug 07 - 11:57 AM

"Manzanar" is by Tom Russell, not James Keelaghan.

The original recording is on Tom's CD "Box of Visions." Tom also recorded it on "The Long Way Around."

There are also versions by Laurie Lewis on "Seeing Things" and Tom Paxton & Anne Hills on "Under American Skies."

The James Keelaghan song with a similar theme is called "Kiri's Piano" and its on his CD "My Skies."

Subject: RE: Req/ADD: Manzanar (Tom Russell)
From: Pilgrim
Date: 13 Aug 07 - 03:30 AM

Thanks for that everyone. Off to buy CD now. Thanks again. Pilgrim.

Subject: RE: Req/ADD: Manzanar (Tom Russell)
From: Ernest
Date: 14 Aug 07 - 02:13 AM

Some more verses can be found at

http://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs/m/manzanar.shtml

and some indformation about it here:

http://www.john-shreve.de/

(Click on the title of the song in the CD-section - it is on "Wild and windy places")

Best
Ernest

Subject: RE: Req/ADD: Manzanar (Tom Russell)
From: Pilgrim
Date: 14 Aug 07 - 03:06 AM

Thanks Ernest, I only heard the song a couple of times, so coudn't be sure that there were extra verses. Now I've read the ones that you directed me to, that's the version I heard.

Informative link about the history of Manzanar as well. With the internet not being regulated / edited, I have read a few different versions of events at Manzanar. Some talk of voluntary incarceration, some talk as though a few Japanese simply decided to set up their own ghetto in the desert which they were free to leave at any time. A shameful and sorrowful period nonetheless.

All the best,

Pilgrim

Subject: RE: Req/ADD: Manzanar (Tom Russell)
From: Rog Peek
Date: 14 Aug 07 - 08:32 AM

Song can be heard here sung by Tom Russel: http://www.pc.cc.ca.us/manzanar/Default.htm

I first heard this sung by Tom Paxton on his 2003 UK tour.