W. Guthrie's Deportees: meaning?

Subject: RE: W. Guthrie's Deportees: meaning?
From: catspaw49
Date: 10 Jun 00 - 11:48 AM

Added verse to "I Ain't got No Home:"

Woody wrote this song, over sixty years ago.
The homeless are still on the streets,
They got no place to go.
In this land of milk and honey,
Lord how can we do such wrong?
The social truth's still plain to see,
In a sixty year old song.

Spaw

Subject: RE: W. Guthrie's Deportees: meaning?
From: Greg F.
Date: 10 Jun 00 - 11:37 AM

Just like it is today- shows how far we've come in 50 years with exploitation of workers in the U.S .... and now, with globalization, American corporations can exploit workers all over the globe!

To quote Phil Ochs:
"Why sing the songsand forget about the aim?
He wrote 'em for a reason, why not sing 'em for the same?

Best, Greg

Subject: RE: W. Guthrie's Deportees: meaning?
From: catspaw49
Date: 10 Jun 00 - 11:30 AM

To add just a bit.......Woody wrote a lot of songs humanizing people that were passed of by the powers that be as just so many cyphers. "I Ain't Got No Home" would be another example.

The Mexican workers were fine for providing even cheaper labor than displaced midwesterners and as long as the growers needed their crops picked, the authorities, often in the payola of growers, shed a blind eye on them. When the "crops were all in" there was no need to keep them around "cluttering up" the towns and cities. It was a simpler problem to solve than the one of the Joad type families. Typically also, Juan and Rosalita were pitted against the Joads with both groups having animosity toward the other, when the real problem was poverty and the big money types who controlled them

Spaw

Subject: RE: W. Guthrie's Deportees: meaning?
From: GUEST,Roger in Baltimore
Date: 10 Jun 00 - 11:17 AM

As an added note, this was a songwriting exercise for Woody. He tried to write a song without rhyme. If my memory serves me well the "Goodbye to my Juan..." lines above are the only rhyme in the song. When I first heard this, I was amazed. I had sung the song many times and had never even thought about the lack of a rhyme scheme. The information about the melody is very interesting given the above information. It isn't really a song until the music arrives and the tune for "Deportees" is so very appropriate for they lyrics. Gee, I haven't been on the 'Cat for a month and the first thread I hit I learn something new and get to add a bit. I really miss coming here on a regular basis.

Roger in Baltimore

Subject: RE: W. Guthrie's Deportees: meaning?
From: Mike Regenstreif
Date: 10 Jun 00 - 10:58 AM

The song is Woody Guthrie's account of a plane crash that happened in Los Gatos Canyon in California in 1948. The passengers were migrant workers being flown back to Mexico.

Apparently, the news reports dehumanized the crash victims ("The radio says they were just deportees"). Woody's intent was to counteract that ("Goodybe to my Juan, goodbye Rosalita/Adios mes amigos Jesus y Maria).

BTW, this was one of Woody's last songs and he didn't have a real tune for it. The melody we know was composed, circa 1958, by Martin Hoffman.

Mike Regenstreif

Subject: RE: W. Guthrie's Deportees: meaning?
From: rpm
Date: 10 Jun 00 - 10:27 AM

' Morning Fedele, Its an awesome song and one that raises thehairs on my arm every time I hearit. I don't have the answers but some ideas. The harvest is over. The windfalls are left on the ground, the unripe are left on the tree, but mor4e importantly we're done with the migrants for one more season. Obviously(?), Woody recognized the injustice in using up, wearing out and throwing away the people who allowed us to enjoy our standard of living. -Bob

Subject: Woody Guthrie's Deportees: meaning?
From: Fedele
Date: 10 Jun 00 - 09:09 AM

Can anyone help me understanding Woody Guthrie's song "Deportees" (also performed by Dubliners)? No problems with English language. But I think it is about a specific episode, and I don't know much about the Mexican immigration in Woody's times. So why and where peaches were rotting? Weren't there enough workers to pick them up? But I thought there were too many workers and too few peaches to pick in California! (But is the song about California?) Well, you got it, I didn't understand almost anything...

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