Arlo Guthrie

[fox69]

"Deportees (Plane Wreck At Los Gatos)"

"Deportees (Plane Wreck At Los Gatos)"


The crops are all in and the peaches are rotting
The oranges are piled in their cresote dumps
They're flying you back to the Mexico border
To pay all your money to wade back again

My father's own father, he wanted 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

[CHORUS:]
Good-bye to my Juan, good-bye Rosalita
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maris
You won't have a name when you ride the big air-plane
And all they will call you will be deportees.

Some of us are illegal, and others not wanted
Our work contract's out and we have to move on
But it's 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.

[CHORUS]

A sky plane caught fire over Los Gatos canyon
Like a fireball of lightning, it 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?

 

[fox69]

"Don't You Push Me Down"

"Don't You Push Me Down"


[Chorus:]
Don't you push me, push me, push me,
Don't you push me down.
Don't you push me, push me, push me,
Don't you push me down.

You can play with me,
You can take my hand,
We can skip together
Down to the pretzel stand.
You can wear my mommy's shoes,
You can wear my daddy's hat,
You can even get mad at me,
But don't you push me down.

[Chorus]

You can play with me,
We can build a house,
You can take my ball,
And bounce it up and down.
You can take my skates,
And ride them all around,
You can even get mad at me,
But don't you push me down.

[Chorus]

You can play with me,
We can play all day,
You can use may use my dishes,
If you put them away.
You can feed me apples,
Oranges and Plum.
You can even wash my face,
But don't you push me down.

[Chorus]

 

[fox69]

"Doors To Heaven"

"Doors To Heaven"



If all the doors were closed in heaven
Where would all the angels go
Would they just fly around forever
Or would they come down here below

If the pearly gates were closed this morning
Would there be angels here tonight
And would they live their lives among us
And share the darkness with their light

If all the doors were close in heaven
They'd have to close the road to hell
We'd all be stuck here with each other
There would be nowhere else to dwell

If the pearly gates were closed this morning
And everyone there had to leave
And death was nothing but a moment
Beyond the breaths you took to breathe

If all the doors were closed in heaven
Who would dare abuse a child
Or let a little kid go hungry
Or not return a simple smile

If the pearly gates were closed this morning
And the host of heaven was on the street
I wonder if they'd look much different
From the likes of you and me

So I hope they close the doors to heaven
And all the angels up above
Come and build a home among us
Remind us what it is to love

If the pearly gates were closed this morning
Would there be angels here tonight
And would they live their lives among us
And share the darkness with their light

 

[fox69]

"Drowning Man"

"Drowning Man"



I remember when I met you
Underneath the evening sky
Now it seems I could forget you
Rescue me, I'm bound to die

All the promises we made there
With no words to understand
And though I've tried, I've come up empty
Heart of stone, drowning man

I'm going down for the third time
And I need a helping hand
The rooster crows and I'm sinking
Heart of stone, drowning man

Where are you, my dear companion
How much longer must you be
I'm all alone out on this ocean
When will you come and rescue me

It's too late for new beginnings
In this world I've left behind
There is nothing left worth keeping
Not a thing to change my mind

I'm going down for the third time
And I need a helping hand
The rooster crows and I'm sinking
Heart of stone, drowning man

How far down the road to glory
Must we go without a sign
Caught out on these stormy waters
How can you treat me so unkind

Did you know from the beginning
That I'd dig this lousy hole
Oh, don't leave me here abandoned
In this dark night of the soul

I'm going down for the third time
And I need a helping hand
The rooster crows and I'm sinking
Heart of stone, drowning man

 

[fox69]

"East Texas Red"

"East Texas Red"



Down in the scrub oak timber of the Southeast Texas Gulf
There used to ride a brakeman and a brakeman double tough
He worked the town of Kilgore and Longview nine miles down
Us trav'lers called him East Texas Red the meanest bull around.

I rode by night and by broad daylight in wind and snow and sun
I always seen little East Texas Red sporting his smooth running gun
The tale got switched down the stems and main and everybody said
The meanest man on the shiny rails was little East Texas Red.

It was early in the morning and along towards nine or ten
A couple of boys on the hunt of a job stood in the blizzardy wind
Hungry and cold they knocked on the doors of the working folks around
For a piece of meat and a spud or two to boil a stew around.

Red he come down the cinder dump and he flagged the number two
He kicked their bucket over a bush and he dumped out all their stew
A traveler said, Mister East Texas Red you better get everything fixed
'Cause you're gonna ride your little train just one year from today.

Red he laughed as he clumb the bank and swung aside of a wheeler
The boys caught a tanker to Seminole and west to Amarillo
They struck them a job of oil field work and followed a pipe line down
It took them lots of places till the year had rolled around.

On one cold and wintery day they hooked them a Gulf bound train
They shivered and shook with dough in their clothes to see Kilgore again
Over hills of sand and hard froze roads where the cotton wagons roll
On past the town of Kilgore and on to old Longview.

With their warm suits of clothes and overcoats they walk into a store
They pay the man for some meat and stuff to fix a stew once more
The ties they walk back past the yards till they come to the same old spot
Where East Texas Red just a year ago had dumped their last stew pot.

The smoke of their fire went higher and higher a man come down the line
He ducked his head in the blizzardy wind and waved old number nine
He walked off down the cinder dump till he come to the same old spot
And there was the same three men again around that same little pot.

Red went to his knees and he hollered,
Please don't pull that trigger on me.
I did not get my business fixed but he did not get his say
A gun wheeled out of an overcoat and it played the old one two
And Red was dead when the other two men set down to eat their stew.

 

[fox69]

"Eli"

"Eli"



Gonna sit right here and sing myself a tune
That I wrote one afternoon
After everyone had gone
And I know that this won't mean a lot to you
You've got better things to do
But for me I'll just go on

Old dog is lying in the middle of the road
He don't do nothing 'cause he don't want to
And I think I'm gonna like that hound
'Cause the more he sits around
The less I want to do too

Gonna sit right here and watch the world roll by
Till we both just up and die
Watching clouds and eating flies

Don't want to bother no one
Don't want nothing here to change
A dusty road is all we've ever dreamed of

And I think I'm gonna love this life
Maybe someday take a wife
She can join us if she wants to

Ain't nobody gonna tell what to do
If a car comes we just move
And we both move real smooth like

Old dog is moving must be something in the air
Some bitch is coming up the road now
And I think I'm gonna like that hound
'Cause the more he gets around
The more I want to do too

 

[fox69]

"Epilogue"

"Epilogue"



And for myself I have no regrets
That time has taken what it soon forgets
A gambler's paradise in short vignettes

These stolen moments from the hourglass
A burning candle while the night-time lasts
Upon my pillow where my dreams float past

And all my memories seem to come alive
I think of everyone who still survives
And those who haven't may yet still arrive

I want to take the time to let you know
I've had a hard time letting feelings show
And through it all I love you even so

A poet's pleasure is to hear in time
The painter pictures what he's left behind
I close my eyes and it all leaves my mind

I sit alone and hear the sparrow sing
No way of knowing what tomorrow brings
I leave my solitude upon his wings

 

[fox69]

"Evangelina"

"Evangelina"



I dream in the morning
That she brings me water
And I dream in evening
That she brings me wine
Just a poor man's daughter
From Puerto Penasco
Evangelina in old Mexico

There's a great hot desert
South of Mexicali
And if you don't have water
Then you better not go
Tequila won't get you
Across the desert
To Evangelina in old Mexico

And the fire I feel for the
Woman I love
Is driving me insane
Knowing she's waiting
And I just can't get there
Lord only knows that I've
Racked my brain
To try and find a way
To see that woman in old Mexico

I met a kind man
Who guarded the border
He said you don't have papers
But I'll let you go
I can tell that you love her
By the look in your eyes now
She's the rose of the desert
In old Mexico

And the fire I feel for the
Woman I love
Is driving me insane
Knowing she's waiting
And I just can't get there
Lord only knows that I've
Racked my brain
To try and find a way
To see that woman in old Mexico

And I dream in the morning
That she brings me water
And I dream in the evening
That she brings me wine
Just a poor man's daughter
From Puerto Penasco
Evangelina in old Mexico

There's a great hot desert
South of Mexicali
And if you don't have water
Then you better not go
Tequila won't get you
Across the desert
To Evangelina in old Mexico

She's the rose of the desert
In old Mexico

 

[fox69]

"Every Hand In The Land"

"Every Hand In The Land"



Every hand in the land
Shakes along with me
It don't seem that I can dream
Like I used to dream

Maybe that somebody is shaking me
If I fell I could tell
It may be that somebody is making me
Dream that you're forever
Gone away from me

Every toe that I know
Step away with me
I can't seem to get where
I want to be
Maybe it's my own foot
That keeps tripping me
Trip trap - flip flap
It must come to wherever from it comes
Through to me
I can't walk to where
My own dreams talk to me

Every face in this place
Take your eyes away
Blink if you think that
There's another way
Maybe it's my own eyes
That don't see the way
The time is blind
It may come to pass
That I will lose my mind
I can't live without the love I left behind
I can't live without the love I left behind

 

[fox69]

"Face Of Time"

"Face Of Time"



This world is not my home
Passing through me
As clouds before the moon
The great depths of the ocean
Barely take notice
Of wind upon the waters
Therefore I from the depths of my soul
Laugh at distractions
Amusing myself with songs
The shadows of clouds above
Played upon the faves of time