The Ghost Of Tom Joad (1)

Men walkin' 'long the railroad tracks

Goin' some place, there's no goin' back

Highway Patrol choppers comin' up over the ridge

Hot soup on a campfire under the bridge

Shelter line stretchin' round the corner

Welcome to the new world order

Families sIeepin' in their cars in the southwest

No home, no Job, no peace, no rest

The highway is alive tonight

But nobody's kiddin' nobody about where it goes

I'm sitting down here in the campfire light

Searchin' for the ghost of Tom Joad

He pulls prayer book out of his sleepin' bag

Preacher lights up a butt and takes a drag

Waitin' for when the last shall be first and the first shall be last

In a cardboard box 'neath the underpass

Got a one way ticket to the promised land

You got a hole in your belly and a gun in your hand

sleeping on a pillow of solid rock

Bathing in the city aqueduct

The highway is alive tonight

Where it's headed everybody knows

I'm sittin' down here in the campfire light

Waitin' on the ghost of Tom Joad

Now Tom Said; "Mom, wherever there's a cop beatin' a guy

Wherever a hungry new born baby cries

Where there's a fight 'gainst the blood and hatred in the air

Look for me mom I'll be there

Wherever there's somebody fightin' for a place to stand

Or decent job or a helpin' hand

Wherever somebody's strugglin' to be free

Look in their eyes mom you'll see me."

Well the highway is alive tonight

But nobody's kiddin' nobody about where it goes

I'm sitting down here in the campfire light

Searchin' for the ghost of Tom Joad (1)

Straight Time

Got out of prison back in '86 and I found a wife

Walked the clean and narrow

Just tryin' to stay out and stay alive

Got a job at the rendering plant, it ain't gonna make me rich

In the darkness before dinner comes

Sometimes I can feel the itch

I got a cold mind to go tripping across that thin line

I'm sick of doin straight time

My uncle's at the evenin' table, makes his living runnin' hot cars

Slips me a hundred dollar bill says

"Charlie you best remember who your friend are."

Got a cold mind to go tripping 'cross that thin line

Eight years in it feels Iike your gonna die

But you get used to anything

Sooner or later it just becomes your life

Kitchen floor in the evening tossin' my little babies high

Mary's smilin' but she's watching me out of the corner of her eye

Seems you can't get any more than half free

I step out onto the front porch and suck the cold air deep inside of me

Got a cold mind to go tripping 'cross that thin line

I'm sick of doin' straight time

In the basement, huntin' gun and a hacksaw

Sip a beer, and thirteen inches of barrel drop to the floor

Come home in the evening, can't get the smell from my hands

Lay my head down on the pillow

And, go driftin' off into foreign lands

Highway 29

I slipped on her shoe, she was a perfect size seven

I said "There's no smokin' in the store ma'am."

She crossed her legs and then

We made some small talk that's where it should have stopped

She slipped me her number, I put it in my pocket

My hand slipped up her skirt, everything slipped my mind

In that little roadhouse on Highway 29

It was a small town bank it was a mess

Well I had a gun you know the rest

Money on the floorboards, shirt was covered in blood

And she was cryin', her and me we headed south on Highway 29

In a little desert motel, the air was hot and clean

l slept the sleep of the dead, I didn't dream

I woke in the morning, washed my face in the sink

We headed into the Sierra Madres 'cross the border line

The winter sun shot through the black trees

I told myself it was all something in her

But as we drove I knew it was something in me

Something that'd been comin' for a long long time

And something that was here with me now on Highway 29

The road was filled with broken glass and gasoline

She wasn't sayin' nothin', it was just a dream

The wind come silent through the windshield

All I could see was snow, sky and pines

I closed my eyes and I was runnin',

I was runnin' then I was flyin'

Youngstown

Here in northeast Ohio

Back in eighteen-o-three

James and Dan Heaton

Found the ore that was linin' yellow creek

They built a blast furnace

Here along the shore

And they made the cannonballs

That helped the union win the war

Here in Youngstown

Here in Youngstown

Sweet Jenny I'm sinkin' down

Here darlin' in Youngstown

Well my daddy worked the furnaces

Kept 'em hotter then hell

I come home from 'Nam worked my way to scarfer

A job that'd suit the devil as well

Taconite coke and limestone (1)

Fed my children and made my pay

Then smokestacks reachin' like the arms of god

Into a beautiful sky of soot and clay

Here in Youngstown

Here in Youngstown

My sweet Jenny I'm sinkin' down

Here darlin' in Youngstown

Well my daddy come on the Ohio works

When he come home from world war two

Now the yards just scrap and rubble

He said, "Them big boys did what Hitler couldn't do"

These mills they built the tanks and bombs

That won this countries wars

We sent our sons to Korea and Vietnam

Now were wondering what they were dyin' for

Here in Youngstown

Here in Youngstown

My sweet Jenny, I'm sinkin' down

Here darlin' in Youngstown

From the Monongahela  valley (2)

To the Mesabi iron range

To the coal mines of Appalachia

The story's always the same

Seven-hundred tons of metal a day

Now sir you tell me the world's changed

Once I made you rich enough

When I die I don't want no part of heaven

I would not do heaven's work well

I pray the devil comes and takes me

To stand in the fiery furnaces of hell

Sinaloa Cowboys (1)

Miguel came from a small town in northern Mexico.

He came north with his brother Louis to California three years ago

They crossed at the river levee when Louis was just sixteen

And found work together in the fields of the San Joaquin

They left their homes and families

Their father said, "My sons one thing you will learn

For everything the north gives, it exacts a price in return."

They worked side by side in the orchards

From morning till the day was through

Doing the work the hueros wouldn't do.

Word was out some men in from Sinaloa were looking for some hands

Well deep in Fresno county there was a deserted chicken ranch

And there in a small tin shack on the edge of a ravine

Miguel and Louis stood cooking methamphetamine (2)

You could spend a year in the orchards

Or make half as much in one ten-hour shift

Working for the men from Sinaloa

But if you slipped the hydriodic acid

Could burn right through your skin

They'd leave you spittin' up blood in the desert

If you breathed those fumes in

It was early one winter evening as Miguel stood watch outside

When the shack exploded lighting up the valley night

Miguel carried Louis' body over his shoulder down a swale

To the creekside and there in the tall grass Louis Rosales died

Miguel lifted Louis' body into his truck and then he drove

To where the morning sunlight fell on a eucalyptus grove

There in the dirt he dug up ten-thousand dollars all that they'd saved

Kissed his brothers lips and placed him in his grave

The Line

I got my discharge from Fort Irwin

Took a place on the San Diego county line

Felt funny bein' a civilian again

It'd been some time

My wife had died a year ago

I was still tryin' to find my way back whole

Went to work for the INS on the line

With the California border patrol

Bobby Ramirez was a ten-year veteran

We became friends

His family was from Guanajuato

So the job it was different for him

He said "They risk death in the deserts and mountains

Pay all they got to the smugglers rings,

We send 'em home and they come right back again

Carl hunger is a powerful thing."

Well I was good at doin' what I was told

Kept my uniform pressed and clean

At night I chased their shadows

Through the arroyos and ravines

Drug runners farmers with their families

Young women with little children by their sides

Come night we'd wait out in the canyons

And try to keep 'em from crossin' the line

Well the first time that I saw her

She was in the holdin' pen

Our eyes met and she looked away

Then she looked back again

Her hair was black as coal

Her eyes reminded me of what I'd lost

She had a young child cryin' in her arms

And I asked, "Señora, is there anything I can do"

There's a bar in Tijuana

Where me and Bobby drink alongside

The same people we'd sent back the day before

We met there she said her name was Louisa

She was from Sonora and had just come north

We danced and I held her in my arms

And I knew what I would do

She said she had some family in Madera county

If she, her child and her younger brother could just get through

At night they come across the Ievy

In the searchlights dusty glow

We'd rush 'em in our Broncos (2)

Force 'em back down into the river below

She climbed into my truck

She leaned towards me and we kissed

As we drove her brother's shirt slipped open

And I saw the tape across his chest

We were just about on the highway

When Bobby's jeep come up in the dust on my right

I pulled over and let my engine run

And stepped out into his lights

I felt myself movin'

Felt my gun restin' 'neath my hand

We stood there starin' at each other

As off through the arroyo she ran

Bobby Ramirez he never said nothin'

6 months later I left the line

I drifted to the central valley

And took what work I could find

At night I searched the local bars

And the migrant towns

Lookin' for my Louisa

With the black hair fallin' down

Balboa Park

He lay his blanket underneath the freeway

As the evening sky grew dark

Took a sniff of toncho from his coke can

And headed through Balboa Park

Where the men in their Mercedes

Come nightly to employ

In the cool San Diego evening

The services of the border boys

He grew up near the Zona Norte

With the hustlers and smugglers he hung out with

He swallowed their balloons of cocaine

Brought 'em across the Twelfth Street strip

Sleeping in a shelter

Runnin' from the migra

Of the border patrol

Past the Salvage yard 'cross the train tracks

And in through the storm drain

They stretched the their blankets out 'neath the freeway

And each one took a name

There was X-man and Cochise

Little Spider his sneakers covered in river mud

They come north to California

End up with the poison in their blood

He did what he had to do for money

Sometimes he sent home what he could spare

The rest went to hi-top sneakers and toncho

And jeans like the gavachos swear

One night the border patroI swept Twelfth Street

A big car come fast down the boulevard

Spider stood caught in its headlights

Got hit and went down hard

As the car sped away Spider held his stomach

Limped to his blanket 'neath the underpass

Lie there tasting his own blood on his tongue

Closed his eyes and listened to the cars

Rushin' by so fast

Dry Lightning

I threw my robe on in the morning

Watched the ring on the stove turn red

Stared hypnotized into a cup of coffee

Pulled on my boots and made my bed

Screen door hangin' off its hinges

Kept bangin' me awake all night

As I look out the window

The only thing in sight

Is dry lightning on the horizon line

Just dry lightning and you on my mind

I chased the heat of her blood

Like it was the holy grail

Descend beautiful spirit

Into the evening pale

Her appaloosa's (1)

Kickin' in the corral smelling rain

There's a low thunder rolling

'Cross the mesquite plain

But there's just dry lightning on the horizon line

It's just dry lightning and you on my mind

I'd drive down to Alvarado street

Where she'd dance to make ends meet

I'd spend the night over my gin

As she'd talk to her men

Well the piss yellow sun

Comes bringin' up the day

She said "Ain't nobody can give nobody

What they really need anyway."

You get so sick of the fighting

You lose your fear of the end

But I can't lose your memory

And the sweet smell of your skin

And it's just dry lightning on the horizon line

Just dry lightning and you on my mind

The New Timer

He rode the rails since the great depression

Fifty years out on the skids

He said "You don't cross nobody

You'll be all right out here kid."

Left my family in Pennsylvania

Searchin' for work I hit the road

I met Frank in east Texas

In a freight yard blown through with snow

From New Mexico to Colorado

California to the sea

Frank he showed me the ropes sir

Just till I could get back on my feet

I hoed sugar beets outside of Firebaugh

I picked the peaches from the Marysville tree

They bunked us in a barn just like animals

Me and a hundred others just like me

We split up come the spring time

I never seen Frank again

'Cept one rainy night he blew by me on grainer

Shouted my name and disappeared in the rain and wind

They found him shot dead outside of Stockton

His body lyin' on a muddy hill

Nothin' taken nothin' stolen

Somebody killin' just to kill

Late that summer I was rollin' through the plains of Texas

A vision passed before my eyes

A small house sittin' trackside

With the glow of the saviours beautiful light

A woman stood cookin' in the kitchen

Kid sat at the table with his old man

Now I wonder does my son miss me

Does he wonder where I am

Tonight I pick my campsite carefully

Outside the Sacramento Yard

Gather some wood and light a fire

In the early winter dark

Wind whistling cold I pull my coat around me

Make some coffee and stare out into the black night

I lie awake, I lie awake sir

With my machete by my side

My Jesus your gracious love and mercy

Tonight I'm sorry could not fill my heart

Like one good rifle

And the name of who I ought to kill

Across The Border

Tonight my bag is packed

Tomorrow I'll walk these tracks

That will lead me across the border

Tomorrow my love and I

Will sleep 'neath auburn skies

Somewhere across the border

We'll leave behind my dear

The pain and sadness we found here

And we'll drink from the Bravo's muddy water

Where the sky grows gray and wide

We'll meet across the other side

There across the border

For you I'll build a house

High upon a grassy hill

Somewhere across the border

Where pain and memory

Pain and memory have been stilled

There across the border

And sweet blossoms fill the air

Pastures of gold and green

Roll down into cool clear waters

And in your arms 'neath open skies

I'll kiss the sorrow from your eyes

There across the border

Tonight we'll sing the songs

I'll dream of you my corazon

And tomorrow my heart will be strong

Any may the saints' blessing and grace

Carry me safely into your arms

There across the border

For what are we

Without hope in our hearts

That someday we'll drink from God's blessed waters

And eat the fruit from the vine

I know love and fortune will be mine

Somewhere across the border

Galveston Bay

For fifteen years Le Bin Son

Fought side by side with the Americans

In the mountains and deltas of Vietnam

In '75 Saigon fell and he left his command

And brought his family to the promised land

Seabrook, Texas and the small towns in the Gulf of Mexico

It was delta country and reminded him of home

He worked as a machinist, put his money away

And bought a shrimp boat with his cousin

And together they harvested Galveston Bay

In the mornin' 'fore the sun come up

He'd kiss his sleepin' daughter

Steer out through the channel

And cast his nets into the water

Billy Sutter fought with Charlie Company

In the highlands of Quang Tri

He was wounded in the battle of Chu Lai

Shipped home in '68

There he married and worked the gulf fishing grounds

In a boat that'd been his father's

In the morning he'd kiss his sleeping son

And cast his nets into the water

Billy sat in front of his TV as the South fell

And the communists rolled into Saigon

He and his friends watched as the refugees came

Settled on the same streets and worked the coast they'd grew up on

Soon in the bars around the harbor was talk

Of America for Americans

Someone said "You want 'em out, you got to burn 'em out."

And brought in the Texas Klan

One humid Texas night there were three shadows on the harbor

Come to burn the Vietnamese boats into the sea

In the fire's light shots rang out

Two Texans lay dead on the ground

Le stood with a pistol in his hand

A jury acquitted him in self-defense

As before the judge he did stand

But as Le walked down the courthouse steps

Billy said "My friend you're a dead man."

One latee summer night Le stood watch along the waterside

Billy stood in the shadows

His K-bar knife in his hand

And the moon slipped behind the clouds

Le lit a cigarette, the bay was still as glass

As he walked by Billy stuck his knife into his pocket

Took a breath and let him pass

In the early darkness Billy rose up

Went into the kitchen for a drink of water

Kissed his sleeping wife

Headed into the channel

And cast his nets into the water

Of Galveston Bay

My Best Was Never Good Enough

"Every cloud has a silver lining, every dog has his day." (1)

She said "Now don't say nothin'

If you don't have something nice to say

The tought now they get going when the going gets tough."

But for you my best was never good enough

"Now don't try for a home run baby

If you can get the job done with a hit

Remember a quitter never wins

And a winner never quits

The sun don't shine on a sleepin' dog's ass."

And all the rest of that stuff

Buf for you my best was never good enough

"If God gives you nothin' but lemons then you make some lemonade

The early bird catches the fuckin' worm, Rome wasn't built in a day

Now life's like a box of chocolates

You never know what you're going to get (2)

Stupid is as stupid does" and all the rest of that shit

Come on pretty baby call my bluff

'Cause for you my best was never good enough