In der Reihe ‚Musik –> anhören‘ kommt bereits in der zweiten Folge einer meiner Favoriten dran, Bruce Springsteen. Es ist nicht ganz einfach ein Lied aus dem ziemlich umfangreichen Werk Springsteens auszuwählen. Ich habe mich für ‚Sinaloa Cowboys‘ aus dem Album ‚The ghost of Tom Joad‘ entschieden.
‚The ghost of Tom Joad‘ ist nach ‚Nebraska‘ das zweite akustische Album Springsteens. Verbunden werden diese beiden Alben durch alltägliche Themen, abseits vom Mainstream, der Liebe und der heilen Welt. Während in ‚Nebraska‘ typische amerikanische Menschen entlang der Highways porträtiert wurden, liegt das Schwergewicht bei ‚Tom Joad‘ (übrigens eine Anspielung auf den Protagonisten des Romans ‚The grapes of wrath‘ von John Steinbeck) auf den Randständigen, den Immigranten und der Working-Class. Geschichten, wie sie seit langer Zeit immer wieder passieren, ohne an Aktualität zu verlieren. Das ‚Land of hope and dreams‘ wie Springsteen es in einem späteren Lied besingt, wird im Song ‚Sinaloa Cowboys‘ für den einen Protagonisten zur tödlichen Falle.
bruce springsteen – sinaloa cowboys
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 family
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
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