Een muzikale uitbeelding van Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath. Steinbeck beschreef het lot van de kleine boeren (Okies) die tijdens de Great Depression de Dust Bowl in Oklahoma ontvluchten om een nieuw bestaan op te bouwen in Californië, waar ze eigenlijk niet welkom waren en het lot ondergingen van alle arme arbeidsmigranten. Lees: gediscrimineerd en uitgebuit werden. De tekst is van Woody Guthrie, de melodie is ontleend aan Pretty Polly, een oude Engelse folksong.
It’s a mighty hard row that my poor hands have hoed
My poor feet have traveled a hot dusty road
Out of your Dust Bowl and Westward we rolled
And your deserts were hot and your mountains was cold
I worked in your orchards of peaches and prunes
I slept on the ground in the light of the moon
On the edge of the city you’ll see us and then
We come with the dust and we go with the wind
California, Arizona, I harvest your crops
Well its North up to Oregon to gather your hops
Dig the beets from your ground, cut the grapes from your vine
To set on your table your light sparkling wine
Green pastures of plenty from dry desert ground
From the Grand Coulee Dam where the waters run down
Every state in the Union us migrants have been
We’ll work in this fight and we’ll fight till we win
It’s always we rambled, that river and I
All along your green valley, I will work till I die
My land I’ll defend with my life if it be
Cause my pastures of plenty must always be free
Uitgelichte afbeelding: A farmer and his two sons during a dust storm in Cimarron County, Oklahoma, April 1936. By Arthur Rothstein, for the Farm Security Administration – This image is available from the United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs divisionunder the digital ID ppmsc.00241.This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing for more information., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6241057
