NOTES I won't bother giving chord fingerings for this song, as they are standard. To play along with the record, place a capo on the third fret. Hint: Hammer on and pull of the first fret on the B string at the end of each verse to give a hint of the fills Bruce plays.
LYRICS
Intro: G
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 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. 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 brother's lips and placed him in his grave.
Ending:
+-----------------------------------------+-----------------------------+ | | | | "Immature artists imitate. | Jason Groce | | Mature artists steal." | MFA in Playwriting | | | UT Austin | | -- T.S. Eliot | | | | | +-----------------------------------------+-----------------------------+
