Another one for the anti-migrant bigot forces

NEW YORK – It’s been a very long time since we did a pro-migrant tune (Week #6, “Weeknights at Six“, about Lou Dobbs) and it’s time for another.

Southern California welcomed me with open arms when I moved there nine years ago from New York City. Unfortunately not everyone gets such a warm welcome upon their arrival. Drive south on I-5 or I-15 to Orange County or the San Diego suburbs and you’ll find a growing anti-migrant resentment that has been sanitized and made acceptable, dressed up as populism and paraded on talk radio and cable news to the point where it’s sunk in as the norm — even among kids we meet at shows who sport Barack Obama pins.

This song, Temecula Girl, is a stab at making an aggregate of conversations I’ve had in my travels outside of Eastern Los Angeles in both The Actual and Max and the Marginalized, at diners after shows, with people that we’ve hung out with after our shows (in this case we’re putting all their words in the mouth of an attractive girl from San Diego boom-burb Temecula) who have been infected with this resentment.

A moment of muso dorkout: this is our third reggae tune. I love our reggae tunes, and before doing this band never imagined I’d write one. Expect more — but this will be the only one in 13/8 time.

Enjoy!

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Temecula Girl

You tell me there’s a look that you pick up on the street
At the car wash in the heat
And it darkens down your day
Pleading on for a metal wire fence
Or some other sad defense that will make them go away

But I’m afraid you don’t get it, no I just can’t see what you mean
You don’t get it, and nor does your father waving his fingers fast the screen
And I can’t connect how this affects the smallest detail of your little world
So forget, because you don’t get it, no you don’t, Temecula Girl

You allege in a hateful thin panache
That there ones who caused the crash, and a removal’s overdue
And exclaim squarely where you place the blame, as you take your aim
A pretty girl with an ugly point of view

But you don’t get it, no I just can’t see what you mean
you don’t get it, and I can’t meet you halfway, halfway between
And I can’t connect, how this affects even the smallest detail of your little world
So forget, because you don’t get it, no you don’t, Temecula Girl

So if you need someone to agree, you can look somewhere else for a nod
Of approval or consolation, just be patient and maybe the things that you ought to get
Just might connect with whatever good is still left in your little world if you let it
Because I don’t get it, no I don’t, Temecula Girl

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