Bruce Springsteen, "Matamoros Banks"
Springsteen is an icon of working-class Americana, and on this song from "Devils Dust," he addresses an important component of the working class in today's America -- low-wage immigrants making a perilous border crossing from Mexico. The song is fundamentally a story of thwarted love, and is all the more harrowing for it.Â
U2, "The Refugee"
Bono's mawkish earnestness and permanent status on the Davos circuit can sometimes detract from the visceral thrills of early U2. But this punk-funk cut from "War" is one of the Irish band's most convincing -- a huge mess of drums makes a dark topic sound downright lively.
Woody Guthrie, "Deportee"
Guthrie's response to a 1948 plane crash that killed Mexican men working in the bracero guest-worker program in central California is specific to the accident, but the current of sadness underneath feels very contemporary.
And, just because this can't go unmentioned in a piece about immigration songs...
Led Zeppelin: "Immigrant Song"
OK, so this is about mythical warriors "From the midnight sun where the hot springs flow"Â storming Valhalla with the "hammer of the gods." Not exactly pertinent to our current immigration dilemmas. But still, any occasion to hear Robert Plant wail to the pagan deities on a Monday is fine by us.
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Ruling strong enough for Obama to claim victory
-- August Brown
Photo: Woody Guthrie. Credit:Â Michael Ochs Archives/Getty ImagesÂ
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