Deportees

I am listening to my oddest iTunes playlist: it contains only one song, but several versions of it. It’s called Deportees, and seems to be extraordinarily popular with various sections of the music world’s practitioners, some of whom have recorded more than one version of it. I have appended a list of all of the ones that I have found so far.

Woody Guthrie wrote the song based upon a true incident which happened in the 1940’s, when the captain and crew of a crashed airplane were listed by name in a newspaper article, but the migrant farm workers, whom they were taking back to Mexico, were not and were listed as “just deportees.” The link above has the story of it.

I loved the song from the first time I heard a recording of Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie singing it, and telling the story. After the advent of modern methods of finding music, I tracked down that song, and all of its fellow songs. Please let me know if you have found other versions of it.

Now playing on iTunes: Deportee from the album “LifeLines” by Peter, Paul & Mary
Now playing on iTunes: Deportee (Plane Wreck At Los G from the album “The Greatest Songs Of Woody Guthrie” by Woody Guthrie
Now playing on iTunes: Deportee (Plane Wreck At los Gatos) from the album “Pete Seeger & Arlo Guthrie – Together In Concert” by Arlo Guthrie & Pete Seeger
Now playing on iTunes: Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos) from the album “Ballad of Easy Rider” by The Byrds
Now playing on iTunes: Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos) from the album “Highwayman” by Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson
Now playing on iTunes: Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos) from the album “Other Voices, Too (A Trip Back to Bountiful)” by Nanci Griffith
Now playing on iTunes: Deportee (Plane Wreck At Los Gatos) from the album “The Greatest Songs of Woody Guthrie” by Woody Guthrie & Cisco Houston
Now playing on iTunes: Deportee (Train Wreck At Los G by Judy Collins
Now playing on iTunes: Deportees from the album “Seasons of Change” by Priscilla Herdman
Now playing on iTunes: Deportees from the album “The Other Side” by Sweet Honey in the Rock
Now playing on iTunes: Deportees (Plane Wreck At Los Gatos) from the album “Arlo Guthrie” by Arlo Guthrie