I was born in the corn fields of Kentucky
I moved north in '73
The war was still going strong so I found a job
Rolling steel in a foundry in Homestead
I worked beside a guy named Grzbowski
Who taught me how to keep safe
He said "there's many a man who lost the fingers from their hands"
You could wind up crippled or dead in Homestead
And the steel glowed in the white hot chambers
The furnace spit fire and smoke
And the sunlight came through the cracks in the roof
The dust was so thick you could choke
I heard all the old stories about the twelve hour shifts in the mill
And the union brothers the Pinkertons tried hard to kill
Heard about Frick and Carnegie the day the river ran red
How the union caved in, in Homestead
It was more than a job it was my family
I got married, settled down, bought a home
And in the bars down the street, in the late summer heat
You never had to feel alone
I got work tearin' those old mills down
Until there's nothing left but the sweat and blood in the ground
At night we tuck our little babies in bed
We still pray to the red, white and blue in Homestead
I'm still livin' in Homestead
I moved north in '73
The war was still going strong so I found a job
Rolling steel in a foundry in Homestead
I worked beside a guy named Grzbowski
Who taught me how to keep safe
He said "there's many a man who lost the fingers from their hands"
You could wind up crippled or dead in Homestead
And the steel glowed in the white hot chambers
The furnace spit fire and smoke
And the sunlight came through the cracks in the roof
The dust was so thick you could choke
I heard all the old stories about the twelve hour shifts in the mill
And the union brothers the Pinkertons tried hard to kill
Heard about Frick and Carnegie the day the river ran red
How the union caved in, in Homestead
It was more than a job it was my family
I got married, settled down, bought a home
And in the bars down the street, in the late summer heat
You never had to feel alone
I got work tearin' those old mills down
Until there's nothing left but the sweat and blood in the ground
At night we tuck our little babies in bed
We still pray to the red, white and blue in Homestead
I'm still livin' in Homestead
Contributed by Dead End - 2012/9/18 - 10:32
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Scritta da Joe Grushecky e Bruce Springsteen
Nell’album di Joe Grushecky & The Houserockers' intitolato “American Babylon”, pubblicato nel 1995 e prodotto dal “Boss”, che partecipò pure alla registrazione di tutte le canzoni compresa questa “Homestead” in cui suona chitarra, armonica e mandolino.
Testo trovato su Springsteen Lyrics
Dopo Father Was Killed by the Pinkerton Men e Homestead Strike Song, ancora una canzone sui lavoratori dell’acciaio ad Homestead, Pennsylvania.
Qui siamo quasi un secolo dopo il grande sciopero e la battaglia del 1892, rievocati nella quarta strofa. L’accento viene ora posto sulla pericolosità delle lavorazioni e sulla necessità di portare il culo sano e salvo a casa ogni sera, senza rimetterci la testa o qualche dito. Nell’ultima strofa compare infine lo spettro della disoccupazione dovuta alla crisi dell’acciaio verificatasi negli USA alla fine degli anni 70. I grandi impianti siderurigici di Homestead effettivamente chiusero i battenti nel 1984 mandando a spasso migliaia di lavoratori. Delle fabbriche resta oggi solo una fila di ciminiere, all’ombra delle quali ora sorge un grande centro commerciale. Gli abitanti di Homestead erano circa 19.000 intorno al 1940… Oggi sono poco più di 3.000.