Zoot Suit Riot
May. 24th, 2003 01:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thistlechaserI have an interest in gangs. Mostly modern, but old ones as well. A&E has quite a good special on now, about the history of gangs in the US.
Who recalls a song from a few years ago (wow, six years ago, doesn't seem that long). Zoot Suit Riot by a group called Cherry Poppin Daddies? It was one of those songs that were really popular for a summer, then died out. I was very surprised to learn that the 'zoot suit riots' were actually a real thing. One of the earliest American gangs, the Pachucos, a gang of Mexican immigrants, wore zoot suits. US Navy sailors came into their neighborhoods to pick up Mexican women before the sailors shipped out. Of course the men who lived there didn't like that much. When they tried to stop them and defend the women, the sailors started beating them. This went on for three nights, US sailors going into these neighborhoods and beating up any man in a zoot suit. And after that? Any Mexican man. After a week or so, the federal government stepped in and told the Navy to control their men. (The only people arrested before this were the Mexicans, not one single sailor.)
So once I learned all that, I recalled the song. I was annoyed. How could someone take a name from something so serious and use it for a silly, fun, lighthearted song? But then I looked up the lyrics:
who's that whisperin' in the trees
it's two sailors and they're on leave
pipes and chains and swingin' hands
Well now... I did a mental 180. How did a song that seemed so fun and silly actually contain such important and serious stuff, and I never noticed it?
Chorus:
zoot suit riot
throw back a bottle of beer
zoot suit riot
pull a comb through your coal black hair
"Coal black hair". Indeed.
now you sailors know
where your women come for love
Kind of turns it around in the end, but all in all pretty cool.
(And a note for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
evilgrayson: We were so spot-on. :) )
Who recalls a song from a few years ago (wow, six years ago, doesn't seem that long). Zoot Suit Riot by a group called Cherry Poppin Daddies? It was one of those songs that were really popular for a summer, then died out. I was very surprised to learn that the 'zoot suit riots' were actually a real thing. One of the earliest American gangs, the Pachucos, a gang of Mexican immigrants, wore zoot suits. US Navy sailors came into their neighborhoods to pick up Mexican women before the sailors shipped out. Of course the men who lived there didn't like that much. When they tried to stop them and defend the women, the sailors started beating them. This went on for three nights, US sailors going into these neighborhoods and beating up any man in a zoot suit. And after that? Any Mexican man. After a week or so, the federal government stepped in and told the Navy to control their men. (The only people arrested before this were the Mexicans, not one single sailor.)
So once I learned all that, I recalled the song. I was annoyed. How could someone take a name from something so serious and use it for a silly, fun, lighthearted song? But then I looked up the lyrics:
who's that whisperin' in the trees
it's two sailors and they're on leave
pipes and chains and swingin' hands
Well now... I did a mental 180. How did a song that seemed so fun and silly actually contain such important and serious stuff, and I never noticed it?
Chorus:
zoot suit riot
throw back a bottle of beer
zoot suit riot
pull a comb through your coal black hair
"Coal black hair". Indeed.
now you sailors know
where your women come for love
Kind of turns it around in the end, but all in all pretty cool.
(And a note for
evilgrayson: We were so spot-on. :) )
