// Tracklist

1. Sleepy Lagoon

   Sleepy Lagoon, summer forty-two Ho-say Dee-ahz bleeding out beneath the morning dew Twenty-two years old, already signed up for the war Found him by the reservoir, didn’t know what for

   Cops came down like hammers on the eastside streets Six hundred brown kids rounded up in the summer heat Didn’t matter if you did it, didn’t matter what you knew If you’re Mexican in L.A., well the target’s painted on you

   Sleepy Lagoon, that’s where it starts Sleepy Lagoon, tear the city apart Twenty-four defendants, largest trial the state has seen Sleepy Lagoon, and they’re barely nineteen

   Henry Lay-vahs, nineteen, sitting in the dock Can’t sit with his lawyer, can’t even change his socks Judge won’t let ’em cut their hair, won’t let ’em clean their face Gotta look like gangsters for the jury to make the case

   Guilty, guilty, guilty, the verdicts falling down Seventeen convicted in that California town Didn’t kill nobody but the papers screamed for blood Sleepy Lagoon ran red, but it wasn’t just the mud

   Sleepy Lagoon, that’s where it starts Sleepy Lagoon, tear the city apart Twenty-four defendants, largest trial the state has seen Sleepy Lagoon, California dream

   October forty-four they’ll overturn it all Lack of evidence, the whole thing’s gonna fall But right now it’s forty-three and the pressure’s building high Mexican kids in jail and the newspapers asking why They let them wear those suits…

   Sleepy Lagoon! That’s where the fire starts! Sleepy Lagoon! Gonna tear this town apart!

2. Drapes and Calcos

   Started up in Harlem where the dancers learn to fly Tapered at the ankles so you never catch your thigh Spread down to the west coast, hit the L.A. scene Biggest shoulders you ever saw, if you know what I mean

   Super-sized and scandalous, fingertip coat High-waisted trousers, man, that’s all she wrote Pork pie hat tilted, watch chain swinging low This is how a pah-choo-koh lets the whole world know

   Drapes and cal-kohs, that’s the style tonight Drapes and cal-kohs, got my Cah-loh tight They can keep their rations, keep their fabric rules Drapes and cal-kohs, we ain’t nobody’s fools

   El Choo-koh, El Paso, that’s where the name was born Pah-choo-kohs on the corner, every single early morn Speaking Cah-loh in the streets, Spanish mixed with jive Private in the public, that’s how we survive

   War Production Board says we’re using too much thread Limitation L-85, might as well be dead But there’s bootleg tailors working overtime downtown Sewing up resistance, never gonna hold us down

   Drapes and cal-kohs, that’s the style tonight Drapes and cal-kohs, got my Cah-loh tight They can keep their rations, keep their fabric rules Drapes and cal-kohs, we ain’t nobody’s fools

   Call it unpatriotic, call it what you will We call it identity, and we’re standing still Won’t assimilate, won’t disappear Put on my drapes and cal-kohs, I’m still standing here

   When they see me coming in my three-piece drape They know I’m not bowing down, I’m not gonna scrape This cloth is my armor, this style is my song Drapes and cal-kohs, and we’re ten thousand strong

   Drapes! And cal-kohs! That’s the style! Drapes! And cal-kohs! Walk that mile!

3. June ThirdE

   June the third, nineteen forty-three Fifty sailors walking out the armory Armed with pipes and chains and bats and worse Heading for the eastside, riding in a hearse

   They say they got attacked, they say they got a score But the kids they’re hunting haven’t done a goddamn thing before Twelve and thirteen years old, walking home from school June the third, the Navy’s playing cruel

   The sun goes down on Angeles And something dark is rising up The uniforms are marching And they’re looking for some blood

   June third, that’s when the fire starts June third, they’re coming for our hearts Fifty sailors with murder in their eyes June third, somebody’s gonna die tonight

   They find a kid in zoot suit walking down the street Drag him to the ground and stomp him with their feet Strip him of his drapes and leave him bleeding on the stone June the third, and we are not alone

   Word spreads fast through every bar-ee-oh block The Navy’s hunting pachucos round the clock But this ain’t a riot, this is something worse June the third, and it’s about to get perverse

   June third, that’s when the fire starts June third, they’re coming for our hearts Fifty sailors with murder in their eyes June third, L.A.’s about to burn tonight

   The cops are standing on the corner, watching it go down Not lifting a finger as the blood hits the ground They’ll arrest the victims, let the sailors walk away June the third, and there’s hell to pay

   June third! The war came home tonight! June third! This ain’t no fair fight! June third! Remember this date! June third! Nineteen forty-three, the city full of hate!

4. Vengeance Squad

   Twenty taxicabs lined up in a row Sailors climbing in with somewhere dark to go East Los Angeles, that’s the target zone Vengeance squad is rolling, and they’re not alone

   The Oakland Tribune got the name just right Vengeance squad is hunting kids tonight Cruise into the bar-ee-oh, headlights cutting through Looking for the drapes, looking for the zoot

   Vengeance squad, rolling through the night Vengeance squad, looking for a fight Charter twenty cabs and hunt ’em door to door Vengeance squad, what the hell’s this war for?

   Pull up to the theater, drag ’em from their seats Strip ’em of their clothing right there in the streets Pile the zoot suits high and set the drapes on fire Vengeance squad is burning up desire

   Beat ’em with a frenzy, sadistic and cold Twelve-year-old pachuco, watch his story fold Leave him on the pavement, bleeding in the night The cops are right there watching, saying “not our fight”

   Vengeance squad, rolling through the night Vengeance squad, this ain’t nothing right Twenty cabs of sailors hunting kids for sport Vengeance squad, this is their report

   Boyl Heights is burning, the diner’s torn apart They’re dragging kids from buses, tearing out their hearts The streetcar stops, they pull ’em off the train Vengeance squad is bringing all the pain

   They say it’s retaliation, say they got attacked But when you hunt down children, there’s no taking that back This ain’t self-defense, this is something worse Twenty cabs of hatred, this is hell’s own hearse

   Vengeance! Squad! Rolling through the night! Vengeance! Squad! Burning every light! Vengeance! Squad! Twenty cabs of hate! Vengeance! Squad! And the cops just wait!

5. Broadway

   June the seventh, Broadway’s burning bright Five thousand white men prowling through the night Soldiers and sailors, civilians join the crowd Carey Mick-Will-yums watching, and he’s crying out loud

   They storm the movie theaters, order up the lights Run up and down the aisles looking for a fight Drag the Mexicans screaming from their velvet seats Broadway’s running red tonight, hear the pavement beat

   Mick-Will-yums writes it down, hand is shaking hard “Thousands turned out for a mass lynching,” puts it on the card This ain’t a riot, this is something else This is America showing what it truly felt

   Broadway, June the seventh, forty-three Broadway, this is what they didn’t want to see Mass lynching in the City of Angels Broadway, and the devil’s in the details

   Stop the streetcars, pull ’em from the train Filipinos, Blacks, and Mexicans, it’s all the same Beat ’em on the pavement with a sadistic hand Five thousand strong, this is the promised land?

   White zoot-suiters walking by without a scratch Only brown skin gets the match This ain’t about the fabric, ain’t about the thread This is about the color, this is seeing red

   Broadway, June the seventh, forty-three Broadway, this is what they didn’t want to see Mass lynching in the City of Angels Broadway, and the blood runs through the channels

   Carey Mick-Will-yums will write a book one day “North from Mexico,” tells it every way But tonight he’s just a witness to the fall Five thousand voices and they don’t hear him call

   Tomorrow the military will shut it down Declare downtown L.A. off-limits to the crown But tonight, tonight, the worst is here Broadway, June the seventh, engineered fear

   Broadway! Mass lynching in the lights! Broadway! Five thousand wrongs don’t make it right! Broadway! Carey Mick-Will-yums saw it all! Broadway! Remember when America let us fall!

6. First Time

   Toward the evening we start hiding in the alleys, low Twenty guys step out into the street, put on a show Decoys walking tall like nothing’s going down Waiting for the Navy to come hunting through the town

   Here they come, the sailors, thinking they got easy prey Chasing down our decoys like they own the L.A. way But we’re waiting in the shadows, and we’re organized tonight First time anybody’s ready for this fight

   First time we fight back, organized and strong First time we show ’em that they got it wrong They were surprised to see us coming from the dark First time we left our mark

   Roo-dee Lay-vahs, teenager, he’s calling out the play Set the trap and spring it, this is judgment day We came out of everywhere, they didn’t see us coming First time the hunters felt their own blood running

   You can beat us in the streets, you can drag us from the shows But we’re pah-choo-kohs, eh-say, and everybody knows Push us far enough and we will push right back First time, first time, launching our attack

   First time we fight back, organized and strong First time we show ’em that they got it wrong They were surprised to see us coming from the dark First time we left our mark

   They thought we’d just take it, thought we’d bow our heads Thought we’d let ’em strip us down and leave us for dead But there’s fire in the bar-ee-oh, there’s iron in our spine First time, first time, drawing the line

   East L.A. is rising, Watts is standing tall First time we answered back the call History will remember when we turned and faced the storm First time the resistance took its form

   First time! We fight back tonight! First time! Pah-choo-kohs in the light! First time! Organized and strong! First time! We’ve been waiting all along!

7. Badge of Hoodlumism

   June the ninth, the City Council’s got a plan To solve the violence, gonna stick it to the man Not the sailors beating children bloody in the street No, the problem is the fabric, gotta regulate the pleat

   Councilman Norris Nelson stands up to the crowd “The zoot suit is a badge,” and he says it loud “Badge of hoodlumism,” that’s the magic word Most ridiculous damn thing that anybody ever heard

   Badge of hoodlumism, thirty days in jail Badge of hoodlumism, tell me how that’s gonna sail They beat us in the streets, they drag us from the cars But the crime is what we’re wearing, now ain’t that bizarre?

   The Navy’s hunting children with their pipes and chains But the Council says the problem is the fabric stains Too much shoulder padding? That’s a public threat! Pegged pants and a pork pie? Better not forget!

   Military shuts downtown, says it’s off the map But the politicians want to ban our drapes and cap Can’t stop the violence, can’t arrest the white But they sure as hell can legislate what we wear at night

   Badge of hoodlumism, thirty days in jail Badge of hoodlumism, American fairy tale They burned our clothes on Broadway, left us bleeding bare But the crime is what we’re wearing, tell me how that’s fair?

   So let me get this straight, I got it right You watched five thousand people riot every night Sailors dragging kids out theaters by the hair And your big solution is… to regulate what we wear?

   Badge of hoodlumism! That’s what Nelson said! While Mexican kids are lying beaten, almost dead! The clothes are not the problem, Mr. Councilman The problem is you never gave a damn!

   Badge of hoodlumism! Thirty days for style! Badge of hoodlumism! American denial! Badge of hoodlumism! Blame it on the thread! Badge of hoodlumism! Blame us instead!

8. San Simeon

   Up in San Sim-ee-on there’s a castle on the hill William Randolph Hurst is counting up the till Every headline screaming “Mexican crime wave” Selling fear and papers from the cradle to the grave

   LA Times, Examiner, Herald Express Printing up the prejudice, making up the mess “Menacing street thugs, gang members run wild” Every brown kid painted as the devil’s own child

   San Sim-ee-on, where the headlines get made San Sim-ee-on, getting rich off the raid Some big shot up in his castle wants to sell more news San Sim-ee-on, and we’re the ones who lose

   “Are you aware you’re in here just because Some big shot up in San Sim-ee-on wants applause?” That’s what they said at Sleepy Lagoon trial Hurst making millions, going extra mile

   Juvenile delinquents, that’s the story that they sell Never mind the sailors raising up the hell The victim makes a better headline if he’s brown San Sim-ee-on is profiting while we’re going down

   San Sim-ee-on, where the lies get their start San Sim-ee-on, tearing L.A. apart Print it if it bleeds, and make it brown if you can San Sim-ee-on, that’s the business plan

   The press ain’t neutral, never was and never will They pick the villains, and they sharpen up the quill When the sailors came hunting through the eastside streets The papers cheered ’em on, called it clearing out the beats

   Yellow journalism, that’s the Hurst empire way Turned a generation into targets every day And when the blood ran red on Broadway’s golden mile San Sim-ee-on was counting profits with a smile

   San Sim-ee-on! Castle on the hill! San Sim-ee-on! Cashing in the kill! San Sim-ee-on! Headlines made of hate! San Sim-ee-on! This is the fourth estate!

9. The Question Goes Deeper

   June the sixteenth, El-eh-nor Roosevelt speaks While the politicians hide behind their techniques “The question goes deeper,” that’s what she said “Deeper than just suits,” cut right to the thread

   “It is a racial protest,” there it is plain The First Lady naming what they’re trying to contain “Race problems are growing in the United States And we must begin to face it,” that’s what’s at stake

   The question goes deeper than the fabric and the style The question goes deeper, been building for a while The question goes deeper, it’s written in the blood The question goes deeper, and it’s rising like a flood

   Two days later, LA Times hits back hard “Mrs. Roosevelt Blindly Stirs Discord,” that’s their card Senator Ten-ee calls her a Communist too For speaking simple truth that everybody knew

   Name the racism, you’re the problem now Speak up for the beaten, take another bow They’ll call you un-American for stating what is real The question goes deeper, and they don’t want to feel

   The question goes deeper than the fabric and the style The question goes deeper, been building for a while The question goes deeper, it’s written in the law The question goes deeper, and El-eh-nor saw

   “We do not always face these problems as we should” El-eh-nor knew the nation wasn’t standing where it could Fighting fascism overseas, practicing at home The question goes deeper into American bone

   They attacked her for the truth, called her every name But history remembers who was playing that game The First Lady stood up when the leaders turned away The question goes deeper, and it’s deeper every day

   The question goes deeper… El-eh-nor knew The question goes deeper… the answer’s overdue The question goes deeper… than suits and drapes The question goes deeper… into American shapes

10. Too Much Fabric

    October forty-four, the verdicts all reversed Sleepy Lagoon defendants finally freed from the worst Justice arrives at last, though late as always comes The law admitted what it did, now beat the victory drums

    But something else was planted in those burning nights of June A consciousness awakened underneath the same old moon The kids who wore the drapes, who took the sailor’s swing They’d grow up to become the leaders of the thing

    Too much fabric, that’s what they said Too much fabric, better off dead Too much fabric, unpatriotic thread Too much freedom is what they meant instead

    Say-zar Shah-vez wore the drapes when he was just a kid Before the farmworker movement, before everything he did The pah-choo-kohs who reclaimed “Chee-kah-no” as their name Were the first to wear the zoot suit, the first to stake the claim

    Loo-ees Val-dez put it on the Broadway stage in seventy-nine “Zoot Suit” the musical, drew the connecting line From the riots to the movement, from the ashes to the flame Too much fabric started something that would never be the same

    Too much fabric, that’s what they feared Too much fabric, too much weird Too much fabric, couldn’t be controlled Too much freedom for a nation to hold

    They called it unpatriotic to wear what made you proud They called it un-American to stand out from the crowd But identity’s resistance, and fashion is a voice Too much fabric was a statement, and we made our choice

    From the bar-ee-ohs of L.A. to the fields of California From the walkouts to the boycotts, from the marches to the corner Every seed planted in blood eventually will grow Too much fabric, and we let the whole world know

    Too much fabric! That’s our legacy! Too much fabric! That’s our history! Too much fabric! They couldn’t hold us down! Too much fabric! And we’re still around!

    Too much fabric… too much freedom… too much pride Too much fabric… and we never stepped aside Too much fabric… from the riots to the rise Too much fabric… open up your eyes

    Drapes and cal-kohs, pah-choo-kohs standing tall From June of forty-three, we answered every call Too much fabric… that’s the story that we tell Too much fabric… and we’re wearing it well!