"I'm not one of these in-your-face political people," Rita Jones, 57, told The San Antonio Express News in a recent article. "I'm not bitter. I'm not a racist. But there are so many illegals in the country now, that it has gotten out of hand."
Jones, a former public library secretary, wrote the lyrics to "So long Texas — Hello Mexico," a song about a U.S. citizen who decides to leave Texas, go to Mexico, and become a burden to their society by driving with no liability and singing the Mexican national anthem in English. Hmmm... now why would they want to go Mexico?!?! Oh... to prove a satirical point. Add one to the irresponsible Mexican stereotype. SLAM DUNK FOR WHITEY.
Well, Jones passed the song onto Johnnie Bradshaw, local DJ/country musician/town genius in Waco since the 1970s, who decided he would get a band together and record this ditty under the name Johnny Tex and the Texicans. Since then, "So long Texas — Hello Mexico!" has reached a rather large audience through that great niche forum, The I.N.T.E.R.N.E.T., receiving 1,000 hits on its first day alone. Hundreds of CDs have been sold. The morning show at the top radio station in Waco picked the song up.
Okay, so the song's not necessarily blowing up, but it sure does reflect something nasty.
"The only people offended are those here illegally," said Rita Jones, secretly thinking about the Hispanic kid that messed up her burrito order that morning. She noted to the Express News that she would rather be remembered for love songs.
Here's another tasty tidbit from that article: "William Gheen, president of Americans for Legal Immigration, a political action committee based in Raleigh, N.C., said he's urging all his 7,000 supporters to ask radio stations across the country to play the song." Whoa! New marketing strategy for indie career-rock artists: songs about the conservative political agenda. OK Go will probably give it a shot once they have exhausted that whole "dance in a novelty video" thing.
But we here at Tiny Mix Tapes have to stand for something, I guess. That's why we're writing our own pro-immigration song in response to the Johnny Tex and the Texicans tune. You know, it's got nothing to do with politics. We just want to ride the whole marketing wave to a TRL #1. E-mail your name and home address here and you will receive a TMT-sanctioned, pro-immigration CD-R within whenever we want. Then hopefully you run your own music blog and will be able to review it and get us in the echo chamber. But, of course, we would rather be rememberd for our love songs.
"So long Texas — Hello Mexico!" can be heard or downloaded here and the lyrics can be found right here at TMT:
So long Texas!
Hello Mexico
I'm gonna swim the Rio Grande
At El Paso
I'm leaving tonight
I ain't gonna pack
I'm only takin' the clothes
On my back
I'll drive a rattletrap car
With no liability
I'll demand equal rights
Though I'm there illegally
I'll protest the streets
'Til they finally grant 'em
Sing English words
To their national anthem
