Precious Cargo

Album: Life On Earth (2022)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Hurray for the Riff Raff is the musical project of Alynda Segarra, an American indie rock musician of Puerto Rican heritage. This song bemoans the immigrants who traveled far from their homeland to the US for a chance at freedom, only to get lost in the system. Segarra wrote it after doing some volunteer work in her home state of Louisiana.

    "Right now," they told American Songwriter (Segarra uses they/she pronouns), "Louisiana is a hot spot for immigrant detention. They're building new for-profit immigrant detention centers all over rural Louisiana with incentives to rural places that they'll make money for the county. I was learning a lot of immigrant people sent to rural Louisiana get stuck in the system."
  • When Segarra joined the group working to help these immigrants, they met two men who had been running long distances for their lives through difficult and dangerous terrain. The singer includes one of their voices at the end of "Precious Cargo."

    "That's my friend who I visited when he was in detention," Segarra told Mojo magazine. "He's now out and living his life. I thought it was important to see what he wanted to tell the world since I was telling so much of what I learned from him about his journey and his survival. The point of Precious Cargo was to tell a human story that everyone can relate to. Not even make it a political issue: this is someone's life! This is their youth!"
  • "Precious Cargo" is a track from Life On Earth, Hurray for the Riff Raff's debut album for Nonesuch Records. Its 11 tracks on the theme of survival are "music for a world in flux - songs about thriving, not just surviving, while disaster is happening."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Dave Alvin - "4th Of July"

Dave Alvin - "4th Of July"They're Playing My Song

When Dave recorded the first version of the song with his group the Blasters, producer Nick Lowe gave him some life-changing advice.

Incongruent Opening Acts

Incongruent Opening ActsSong Writing

Here's what happens when an opening act is really out of place with the headliner, like when Beastie Boys opened for Madonna.

Tanita Tikaram

Tanita TikaramSongwriter Interviews

When she released her first album in 1988, Tanita became a UK singing sensation at age 19. She talks about her darkly sensual voice and quirky songwriting style.

Don Dokken

Don DokkenSongwriter Interviews

Dokken frontman Don Dokken explains what broke up the band at the height of their success in the late '80s, and talks about the botched surgery that paralyzed his right arm.

Metallica

MetallicaFact or Fiction

Beef with Bon Jovi? An unfortunate Spandex period? See if you can spot the true stories in this Metallica version of Fact or Fiction.

Let Me Be Your Teddy Bear: Teddy Bears and Teddy Boys in Songs

Let Me Be Your Teddy Bear: Teddy Bears and Teddy Boys in SongsSong Writing

Elvis, Little Richard and Cheryl Cole have all sung about Teddy Bears, but there is also a terrifying Teddy song from 1932 and a touching trucker Teddy tune from 1976.