Corona

The Minutemen

D Boon wrote “Corona” after a day trip the Minutemen had taken to Mexico on the Fourth of July, 1982. (The same trip would inspire Mike Watt’s song “I Felt Like A Gringo” from Buzz Or Howl Under The Influence Of Heat.) After optimistic-sounding two lines, D. Boon does a general rant about the injustice of our society, before in the end, he goes from general to specific, singing about how an obviously poor woman was collecting empty bottles, worth a nickel apiece, showing what this injustice and greed can make us do.

The people will survive
In their environment
The dirt, scarcity, and the emptiness
Of our South

[Verse 2]
The injustice of our greed
The practice we inherit
The dirt, scarcity and the emptiness
Of our South

[Verse 3]
There on the beach
I could see it in her eyes
I only had a Corona
Five cent deposit