Brother, Can You Spare A Dime? A Song About Hard Times

I still like to listen to my old vinyl records and one of the songs that really sticks with me from the Peter, Paul & Mary archive is "Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?" The Great Depression may have been an exceptionally challenging time for Americans (25% unemployment) but it did generate some heartrending folk songs, which demonstrates how the spirit continuously strives to rise above the mud, mulch and muck, by means of creative expression. Heartbreak unites us because we all share a common humanity.

According to Wikipedia, the lyrics were written by Yip Harburg and the tune by Jay Gorney for the 1932 musical revue Americana.* The melody is actually borrowed from a Russian-Jewish lullaby.

Though most Broadway musicals feature upbeat songs, this one was composed in a minor key. The tone of the lyrics required a similar aural treatment. Over time it has be recorded by a wide swath of performers.

Bing Crosby & Rudy Vallee made it popular in 1932, essentially a song about the impact of the Great Depression upon the common man. Try to imagine what we would be seeing if we had 25% unemployment today. That's what our grandparents (or great grandparents if you're younger) dealt with. I remember my mom telling us how her dad would carry home a 100 lb. bag of navy beans on Saturdays and "that's what we would eat all week."

Others who performed or recorded this song have included Al Jolson, George Michael, Jorma Koukonan, Tom Waits, Judy Collins, Peter Paul & Mary, Dr. John, Abbey Lincoln and dozens more.

The song was quite controversial in its day. There were business leaders who saw the song as "a dangerous attack on the American economic system," so they sought to have it banned from the radio. William Zinsser, who taught writing at Yale, wrote that radio stations banned it for being "sympathetic to the unemployed".  Hmmm.

Here are the lyrics:

Once I built a railroad, made it run
Made it race against time
Once I built a rairoad, now it's done
Brother can you spare a dime?
Once I built a tower to the sun
Brick and rivet and lime
Once I built a tower, now it's done
Brother can you spare a dime?
Once in khaki suits
Gee, we looked swell
Full of that yankee Doodle De Dum
Half a million boots went slogging through hell
I was the kid with the drum
Say don't you remember, they called me Al
It was Al all the time
Say don't you remember, I'm your pal!
Brother can you spare a dime?
Once in khaki suits
Gee, we looked swell
Full of that yankee Doodle De Dum
Half a million boots went slogging through hell
I was the kid with the drum
Say don't you remember, they called me Al
It was Al all the time
Say don't you remember, I'm your pal!
Brother can you spare a dime?
Buddy can you spare a dime?

Here's Peter, Paul & Mary's version of the song.

* * * *  

EdNote: Information about this song's history came from a Wikipedia entry about the song.

Bob Dylan: Good As I Been To You Is Good

For some reason I took a pass on Dylan's early 90s albums, Good As I Been to You and World Gone Wrong. At the time, there must have been a bad review or maybe I was led to believe these weren't an essential part of one's collection, perhaps dismissing them because he recorded covers instead of writing new masterpieces like "Desolation Row" or "All Along the Watchtower."

So I decided to fill these two holes in my collection this past Christmas. 

Tonight, as I listen to Good As I Been To You yet another time, I'm surprised that we ever listen to other people instead of deciding for ourselves. People have different tastes and some of my favorite albums are lower on the various lists of "Best Dylan Albums." Good As I Been to You is a truly rewarding contribution to the Dylan catalog.

I'd bet that if you asked twenty fans what their favorite period was as far as his singing voice, not necessarily the songs, they'd likely identify a dozen different periods and agree on few. I, for one, have appreciated his voice at every stage of his career. I mean, his manner of delivering lyrics can vary, but he is continually distinctive and evocative. And that is part of what makes this album nice, his first acoustic solo album since, hmmm, must be Another Side of Bob Dylan.

In my first listens to Good As I Been to You I was enjoying the guitar work. It's an enjoyable album of finger-pickin' acoustic accompaniment. There is no backing band. It's Bob and his guitar, and occasionally a little harmonica. Something akin to Jorma Kaukonen's performance at The West Theater last week. 

This is Bob digging into a little music history. Classics like Blackjack Davy, Sittin' On Top of the World, and Hard Times are ever familiar. In this case Bob channels them with his own vibe, as is his custom. Others were uncovered from more obscure sources.

The vocals convey the hard times, sorrows, hopes, betrayals, and other emotions associated with the approach of later life. Dylan had passed the half century mark when this album was recorded.

If you're like me there are always a couple songs you connect with on the first listen. You connect enough to take a second listen and with familiarity other songs begin to speak to you. At some point you find that some of the songs you were unfamiliar with are now the ones that resonate most. You can miss that if you only listen once then toss it aside.

Stephen Foster, 1826-1864

For some reason I was unaware that "Hard Times" was a Stephen Foster song. It's definitely classic Americana. Ken Burns found it suitable for a few of his documentaries. Foster, one of the most famous songwriters of the 19th century, died in 1864 at age 37 (according to Wikipedia) after he fell in a Bowery hotel and cut his neck. He was found in a pool of blood and passed away at New York's Bellevue Hospital three days later. Most of us learned some of his songs when we were growing up... songs like "Camptown Races" and "My Old Kentucky Home" and "Beautiful Dreamer."  Years ago I remember the impression Paul Harvey's account made in his inimitable "Rest of the Story" radio tales, which you can listen to here.

The song going through me this past few days has been Canadee-I-O. Maybe it corresponds with the mood of this strange moment in time, even if it an entirely different story. It's a beautiful song with a somewhat haunting tune. Hear it here on YouTube. You can read the lyrics here.

"Black Jack Davey" is another favorite, though very different from the exuberant version recorded by the Incredible String Band. How interesting that these two versions can be so different yet infectious, each in its own way.  

Someone wrote that Dylan was "just going through the motions" on this album. I disagree. As I said in the beginning, it's much more intimate than putting on a show. We're sitting on the couch and he's sitting over here in that chair and a couple other friends are seated on a cushion leaning against the wall and we're just happy to be present. 

Enjoyment has much to do with one's expectations. A lot of things in life are that way. Our expectations can easily get in the way of appreciating something special that is right there in front of us. 

Let us pause in life's pleasures and count its many tears While we all sup sorrow with the poor. There's a song that will linger forever in our ears, Oh, hard times, come again no more. --Stephen Foster 

This Day In History: Bob Dylan Plays His First Major Gig

Photo here is of Dylan at Newport two years later. Not an
attempt to suggest that this was Gerde's.

I once posted a short list of things I learned in college, one of which was learning to play the harmonica. Early in my first semester at Ohio U a bunch of guys were sitting or lying around talking, getting acquainted by sharing stories, interests, and whatever else guys talk about. One fellow happened to be a guitar player, and as it later turned out he had a brother in Cincinnati who played harmonica. He suggested it would be easy to pick up and encouraged me with the admonition, "Chicks really dig harmonica."

Whether this be true or not, I will never know. What I do know is that people always seem to enjoy harmonica. It's like an accent that adds flavor to any piece of music being played.

After becoming as familiar with harp as I was able on my own, the next piece of advice was this: "Go listen to John Lee Hooker and learn some riffs."

On this day in history, April 11, 1961, Bob Dylan got his first major gig in New York City, as opening act for John Lee Hooker at Gerde's Folk City. Whether Gerde's made Dylan famous, or vice versa, I can't say. The moment seems to have been mutually beneficial.

Three Dylan tunes come to mind when I read about this period in Dylan's life and career. The first mournfully begins, "I was young when I left home // and I been out a-ramblin' round // but I never wrote letter to my home..."

The second, one of the two songs he wrote and recorded on his first album, was titled Talkin' New York, which gives a hilarious glimpse at Dylan's blending of observation and pointed humor. Notice, especially, all the ups and downs in the song.

Talkin’ New York 

Ramblin’ outa the wild West
Leavin’ the towns I love the best
Thought I’d seen some ups and downs
’Til I come into New York town
People goin’ down to the ground
Buildings goin’ up to the sky

Wintertime in New York town
The wind blowin’ snow around
Walk around with nowhere to go
Somebody could freeze right to the bone
I froze right to the bone
New York Times said it was the coldest winter in seventeen years
I didn’t feel so cold then

I swung onto my old guitar
Grabbed hold of a subway car
And after a rocking, reeling, rolling ride
I landed up on the downtown side
Greenwich Village

I walked down there and ended up
In one of them coffee-houses on the block
Got on the stage to sing and play
Man there said, “Come back some other day
You sound like a hillbilly
We want folk singers here”

Well, I got a harmonica job, begun to play
Blowin’ my lungs out for a dollar a day
I blowed inside out and upside down
The man there said he loved m’ sound
He was ravin’ about how he loved m’ sound
Dollar a day’s worth

And after weeks and weeks of hangin’ around
I finally got a job in New York town
In a bigger place, bigger money too
Even joined the union and paid m’ dues

Now, a very great man once said
That some people rob you with a fountain pen
It didn’t take too long to find out
Just what he was talkin’ about
A lot of people don’t have much food on their table
But they got a lot of forks ’n’ knives
And they gotta cut somethin’

So one mornin’ when the sun was warm
I rambled out of New York town
Pulled my cap down over my eyes
And headed out for the western skies
So long, New York
Howdy, East Orange

Copyright © 1962, 1965 by Duchess Music Corporation; renewed 1990, 1993 by MCA

* * * *
A third song about his journey to the East was called Hard Times in New York Town, which no doubt circulated in bootleg collections and was later released on Bootleg Series #9: The Witmark Demos, displaying his familiarity with the Big Apple, as well as the creativity and earnestness of a very young Dylan. There's a live version, also, on Rare & Unreleased.

What I get a kick out of, besides the storytelling, is how the rhythm of the lyrics fits so neatly into Flatt & Scruggs' Beverly Hillbillies theme song from the TV show, 1962-1971

Hard Times In New York Town

Come you ladies and you gentlemen, a-listen to my song
Sing it to you right, but you might think it’s wrong
Just a little glimpse of a story I’ll tell
’Bout an East Coast city that you all know well
It’s hard times in the city
Livin’ down in New York town

Old New York City is a friendly old town
From Washington Heights to Harlem on down
There’s a-mighty many people all millin’ all around
They’ll kick you when you’re up and knock you when you’re down
It’s hard times in the city
Livin’ down in New York town

It’s a mighty long ways from the Golden Gate
To Rockefeller Plaza ’n’ the Empire State.
Mister Rockefeller sets up as high as a bird
Old Mister Empire never says a word
It’s hard times from the country
Livin’ down in New York town

Well, it’s up in the mornin’ tryin’ to find a job of work
Stand in one place till your feet begin to hurt
If you got a lot o’ money you can make yourself merry
If you only got a nickel, it’s the Staten Island Ferry
And it’s hard times in the city
Livin’ down in New York town

Mister Hudson come a-sailin’ down the stream
And old Mister Minuet paid for his dream
Bought your city on a one-way track
’F I had my way I’d sell it right back
And it’s hard times in the city
Livin’ down in New York town

I’ll take all the smog in Cal-i-for-ne-ay
’N’ every bit of dust in the Oklahoma plains
’N’ the dirt in the caves of the Rocky Mountain mines
It’s all much cleaner than the New York kind
And it’s hard times in the city
Livin’ down in New York town

So all you newsy people, spread the news around
You c’n listen to m’ story, listen to m’ song
You c’n step on my name, you c’n try ’n’ get me beat
When I leave New York, I’ll be standin’ on my feet
And it’s hard times in the city
Livin’ down in New York town

Copyright © 1962, 1965 by Duchess Music Corporation; renewed 1990, 1993 by MCA

Lyrics for the songs were absconded from BobDylan.com. I believe there's a book by that name, Steal What You Love. If not, there ought to be.

Meantime, life goes on... (which is echoed in The Beatles' Ob La Di Ob La Da, which is itself of Kurt Vonnegut's refrain, "And so it goes."

And so it does.