The song was written in 1930, but this revue made it the song of the Great Depression, especially after Bing Crosby recorded it within days. Ironically, Crosby was a Republican, but his recording, along with everything else to do with the Depression, sent the Republican incumbent President, Herbert Hoover, down to a phenomenally large defeat, electing the Democratic nominee, Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York.
In the lyrics, the singer tells of having worked on a railroad and on building a skyscraper, and having served his country in World War I, just 14 years earlier. Now, he can't get work anywhere, and the country wants nothing to do with him:
They used to tell me
I was building a dream.
And so I followed the mob.
When there was earth to plow
or guns to bear
I was always there, right on the job.
They used to tell me
I was building a dream
with peace and glory ahead.
Why should I be standing in line
just waiting for bread?
Once, I built a railroad.
I made it run.
Made it race against time.
Once, I built a railroad.
Now, it's done.
Brother, can you spare a dime?
Once, I built a tower
up to the Sun
out of brick and rivets 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-y dum.
Half a million boots
went slogging through Hell
and I was the kid with the drum.
Say, don't you remember?
They called me "Al."
It was "Al," all the time.
Why don't you remember?
I'm your pal?
Buddy, can you spare a dime?
The front and back of a Mercury dime,
which were minted from 1916 to 1945,
before the adoption of the Roosevelt dime.
If you can find one in good condition today,
a coin dealer might pay $3.00.
Harburg also wrote the lyrics for "April in Paris," "It's Only a Paper Moon," and all of the songs for The Wizard of Oz, including "Over the Rainbow." In 1974, he was asked to update the tune for that year of Watergate and "stagflationary" recession, and he did:
Once we had a Roosevelt.
Praise the Lord!
Life had meaning and hope.
Now, we're stuck with Nixon
Agnew and Ford.
Brother, can you spare a rope?
Whether he wanted to hang himself or them, he didn't say. He lived until 1981, age 86. Gorney lived until 1990, age 93.
In 2020, I wrote this, because Donald Trump made so many of us sick to our stomachs:
Once we had a Roosevelt.
Once a Kennedy.
Uplifted me and my chums.
What have we got now?
Trump's GOP.
The people who lived through the Great Depression are now either dead, or very old. They were the "forgotten man" and woman of their age. As my mother once pointed out to me, there were no support groups for survivors of the Depression, like her parents. There is no memorial specifically for them on the National Mall in Washington, although the FDR Memorial includes a tribute to them. They had their songs, and their movies, rather than tangible tributes.
We dare not forget them now. We have had hard recessions in 1973-76, 1980-83, 1990-93, 2001-03, 2007-10 and 2020-21. But not another Depression, because of the safeguards we put into place in the 1930s. If we fail to support these safeguards, then everything those people suffered through, and everything those who worked to help them did to do so, will have been in vain.
*
October 5, 1932 was a Wednesday. The baseball season ended 3 days earlier, when the New York Yankees completed a 4-game sweep over the Chicago Cubs. Football was in midweek. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And the NHL season didn't start until November 10. So there were no scores on this historic day.
No comments:
Post a Comment