Ruth Leon recommends… Brother Can You Spare a Dime – Yip Harburg
Ruth Leon recommendsBrother Can You Spare a Dime – Yip Harburg
This song breaks my heart every time I hear it but I was horrified to discover recently that most people under 70 have never heard it. Worse, they have never heard of the
Great depression which devastated the world’s economy between 1929 and 1939.
In 1931, at its height, there was no welfare safety net. More than 20% of all American workers were unemployed and the situation was not much better in Europe. The Depression affected virtually every country of the world but was worst in the US. Thousands starved.
That year, Yip Harburg, the man who gave you the timeless lyrics for The Wizard of Oz, wrote Brother, Can You Spare a Dime, the greatest of all the cris de coeur that emerged from that terrible time and it was recorded by, amongst others, Bing Crosby. Here is Crosby’s version of this great song, accompanied by contemporaneous photographs, lest we forget, or never think about, how lucky we are. In the 1930s, the song reminded people of what they had lost, not just a job and a society, but also their pride.
At this time when the economy is again teetering towards recession, with depression always a possibility, it is as well to remember to share what we’ve got as we embark on a New Year.
I wish us all a healthy, peaceful and sane 2024.
An economy teetering on recession. I wonder how that happened…..
It is interesting how the popular arts approached the Great Depression – serious songs like this one and books like The Grapes of Wrath. The movies dealt with it in comedies like My Man Godfrey, where rich people behave very, very badly. Or dramas like Sadie McKee, where Joan Crawford, who only has a nickel for a cup of coffee at the automat, hopes for a piece of someone’s left over pie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we0vziFsl9I
These “recommendations” are utterly obvious and worthless. How long will it be before you “recommend” another obvious, mainstream show at the Met Museum or some other tourist level thing. And please, absolutely no one here gives a toss about live theatre, read the room.
Ed Dowd is good on the impending financial collapse.
Happy new year to everyone
https://rumble.com/v1mny36-ed-dowd-covid-and-the-global-financial-collapse-a-tale-of-catastrophes-and-.html
A masterful song—in what it says and in what it leaves unsaid. And yes, it’s essential to remember and teach this history. Thank you, Ruth.
Maybe it’s not “classical music”, but it’s a great, classic song that stands way above the pornographic cRap out there today. The Depression was awful, but it did have the WPA and that put many musicians to work in orchestras all over the USA. It helped one of my mentors, the late, great Izler Solomon, his start as a conductor.
I’m in my mid-sixties. Both my parents grew up during the Depression, so I’m very familiar with what happened from their first-hand perspective.. I’ve been familiar with this song since I was a kid.
Jay Gorney, a blacklisted composer, wrote the haunting melody.
My dad used to sing that song. Thank you.
Its like you read my mind! You appear to know a lot about this, like you wrote the book in it or something. I think that you could do with some pics to drive the message home a little bit, but instead of that, this is fantastic blog. An excellent read. I will certainly be back.