Brother Can You Spare a Dime?
Brother Can You Spare a Dime: Who Wrote the Music and Lyrics?
Brother Can You Spare a Dime lyrics by E. Y. "Yip" Harburg and music by Jay Gorney (1931), here in an modern arrangement by Patricio da Silva as heard on Amazon Brother Can You Spare a Dime audio recording available as mp3 download, remains one of the best American songs of the 1930s and a living documentary about American life through the eyes of the people of the Great Depression. The iconic 1930s song, from the generation that couldn't afford a train ride on the rail road they once helped build.
"Brother Can You Spare a Dime" also sung as "Buddy, Can You Spare a Dime?" remains one of the most iconic and best known American songs during the Great Depression history, a song with lyrics meaning and reflecting life in the Great Depression period. Written in 1931 by lyricist E. Y. "Yip" Harburg and composer Jay Gorney, "Brother Can You Spare a Dime" was first performed in the 1932 musical New Americana and later popularized by the recordings of Bing Crosby and Rudy Vallee.
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| Brother Can You Spare A Dime - Original Artwork Now & Then: Music From the Great Depression (s) 2010 / 1929 |
"Brother Can You Spare A Dime" became best known through the recordings by Bing Crosby and Rudy Vallee. Both Crosby and Vallee's versions were released right before Franklin Delano Roosevelt's election to the presidency and both versions became number one hits on the charts. The Brunswick Crosby recording became the best-selling record of its period, and came to be viewed as a "depression anthem", reflecting on the shattered dreams of the era, symbolized by the rail road they once helped build that became unaffordable to them.
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| Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? on Amazon asks why the men who built the nation – built the railroads, built the skyscrapers – who fought in the war (World War I), who tilled the earth, who did what their nation asked of them should, now that the work is done and their labor no longer necessary, find themselves abandoned, in bread lines. From the album Now and Then: Music from the Great Depression (s) 2010 / 1929 by Patricio da Silva. |
Brother Can You Spare a Dime Meaning
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? - is a song about how people lived during and after the great depression in 1929 and asks why the men who built the nation – built the railroads, built the skyscrapers, who fought in the war (World War I), who tilled the earth, who did what their nation asked of them should- now that the work is done and their labor no longer necessary- find themselves abandoned amidst financial collapse, seeking a bite to eat in bread lines.
Unemployment in the U.S just before the stock market crash in 1929 was around 3.2%. Then in 1930, immediately after the stock market crash devastated the U.S. economy, the average unemployment was 8.9%. By 1932 during the Great Depression, when Bing Crosby's version of Brother Can You Spare A Dime was released, the unemployment had soared to 24.1%.
Brother Can You Spare A Dime was composed for “New Americana”, a 1931 Broadway musical. The singer embodies the average American Joe and his shattered dreams. According to lyricist E.Y. "Yip" Harburg (who also wrote the lyrics for "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"), the lyrics of Brother Can You Spare A Dime were meant to capture the confused feeling of the times:
"He's bewildered. Here is a man who had built his faith and hope in this country. then came the crash. Now he can't accept the fact that the bubble has burst. He still believes. He still has faith. He just doesn't understand what could have happened to make everything go so wrong."
Lots of people identified themselves with the character in Brother, Can You Spare A Dime.
The economy of 1932 was in the dust and dragging millions to joblessness, homelessness, starvation, and a loss of morale nationwide.
Political movements typically seen as extremists in the US such as communism and socialism as well as fascism were actually viewed sympathetically by a lot of Americans who felt that had been betrayed by the system, the Government, Wall St. and the bankers.
On October 29, 1929, the American stock market crashed. As stock prices plummeted, investors panicked and sold off their investments, driving prices even lower. Financial failures snowballed in the years that followed with many breadwinners unemployed and families that could not pay their bills. Broke, homeless, and hungry people lined the streets wherever there was a bread line to get something to eat. In western states, the “Dust Bowl”—drought, erosion, and dust storms—drove farmers from their lands.
As calamity ruled the United States, most Americans could not understand how such an economic disaster could strike everybody, including their smart, rich, mighty country.
By 1932, the U.S. found itself in tough shape with family businesses struggling to keep afloat, big companies were collapsing, banks were closing, and people were losing their jobs in record numbers. Nearly one out of four workers was unemployed. How did this happen? Throughout the 1920s—the fast-paced, get-rich-quick “Roaring Twenties”—the sky seemed the limit to most Americans. Now, that hopeful attitude was gone. People found it tough to put words to the disillusionment and fear they felt.
And this is the story behind “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” This beautiful and heartbreaking song became the symbol of one of the toughest periods in U.S. history.
Unemployment in the U.S just before the stock market crash in 1929 was around 3.2%. Then in 1930, immediately after the stock market crash devastated the U.S. economy, the average unemployment was 8.9%. By 1932 during the Great Depression, when Bing Crosby's version of Brother Can You Spare A Dime was released, the unemployment had soared to 24.1%.
Brother Can You Spare A Dime was composed for “New Americana”, a 1931 Broadway musical. The singer embodies the average American Joe and his shattered dreams. According to lyricist E.Y. "Yip" Harburg (who also wrote the lyrics for "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"), the lyrics of Brother Can You Spare A Dime were meant to capture the confused feeling of the times:
"He's bewildered. Here is a man who had built his faith and hope in this country. then came the crash. Now he can't accept the fact that the bubble has burst. He still believes. He still has faith. He just doesn't understand what could have happened to make everything go so wrong."
Lots of people identified themselves with the character in Brother, Can You Spare A Dime.
The economy of 1932 was in the dust and dragging millions to joblessness, homelessness, starvation, and a loss of morale nationwide.
Political movements typically seen as extremists in the US such as communism and socialism as well as fascism were actually viewed sympathetically by a lot of Americans who felt that had been betrayed by the system, the Government, Wall St. and the bankers.
Brother Can You Spare a Dime Analysis
On October 29, 1929, the American stock market crashed. As stock prices plummeted, investors panicked and sold off their investments, driving prices even lower. Financial failures snowballed in the years that followed with many breadwinners unemployed and families that could not pay their bills. Broke, homeless, and hungry people lined the streets wherever there was a bread line to get something to eat. In western states, the “Dust Bowl”—drought, erosion, and dust storms—drove farmers from their lands.
As calamity ruled the United States, most Americans could not understand how such an economic disaster could strike everybody, including their smart, rich, mighty country.
By 1932, the U.S. found itself in tough shape with family businesses struggling to keep afloat, big companies were collapsing, banks were closing, and people were losing their jobs in record numbers. Nearly one out of four workers was unemployed. How did this happen? Throughout the 1920s—the fast-paced, get-rich-quick “Roaring Twenties”—the sky seemed the limit to most Americans. Now, that hopeful attitude was gone. People found it tough to put words to the disillusionment and fear they felt.
And this is the story behind “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” This beautiful and heartbreaking song became the symbol of one of the toughest periods in U.S. history.
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| Brother Can You Spare A Dime - Sheet Music. Listen to Brother Can You Spare a Dime in the album Now & Then: Music From the Great Depression (s) 2010 / 1929 |
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime Lyrics
Song by Yip Harburg (lyrics) and Jay Gorney (music).
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, 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 Doodly 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?
Once in khaki suits, gee we looked swell,
Full of that Yankee Doodly 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.
Say, don't you remember, I'm your pal? Buddy, can you spare a dime?
Brother Can You Spare a Dime mp3
Download Brother Can You Spare a Dime mp3 it on Itunes and Amazon: Brother Can You Spare a Dime download.
Famous Great Depression Songs
From the same of album with music and musical arrangements by Patricio da Silva, Foxtrot Music from 1929, Fairy on the Clock:More about Great Depression Music:
www.thesoundstew.com/2011/08/now-then-music-from-great-depression-s.html
