# Songs about poverty
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-poverty/358126
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [May 25, 2006, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-poverty/358126 "2006-05-25T02:54:55Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2006, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-poverty/358126/41 "2006-05-25T13:36:12Z")
**"Somethin’ Else" - Eddie Cochran**
_Hey, look a-there- across the street
There’s a car made just for me
To own that car would be a luxury
But my dollar can’t afford the gas
A brand new convertible is outa my class
But that can’t stop me from thinkin’ to myself:
That car’s fine lookin’ man, (wow) it’s something else_
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### Author:  [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2006, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-poverty/358126/42 "2006-05-25T13:50:18Z")
“Rag Doll” The Four Seasons
“Red Dirt Girl” Emmylou Harris
I guess there’s a different between poverty songs (living on the streets down to the last dime) and working poor songs. Plenty of Springsteen’s songs fit the latter category (Factory, Used Car…).
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### Author:  [@shefDave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shefDave)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2006, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-poverty/358126/43 "2006-05-25T13:55:35Z")
**Ghostface Killah** - _“All That I Got Is You”_-
> [@](#):
>
> Fifteen of us in a three-bedroom apartment
> Roaches everywhere, cousins and aunts was there
> Four in the bed, two at the foot, two at the head
> I didn’t like to sleep with Jon-Jon he peed the bed
> _[…]_
> In the summer, free lunch held us down like steel
> And there was days I had to go to Tex’ house with a note
> Stating, “Gloria, can I borrow some food? I’m dead broke”
> So embarrasin’, I couldn’t stand to knock on they door
> My friends might be laughin’, I spent stamps in stores
> Mommy where’s the toilet paper? Use the newspaper
> Look Ms. Rose gave us a couch, she’s the neighbor
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### Author:  [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2006, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-poverty/358126/44 "2006-05-25T14:11:49Z")
HA! I don’t see myself “singing” Ghostface Killah in the shower, but I do appreciate the suggestion.
These are awesome, people – thank you! There are so many good songs here that I’m going to have start taking baths.
“I’m proud to be a coal miner’s daughter…”
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### Author:  [@Plynck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plynck)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2006, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-poverty/358126/45 "2006-05-25T14:31:20Z")
“Poor Man’s House” by Patty Griffin:
\*"You know you’ve done enough when every bone is sore
You know you’ve prayed enough when you don’t ask any more
You know you’re coming to some kind of understanding
When every dream you’ve dreamed has passed and you’re still standing
Mama says god tends to every little skinny sheep
So count your ribs and say your prayers and get to sleep
Nothing is louder to god’s ears than a poor mans sorrow
Daddy is poor today and he will be poor tomorrow"\*
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### Author:  [@Millit\_the\_Frail](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Millit_the_Frail)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2006, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-poverty/358126/46 "2006-05-25T14:33:40Z")
“Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes-Benz?”
😉
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### Author:  [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2006, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-poverty/358126/47 "2006-05-25T14:36:38Z")
_Workin At The Car Wash Blues_, by Jim Croce
> [@](#):
>
> Well, I should be sittin’ in an air conditioned office in a swivel chair
> Talkin’ some trash to the secretaries
> Sayin’, Here, now mam-ma, come on over here.
> Instead, I’m stuck here rubbin’ these fenders with a rag
> And walkin’ home in soggy old shoes
> With them steadily depressin’, low down mind messin’
> Workin’ at the car wash blues
---
### Author:  [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2006, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-poverty/358126/48 "2006-05-25T14:47:19Z")
**Hard Times**
Stephen C. Foster, 1854
Tis the song, the sigh of the weary,
Hard times, hard times,
Come again no more
Many days you have lingered
Around my cabin door;
Oh hard times come again no more.
[http://ingeb.org/songs/letuspau.html](http://ingeb.org/songs/letuspau.html)
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### Author:  [@kelly5078](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kelly5078)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2006, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-poverty/358126/49 "2006-05-25T15:49:22Z")
**Si Kahn** has done some great ones. “Aragon Mill” and “Home,” particularly, come to mind.
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### Author:  [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2006, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-poverty/358126/50 "2006-05-25T16:59:58Z")
> [@Thudlow Boink](#):
>
> **stockton** , I believe the song title is **M. T. A.** (For those familiar with the song: what always used to bug me about it was, if Charlie’s wife could hand him a sandwich, why couldn’t she hand him a nickel?)
Technically, the song’s title is “Charlie on the MTA”, and even though the Kingston Trio made the song famous, they didn’t create it…just covered it. It was originally a campaign song of Walter O’Brian’s. O’Brian ran in 1949 as the Progressive candidate for mayor of Boston, and one of his campaign promises was to lower and standardize subway fares.
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### Author:  [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2006, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-poverty/358126/51 "2006-05-25T17:53:34Z")
**"Duncan" - Paul Simon:**
_Holes in my confidence
holes in the knees of my jeans
I was left without a penny in my pocket
Oo-ooo-wee I was about as
destituted as a kid could be
And I wished I wore a ring
so I could hock it
I’d like to hock it_
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### Author:  [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2006, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-poverty/358126/52 "2006-05-25T18:40:40Z")
> [@Fear Itself](#):
>
> _Workin At The Car Wash Blues_, by Jim Croce
On the other hand, you might meet an Indian chief and the boss doesn’t mind it you act a fool.
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### Author:  [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2006, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-poverty/358126/53 "2006-05-25T18:46:52Z")
The canon of hip-hop offers a ton of examples. None of which come to mind right now, unfortunately.
Maybe Tupac’s “Brenda’s Got a Baby?”
I think rappers like Mos Def and Common would probably have a ton of lyrics on this topic.
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### Author:  [@Ragiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ragiel)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2006, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-poverty/358126/54 "2006-05-26T22:14:25Z")
_Fancy_, as performed by Reba McEntire, was pretty graphic.
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### Author:  [@Sassy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sassy)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2006, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-poverty/358126/55 "2006-05-28T22:51:01Z")
[Loan Me A Dime](http://www.lyricskeeper.com/boz_scaggs-lyrics/205169-somebody_loan_me_a_dime-lyrics.htm) by Boz Scaggs
[Atlantic City](http://www.brucespringsteen.net/songs/AtlanticCity.html) by Bruce Springsteen
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### Author:  [@Subterraneanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Subterraneanus)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2006, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-poverty/358126/56 "2006-05-29T00:25:08Z")
_I read the news today, oh boy
Four-thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire
And though the holes were rather small
They had to count them all
Now they know how many holes it takes to fill Albert Hall …_
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### Author:  [@Subterraneanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Subterraneanus)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2006, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-poverty/358126/57 "2006-05-29T01:15:54Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Loan Me A Dime by Boz Scaggs
That’s a Fenton Robinson tune.
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### Author:  [@zagloba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zagloba)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2006, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-poverty/358126/58 "2006-05-29T02:00:53Z")
There’s always the Stephen Foster classic, [Hard Times Come Again No More](http://ingeb.org/songs/letuspau.html)
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### Author:  [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2006, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-poverty/358126/59 "2006-05-29T03:00:17Z")
“Rich Kind of Poverty” – Sam and Dave
“Earn Enough for Us” – XTC
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### Author:  [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2006, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-poverty/358126/60 "2006-05-29T07:31:14Z")
> [@Subterraneanus](#):
>
> _I read the news today, oh boy
> Four-thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire
> And though the holes were rather small
> They had to count them all
> Now they know how many holes it takes to fill Albert Hall …_
I may be a bit slow , but what as this do do with poverty? I believe this song was inspired by a news item about the number of potholes in the roads of Blackburn. Bad road maintenance yes , poverty no. 😕
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