"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
“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…).
Ghostface Killah - “All That I Got Is You”-
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…”
“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"*
“Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes-Benz?”
Workin At The Car Wash Blues, by Jim Croce
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
Si Kahn has done some great ones. “Aragon Mill” and “Home,” particularly, come to mind.
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.
"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
On the other hand, you might meet an Indian chief and the boss doesn’t mind it you act a fool.
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.
Fancy, as performed by Reba McEntire, was pretty graphic.
Loan Me A Dime by Boz Scaggs
Atlantic City by Bruce Springsteen
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 …
That’s a Fenton Robinson tune.
There’s always the Stephen Foster classic, Hard Times Come Again No More
“Rich Kind of Poverty” – Sam and Dave
“Earn Enough for Us” – XTC
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. 