I refuse to take up this challenge unless you post the lyrics.
edit- and what happens if I can top it with a Phil Collins lyric?
Tracy Chapman's 'Fast Car' is a pretty good example of a bluesy popular song.
Actually, I'm going to have to give the idea of songs that express poverty some thought. I'll sleep on it. I don't know if anyone has written a song about it but I know in Haiti food gets so short that some people make cakes using mostly a particular variety of dirt that has some minimal nutritional and hunger staving powers.
Last Edited by on Dec 15, 2009 11:14 PM
If you read the lyrics you can't imagine what the song sounds like. Unfortunately, this is incomplete: http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/1396371/a/Sign+Of+The+Times.htm ---------- Kinda hot in these rhinos!
Woke up this afternoon, saw both cars were gone / And I felt so low down deep inside / I threw my drink across the lawn. ---------- Kinda hot in these rhinos!
Billie "Lady Day" Holiday is the best example for me.
Them that's got shall get Them that's not shall lose So the Bible said and it still is news Mama may have, Papa may have But God bless the child that's got his own That's got his own
Yes, the strong gets more While the weak ones fade Empty pockets don't ever make the grade Mama may have, Papa may have But God bless the child that's got his own That's got his own
Money, you've got lots of friends Crowding round the door When you're gone, spending ends They don't come no more Rich relations give Crust of bread and such You can help yourself But don't take too much Mama may have, Papa may have But God bless the child that's got his own That's got his own
Mama may have, Papa may have But God bless the child that's got his own That's got his own He just worry 'bout nothin' Cause he's got his own
I don't like it. To me it sounds like mush mouth, english, Bum rap / beat poetry, I'm sure it has a deep meaning and is loved by many but the guys voice ruined it for me. To me a good blues song has to be enjoyable to listen to. And blues is not all about poverty. The blues singers never just talk about poverty the whole song through. Its not a song, just a poem. Its not my taste. Sorry, i don't mean to offend anyone.
Last Edited by on Dec 16, 2009 1:05 AM
I know I shouldn't bite :-) but I just can't help myself on this one.
The song is about those who have money and those who don't and how lack of money makes people suffer and become second class citizens. Therefore by definition it is a song about relative poverty. Which is the kind of poverty we in the Western world experience.
Obviously it's not the same as absolute poverty like that experienced by the people in Africa, where even getting water is a huge problem. It is however still poverty.
I'm going to guess that you have never lived in truly abject poverty.
Having done so myself on numerous occasions and having lived on the streets for a number of years. I have an acute knowledge of poverty and of being in the situation where you have no option but to beg for money to buy food and have to sleep in doorways or under bridges, etc.
I can assure you that getting money for the most basic needs is the uppermost thought in your mind everyday when you are in that situation.
Fortunately I was lucky enough thanks to the kindness of a wonderful human being who has sadly passed away to eventually get off the streets.
Some others are not so lucky and not a day goes by that I don't think about them and wish I could help them too.
Last Edited by on Dec 16, 2009 2:38 AM
Nope, haven't experienced that. i guess that's why i can't relate to it. but i do think about getting money every day and losing our house because we cant pay the mortgage/taxes and not being able to find a job and not having money for food/bills ....... we all experience poverty in different degrees. this song just failed to speak to me. I'm glad that you can appreciate though.
"I ain't got no home, I'm just a-roamin' 'round, Just a wandrin' worker, I go from town to town. And the police make it hard wherever I may go And I ain't got no home in this world anymore.
My brothers and my sisters are stranded on this road, A hot and dusty road that a million feet have trod; Rich man took my home and drove me from my door And I ain't got no home in this world anymore.
Was a-farmin' on the shares, and always I was poor; My crops I lay into the banker's store. My wife took down and died upon the cabin floor, And I ain't got no home in this world anymore.
I mined in your mines and I gathered in your corn I been working, mister, since the day I was born Now I worry all the time like I never did before 'Cause I ain't got no home in this world anymore
Now as I look around, it's mighty plain to see This world is such a great and a funny place to be; Oh, the gamblin' man is rich an' the workin' man is poor, And I ain't got no home in this world anymore." Woody Guthrie
"Ain't got no home, ain't got no shoes Ain't got no money, ain't got no class Ain't got no skirts, ain't got no sweater Ain't got no perfume, ain't got no beer Ain't got no man
Ain't got no mother, ain't got no culture Ain't got no friends, ain't got no schooling Ain't got no love, ain't got no name Ain't got no ticket, ain't got no token Ain't got no God
What about God? Why am I alive anyway? Yeah, what about God? Nobody can take away
I got my hair, I got my head I got my brains, I got my ears I got my eyes, I got my nose I got my mouth, I got my smile I got my tongue, I got my chin I got my neck, I got my boobs
I got my heart, I got my soul I got my back, I got my sex I got my arms, I got my hands I got my fingers, Got my legs I got my feet, I got my toes I got my liver, Got my blood
I've got life , I've got my freedom I've got the life
And I'm gonna keep it I've got the life And nobody's gonna take it away I've got the life" Nina Simone
Last Edited by on Dec 16, 2009 3:11 AM
definitions in poetry. do they exist. I don't know about English poverty. i cant know what i haven't experienced. like any abstract art, the meaning behind a poem and the feelings they conjure up are different for everybody.
The poorest I ever was at least I had a car to sleep in.
My mother is a huge fan of the Woodie Guthrie, Pete Seeger crowd. I got to see Pete in concert as a kid. I know Billy Joel is probably considered cliche, but Allentown and Down Easter both do a decent job at expressing that kind of poverty that occurs with industrial decline.
I've tried to write about what it's like to be poor, but although I'm still not rich I have a roof over my head and I just try to blot out the period where I didn't know where I was going to sleep from night to night. In truth, there were usually options, some friend who would trade you part of your friendship for putting a roof over your head, even if it strained the friendship. The worst time I had was living in a single room in a cockroach infested flop motel for $50 a week. I had a little cube refrigerator, a sink, and for $5 more a week a TV that picked up the local channels. Across the hall was a common bathroom. Actually it wouldn't have been all that bad except I wasn't living a couple hundred miles from the nearest friends or family. I usually had something to eat but I did lose a lot of weight in the few months I was there.
Well, I'm off to my folks for 3 weeks, so I'll be off the air for Christmas. Have a merry one y'all. I'd been thinking a lot about issues raised by this thread, but there's no time to discuss them. In theory poverty is what the poor have, but poverty is defined objectively by socio-economists and social-statisticians, and to say you're poor is nowadays more of a subjective thing and doesn't described your poverty. Then there's temporarily poor and there's the more insidious inherited poor. Coyne's song is influenced by Northern traditional song, but also by Northern children's skipping-rope songs, because it's a song about a child. I was wondering what classes of poor have a voice and which don't. Usually it's the children who don't have a voice. But since various poor regions (usually rural?) have their traditional music, maybe they have a voice of sorts, it just stays local. Blues was just one of many local voices but it spread over the world. That might not mean a lot by itself: McDonalds spread all over the world. Maybe the urban poor have the weakest voice, but even that may have changed since Punk. ---------- Kinda hot in these rhinos!
