BANK FAILURES
As recorded by Bob Miller on the various-artists album "Power to the People" (2009).

1. We pay taxes for good roads, pay taxes on our schools:
Taxes for this, taxes for that, then workin' harder than mules.
By skippin' we saved a few dollars, put 'em in a big bank vault,
Somethin' is wrong 'cause that money is gone and it certainly isn't our fault.

CHORUS: If you play in water, you're bound to get wet.
What's the use o' workin' if we stay in debt?
We gotta break our backs and continue payin' tax.
Good people, we're a bloat upset.^[1]

2. Just why our money went bye-bye, nobody seems to explain.
Times are hard; ain't it a shame? We gotta pay those taxes again.
Our clothes are slouchy and ragged; our hearts are burdened with care.
The failure of the national banks is nearly more than we can bear. CHORUS

3. If banks ain't safe for us people, why then allow 'em to run?
Big iron vaults can't open themselves^[2]; folks, somethin's gotta be done.
Our hard-earned money's gone bye-bye, gone in that big bank crash.
We're in a mess, folks, a terrible mess; can't get credit, and^[3] we ain't got cash. CHORUS


*
Rob Heron and the Tea Pad Orchestra also sang the above song on "Money Isn't Everything" (2012), with some variations noted below:
1. "bloat upset" - this is from quotations I found online. It sounded to me like "blowed-up set" when Miller sang it, and like "load upset" when Heron sang it. None of these expressions is familiar to me.
2. "Big iron vaults can't open themselves" - Heron sings: "Big iron balls could break down those walls".
3. "can't get credit, and" - Heron sings: "we've got credit but".

A song with this title was recorded in 1931 by Bob Ferguson and his Scalawaggers, but I haven't heard that recording and I can't verify it's the same song. There is a recording on YouTube that purports to be by Ferguson, but it sounds the same as the Miller recording I heard on Spotify, and the sound quality sounds too good for 1931.