I heard this on the radio today and had to look it up on Spotify. You can hear it on YouTube.


IN THE FALL OF '29
As sung by W Lee O'Daniel & His Light Crust Doughboys, 1933.

1. "Why, hello there, mister iceman. Where have I seen your face?"
"Please don't try to tease me, mister, just because I lost the race.
I was once a great big banker worth a million for a time,
But I lost the whole kaboodle in the fall of twenty-nine."

CHORUS: In the fall of twenty-nine, in the fall of twenty-nine,
That's when we started sliding: in the fall of twenty-nine.
'Twas the fall of fifty-fifty: you lost yours and I lost mine,
But it made us all more human since the fall of twenty-nine.

2. "Hey there, mister taxi driver. Where have I seen you before?"
"Listen, buddy; I'm the fella who had stocks and bonds galore.
My office was on Wall Street; ev'rything was going fine,
But my stocks and bonds all vanished in the fall of twenty-nine." CHORUS

3. "Hey there, mister apple vendor, with that old familiar toot."
"Gee whiz, you do remember I'm the guy who played the flute.
I was making lots of money; the way I spent it was a crime,
But my income stopped completely in the fall of twenty-nine." CHORUS

4. Who's that ringing our front doorbell? She has magazines to sell.
Well, wouldn't that surprise you! If it isn't missus swell.
She used to lead the whole Four Hundred, had twelve servants all the time,
But it seems she got a setback in the fall of twenty-nine. CHORUS

5. There were folks in high-up places before the fall of twenty-nine,
But now you find their faces in that good old free-bread line.
We thought we were intelligent before that fateful fall,
But now we've come to realize we didn't know it all. CHORUS


[Interesting that the songwriter calls it a "fall of 50/50" implying, I suppose, that it affected rich people and poor people equally. How different that is from our recent recession! Have you heard of any bankers who became delivery people, or stock brokers who became taxi drivers?]