Songs about money ($$$$$$$$$$)

Subject: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: mactheturk
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 07:54 AM

[Many song titles in this thread have been converted to links by a Mudelf.]

As any good folksinger knows, we measure our success by the degree we are enjoying peace, health and love..

As I turn 50, however, I occasionally consider those limited resources of time and MONEY!!!!

I'm I alone here? There are a lot of songs dealing with this topic. What are some of your favorites??

Mac

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 08:15 AM

Greenback Dollar of course!
RtS

Subject: Lyr Add: IF I DIDN'T HAVE A DIME (from Gene Pitney
From: Allan C.
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 08:16 AM

Well, if you want the truth, one of my all-time favorites was:

IF I DIDN'T HAVE A DIME
(B.Russell/P.Medley)
As recorded by Gene Pitney, 1962.

If I didn't have a dime,
And I didn't take the time
To play the jukebox
Whoa-o-o Saturday night
Would have been a sad and lonely night
For me.

And if you weren't standing there
Ruby lips and golden hair,
Beside the jukebox
Whoa-o-o I'd have lost my chance
To hold you while you danced
With me, umm hum

While the records turned and turned
We danced and learned,
Our hearts had yearned
For this.
Neath the moon we walked
And walked and talked
Of love, and then...we kissed

Now with every sweet caress
Oh my darlin' how I blessed
That little juke box.
Whoa-o-o love songs that they sing
Wouldn't mean a single thing
Even though you're standing there
Ruby lips and golden hair
If I didn't have a dime
And I didn't take the time
To play the jukebox...

repeat above verse

Second to that would be "Me and My Uncle."

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: Wesley S
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 09:08 AM

Brother Can You Spare a Dime?

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: Gary T
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 09:27 AM

Little Richard did it, and it was the theme song to the movie "Dollars". I'm not sure of the title--might be "Money, Money, Money" or "Money's on My Mind" or "Dollars" or "Theme From Dollars"........

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: SINSULL
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 09:40 AM

"Money Makes the World Go Round" (Cabaret)

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 09:49 AM

Well, if we're moving away from folk there's

the R&B number "Money (That's What I Want)" covered by the Beatles.

Abba did one called "Money, Money, Money", I think.

"Sing a Song of Sixpence",

"Pennies from Heaven",

"Ten Cents a Dance",

"Five Pennies" ...
RtS

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: Mbo
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 10:10 AM

Hoo wa! I LOVE "You Owe Me Money" by The Bad Examples! And "Money" by Pink Floyd.

--Matt (Money...it's a HIT!)

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: Jacob B
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 10:15 AM

You Never Give Me Your Money, from the Beatle's Abbey Road album.

Out of college
Money spent
See no future
Pay no rent
All the money's gone
Nowhere to go

Every job I got the sack
Monday morning, turning back
Yellow lorries slow
Nowhere to go

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: Mbo
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 10:19 AM

Dang I was gonna say that one, Jacob! I was just singing that song yesterday (no pun intended). Love it!

--Matt (1234567 all good children go to heaven)

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: Bert
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 10:21 AM

I've got sixpence

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: reggie miles
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 10:25 AM

Willie Dixon's "Dead Presidents" is one I've enjoyed and Blind Willie McTell's "Last Dime Blues" is another of my favorites. Maybe because I've been there so often, (down to my last dime or just plain broke), these songs seem to ring a special chord in me. I've always enjoyed performing them.

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: Mark Clark
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 11:12 AM

The blues are full of great references to money. Junior Wells used to sing:

People come and ask me, how does a poor man do,
Sews patches on his clothes, stuffs newspapers down in his shoes.

And Brownie McGhee's "Pawn Shop Blues":

I asked the pawn shop man, what are those three balls doin' on the wall,
He said I'll bet you two to one buddy, you don't get your stuff outta here at all.

Pete Seeger used to sing:

Times are gettin' hard boys, money's gettin' scarce,
Times don't get no better boys, I'm bound to leave this place,
I'll take my true love by the hand, and lead her through the town,
Sayin' goodbye to every one, goodbye to everyone.

Hoyt Axton: "Greenback Dollar."

Woody Guthrie: "Do Re Mi."

Eleven Cent Cotton and Forty Cent Meat

Too Old To Work (And Too Young To Die)

Pay Day At Coal Creek

Money Honey

Rip It Up ["I'm a fool about my money, don't try to save..."]

Ten Cents a Dance

Boy this could become a long thread.

- Mark

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: Barbara
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 11:46 AM

Malvina Reynolds's Magic Penny and Money Crop

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: Stricks
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 12:13 PM

I like the classic, "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out", as performed by various artists from Bessie Smith to Eric Clapton.

"if I ever get my hands on a dollar again,
I'm gonna squeeze it and squeeze it 'til the old eagle grins..."

I also like the more obscure "Money Talks" by Jason and the Scorchers.

"if money talks, why don't it speak to me,
I need the conversation it's plain to see..."

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: Catrin
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 12:21 PM

[WAITING FOR A TRAIN]

I haven't got a Nickel
Not a penny can I show
Get off, get off, you railroad bum
And close the boxcar door

(or something like that)

Catrin (I can hear the tune though, in my head)

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 12:44 PM

THINGS ABOUT COMIN' MY WAY:

Ain't got no money,
Can't buy no grub,
Backbone and navel
Doin' the belly-rub.
Now, after all my hard travellin',
Things about comin' my way.

DONE LAID AROUND: (and others)

Lost all my money but a two-dollar bill,
Two dollar-bill, Lord, a two-dollar bill.
Lost all my money but a two-dollar bill,
Now I'm on my long journey home.

BUSTED by Harlan Howard (sung by Johnny Cash, et al):

My bills are all due and the baby needs shoes,
And I'm busted.
Cotton is down to a quarter a pound,
And I'm busted.
I've got a cow that went dry,And a hen that won't lay,
And a big stack of bills, Gettin' bigger each day.
Tomorrow they'll haul my belongin's away,
'Cause I'm busted.

FOUR PENCE A DAY:

The ore is waiting in the tubs, The snow's upon the fell.
Canny folk are sleeping yet, But lead is reet to sell.
Come, my little washer-laddie, Come, let's away,
We're bound down to slavery For four pence a day!

TEN AND NINE by Mary Brookbank:

Oh, dear me, the mill is running fast,
And we poor shifters cannae get no rest.
Shiftin' bobbins, coarse and fine,
They fairly mak' you work For your ten and nine.

Sandy (rushing off -- more later...)

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: Gary T
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 01:03 PM

Catrin, I believe those lines are from "Waiting For a Train", by Jimmie Rodgers. First line goes "All along the water tower, waiting for a train" or something like that.

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 01:31 PM

It makes no diff'rence where you are
Get the mo--o--oney!
It makes no diff'rence where you are
Mah ho--o--oney!
A nickel is a nickel, and a dime is a dime;
A dollar is a dollar most any old time
It makes no diff'rence where you are
Get the mo--o--o--oney!

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: Allan C.
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 02:32 PM

Another major favorite of mine is "Seven Daffodils":

I haven't got a fortune to buy you pretty things
But I can give you moonbeams for necklaces and rings
And I can show you morning upon a thousand hills
And kiss you and give you seven daffodils.

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: Hardiman the Fiddler
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 03:28 PM

I personally like, "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out," as was mentioned above, but my second favorite has not yet been mentioned. It is usually played every April 15th "The Taxman" as done by the Beatles.

My third current favorite about money is "Manage the Miser." "Manage the Miser" is found in English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish Fiddle Tunes by Robin Williamson (Oak Publications) A lugubrious tune from Playford, it captures exactly how I feel when I pay the bills each month.

There's a great quote from "The Portrait of Usury," by Thomas Lodge: "The chiefest ornament of his face is that his nose sticks in the midst like an ornament in terrace work, here and there embellished and decked with verucae for want of purging with agaric. His mouth is always mumbling as if he were at his matins, and his beard is bristled like a sow that had the lousy, and over his throat there hangs a bunch of skin like a money bag.

Well said, Thomas Lodge!

Hardiman

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: Giac
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 03:48 PM

Five Penny Nickel, by Tompall and the Glasers.

In fairness, though, I'm not sure it was ever in general circulation. A college roommate, who had "gone with" one of the brothers, had the 45 rpm record and played it -- a lot. Think it was on country singer Marty Robbins's "Robin" label, but wouldn't swear to it. I did grow to like it and can only remember one verse, or maybe it was the chorus:

Got a five-penny nickle with a hole in the middle,
And a one bus fair uptown,
Got an ache in my heart and I don't know where to start
'Cause my good gal let me down.

Maybe you had to hear it to appreciate it. There were some good minor chords (or one) and as a 17-year-old would-be folksinger, I was duly impressed.

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: Jacob B
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 04:02 PM

I don't know if the following is accurate or not, but I read it once:

The biggest hit song of 1929, right before the Great Depression, was By The Sea. It contains the line, "Ma is rich, Pa is rich, so now what do we care."

The next year, the big hit was a song called I've Got Five Dollars.

The next year, the big hit was Buddy, Can You Spare a Dime.

And the year after that, the big hit was I've Got Plenty of Nothing.

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 06:06 PM

James Taylor's...."Money Machine"

...took a strong hit, from the money machine...

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: GUEST,Mickey191
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 07:21 PM

You had plenty money -1922
you let other women make a fool of you.
Why don't you do right? like some other men do?
Get out of here, and get me some money too.
You're sittin' 'round wond'rin' what it's all about
and all you've got to offer is a drink of stout
why don't you do right like some other men do?

By The Great : Miss PEGGY LEE,

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: Yo
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 07:48 PM

I've seen some good ones here. I'd like to add :

-How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live? (Alfred Reed)

-Pay Bo Diddley

-People sure act funny (when they get their hands on the money)

All performed by David Lindley.

Yo.

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: Mickey191
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 07:52 PM

like some other men do -get out of here and get me some money too. I forgot the last line till i saw it posted.

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: ddw
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 08:11 PM

A couple nobody's mentioned — Dylan's Ballad of Hollis Brown, which is more about lack of money than money itself, and One Meat Ball — the best version of which, IMHO, is done by Josh White.

david

Oh, and Simon & Garfunkel's Richard Cory, even if it is more about happiness than having lots of coin.

ddw

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: bflat
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 08:16 PM

Got a lot of Money. Not some rich ----. Got no happiness. Money stinks. Would rather laught. Would rather be just happy!Sad isn't it?

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: GUEST,Rich(stupidbodhranplayerwhodoesn'tknowbetter
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 09:57 PM

Keller Williams has a song called Stinky Green

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: GUEST,Gene
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 11:37 PM

(Love makes the world go round, but) MONEY GREASES THE WHEEL/Ferlin Husky

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: Bill D
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 11:44 PM

Coulter's Candy has money all thru it...pennies & bawbees.

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: mactheturk
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 11:48 PM

"It's Money That Matters", by Randy Newman

"Never Enough", by David Wilcox

"Payday Blues", Dan Hicks

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: GUEST,Barry Finn
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 11:55 PM

[The Coast of Peru]
"All you who'd want money, I'd have you to go
Off the coast of Peru where the whalefish do blow"

[Wings of a Gull]
"We've slaved away for 4 years of our lives
And earned bout 3 lb 10".

[Pay Me My Money Down]
"Pay me, pay me, pay me my money down"
"Your money young man is no object to me,
Pay me the money down"

Ok I'll pass the buck. Barry

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: rangeroger
Date: 02 Aug 00 - 12:19 AM

Already mentioned; Woody Guthrie's Do Re Mi

"Money for Nothing" Dire Straits

rr

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: GUEST,franz
Date: 02 Aug 00 - 04:43 AM

I kinda like Tom Paxton's "I'm Changing My Name to Chrysler" from Pete and Arlo's "Together Again".

Also "Green Stuff" by the Blues Band.

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: Giac
Date: 02 Aug 00 - 05:58 AM

For more about money, apparently by a blues fan, see this site:

clicky

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: John Hindsill
Date: 02 Aug 00 - 10:17 AM

There is a calypso song, "Mister, Pay Me Me Rent"

Clyde McPhatter & Drifters, "Money Honey (If You Want to Get Along With Me)"

In the early '50s there was a hip song, a sort of talking blues, which used most of the known slang words for money. The last line of each stanza was, "Give me money, money, money, money, money." I believe Phil Harris may have been one of the recorders of the song. ["Money"]

But the all time best songs about money and acquisitiveness belong to Eartha Kitt, "Santa Baby" and "C'est Si Bon".

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler
Date: 02 Aug 00 - 10:39 AM

John, that Phil Harris reference rings faint bells in my CRS-infected head, I think I remember hearing it as well. I've just looked at the tracks on the Phil Harris CDs available on Amazon and All-Music Guide and don't recognise it there (the Possum Song is there though!). Anyone else remember it?
RtS

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: Bert
Date: 02 Aug 00 - 01:06 PM

Ah yes John, Eartha Kitt! She also did 'Old Fashioned Millionaire' ["Just an Old-Fashioned Girl"]

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 02 Aug 00 - 01:55 PM

Didn't Belafonte (among others) sing:

["I'm Just a Country Boy"]
I am a poor country boy;
Money have I none.
But there's silver in the stars,
And gold in the morning sun, sun,
Gold in the morning sun.

A verse from a roustabout song ["Rowdy Soul"] in Wheeler's book:

Come here, dog, and get your bone.
Tell me which shoulder you want it on.
A penny off and a penny on;
One more load and I'll be gone!

One verse in "Stay on the Farm" says:

You may talk of the mines of Australia;
They're loaded with gold, without doubt.
But there's plenty of gold on the farm, boys,
If only you'll shovel it out!

From Jean Thomas' Ballad Makin' in Kentucky ["Push Boat"]:

Workin' on a push boat,
Fifty cents a day;
I buy a dress for Cynthie Jane,
Drink the rest away.

Here's the second verse of "Where the Ghost River Flows:"

When I started to farm, my friends declared, "Pete,
You're bound to get rich, if you stick to the wheat.
You can see for yourself the riding is done;
The farm is the place where the dollars are won."
Many years I have farmed, but now, at life's close,
Let me ride in the hills where the Ghost River flows.

George Korson collected this one from David Morrison (aged 81) at Finlayville, Pennsylvania: ["Two-Cant Coal"]

Oh, the bosses' tricks of '76
They met with some success,
Until the hand of God came down
And made them do with less.
They robbed the honest miner lad
And drunk his flowin' bowl,
Through poverty we were compelled
To dig them two-cent coal.

"Waters of Tyne" includes this verse:

Oh, where is the boatman? I'll pay any money,
And you, for your trouble, rewarded shall be,
If you'll ferry me over the Tyne to my honey,
And I will remember the boatman and thee.

Frank Proffitt sang:

Farewell to hoeing in the corn,
Goodbye to cutting hay.
I'd rather go and make my dough
On the W. P. and A.

More later.

Sandy

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: GUEST,Ketil
Date: 02 Aug 00 - 09:16 PM

Looking for Money

Hard luck Willie, grabbed his axe
Went up on the porch and started to hack
He chopped up the porch and he chopped up the steps
Sayin' money, oh, money I'll find you yet

I'm lookin' for money, I'm lookin' for money
I'm lookin' for money but I can't find none nowhere

there is more but I can't remember it ;) Off a Rounder collection, I think by The Chicken Chokers

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: John Hindsill
Date: 03 Aug 00 - 12:18 AM

A few of more: "My Name Is Morgan but It Ain't J.P." - Chad Mitchell Trio, NLCR, others with reference to NOT being J.P. (not Jaye P) Morgan.
"Three Coins in the Fountain"
"The Dollar & the Pound", a calypso
"Matilda, Matilda" - 'She took me money and run Venezuela.'
"Salvation Army Song" - 'Put a nickel on the drum, save another drunken bum'

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 03 Aug 00 - 12:31 AM

Have we actually overlooked:

Seven cent cotton and forty cent meat,
How in the world can a poor man eat?
Flour up high and cotton down low,
How in the world can we raise the dough?
Clothes wore out, shoes run down,
Old slouch hat with a hole in the crown,
Back nearly broken and fingers all sore,
Cotton gone down to rise no more.

Sandy

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: Yo
Date: 03 Aug 00 - 06:02 AM

Steve Millers : Take the money and run. Mercury Blues starts with: "If I had money, I'll tell you what I'd do" Yo. P.S. Mactheturk, do you read all this, and what are you gonna do with it? (just curious)

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: Catrin
Date: 03 Aug 00 - 06:14 AM

Anybody remember Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks?

["Payday Blues"]

I got my paycheck today
I think I'll spend it like a crazy fool
Or I'll give it all away
Something like the golden rule

I won't tell 'em at the bank
What I'm gonna do with all my dough
I'll just smile and tell 'em 'thanks'
'Cos its better that they shouldn't know

Payday, its never been like this
Payday, but where is my happiness?

Other verses are about how he's so unhappy 'cos his girl's left him.

A wonderful song!

Catrin

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler
Date: 03 Aug 00 - 10:38 AM

Sandy, you've reminded me of another song I used to know and have now forgotten (I'm Just a Country Boy...)
Is that the title? couldn't see it in the DT. All the verses would be nice...
RtS (the DT & Forum have reminded me of so many songs I haven't thought about for years!)

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: Mark Clark
Date: 03 Aug 00 - 11:24 AM

T-Bone Walker, known to professional guitarists of the 50's as the "Granddaddy of Rock & Roll," wrote in his great composition, Stormy Monday:

The eagle flies on Friday, Saturday I go out to play,
Sunday I go to church, I kneel down and pray.
(Lord, have mercy.)

      - Mark

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: GUEST,Okiemockbird
Date: 03 Aug 00 - 12:42 PM

The Ballad of Dennis Karjala contains the following two stanzas:

But when the nineteen extra years were nearly past and done,
those same proud barons then returned with cash to Washington.
"We want another twenty years, we hate the public domain.
And here's some cash that you can use to fund your next campaign."

and:

"Oh Congressmen, you are deceived! the lords of Hollywood
have made you to forget your oath to serve the common good."
"Hush you, Dennis Karjala, your egghead words are rash.
We'll listen to the film-lords, and to their ready cash."

Songs about the Mudcat's copyright troubles, such as "The Mudcat came back", (click here and scroll down) are of course indirectly about money.

T.

Subject: RE: Songs about $$$$$$$$$$
From: Mbo
Date: 03 Aug 00 - 12:48 PM

"Put Yer Money Where Yer Mouth Is" by Oasis.