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By Tony Attwood
In this series on the Theme Time Radio Hour programmes, I am looking back at some episodes recorded by Bob for series one, and choose a few songs that interest or perhaps intrigue me, and for which I can find copies on the internet that I can share. A list of the episodes already considered in this way is given at the end.
As I say, I do add my comments, but the key point is to offer a reminder online of some of the songs that Bob commented upon – particularly those which, because of their age, might not otherwise be noticed.
While several episodes of the series have had an emphasis on songs from the last 40 years, the “Rich Man Poor Man” episode travelled the other way, which is indeed perhaps a reflection on the changing concerns of songwriters across the decades. In this show, which first aired on July 26, 2006, the earliest songs we hear include one from 1924 and three from 1932. To complete the 1930s part of the show, there was a Woody Gurie piece from 1937. The only more modern song was Hobo’s Lullaby from 1988.
So going back to the earliest pieces since they are the ones that I know least about, we start with the earliest piece “Taxes On The Farmer Feeds Us All” by Fiddlin’ John Carson and Moonshine Kate from 1924 – and a remastered edition has popped up, which is helpful.
As the lyrics read, partway through, this is a very political song…
The farmer is the man, the farmer is the man He buys on his credit until Fall Then they take him by the hand And they lead him from his land And the merchant is the man who gets it all
“The Rich Man And The Poor Man” – Bob Miller from 1932 is available here And one of the extraordinary things about this songwriter is that by the time he passed away in 1955 he claimed to have written over 7000 songs. Now allowing for the fact that in his very youngest years he couldn’t possibly have been writing original songs we might guess that he has around 45 years of productive songwriting, which means he was writing 155 songs a year.
So, allowing for the fact that he probably didn’t write anything on Sundays, that makes it one song every two days throughout his adult life, which is quite something, and leads one to suspect that a fair number of them were fairly similar (which it turns out they were). The Wiki article highlights his most famous songs as “Sweet Pal,” “War Horse Mama,” “Twenty-One Years,” “Eleven Cent Cotton, Forty Cent Meat,” “The Poor, Forgotten Man,” “A Star-Spangled Banner is Waving Somewhere,” “Seven Beers With the Wrong Woman,” and many others.
But also from 1932 is a song I actually know, probably from the fact that my father maybe played it. Brother can you spare a dime can be found through that link. If you have time to listento it, do focus on the lyrics – they symbolise the age perfectly.
But of course Bob didn’t just give us songs from the depression era. Little Richard made a recording in 1953 of Get Rich Quick.
The most recent song selected by Bob is certainly, to my ears the most beautiful song in the collect. It is Hobo’s Lullaby by Emmylou Harris from 1988, and indeed, if you choose to play nothing else from this little selection, please do try and find a moment for this song. And please listen to the string accompaniment. That is how plaintive should be done. If this link doesn’t work for you, just type in the song and singer’s name in a search.
A list of all the songs from the episode can be found here.
Previously in this series
- 1: Happy 20th anniversary, Theme Time Radio Hour. Still offering us fun
- 2: Mother
- 3: Drinking
- 4: Coffee
- 5: Jail
- 6: Father
- 7: Wedding
- 8: Divorce
- 9: Summer
- 10: Flowers
- 11: Why are all the car songs 12 bar blues?