Customer Reviews

If You Ain't Got the Do-Re-Mi: Songs of Rags to Riches

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Playing Time - 75:27 -- What would you do if you had a million dollars? Barrel-house pianist Speckled Red would "tie a string all around the world and give it all to you." In another song that I want to learn ("Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out"), Rolf Cahn sings about once being a millionaire but now he's spent it all and without any friends. "If I get my hands on a dollar again / I'm gonna hang on to it `til that eagle grins." Many others have been able to relate to that song written by Jimmy Cox in 1923 and that was Bessie Smith's last hit in 1929. The sentiment has lived on throughout the decades. It's been recorded by Eddie Condon & Count Basie in the 30s; Lavern Baker in the 50s; Sam Cooke, Dave Guard, Jose Feliciano, Odetta, and Nina Simone in the 60s; Tim Hardin in the 70s; Rod Stewart in the 80s; Eric Clapton in the 90s. This generous album offers much human insight about money. For example, what would you do if granny's will only left you "The Old Arm Chair"?

The title cut by Woody Guthrie refers to the migrants that headed west from the dust bowl to California's "sugar bowl." Woody's advice, however, is that "California is a garden of Eden / A paradise to live in or see / But believe it or not, you won't find it so hot / If you ain't got the do re mi." Thus, the 27 tracks on this disc deal with a subject dear to many people's hearts ... money. Thee are pleas for money such as Joe Glazer's rendition of "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" There are also pleas ("Gallis Pole") for a prisoner's life in 1925, in this case from Huddie William Ledbetter (Leadbelly). "Mother, did you bring me silver? / Mother, did you bring me gold? / What did you bring me mother / Keep me from the gallows pole? What did you - what did you - Keep me from the gallows pole?" The song resulted in a Governor's pardon for Leadbelly, but he was back behind bars in Louisiana by 1930, for assault with intent to murder.

From Trinidad and Tobago, Rupert Grant (aka Lord Invader), was a Calypsonian with a very distinctive voice. "Yankee Dollar" refers to Trinidadian women as prostituting themselves for the money of U.S. soldiers stationed there during World War II. Various perspectives about $1 are portrayed in "Yankee Dollar," Greenback Dollar" or the "Last Gold Dollar." Whether you've got "One Meat Ball" or a million dollars, these songs are largely ballads and yarns with plenty of opinions and insight. According to Brownie McGhee "If You Lose Your Money" then "please don't lose your mind." Compiled by Jeff Place, Jack Manischewitz and John Herzog, this collection of 27 songs from the Smithsonian Folkways archive was timed to coincide with the opening of the Museum of American Finance on Wall Street in New York City. Additional artists featured include Pete Seeger, New Lost City Ramblers, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, Stoneman Family, Almanac Singers, Joe Glazer, Bascom Lamar Lunsford and others. (Joe Ross, Roseburg, OR.)

I've been a folk music fan for more than 50 years, and if someone came to me and said "Why don't we put out a CD with early 20th-century songs about the rich and poor, and money in general, using the tracks now owned by Smithsonian Folkways?" I would have said "Sounds great." Yet, even if one had an archive going back 65 years, finding 27 songs on the same general topic that each deserve repeat play in the 21st century is tricky. I'm afraid the folks at the Smithsonian didn't quite end up with a winner here. I own several other compilation CD's they've issued, and this is the weakest I've heard. The production begins with an instrumental rendering of "Wall Street Rag" which is instantly recognizable as a Scott Joplin composition. Woody Guthrie's contributions, "Do Re Mi" and "Pretty Boy Floyd" are both fine, although Cisco Houston's versions of each would wear better in the long run. I had not heard of June Lazare, but I liked her rendition of "Jim Fisk", a song I don't recall having encountered before. Pete Seeger is fine on "Banks of Marble" but less so on "Business" and "Penny's Farm." Probably the highlights of this collection are the two by the Almanac Singers, Woody's "Union Maid" and "I Don't Want Your Millions, Mister". If you like folk-style, but do not own one of the two Almanac Singers' CD's available, shame on you. That's the group that Seeger, Guthrie, Lee Hays and their left-wing friends created just before World War II, and their archive is worth owning. So I liked eight of the 27 tracks, but already owned five of those. Too many of the picks on here are either outdated, or awkwardly performed. There are many Smithsonian Folkways items more satisfying than this one.

I HAD HEARD A FEW OF THESE SONGS PLAYED ON PUBLIC RADIO AND REMEMBERED SOME FROM WHEN I WAS A BOY. I RECENTLY PLAYED THE DISC DURING A HISTORY DRIVING TOUR WITH MY 12 YEAR OLD GRANDSON. HE THOROUGHLY ENJOYED "BROTHER CAN YOU SPARE A DIME" AND "ONE MEAT BALL'. IN FACT, HE ASKED ME TO REPLAY THE WHOLE DISC SEVERAL TIMES DURING OUR WEEKLONG TRIP. THOUGH THE SONGS DATE FROM 70 YEARS AGO, THEY ARE STILL PERTINENT TODAY. IN BETWEEN, WE LISTENED TO THE TEACHING COMPANY'S GREAT BOOK SERIES.