song essay

Group 1 “ Brother, can you spare a dime” by Rudy Valle, 1932

In many instances, songs have been written to explain events that are going on in the world. The song “ brother, can you spare a dime” by Rudy Valle justifies that. In 1932 when the song was produced it was during the great depression where the unemployment rate was 24.1% and the economy was in a down ward spiral.
The message that Rudy is trying to portray is that everyone from a businessman in a city to a union worker from this time period suffered. The changes during the 20s and 30s were like night and day. In the 20s everything was bought on credit and the banks kept loaning out money. New inventions were made and everyone was building a dream. Once the depression hit on Tuesday October 29, 1929 everything changed where stocks plummeted with no hope and everyone attempted to sell their stocks but the banks physically had no money, causing the banks to close down. This displayed the domino effect, banks closed down, employers laid off workers, and workers didn’t spend money, causing businesses to close down and it was a never-ending cycle.

When he writes, “Once I built a tower to the sun, Brick and rivet and lime. Once I built a tower, now it's done” he is referring to how the skyscrapers during the twenties that were being build were funded buy wealthy businessmen, but when the crash happened there was no money to give around.
In the fifth stanza “Once in khaki suits, gee we looked swell. Full of that Yankee doodle dum. Half a million boots went sloggin' through hell. And I was the kid with a drum” the stanza refers to the part of WW1 and the U.S involvement. He was saying how the U.S was excited and didn’t think about the hell that the solders were put through in the trenches. Life in the trenches were horrible, there were rat and mice infestation, the smell, lice, trench foot. Etc.
In the last stanza “Say, Don't you remember they called me Al? It was Al all the time. Say, don't you. Remember, I'm your pal. Buddy can you spare a dime?” he is referring to the Bonus army movement of 1932. The B.A.M was a march of 20,000 men and there family’s in Washington DC. Demanding the cash-payment of their services in WW1. The world war adjusted compensation act of 1924 gave them the bonuses plus interest as a form of certificates that were unredeemable until 1945, because of the great depression they were demanding it sooner. Fight broke out and 4 dead; 1,017 injured. They called him Al because the government overlooked them as if they were friends not employees
The song “ Brother, can you spare a dime?” by Rudy Vallee, in 1932 was one of many songs produced in the time of the Great Depression. Helping many people recover and forget about the problems in there lives and just lives through it. The U.S found itself in tough shape, but music was able to help.

Work cited:

http://www.slideshare.net/DHUMPHREYS/buddy-can-you-spare-a-dime-lyrics-explanation

http://history1900s.about.com/od/1930s/p/greatdepression.htm

http://www.firstworldwar.com/features/trenchlife.htm

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/macarthur/peopleevents/pandeAMEX89.html

http://www.shmoop.com/brother-can-you-spare-dime/meaning.html