How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live
Purchase: [Ry Cooder 1970 version]
I tell folks that I could listen to Ry Cooder "all day and all night". Take my statement with a grain of salt, but the fact remains (see my many other posts here that speak to this) that he is one of my music idols. Be it rockin' and rollin', be it bringing back the roots of popular music (or jazz), be it mentoring others - there ain't noone else does what he do.
It was through Ry that I first heard this song about hard (financial) times. In fact, there was more than one Ry tune that came to mind related to this theme- I initially thought "Money Honey" - (I want money, honey), but then recalled several other of his songs that touched on the lack of "scratch".
Perhaps more fitting for a year or two back when the Great Recession was front page news, to me Blind Alfred Reed's 1929 song evokes images not only of the 1920s, the dust bowl and of California but also - of anyman's plight if he ain't got the "do-re-mi".
Bruce Springsteen is online at YouTube with several versions that doesn't do it right. (Comes to mind the line: Prohibition's good if it's conducted right)
Of the Youtube links that I sifted though, my favorite is this first link:
Second in line of the YT versions is this from the New Lost City Ramblers:
And finally, the YT link to a scratchy version by the original author:
