Same Old Song

1930. This once-ubiquitous classic was written in 1930.

We're back there again.

Most often associated with the Great Depression, when just about everyone had to ask this question of someone, this story is told from the point of view of the forgotten veterans of World War I, reduced to poverty when the jobs they'd been promised didn't materialize upon their homecoming; brought down further by the Depression itself.

As I said, we're back. But, when it comes to the way we treat our returning veterans, we never left.

The rich get richer, and the rest of us have to ask, "Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?"

Here's the extraordinary Judy Roderick.

What Billie Holiday Understood

Most other versions from this period are overwrought, as though the singers don’t understand that there’s enough emotion in both the music and lyrics that any singer worth the name shouldn’t have to work at it.

Billie Holiday understood.

Here she is with “I’ll Be Seeing You”.

His phrasing! There’s jazz and blues all mixed up in here, against a soulful, countrypolitan backdrop. That, and these lyrics tell the truth – as far as I’m concerned.

This is Willie Nelson with “Little Things Mean A Lot”.