[78-L] Musical Mobsters

[Randy Skretvedt]

Steven C. Barr wrote:

Women of the 20's & 30's? Here the best you can do is refer
to the seriously "Male Chauvanistic" lyrics referring to wives
in that era...which typify the attitudes of the period...like it
or NOT!!

The Depression? There are at best TWO recorded tunes
which admit to there even BEING a depression...!! First,
"Brother, Can You Spare a Dime, and second, "Remember
My Forgotten Man!!" Other than that, the pop music of
the era chose to pretend there WAS NO such thing as a
depression going on! I have NO idea whether current pop
music is repeating this "blindness"...anybody know?!

Finally...Prohibition?" MANY tunes released early in that
era...in fact, it was a VERY popular subject for songs...but
thereafter it gradually disappeared from pop music! Oddly
enough, there were almost NO tunes about the end of
prohibition c. 1932...?!

Steven C. Barr 

More songs about women in the '20s and '30s:  
Hard to Get Gertie
Louisville Lou
When Sweet Susie Goes Steppin' By
Sweet Sue
Louise
The Flapper Wife
Ain't She Sweet
Glad Rag Doll

And, from the woman's perspective, there's "Ten Cents a Dance" and "When I Am Housekeeping for You," to name two extremes!

Depression songs:
A Cottage for Sale
Cheer Up, Good Times Are Coming
Cheer Up, Smile, Nertz!
Got the Jitters
There's No Depression in Love
Now's the Time to Fall in Love
I'm an Unemployed Sweetheart
I've Got Five Dollars
Here It Is Monday and I've Still Got a Dollar
If I Ever Get a Job Again
Are You Makin' Any Money?
Remember My Forgotten Man
There's a New Day Coming
Buy American
Give Yourself a Pat on the Back
We're Out of the Red
We're in the Money
The Boulevard of Broken Dreams
When My Ship Comes In
I Gotta Get Up and Go to Work
Gotta Go to Work Again

(and there are more, all on the Bear Family "Songs of the Depression" 4-CD box set, which is worth the price for the excellent book alone!)

A song about the end of Prohibition would be the Sam Coslow-Arthur Johnston "Cocktails for Two," written for the 1934 Paramount film "Murder at the Vanities," with its verse about "What a delight to be given the right to be carefree and gay once again/No longer slinking, respectably drinking like civilized ladies and men/No longer need we miss/A charming scene like this...."  (Cue Spike Jones and the pistol shots!)