Michelle Malkin has a long post well worth your time, but the capstone, AFAIC, is her inclusion of Woodie Guthrie’s cover (and redaction) of Tom Paxton’s classic. See the YouTube video below. Needs no further comment from me.
Oh the price of gold is rising out of sight
And the dollar is in sorry shape tonight
What the dollar used to get us now won’t buy a head of lettuce
No the economic forecast isn’t right
But amidst the clouds I spot a shining ray
I can even glimpse a new and better way
And I’ve devised a plan of action worked it down to the last fraction
And I’m going into action here todayCHORUS:
I am changing my name to Fannie Mae
I am going down to Washington D.C.
I’ll be glad they got my back
‘Cause what they did for Freddie Mac
Will be perfectly acceptable to me
I am changing my name to Fannie Mae
I am headed for that great receiving line
So when they hand a trillion grand out
I’ll be standing with my hand out
I’ll get mineWhen my creditors are screaming for their dough
I’ll be proud to tell them all where they can go
They won’t have to scream and holler
They’ll be paid to the last dollar
Where the endless streams of money seem to flow
I’ll be glad to tell them all what they can do
It’s a matter of a simple form or two
It’s not just remuneration it’s a liberal education
Ain’t you kind of glad that I’m in debt to youChorus
Since the first amphibians crawled out of the slime (of the slime!)
We’ve been struggling in an unrelenting climb
We were hardly up and walking before money started talking
And it’s sad that failure is an awful crime
It’s been that way for a millennium or two
But now it seems that there’s a different point of view
If you’re a corporate titanic and your failure is gigantic
Down in Congress there’s a safety net for youChorus
UPDATE: Not to be left out of updating his classic, “I’m Changing My Name to Chrysler” *heh* Tom Paxton has his own revision out:
Good git fiddle work, and his lyric changes are, if anything, more biting. Not as singable are the melodic variations, but then, it was his song to begin with, as I recall, and he’s perfectly entitled to change whatever he likes about it.
🙂
What’s funny about this pingback from Michelle Malkin’s blog is that it’s a pingback to a trackback… Now, how’d that get configured that way, I wonder?
Catchy tune, now aint it…
I like Paxton’s better, in fact I e-mailed it around yesterday.
I happen to like both for different reasons. Of course, Paxton has an edge, since Guthrie’s version is an adaptation of the Paxton original, “I’m Changing my name to Chrysler”. Musically, it’s about even: two old pros excelling at what they do best, neither one of whom have much in the way of voices now (nor did Arlo Guthrie ever have *heh*), but they more than make up for the lack with other performance qualities. Arlo’s adaptation actually scans better than either Paxton’s original or his current adaptation, and though I much prefer Paxton’s more accurate “700 million grand” and other references, Guthrie’s adaptation has the advantage of lyric singability–especially on the chorus. I played it for some clients on an onsite call (after effecting their installs and repairs) this morning, and they were joinging in on the chorus before it was halfway through the first time. Now, that’s a “protest song” for a tea party!
Well, we’ve got to laugh and make lite or we are all going to need anti-depressants.
@Debbie–“antidepressants”?!? Nah. Remember what Bernjamin Franklin said,
“Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.”
Sköll!
😉
I’m not a beer person, but I do like a glass of sparkling wine.
Sparkling wine… not necessarily a bad choice, just not as nourishing as “liquid bread”. 🙂 Beer: same health benefits as wine, just more so. Still, a good wine with the right meal isn’t all that bad. Again, “Sköll!”
(BTW, I’d not be a beer person were I to be limited to typical American manufactured stuff that is apparently just water filtered through a horse… *heh* My own brews, Sam Adams, a few European brews, Boulevard Brewing–especially their wheat beer–and a few others have cured me of my dislike of beer that was fostered by sampling manufactured crap in my youth.)