I recently ran across a Washington Post article about how more musicians are writing songs about hard economic times.

“Indeed, the global financial crisis is providing fodder to all manner of musicians, from rock legends and country singers to folkies and rappers,” the article states. “Contributions from rappers are especially notable, with more and more hip-hop artists forgoing, or at least decreasing, lyrics about excessive materialism in favor of ones about the common man’s economic grind, as heard on recent songs by Jadakiss (‘Hard Times’), Cam’ron (‘I Hate My Job’), Joell Ortiz (‘Bout My Money’) and Willie Isz, a Georgia duo whose ‘In the Red’ imagines a world without money.” The article also mentions singers such as Neil Young, Todd Snider and Tom Paxton.

Most of those names don’t mean very much to me, and so I decided to come up with my own list of songs about hard times. About being broke, losing your job and struggling to get by. At first, I had a hard time coming up with songs. In fact, the only song I could think of was “Minimum Wage” by They Might Be Giants, which isn’t a song about hard times so much as a song about the indignity of making minimum wage. (I loved it when I worked at Colonial Deli Mart when I was in high school.) It’s a pretty short song, too, probably less than 20 seconds long, and it only has two words “Minimum Wage!” followed by a guttural yell and the sound of a whip cracking. In my opinion, it’s the best thing They Might Be Giants has ever done. But I digress. Here are some good hard economic times songs, in no particular order.

1. Almost anything by Bruce Springsteen You could pick any number of Springsteen songs, and a couple friends recommended “The Seeger Sessions,” Springteen’s interpretation of 13 folk songs by Peter Seeger. Songs such as “My Oklahoma Home,” on which Springsteen sings: “It blowed away, it blowed away/All the crops I planted blowed away/You can’t grow any grain if there isn’t any rain/All except the mortgage blowed away.” I don’t own “The Seeger Sessions,” but I do own “Born in the U.S.A.,” which is why I’m recommending “My Hometown,” Springsteen’s heartbreaking depiction of a dying mill town: “Now Main Street’s whitewashed windows and vacant stores/Seems like there ain’t nobody wants to come down here no more.” One of my friends thinks Springsteen’s extraordinary success has diminished his ability to relate to working men and women, and that we “need a new Springsteen.” “It’s too bad Springsteen is a bazillionaire, the country sure could use a good Springsteen song right about now,” he wrote. “But he can’t do it because he’s too rich.”

2. “A Dollar and a Dream” by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones Most Bosstones songs make me feel happy, but this one’s kind of sad. “I had a dollar I wanted to save/Safe in my pocket, I’ll try to hold fast/Hey! It might be my last.”

3. “Cash Machine” by Hard-Fi I’d forgotten how much I like this catchy little song until a friend mentioned it. It’s about a guy who can’t get any money out of an ATM because he’s broke, his girlfriend’s pregnant and he doesn’t know what to do. “Go to a cash machine, to get a ticket home/A message on the screen says don’t make plans you’re broke/No no this can’t be right, I know that times is tight.”

4. “Soup is Good Food” by the Dead Kennedys This song reminds me of the great Kurt Vonnegut book “Player Piano,” about a world run by engineers and machines. “We’re sorry/But you’re no longer needed/Or wanted/Or even cared about here/Machines can do a better job than you,” sings the always-cheerful Jello Biafra. “Soup is Good Food” has more to do with downsizing as a result of technological advancement — “See our chart? Unemployment’s going down/If that ruins your life that’s your problem” — than a tanking economy, but I still think it’s perfectly appropriate.

5. “Once in a Lifetime” by the Talking Heads Considering the existential crisis of the narrator, this song sure is fun. “And you may ask yourself/How do I work this?/And you may ask yourself/Where is that large automobile?/And you may tell yourself/This is not my beautiful house!” Note: This song could apply to someone who’s rich, and can’t make sense of their wealth, or someone who’s poor, and can’t make sense of their lack of wealth. But you’ve got to love the first line: “And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack.”

6. “Poor Old Dirt Farmer” by Levon Helm This song is off Helm’s “Dirt Farmer” album, which contains a number of songs about hard times. But “Poor Old Dirt Farmer,” about a farmer who can’t get his crops to grow, is particularly apt: “Oh the poor old dirt farmer/He’s lost all his corn/And now where’s the money/To pay off his loan?”

7. “The Day They Closed the Factory Down” by Harry Chapin “So they’re talkin’ of the changes the closing brings about/Talkin’ of the hard times and the young folks moving out.” Totally depressing.

8. “Allentown” and “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me” by Billy Joel In “Allentown,” they’re “closing all the factories down.” And though “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me” is widely believed to be about New Wave, my friend Geoff observes that it’s also about economizing: “I get more mileage from a cheap pair of sneakers.”

9. “Bony Fingers” by Hoyt Axton I first heard this song on a middle school youth group trip and thought it was brilliant. I spent years searching for it on CD, until my best friend procured a copy of it for me. The refrain is sad, but it always makes me feel like singing along: “Work your fingers to the bone and what do you get? Bony fingers!”

10. “Everybody Knows” by Leonard Cohen, although the cover by Concrete Blonde is very good, too. Leonard Cohen has got to be one of the most cynical people on earth. Like Jello Biafra, he’s not just angry about losing his job; he’s angry about the system. “Everybody knows that the dice are loaded/Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed/Everybody knows that the war is over/Everybody knows the good guys lost/Everybody knows the fight was fixed/The poor stay poor, the rich get rich/That’s how it goes/Everybody knows.”

11. “Agenda Suicide” by The Faint I don’t know this song, but I like The Faint, and two different friends recommended it, so here it is. “All we want are just pretty little homes/Our work makes pretty little homes/Agenda suicide, the drones work hard before they die/And give up on pretty little homes.” Makes me think of, I don’t know, a bursting housing bubble.

12. “Lost in the Supermarket” by The Clash This isn’t really a hard times song, but I like The Clash and I feel like they belong here. Also, as a friend of mine observed, this song “does make you think about the fact that you’re now looking at price tags in the supermarket.” And who wants to do that?

13. “G-- D--- Job” by The Replacements I can’t quote these lyrics, for obvious reasons. But the narrator really, really needs a job. And a girl.

14. “Rent” by The Pet Shop Boys This isn’t really a hard times song — it’s a love song, about how great it is when your lover pays your rent. Which seems like an arrangement that would be even more desirable during an economic downturn. “I love you, oh, you pay my rent.”

15. “Good Judge of Character” by J Church My roommate and I love this anarchist punk band, and I was sorry to learn, while researching this blog, that lead singer Lance Hahn died in 2007. Hahn was a gifted songwriter, and he composed this compelling portrait of a homeless woman who lives in her car: “She asks me for a date I can’t afford/She’s been to whore’s hell and still manages to smile/She says, ‘Take care baby,’ ‘Take care baby,’ Take care baby/and I say, ‘Doesn’t it get cold out here?’”

15. “Trouble” by Cat Stevens Again, not specifically about hard economic times. But definitely about hard times, and it will make you curl up in a fetal position and cry. “Trouble/Oh, trouble move from me//I have paid my debt/Now won’t you leave me in my misery.” Ever time I hear it, I just want to grab Cat Stevens and tell him that things will get better.

I couldn’t have put this post together without the help of a few musical friends. So thanks for the suggestions.

Got a comment? A hard times song? Add one below or e-mail me at sfoss@dailygazette.net.