Obama's Campaign Song Should Be: 'Working Man's Dollar'
August 25th, 2008Letter from Denver
by Brooks Boliek
DENVER, Colo., Aug. 25 — The news that The Boss is going to perform at Barack’s nomination on Thursday, and that performers from Everclear to Kanye West are scheduled to play at different convention parties coupled with my friend Glynn’s missive about the song “Sixteen Tons” got me thinking about music even more than usual.
For years the Democrats used “Happy Days are Here Again.” FDR chose the song to signal new hope for the end of the Great Depression. Former President Bill Clinton switched that to Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow.” Personally, I never liked that song. Too damn sappy.
Both Obama and McCain have a handful of old standards that they play at campaign stops. Obama likes Springsteen’s “The Rising” and U2′s “Beautiful Day.” ABC reports that at Saturday’s rally in Springfield, Ill., with newly-minted veep-mate Joe Biden, the campaign played the Brooks and Dunn country smash “Only in America,” a tune that was also a favorite of President Bush’s campaign.
McCain has been partial to Brooks and Dunn too, playing “That’s What America is All about,” and Tina Turner’s “Simply the Best,” and ABC says that he’s been playing Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline,” which Diamond recently admitted was about Caroline Kennedy. Now talk about your ironies.
While Obama is the first viable presidential candidate who admits that he likes hip-hop. He famously borrowed Jay-Z’s swipe-dirt-off-the-shoulder move to “brush off’ his “haters” during a much-dissected speech in April that seemed loaded with hip-hop swagger.
Rappers love him, but that love is not often reciprocated as he has to temper his affection for rap.
In an interview with BET earlier this year, he said:
“I love the art of hip-hop. I don’t always love the message of hip-hop. There are times when even…. with artists I love, you, know there’s a message that is not only sometimes degrading to women; not only uses the n-word a little too frequently; but, also something I’m very concerned about, it’s about material things.”
I think Obama’s got to get out of the proverbial box on this one.
My candidate for the Barack Obama for President Campaign Song is (drum roll please): Chris LeDoux’s “Working Man’s Dollar.”
It’s got lyrics that you can rap, rock or yodel. And, it has the added benefit of hitting that blue-collar theme that the Democrats so want to nail at this convention.
If you don’t know LeDoux here’s a little introduction:
He was a country music singer-songwriter, bronze sculptor and rodeo champion. He released 36 albums, many self produced which he sold out of his car. Still, he sold 6 million records, was awarded one gold album and was nominated for a Grammy and Academy of Country Music Pioneer award.
In his New York Times obit, the Great Grey Lady called him the last of the cowboy singers. Unfortunately he died on March 9, 2005.
After reading the NYTimes obit I bought his greatest hits, which included “Working Man’s Dollar.” If there was justice in the world, it would be the Obama Campaign song.
Frankly, I’m not sure of the fair use defense on publishing lyrics, or I’d have The Locust Fork Journal print the whole thing. But since I believe in copyright law, here’s the chorus and the first stanza:
Well, I’m just a Workin’ Man’s Dollar
In the pocket of his old blue jeans
I ain’t like my Wall Street brother
He’s in a bank so shiny and clean
Well, I’m faded and I’m wrinkled
Tattered and stained with sweatBut I’m the 1st one called
when Uncle Sam Needs a hand with the National Debt
I’ve been wages for the farm hand
For drivin’ an old John Deere
I’ve been laid on a bar in a tavern
To buy a workin’ man an ice-cold beer
I’ve been tipped to a truck-stop waitress
Taped where I was torn
And in the hand of a child I was laid on a plate
In a church on Sunday morn
Now tell me, what could be better?
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