Here It Is Monday And I've Still Got A Dollar

It's 1931 and Tin Pan Alley is working overtime trying to psyche America out of the Great Depression, but there were rebuttals. There's No Depression In Love and Now's The Time To Fall In Love were countered with I'm An Unemployed Sweetheart and Last Dollar. Unlike the current Depression, in the 1930s America wore its heart on its sleeve. I think the people who chose the tunes for this set must have had fun - following Lee Morse's contribution, the next four tracks feature the elusive 'Dollar' before giving in to the fatalistic resignation of Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams, followed by darkness and ultimately Alone Together (sans sous, people tended to stay home more). Coinciding with Hoover's attempts at injecting optimism as a panacea, not even Ted Lewis was convincing enough as Let's Have Another Cup Of Coffee slams the remedy with biting satire followed by Sittin' On A Rubbish Can and Underneath The Arches (a roof was a luxury, no doubt). Two desperate pleas follow before ending with It Must Be Swell To Be Laying Out Dead - and this was popular music! According to the book (again, pick up a copy of this set), an "RCA Victor executive heard the tune and ordered its immediate withdrawal from the market, and all existing copies and masters were destroyed. Even the blue file cards at the company's archives in Manhattan have no listing of the song." The record was re-released with another song in its place. As if denying reality could change it! Not all of the sides here are listed chronologically, but the playlist tells an interesting tale nonetheless. Not to be overlooked, of course, is the fantastic music. Enjoy! +


Tracks

01 - Vincent Rose Orchestra - There's No Depression In Love
02 - Victor Young Orchestra - Now's The Time To Fall In Love
03 - Lee Morse - I'm An Unemployed Sweetheart
04 - Emil Coleman's Orchestra - I Got Five Dollars
05 - Paul Specht Orchestra - I Found A Million Dollar Baby
06 - Eddie Droesch Orchestra - Last Dollar
07 - Chick Bullock's Levee Loungers - Here It Is Monday And I've Still Got A Dollar
08 - Mildred Bailey - Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams
09 - Sam Lanin's Orchestra - Whistling In The Dark
10 - Ben Selvin & His Orchestra - Dancing In The Dark
11 - Victor Young Orchestra - Alone Together
12 - The Mills Brothers, The Boswells, Bing Crosby - Life Is Just A Bowl Of Cherries
13 - The Boswell Sisters - (We've Got To) Put That Sun Back In The Sky
14 - Ambrose Orchestra - Shoo The Hoodoo Away
15 - Ben Selvin & His Orchestra - Whistle And Blow Your Blues Away
16 - Ted Lewis Orchestra - Headin' For Better Times
17 - Enric Madriguera's Hotel Biltmore Orchestra - Let's Have Another Cup Of Coffee
18 - Julia Gerity - Sittin' On A Rubbish Can
19 - Henry Hall & The BBC Dance Orchestra - Underneath The Arches
20 - Bing Crosby - Brother Can You Spare A Dime?
21 - Freddy Martin Orchestra - Remember My Forgotten Man
22 - Alex Bartha's Hotel Traymore Orchestra - It Must Be Swell To Be Laying Out Dead

An Unemployed Sweetheart

(from Redhotjazz.com) "Lee Morse was a popular singer of the 1920s and early 1930s. She is best remembered today for the backing bands that were assembled for her recording sessions under the name of the Bluegrass Boys. The bands featured many of the best White jazz musicians of the 1920s. Presumably the band was called the Bluegrass Boys to make it sound like they were from the South (Kentucky is called the Bluegrass state). Lee Morse's family had Southern roots but she grew up in Oregon and Idaho, but few if any of the excellent Jazz musicians who played on these records were from the South. The band's music had nothing to do with the string band style of music that arose in the 1940s called Bluegrass."

Although it hasn't been updated in a while, there is an interesting page on Morse at www.leemorse.com where you can listen to some of her other songs, as well as check out some video shorts. Enjoy. +

Tracks

1. Want a Little Lovin'
2. He's Still My Baby
3. Side by Side
4. Old Fashioned Romance
5. Be Sweet to Me
6. Keep Sweeping the Cobwebs off the Moon
7. Don't Keep Me in the Dark Bright Eyes
8. Miss You
9. Blue Turning Grey over You
10. Tain't No Sin to Dance Around in Your Bones
11. Nobody Cares If I'm Blue
12. I Still Get a Thrill (Thinking of You)
13. Walkin' My Baby Back Home
14. By My Side
15. I'm an Unemployed Sweetheart
16. It's the Girls
17. Something in the Night
18. When I Lost You
19. Careless Love
20. Don't Even Change a Picture on the Wall