From: joe_f@verizon.net   
      
   blaikie.brett@gmail.com writes:   
      
   > On Wednesday, June 25, 1997 at 12:00:00 AM UTC-7, Jim Edelman wrote:   
   >> I was listening to some of my albums a while ago, and I came across a   
   >> line in the song "Brother can you spare a dime." The line is:   
   >>   
   >>  "Say don't you remember? They called me Al.  It was Al all the time.   
   >> Say don't you remember?  I'm your pal.  Brother can you spare a dime?   
   >>   
   >> Now this sounds a little too similar to Paul Simon's "You can call me   
   >> Al" to be a coincidence. Just from the context it seems to me that it   
   >> must be a term of respect of some sort.  Does anyone know the   
   >> historical significance of this phrase?   
   >>   
   >> It’s something that has been bothering me for a long time.   
   >>   
   >>   
   >> Jim Edelman   
   >   
   > It may be a reference to the Roaring Twenties and the reign of Al   
   > Capone selling illegal booze and corrupting public officials. In these   
   > years the stock market crashed to half its previous value and so did   
   > US GDP because of dust bowl conditions on the Prairies that destroyed   
   > farms.  Unemployment was the norm, teachers were being paid less than   
   > half their wages, children were skipping meals and staying in bed to   
   > conserve energy. Prohibition created a disregard for the law among   
   > large swathes of the population and a problem for cities because   
   > illegal businesses tend not to pay taxes. And they tend to corrupt   
   > both the banking and political systems to suit their purposes (ie   
   > laundering money, ensuring the police "fight crime" somewhere else)   
   > The president of the day, Hoover, was partly responsible, out of touch   
   > with the desperate plight of the average citizen. Anyway, it's a great   
   > tune, same writer wrote the lyrics for "over the rainbow"   
      
   In both songs, it seems to me, "call me Al" means call me by my familiar   
   nickname -- in Harburg's song, in reminiscence; in Simon's, as an   
   invitation.  I doubt if there is any actual allusion by the latter to   
   the former.  The situation in "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime" is a   
   shameful one:  Once you are poor, your old buddies don't want to   
   recognize you, because they're afraid you'll ask them for money.  It is   
   well documented in literature; cf. "Nobody Knows You When You're Down   
   and Out".   
   --   
   ---  Joe Fineman    joe_f@verizon.net   
      
   ||:  Having fun -- not a rule, more like a guideline.  :||   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)