On Wed, 09 Aug 2017 17:23:35 -0400, joe_f@verizon.net (Joseph C.   
   Fineman) wrote:   
      
   >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".   
      
      
    here's a wiki   
      
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Can_Call_Me_Al   
      
      John T.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)