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Shanties

Music and Lyric by David W. Jacobsen
Copyright 2020. All Rights Reserved.

I was a boy in Iowa
When both of my parents were taken before I was ten
I was sent west to find my way
I worked and I worked and I rose through the ranks of great men

Toiled in caves
To find my fortune 'till
My name was known from sea to sea

Still you name your shanties after me
Still you name your shanties after me

Hands in the soil across the earth
From China to Australia I set the tricks of my trade
And so I became a wealthy man
But one who believes it his duty to always give aid

I fed countries
Through the Great War
Did what I could
To ease tragedy

Still you name your shanties after me
Still you name your shanties after me

The Great Humanitarian they called me
Given a seat of authority
I rose and I rose to a landslide victory

Still you name your shanties after me

Black Tuesday came there on my watch
I did what I could in the end time was not on my side
Forces too strong for me to tame
But I struggled to heal us
I'm not the villain you deride

And I contend that
Things got much worse than
If you'd headed me words
If you'd stayed my course
But you following his lies that
Silver spooned brat
Dragged my name through the mud
And it never came back

Still you name your shanties after me
Still you name your shanties after me
Still you name your shanties after me
Still you name your shanties after me

Notes:

This is a song about a businessman who ran for president and won despite never having run for any other political office. Under his watch, the economy completely collapsed.

This is Herbert Hoover bitterly complaining in song that shanty towns are called Hoovervilles. Hebert Hoover was an American success story, epitomizing the "American Dream." He lost his parents young and, while never destitute, he didn't have much. He worked his way up and made his fortune traveling the world working in the mining industry. He became a wealthy philanthropist with an aptitude for logistics. During World War I, he managed the food relief programs that prevented Belgium from starving, for which he earned the title "the great humanitarian." Harding put him in his cabinet where he stayed with Coolidge. When Coolidge decided not to run for a second full term, Hoover emerged as the Republican candidate, despite never having run for any office before.

About seven months into Hoover's presidency, the stock market crashed, and it was all downhill from there. Hoover had won in a landslide. Four years later, he would lose in a landslide and be forever tarred with the responsibility for the Great Depression. In truth, it is pretty unfair to blame Hoover for the depression itself. FDR vilified Hoover for years, raising the ghost of Hoover's political career during all four candidacies. Hoover in turn despised FDR and was bitterly opposed to FDR's programs. The song expresses Hoover's bitterness. Personally, while I cannot say whether FDR's programs improved the economy overall, I'm going to go with not letting people starve to death being a fairly sound policy.

To write the song, I read Herbert Hoover A Life By Glen Jeansonne.

From the album Potus
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