Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?

Hard Times.

No question. They're here again.

Scarcity. A system collapsed. Spirit-crushing headlines. Billions gone who-knows-where? Doubt & Uncertainty everywhere. You know it. Your family knows it. Your friends know it.

We've been here before.

After the crash, back in '32, in the midst of the Great Depression, a song crystallized the sentiment of a once proud nation who, for the first time, questioned the great powers they had worked hard for, gone to war for, and put seemingly limitless and optimistic faith in.

A nation searched its soul, and a bewildered man sang:

"They used to tell me I was building a dream..."

He was an every-man who had once worked hard for the future. He made a railroad race against time. He built a tower from brick, rivet and lime. Back in those brighter days, they called him by his first name. He had lived for a shining tomorrow full of peace and glory.

Suddenly, he found himself standing in a bread line, forced against his every belief to ask for a hand-out. A forgotten man.

Still fresh were the horrible memories of War.

"Half a million boots went sloggin' through hell..."

Believing there were guns to bear, he, and thousands of others like him, put on the uniform, and led the charge. Later, he was left to wonder. What was the meaning of that "Yankee-Doodle-de-dum?"

More than three quarters of a century later we find ourselves wondering again. Sadly, the song of that terrible time has now become the song of OUR time.

Les Deux Love Orchestra humbly and respectfully presents Yip Harburg & Jay Gorney's timely Depression-Era classic "Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?" for Huffington Post readers.

Time to be great again. Time to build a new kind of railroad, and make it run. Time to build a new kind of tower. Up to the sun.

"Say, don't you remember?"

Somehow, against formidable odds the shattered nation rose again.

We did it before.

Thank you very much for listening.