Brother can you spare a dime? Tom Waits

I ended up here, after watching several Tom Waits clips. It's the right time to watch this. peace

I'm listening to this compulsively today. Spare time at work. Blown away by what honesty, something genunine in a performace can bring. Listening to Alice too much too.

Just listened to Bing Crosby, Al Jolson, Roy Vallee, Mandy Patinkin and George Michael. Didn't think anyone could sing this better. Shows you what a performer can bring when he covers a song. And Tom Waits is a great song writer in his own right. Needs to cover no one.

If he never sang another cover, that would be appropriate. Now I'm going to have to see if anybody's ever sang this as well.

Odetta and Dr. John duet.

No. Not as emotional and honest. Better than George Michael, definitely, who seemed to be singing about his disillusion with his fan base. Waits is clearly singing about a working man, former soldier, who needs to beg to eat. I think a lot of Waits as a lyricists, up there with Dylan and Cohen. Think a lot too of his interpretive skills, something most everybody else has forgotten in the pop culture of late.

Thank you, RedCeltic.

One of the very few songs that Tom Waits covered, if you listen to the CBC radio (Canadian Broadcast Corporation) this song is one of the "Twenty Pieces Of Music That Changed The World`` series. It is not pure chance that he chose to sing it, Tom Waits relates in many ways to this song, see his biography.

Best version

This song was a number 1 hit in 1932 -- worst year of the Great Depression -- twice. Both Rudy Vallee and Bing Crosby reached the top of the pop charts with their rendition of a song that magnificently captured the situation and mood of the country. Check out also the amazing recent version by Dr. John and Odetta, who do it as a blues.

Words by the great Yip Harburg (lyricist of "The Wizard of Oz"); music by Jay Gorney, based on a Russian Jewish lullaby.