From Hope to Anger, with a Great Depression in the Middle

Audio analysis of "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime," heard this morning on public radio:

"The first thing that's surprising is that it doesn't start in a major key like most Broadway songs," (pianist and composer Rob Kapilow) says. "Appropriate to the Depression, it's in a minor key."

With lines like "Once I built a railroad, made it run / Made it race against time," the music jumps an octave, with all the energy and syncopation that made America's railroads. It even comes to rest, momentarily, in a major key. The music, like the words, reminisces about prosperous times.

"But then, heartbreakingly," Kapilow says, "under the word 'time' we change to minor, to set up the second half of the verse. Now it has lost all its energy; it's wistful. Now it's done — the good days in America, pre-Depression."

All of that, Kapilow says, provides a wonderful set-up for the perfect punch line: the song's title....

Rob Kapilow's analysis, sitting at the piano, is fascinating. LISTEN.