Urban Pop Songs (from May 1999)

 

This is an exercise I wrote for an Urban Problems class in school:

Subcity and To Have and To Have Not are both bitter songs about life and alienation from the larger society in central cities. 

Billy Bragg probably is writing about a young man in a city in his native England, but his troubled working class character could as easily be in a de-industrialized city in the northeast or north central United States. 

Tracy Chapman places her character, whose age (probably adult) and gender are not stated and not primary to the situation in which "she"-for purposes of this note-finds herself: in a generic urban poverty-stricken area. It could be a Los Angeles ghetto, or it could be in East Cleveland, Ohio. The title of the song and the words "a city underground" tell us Subcity is an urban place and not rural. It is a place where life is unpleasant and difficult. The residents make use of the refuse of society. These might include the castoff clothing, homes, automobiles, and food of society.

The people in both songs are ones for whom the economic system does not work. The Subcity resident, probably working poor, is also shut out of the political system. Even though she says, "I'd like to speak," the political system symbolized by "the President" almost completely ignores her and her views and opinions. When it does notice her, the larger society is critical and patronizing. It does not even realize that she is fully aware that crime in her area is bad and that she does not like it any more that any middle class person would. She is not stupid or without common sense or values. Chapman's character is aware that her life of poverty is not nice and wishes it were different, saying, "Living? This ain't living."

The outside successful society tells her, "the system works/But [you] won't let it help." But she knows "they never stopped to think." Chapman questions whether the economic system really does works, or whether it causes the bad conditions and inequality and leaves her character at the bottom. Does it really create the optimal situation for all or just some? Society is blaming the victims for their problems, while they are asking, "What did I do to deserve this?"

The character's religious faith only highlights her utter lack of faith in the economic and political systems. She is totally alienated and hopeless, realizing that "Government and big business hold the purse strings," and they do not care about her. Disillusioned, she says "Worked every day of my life/Thought I had some guarantees, at least that's what I thought." The social safety net may not be there for her, and despite her efforts, she does not have a good life.

Billy Bragg explains that the real plight is that, "The system has failed you." His character did what was expected. He excelled in school but was undercut by larger social forces that leave him "on the top of the scrapheap" when barely out of childhood. His high school diploma is no longer the key to a living wage or even any job at all in his city's and country's new, globalized-"The factories are closing"- service economy. For people with his training, "it's a buyers market," and the employers (capital) "can afford to pick and choose." Even the government is downsizing: "the army's full." To Have's chorus has the young man telling society (but himself really) that he is not lazy and not "going backwards," not going to be left out of the benefits of the economic system. The first thing is true, but the second may not be.

|THE END|

TO HAVE AND TO HAVE NOT By Billy Bragg
from the album "Back to Basics"

Up in the morning and out to school

Mother says there’ll be no work next year

Qualifications once the Golden Rule

Are now just pieces of paper

Just because you’re better than me

Doesn’t mean I’m lazy

Just because you’re going forwards

Doesn’t mean I’m going backwards

If you look the part you’ll get the job

In last year’s trousers and your old school shoes

The truth is son, it’s a buyers market

They can afford to pick and choose

Just because you’re better than me

Doesn’t mean I’m lazy

Just because I’m dressed like this

Doesn’t mean I’m a communist

The factories are closing and the army’s full

I don’t know what I’m going to do

But I’ve come to see in the Land of the Free

There’s only a future for the Chosen Few

Just because you’re better than me

Doesn’t mean I’m lazy

Just because you’re going forwards

Doesn’t mean I’m going backwards

At twenty one you’re on top of the scrapheap

At sixteen you were top of the class

All they taught you at school

Was how to be a good worker

The system has failed you, don’t fail yourself

Just because you’re better than me

Doesn’t mean I’m lazy

Just because you’re going forwards

Doesn’t mean I’m going backwards

|THE END|

SUBCITY By Tracy Chapman
from the album "Crossroads"

People say that it doesn’t exist

’Cause no one would like to admit

That there is a city underground

People live every day

Off the waste and decay

Off the discards of their fellow man

Here in Subcity, life is hard

We can’t receive any government relief

Won’t you please,

Please give the President my honest regards

For disregarding me

They say there is too much crime in these city streets

My sentiments exactly!

Government and big business hold the purse strings

When I worked

When I worked, the fact is

I’m at the mercy of a world

Guess I’m lucky to be alive

Because here in Subcity, life is hard

We can’t receive any government relief

Won’t you please,

Please give Mr. President my honest regards

For disregarding me

They say we’ve fallen through the cracks

They say the system works,

But we won’t let it help

Guess they never stopped to think.

We may not just want handouts

A way to make an honest living

Living? This ain’t living!

Here in Subcity, life is hard

We can’t receive any government relief

I’d like to speak

Please give the President my honest regards

For disregarding me

What did I do to deserve this?

And my trust in God

Worked every day of my life

Thought I had some guarantees

That’s what I thought

At least that's what I thought

Here in Subcity, life is hard

We can’t receive any government relief,

I’d like to think

Please give the President my honest regards

For disregarding me

Last night, I had another restless dream

Wondering what tomorrow might bring

Last night I dreamed

A golden light was shining down on me

I screamed myself awake

Thought I must be dying

Though I must be dying

Because here in Subcity, life is hard

We can’t receive any government relief,

I’d like to think,

Please give Mr. President my honest regards

For disregarding me

Disregarding me, disregarding me, disregarding me…

|THE END|