Ry Cooder – How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?

Last week I was talking to CB about the song Prodigal Son by the Reverend Robert Wilkins and The Stones. It turns out that Ry Cooder has a song with the exact name but a different song entirely. That got me listening to Cooder this week and this title alone drew me in.

This song was written by Blind Alfred Reed and was first recorded in 1929, a protest song about the Great Depression, prohibition, and poverty. Blind Alfred Reed was, in fact, born blind as was another sibling. He played the fiddle on street corners throughout West Virginia and Virginia. This song is considered an early example of a protest song.

This song holds some relevance today. It was on Ry Cooder’s self-titled debut album released in 1970. He is joined, amongst other long-time friends like producer Van Dyke Parks, percussionist Milt Holland, country rock bassist Chris Ethridge, and Little Feat’s drummer Richie Hayward and bassist Roy Estrada.

Cooder is an excellent musician and one of the great slide players of our time. Cooder also contributed to the Rolling Stones albums Let It Bleed and Sticky Fingers and was looked at briefly as a replacement for Brian Jones. Some say he wrote the riff to “Honky Tonk Woman.”

Bruce Springsteen covered it on his nightly Seeger Sessions Tour in 2006 and as a bonus track on the American Land edition of his We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions album.

How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?

Well, the doctor comes around with his face all brightAnd he says, “In a little while you’ll be all right!”All he gives is a humbug pill,Dose of dope and a great big billTell me, how can a poor man stand such times and live?

Well, there once was a time when everything was cheapBut now prices nearly put a man to sleepWhen we get our grocery bill,We just feel like making our willTell me, how can a poor man stand such times and live?

Prohibition’s good if it’s conducted rightThere’s no sense in shooting a man ’til he shows flightOfficers kill without a cause,Then they complain about the funny lawsTell me, how can a poor man stand such times and live?

Unknown's avatar

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

33 thoughts on “Ry Cooder – How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?”

      2. I don’t like when they do that! I didn’t know it came out in series…I didn’t know much about it at all. You taught me something.

        Liked by 1 person

    1. Yes he is! I always thought that G-tuning added…decades to to their career….or at least their best stuff in the late sixties to early eighties.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  3. Oh that’s quite good. I somehow thought given the title & origins it would be a lot slower bluesy dirge. That’s rather catchy.
    With lyrics like that it’s one you probably won’t hear in the local grocery store though!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. No I don’t see gorcery stores playing it lol…but geez…it’s the truth now. Inflation is terrible. Much of the song is relevant today.

      Like

      Reply

    1. Yea they are…those commercials…it’s funny how they are forced now to tell the truth. This may cause…twenty five different ailments and maybe death.
      All medicine though comes with a risk.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

  6. What a wealth of music Ry has and how you chose this (you answered in the take) shows how the music “speaks” to us and moves us. This is really off the track Max. Ry has a library that just keeps giving. When his music hits me it stick. I guess I’m off on a Cooder day.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    1. There is a reason this man played with everyone…when you have Little Feat involved in backing you…you have done something right. Glad you liked it CB…love what he did to the song…that slide is from heaven.
      I want to hear his album…baseball related in a way to Chávez Ravine…home of my Dodgers…not a warm story but a truthful one.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. Being a ball guy that’s a no brainer for you I was just playing his ‘Mambo Sinuendo’. It was a gift from Big Earl (Son). Lots of music to grab you Max. Then there is all the soundtrack stuff and collabs. No end to the guy. You’ll even find him on early Beefheart.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. I first remember him with the Crossroads soundtrack…my God what a player he is. That slide playing was so good I had to get the soundtrack back then.
        I didn’t know that on the Beefheart stuff…that I will have to check out.

        Liked by 1 person

  8. Amen to those lyrics on Ry’s. There always will be the overlords who very carefully divide the little people into polarized camps. It is essential to their continued rule. Imagine if all of the little people decided to unite. Their “let them eat cake” would find [insert bad things happening to them.] The housing situation around here is becoming dire. Corporations are buying up all of the housing. They just built a “trailer park” out by the airport, where the manufactured homes start at $150,000 for a cement slab that you will pay $500 a month “lot rent” for forever. How far will it go???

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. Oh I know…I told Bailey… when he moves out he will have to go to a small town somewhere other than Tennessee…California people are moving out here in droves…our house has tripled…actually a little more…
      In Nashville you can’t get a studio apartment for less than 1200 – 2000 a month…compared to New York at 2000-3000.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. 😦 Same in Grand Rapids. Things are a little less here but only if you really search. I would think in NY you’d have to have roommates. Unreal about people from CA moving to Nashville! Back when I was working CA used to send us their juveniles who needed residential treatment because it costs so much out there. Nowadays in MI very few juveniles go to residential treatment. I wonder how many MI beds are filled by kids from CA now?

        Liked by 1 person

      2. I’ve talked to some of them…the reasons they give me are taxes and to build a new house there is almost impossible. They have 100 year house notes on 1200 sq foot houses! That is insane Lisa.

        Liked by 1 person

      3. 100 years to pay off a house!? that’s ridiculous! That means it will take at least 2 generations to pay off an average home? I’m tired of the middle and lower classes being preyed on by soulless money grubbers!

        Liked by 1 person

      4. Yes…I can see why they would move here by the droves… California has lost a half million people moving out.

        Like

      5. I may be a rebel or scrooge for saying this, but CA is a desert that never should have been developed the way it has been. Now it’s a burning, unaffordable desert that the masses are fleeing from. Half a million is a lot!

        Liked by 1 person

  10. Pingback: Ry Cooder – How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live? – MobsterTiger

  11. The term “under-rated” seems to be over-used, but seems to be made for Ry Cooder. His genius is undeniable, yet he is not well-known despite his handful of Grammys. HIs versatility works against him in the popular eye, since he can’t be pigeon-holed. As both a musician and a musicologist he is peerless. (And I use one of his songs as a ringtone for a friend.)

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. I agree with you completely. I kept listening to him and that brought me to Taj Mahal. His slide playing is beyond good… and his arranging skills.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

Leave a comment