Billy Joel – Moving’ Out:

Sergeant O’Leary is walking the beat / At night he becomes a bartender / He works at Mr. Cacciatore’s down on Sullivan Street / Across from the medical center / And he’s trading in his Chevy for A Cadillac (ack ack ack ack ack) / You oughta know by now / If he can’t drive with a broken back / At least he can polish the fenders / And it seems such a waste of time / If that’s what it’s all about

The first two verses are equally apropos. You can pay Uncle Sam with the overtime; who needs a house out in Hackensack?

There’s nothing wrong with taking on extra work to make ends meet, but just to upgrade a meaningless status symbol? Probably not worth it.

“You keep your Hoochie…
I’ll keep the house…and the bank accounts
Cause Boy I bring home the bacon”

“You need a loan? that’s not a problem…
you better keep this from your Hoochie Woman”

@repenttokyo, that’s true. Usually when I read posts here or elsewhere about money, it’s really just a proxy for the important things that Springsteen addresses in his songs.

Don’t get me wrong (Gimme some money, gimme some money)
Try getting me right (Gimme some money, gimme some money)
Your face is OK
But your purse is too tight (Gimme some money, gimme some money)
I’m looking for pound notes, loose change, bad checks, anything
Gimme some money, gimme some money

Doesn’t teach much of a lesson but certainly illustrates the modern feelings of entitlement.

The Atlantic City quote I considered was:

I’ve been looking for a job but they’re hard to find
Down here there’s just winners and losers
and don’t get caught on the wrong side of that line

Really, Bruce has so many songs about money it’s hard to pick.

“Once I had myself a million
now I’ve only got a dime.
Difference don’t seem quite as bad today.
With a nickle or a million
I was searching all the time
for something that I never lost nor left behind.”

Or Blood, Sweat and Tears (I don’t think they were the original artist but the earliest one I heard sing “God Bless the Child”) on spending habits,

“When you’ve got money
you’ve got lots of friends
hanging ’round your door.
But when the money’s gone
and all your spending ends
they won’t come ’round any more.”

“they build buildings to house people
making money
or they build buildings to make money
off of housing people
it’s true
like a lot of things are true”

“science chases money
and money chases its tail
and the best minds of my generation
can’t make bail”

“and big government should not stand between a man and his money
i mean “what’s good for business is good for the country”
our children still take that lie like communion
the same old line
the confederacy used on the union”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNsSIX-G7I4

From The Clash – Magnificent Seven. The whole song really, but here’s another good nugget:

Working for a rise, better my station
Take my baby to sophistication
She’s seen the ads, she thinks it’s nice
Better work hard – I seen the price
Never mind that it’s time for the bus
We got to work – an’ you’re one of us
Clocks go slow in a place of work
Minutes drag and the hours jerk

Richard Cory

Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean-favoured and imperially slim.

And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
“Good Morning!” and he glittered when he walked.

And he was rich, yes, richer than a king,
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine — we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.

So on we worked and waited for the light,
And went without the meat and cursed the bread,
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet in his head.

Edwin Arlington Robinson

You left me with a Keno card
Life in Vegas really ain’t that hard!
Ran it up to about 50 grand
Cashed it in, and held it in my hand.
That kind of money gets the word around
Makes a lost love, come up found
I hear you knocking, honey, on my door
You ain’t livin here no more!
I tried to tell you before..you might have made your move….too soon.

“never make your move too soon” classic blues, check out the recent duet of this between BB King & Roger Daltry

God bless you for including the Boss. I have no idea why this broad left out Bruce Springsteen. He’s only been the most persistent voice of the middle-class since the 1970s…

I would have included Atlantic City for good measure.

“Well, I got a job and tried to put my money away
But I got debts that no honest man can pay
So I drew what I had from the central trust
And I bought us two tickets on that coast city bus.”

Thank you so much for including the seventh track from Born to Run. My dad is markedly better having read your comment.

I’m glad to know someone else on this forum has musical taste.

Meeting Across The River:

Well Cherry says she’s gonna walk
‘Cause she found out I took her radio and hocked it
But Eddie, man, she don’t understand
That two grand’s practically sitting here in my pocket
And tonight’s gonna be everything that I said
And when I walk through that door
I’m just gonna throw that money on the bed
She’ll see this time I wasn’t just talking…

Badlands:

Poor man wanna be rich,
Rich man wanna be king
And a king ain’t satisfied
Till he rules everything

The Promise:

Johnny works in a factory and Billy works downtown
Terry works in a rock and roll band
Lookin’ for that million-dollar sound

The River:

I got a job working construction for the Johnstown Company
But lately there ain’t been much work on account of the economy
Now all them things that seemed so important
Well mister they vanished right into the air
Now I just act like I don’t remember
Mary acts like she don’t care

Johnny 99:

Well they closed down the auto plant in Mahwah late that month
Ralph went out lookin’ for a job but he couldn’t find none
He came home too drunk from mixin’Tanqueray and wine
He got a gun shot a night clerk now they call’m Johnny 99

Ain’t Got You:

I got a pound of caviar sitting home on ice
I got a fancy foreign car that rides like paradise
I got a hundred pretty women knockin’ down my door
And folks wanna kiss me I ain’t even seen before
I been around the world and all across the seven seas
Been paid a king’s ransom for doin’ what comes naturally
But I’m still the biggest fool honey this world ever knew
‘Cause the only thing I ain’t got baby I ain’t got you

57 Channels:

I bought a bourgeois house in the Hollywood hills
With a truckload of hundred thousand dollar bills
Man came by to hook up my cable TV
We settled in for the night my baby and me
We switched ’round and ’round ’til half-past dawn
There was fifty-seven channels and nothin’ on

Some of these aren’t lessons I’d want to emulate, mind …

a favorite on the wrong way to manage finances as a couple, from The Band:

I took up all of my winnings
And I gave my little Bessie half
And she tore it up and threw it in my face
Just for a laugh