Here is one Dee requested

[DEACONLLB]

Merle sings 1929 that was just a little before my time, but not much.

https://youtu.be/NaYKPtFNVHc

Deaconllb

[ironglow]

.
  Nice song, and I am sure it will be enjoyed.  However, I have tio quibble (a friendly quibble) with one phrase Merle used.

   Merle says repeatedly.."a dollar wasn't worth a dime"..  Here is where it needs correction!

   Actually, a dollar was worth far more than it is today, but the real problem was that most folks simply didn't have very many dollars. For example, check out this ad for the 1934 Ford sedan..the same model Bonnie & Clyde met their death in.

   https://scvhistory.com/scvhistory/gd3401.htm

       Yep, starting at $505..but as I mentioned..my Dad worked at logging for a dollar a day, and his dinner...but he had to furnish his own team of horses.

[DEACONLLB]

Men worked on the WPA for a dollar a day and that was from daylight till dark but at that time a dollar would by something eggs were 10 cent a doz. bread was 10 cent a loaf I remember when it was raised to 15 cents. People who lived on farms did pretty well as they were able to sell some of their produce or use it to barter for what they needed. Gas was from 10 cent to 12 cent a gal. When I started driving in the early fifties it was only 15 cent a gal. If you corrected every word in the songs we listen too we would not have many to listen to just saying, lot of songs we can class as half truths.

Deaconllb 

[oldandslow]

It takes a little over 15 of today's dollars to purchase what a 1929 dollar would. It takes about 16.38 of today's dollars to purchase what one 1930 dollar would buy. My parents lived through the depression. It wasn't that a dollar wasn't worth much, it was the fact that almost no one had a dollar. My mother told me that they lived an entire year year on only $64 and they earned it pulling bolls for a neighbor. If you have never drug a cotton sack day after day you have no idea just how hard that is to do.

[Dee]

.
  Nice song, and I am sure it will be enjoyed.  However, I have tio quibble (a friendly quibble) with one phrase Merle used.

   Merle says repeatedly.."a dollar wasn't worth a dime"..  Here is where it needs correction!

   Actually, a dollar was worth far more than it is today, but the real problem was that most folks simply didn't have very many dollars. For example, check out this ad for the 1934 Ford sedan..the same model Bonnie & Clyde met their death in.

   https://scvhistory.com/scvhistory/gd3401.htm

       Yep, starting at $505..but as I mentioned..my Dad worked at logging for a dollar a day, and his dinner...but he had to furnish his own team of horses.

 

So now your correcting old song favorites on the music forum? 

You really should listen to the song first.
I mean, actually listen, before starting your critique pointing out the writers errors. 


Haggard didn't repeatedly say; a dollar "wasn't worth" one thin dime.
YOU said that.
Actuality vs perception 


The lyrics go;
Are we living now or is it 1929
A dollar bill "ain't worth" one thin dime
And tricks are sometimes played upon the mind
Are we living now or 1929

So in the chorus he repeatedly said; a dollar bill "ain't worth" one thin dime

If one understands, and "actually listens" to the lyrics, you realize Haggard is singing about the similarities of LIFE NOW, and in 1929.

The lyric: A dollar bill "ain't worth" one thin dime
Is talking about life today, and todays devalued dollar causing depression like poverty.

So no, that lyric doesn't need correcting, you just don't understand the song, and commented according to your own "perception".
Which is generally fairly poor.

You don't listen to what people are saying, because your too busy thinking about what your gonna say when they quit talking.
In this case Merle Haggard singing. 

[ironglow]

.
  Dee;
   Perhaps you should read where I said..

   
  " Nice song, and I am sure it will be enjoyed  However, I have tio quibble (a friendly quibble) with one phrase Merle used."

  BTW:  I did listen to the song, if you will note, I had to listen to it to hear him claim the dollar wasn't worth a dime..   Did you check the link I offered? 

   Beyond that, let's look at the facts guys..the depression was real!  A dollar a day...  OK eggs at 10 cents a dozen. How many today pleased to work dawn to dark for 10 dozen eggs? 
 
  OK, let's extrapolate.. Until recent months , eggs were selling for about $1.39 a dozen. So how many today would be pleased to work for $13.90 a day?

  OK..gas at 10-12 cents, does a full day's work for 8-10 gallons of gas sound right for today?  Especially when a family has much more than gasoline to purchase.

   O&S said, " It wasn't that a dollar wasn't worth much, it was the fact that almost no one had a dollar."
  ..And that is primarily what I was saying.  Consider as you said, let's take the figures you offered..a 1929 dollar worth $15 of today's dollars.  For sure, a dollar was worth more than a dime...

    Your folks made $64 dollars a year during the depression. Ok let's trace that out .....$64 X $15 = $960..
  How well could a family do today on $960 a year.

   OK..let's just go 10 times that figure, how well would a family do on $9600 per year ?

  Deacon had a valid point !  Living in the country had some advantages, grow your own, barter for what you didn't grow.  There were wild berries, maple syrup and various other food from the land and woods.

  My folks had several children through the depression.  Yes, some welfare was available, but my folks ..and plenty others would not touch it.  "That was for the teuly down-and-out.."

  I think Deacon had another good point when he said. ", lot of songs we can class as half truths."
  Perhaps I am being a bit picayune, but the Deacon was correct.. Lyricist's privilege, I presume..

  One thing I did notice with some folks..  If one dares to correct anything about their favorite song or singer, no matter how trivial...they suddenly turn hostile !  Come on folks..it's only a song..or singer..

[DEACONLLB]

Well Back when I was a kid when I got home from grade  school I grabbed my cotton sack and went to the cotton field down the road and picked cotton at the end of the day I may have made 15 cents But then I am like Roy Clarks song I never could pick cotton but I have done it
Now back to words in a song. Don Williams has a song and one of the lines in the song is Hold me so close that I can feel your heart beat. I really don't think that is possible. I have held my late wife very close many times and even when we were young and hot blooded I never felt her heart beat.

Deaconllb

[ironglow]

.
  I never picked cotton, but then again..cotton was never in season where I grew up !    However, strawberries, potatoes and string beans did come into season..and I certainly picked my share of that, as well as puting up hay, oats etc, for our farm and the fams of our  neighbors.

  In any case, no harm intended..and I guess I can be quite meticulous about accuracy ! ..Perhaps more so than the  average music fan does.

  Note, I did say a 'friendly quibble' in reply #1...no hostile intention.

[Dee]

So much for the music forum.