The music of mortgages...

Posted on 21 August 2008 by Drew

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Even though I work in mortgages, unlike my erstwhile colleague Ray Boulger, it is not my passion. Music takes that title. Someone who knows me well asked if I had ever investigated the use of the word mortgage in music and I delighted in telling him I am not that sad. However, the thought has been lingering and I now find myself beginning to see who has managed to get mortgage into a song. Here we go

A man's on a ledge, says he's gonna jump
People gather round, said, "He won't he's just a chump"
Cause he lost his job, then he got robbed
His mortgage is due and his marriage is through

Grandmaster Flash there with his take on New York, New York. IT seems to start a fairly long running theme that any mention of mortgage is either prefixed or suffixed with woe and general demise. So, how refreshing to find one song that has mention of mortgage and leaves you positively glowing. It is an American version of our own Robin Hood by the look of it by the great American singer/songwriter Woody Guthrie. Even with the risk of you clicking elsewhere, I have put in all the lyrics and it will take 30 seconds to read. If only we all had a modern day outlaw to come and pay our mortgages off heh? Enjoy…

Now gather round me, fellows
A story I will tell
Of Pretty Boy Floyd the outlaw
Oklahoma knew him well

'Twas in the town of Shawnee
On a Saturday afternoon
His wife beside him in the wagon
As into town they rode.

A deputy sheriff approached him
In a manner rather rude
Using vulgar words of anger
And his wife she overheard

Pretty Boy grabbed a log chain,
And the deputy grabbed a gun,
And in the fight that followed
He laid that deputy down.

Then he took to the trees and timber
To live a life of shame
Every crime in Oklahoma
Was added to his name.

There's many a starvin' farmer,
The same old story told,
How this outlaw paid their mortgage
And saved their little home.

Now as through this world I ramble,
I see lots of funny men.
Some will rob you with a six-gun,
Some with a fountain pen.

But, as through this life you travel,
And as through your life you roam,
You won't never see an outlaw
Drive a family from their home

Category: Mortgages

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