My inner populist digs this song. Yet, I think it barely scratches the surface of the growing working class frustration and anger with the loss of jobs and big Wall Street and banker bailouts.
John Rich Shuttin’ Detroit Down
Written By: John Rich, John D. Anderson
My daddy taught me that in this country everyone’s the same
You work hard for your dollar and you never pass the blame
When it don’t go your way
Now I see all these big shots whinin’ on my evening news
About how they’re losin’ billions and how it’s up to me and you
To come running to the rescue
Well pardon me if I don’t shed a tear ’cause they’re selling make believe
And we don’t buy that here
Cause in the real world there shutting Detroit down
While the boss man takes his bonus pay and jets out of town
And DC’s bailing out the bankers as the farmers auction ground,
Yeah while they’re living it up on Wall Street in that New York City town,
Here in the real world there shuttin’ Detroit down.
They’re shuttin’ Detroit down.
Well that old man’s been workin’ in that plant most all of his life
Now his pension plan’s been cut in half and he can’t afford to die
And it’s a crying shame, ’cause he ain’t the one to blame
When I look down and see his caloused hands,
Let me tell you friend it gets me fightin’ mad
Cause in the real world there shutting Detroit down
While the boss man takes his bonus pay and jets out of town
And DC’s bailing out the bankers as the farmers auction ground,
Yeah while they’re living it up on Wall Street in that New York City town,
Here in the real world there shuttin’ Detroit down.
They’re shuttin’ Detroit down.
Instrumental solo
Yeah while there’ living it up on Wall Street in that New York City town
Here in the real world there shuttin’ Detroit down
Here in the real world there shuttin’ Detroit down
In the real world they’re shuttin Detroit down, they’re shuttin’ Detroit down.
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Mmm. Great song. I just heard this for the first time last week on WXPN and it really moved me. My grandpa was a Detroit city police officer for 25 years (my Mom grew up on 7.5 mile). All of my family lives in the surrounding Detroit area and it is tough to see their economy continue to crumble. It may be even harder to see these huge bailouts though. Maybe that’s why I have so much pride these days in being a Libertarian, since they were the only party to consistently oppose the bailouts since pre-Obama. Anyways, this song really moved me and thanks for posting the link to the video with it.
Detroit is such a sad place now. I mean, it was never great, but now it just sucks. There really aren’t many great working class cities now.