Panic is On, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer says the country is falling apart; no one can get work; landlords are raising rents; women are selling fruit, booze, or "everything they can." I things don't change "there'll be some stealin' done." Cho: "Doggone...I mean the panic is on."
AUTHOR: Probably Hezekiah Jenkins
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (recording, Vic Collins [Hezekiah Jenkins])
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer says the country is falling apart; no one can get work, folks are homeless and walking the streets; landlords are raising rents and evicting those who can't pay; to support their men, women are selling fruit, booze, or "everything they can." Singer has pawned everything but his gun; if things don't change "there'll be some stealin' done." Chorus: "Doggone...I mean the panic is on."
KEYWORDS: poverty crime robbery unemployment hardtimes nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, PANICON
Roud #15867
RECORDINGS:
Vic Collins [pseud. for Hezekiah Jenkins], "The Panic is On" (Columbia 14585-D, 1931)
NOTES [31 words]: The Great Depression is usually considered to have begun with the crash of the stock market in 1929; however, conditions in rural areas had been depressed for several years before then. - PJS
File: DTpanico

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