On the Steps of the Dole Office Door

DESCRIPTION: "The songs that we sang were about old Jack Lang On the steps of the Dole Office door. He closed up the banks, it was one of his pranks, And he sent us to the Dole Office door. We molested the police till they gave us relief..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: unemployment hardtimes
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 225, "On the Steps of the Dole Office Door" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 138-139, "Clem Murphy's Door" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [50 words]: On the face of it, it is hard to equate the two Meredith versions of this song; all they have in common is a Depression setting. But Meredith, who has direct experience of the songs, thinks them one. Both fragments describe how people survived the depression and attempted to get by on the dole. - RBW
File: MA225

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