Hard Up and Broken Down

DESCRIPTION: "Once I had money plenty and friends too, by the score... But now I'm poor and lonely... No one seems to know me now because I'm broken down." He has wasted his fortune, and now his old friends ignore him
AUTHOR: Harry Clifton (source: FolkSongAndMusicHall)
EARLIEST DATE: 1868 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: poverty money
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Randolph 838, "Hard Up and Broken Down" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #26, p. 47, "Broken Down" (1 text)
Cohans-Dublin-Jarvey-Songster, p. 34, "Broken Down" (1 text)
RollingHomeInTheMorningSongster, pp. 31-32, "Broken Down" (1 text)
BrokenDownSongster, p. 3, "Broken Down" (1 text)
Lawlor-BarneyTheGuideSongster, p. 58, "Broken Down" (1 text)
Cotton-DownInACoalMineSongster, p. 22, "Broken Down" (1 text)
CentralParkShowSongster, p. 31, "Broken Down" (1 text)
Harrigan-Hart-MulcaheyTwinsSongster, p. 48, "Broken Down" (1 text)
JennieHughes-DollyVardenSongster, p. 48, "Broken Down" (1 text)
JohnnyRoach-GreatSensationSongster, p. 46, "Broken Down" (1 text)
FolkSongAndMusicHall, "Broken Down"
Roud #7446
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Buddy, Can You Spare a Dime" (theme)
cf. "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" (theme)
cf. "If But One Heart Be True" (theme)
cf. "Up a Tree" (theme)
SAME TUNE:
Broken Up ("Vonce I geep von peer soloon down in Chatham Street, Un der I lofe me von Dutch gal, vot every day I meet") (Howes-GreatLondonFemaleMinstrelSongster, p. 50)
NOTES [57 words]: Randolph speculated that this is the "ruin of some English music-hall ditty." The literary reference ("As the immortal Shakespeare says, all this world's a stage" -- As You Like It, II.vii.139b) made this an obvious possibility. Randolph was right: It's a Harry Clifton song that showed up, without credit, in a bunch of American songsters. - RBW
Last updated in version 7.2
File: R838

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