Daniel Schorr

HANSEN: Dan, if you don't mind, I'm going to keep you in the studio just for a second.

SCHORR: Oh?

HANSEN: Because you knew the Depression, you were there.

SCHORR: Yes.

HANSEN: And there was so much music that came out of that time.

SCHORR: You said it.

HANSEN: Now, were you hearing it? Were you hearing the songs?

SCHORR: There's one song over this three-quarters of a century that I can still remember from memory.

HANSEN: Really?

SCHORR: Yeah.

HANSEN: Which one?

SCHORR: (Singing) Once I built a railroad, made it run, made it race against time. Once I built a railroad, now it's done. Brother, can you spare a dime? Once I built a tower to the sun, brick and water and lime. Once I built a tower, now it's done. Brother, can you spare a dime? Once in khaki suits, gee, you look swell filled with that Yankee Doodleyum(ph). Half a million boots went sluggin' through hell. And I was the kid with a drum. Say, don't you remember? They called me Al, it was Al all the time. Say, don't you remember, I'm your pal. Brother, can you spare a dime?

That was Depression.

-NPR July 2008