When the Deal Breaks Down
This was written when the first bail-out failed to pass the House of Representatives in late September.
WHEN THE DEAL BREAKS DOWN
(based on Bob Dylan’s “When the Deal Goes Down”, 2006)
We borrow and lend until it’s the end
Far down Wall Street we stray.
I laugh and I cry, and I’m haunted by
The mortgagors who couldn’t pay.
Each subprime loan is like invisible foam
Tomorrow keeps turnin’ around.
We live and we die, and we know not why
But I’ll be with you when the deal breaks down.
The truth can’t be said, it’s all in our head
The dream of equality.
And now we must strive to get out alive
From the frozen liquidity.
In the House so late, in the noise of debate
And money men waving their wands.
My bewilderin’ brain toils in vain
Through the darkness of mortgage backed bonds.
Tempers were frayed, disaster delayed
By the hopes when McCain came to town.
A loan pays a loan, our home’s not our own
And I’ll be with you when the deal breaks down.
- end of initial entry -
LA writes:
When I initially posted the Dylan parody, I momentarily confused the meaning of mortgagee and mortgagor. It’s not the bank that gives the homeowner the mortgage, it’s the homeowner that gives the mortgage to the bank, in exchange for which the bank gives the homeowner the loan. Therefore the homeowner is the mortgagor, and the bank is the mortgagee.
Which reminds me of something. When I attended law school for one year many years ago, I coined terms for the parties involved in an act of negligence: the person who performs the negligent act is the negligor, the victim of the act of negligence is the negligee.
* * *
Here are Dylan’s original lyrics on which my take-off is based.
When The Deal Goes Down
In the still of the night, in the world’s ancient light
Where wisdom grows up in strife
My bewildering brain, toils in vain
Through the darkness on the pathways of life
Each invisible prayer is like a cloud in the air
Tomorrow keeps turning around
We live and we die, we know not why
But I’ll be with you when the deal goes down
We eat and we drink, we feel and we think
Far down the street we stray
I laugh and I cry and I’m haunted by
Things I never meant nor wished to say
The midnight rain follows the train
We all wear the same thorny crown
Soul to soul, our shadows roll
And I’ll be with you when the deal goes down
Well, the moon gives light and it shines by night
When I scarcely feel the glow
We learn to live and then we forgive
O’r the road we’re bound to go
More frailer than the flowers, these precious hours
That keep us so tightly bound
You come to my eyes like a vision from the skies
And I’ll be with you when the deal goes down
Well, I picked up a rose and it poked through my clothes
I followed the winding stream
I heard the deafening noise, I felt transient joys
I know they’re not what they seem
In this earthly domain, full of disappointment and pain
You’ll never see me frown
I owe my heart to you, and that’s sayin’ it true
And I’ll be with you when the deal goes down
Words and music by Bob Dylan
Copyright 2006 Special Rider Music
* * *
April 21, 2009
The below exchange explains part of the song. As the reader will see in my uncomprehending initial reply to Jeff in England’s question, six months after writing it, I had forgotten myself what I had been trying to say.
I had asked Jeff what he thought of the take-off, and he wrote back:
Interesting that at first glance (in your take-off) you don’t mention race/colour.
Or did I miss it?
Very well done, one of your best ever and I’m not flattering you to make you feel better.
Good to see you’re using later Dylan material; that song has very good and wise lyrics but its melody is soooooo bland.
LA replied:
Thank you, I’m glad you like it.
Jeff wrote again:
You didn’t answer my point of why you didn’t mention race in your take-off of “When the Deal Goes Down.”
Is it because you felt it would make it into a “racial” take-off or is it “just because” (“Joey”)?
LA replies:
Why would I mention race? It’s about the financial crisis, it has nothing to do with race.
Jeff replies:
The reason I thought that you might have mentioned race is that it is well known that most of the sub-prime mortage loans etc were to blacks and Hispanics. I’m sure you knew that and so I thought you might have thrown it in the mix.
LA replies:
Of course, sorry, I forgot. It is mentioned, but very indirectly, in the verse about equality:
The truth can’t be said, it’s all in our head
The dream of equality.
And now we must strive to get out alive
From the frozen liquidity.
The search for racial equality via subprime mortgages, which was actively pushed by our leaders at the time but never stated in the plain terms I’ve just used, and which was certainly not admitted after the financial bust occurred last year, ended by putting us in this state of frozen liquidity where we are dying.
I agree that that’s too vague and allusive for most readers to get it (in fact it’s so vague and allusive that I didn’t get it, reading it months later), but that’s what I intended to say by those lines.
* * *
A related Dylan take-off is “Trillion Dollar Pork.”
Posted by Lawrence Auster at October 01, 2008 02:10 AM | Send