@codinghorror Camper Van Beethoven - When I Win the Lottery
Little Feat - On Your Way Down

@codinghorror Lots of good suggestions already. How about, Ren, Crucify Your Culture?
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=j3fLE5n_Oe4&si=hHxylbVK_yp_SgVG

Also by Ren, Money Game, parts 1-3

@codinghorror
I think The Style Council - Walls Come Tumbling Down is going to be your sweet spot.

Others:
Run DMC - Hard Times
Talib Kweli - Eat to Live

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The Levellers - Hope Street
Fine Young Cannibals - Blue

@codinghorror Yard Act - Rich https://youtu.be/NMBS8dfvjog?si=a6llGnCN2t4gK-fF

@codinghorror Styx - “Blue Collar Man” (Long Nights)

@codinghorror Nick Cave - Easy Money
https://youtu.be/QuUqT863xBo

@codinghorror

In decending order of requirements fit:

Theo Katzman - I don't wanna be a billionaire
William Devaughn - Be thankful for what you got (massive attack cover is also good)
Modest Mouse - trailer trash
Run the Jewels - JU$T

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🔘 Thelonious Monk - Easy Street • https://youtu.be/YSMfwD6muMM

@codinghorror Surprised nobody had mentioned John Mellencamp yet. The lyrics to Scarecrow might be too in-your-face for what you want, but the sarcasm of Little Pink Houses slips by casual listeners.

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Manu Chao - Clandestino

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Primus - American Life

@codinghorror Aloe Blacc - I Need A Dollar
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nFZP8zQ5kzk

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Streets of London - Ralph McTell

Might not be subtle enough.

@codinghorror the Beatles cover of Money (That‘s What I Want) is pretty good, although not nearly as off the wall as The Flying Lizards. And maybe there should be some love for Barrett Strong‘s original as well?

@codinghorror NOFX - The Irrationality Of Rationality

NOFX - Perfect Government

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Chumbawamba - The Big Issue

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The Longest Johns - The Workers’ Song
The Longest Johns - Hard Times Come Again No More (Cover?)
Anne Feeney - War on the Workers
Jon Fromer - We Do the Work

@codinghorror Robben Ford Lateral Climb

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgxNpbq8neY

@codinghorror Hunger Strike by Temple of the Dog

More than a few opera arias, though never the big ones, I think. Eg, the servant woman singing about how extremely unfair it all is right before the Heroine saves herself from the Duke by… setting up her lifetime servant to be assaulted instead.

I remember sitting up thinking “This is in Mozart?!?” before the plot swerved back to normativity.

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@codinghorror

Golden Retriever, by Super Furry Animals

@codinghorror "The Authority Song: by John Cougar Mellencamp.

@codinghorror Pearl Jam’s Soon Forget is a nice anti-rich asshole song…

@codinghorror Queen - Keep Yourself Alive
Dire Straits - Money for Nothing (beware, contains word 'faggot')
Aerosmith - Eat the Rich

I guess Emerson, Lake and Palmer - Paper Blood may be a little on the nose? 😅

@codinghorror Bruce Springsteen, "The River" "...I got a job working construction
For the Johnstown Company
But lately, there ain't been much work
On account of the economy
"

Try anything by Jesse Welles

@codinghorror The Coup - Your Parents Cocaine https://youtu.be/nJtbSixXGgM?is=jh30__g5Y3yE_wxI

@codinghorror Radiohead’s Dollars & Cents

@codinghorror Style Council: The Lodgers; Money Go Round

@codinghorror “Pay Me” - The Philharmonik

@codinghorror Herbie Hancock - Everybody's broke . Sugarhill gang : The Message

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Dire Straits, "Telegraph Road"

Not really backgroundish, with the different crescendos, but it fits the poverty angle.

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Henrietta, Indiana — Josh Ritter

Harlem River Blues — Justin Townes Earle

Blue Sky Mine — Midnight Oil

Invisible Sun — Sting

Fast Car — Tracy Chapman

On the Turning Away — Pink Floyd

Talkin’ Bout a Revolution — Tracy Chapman

Dance Called America — Runrig

Clampdown — The Clash

In the Ghetto — Elvis Presley

The Way It Is — Bruce Hornsby

Held Up Without a Gun — Bruce Springsteen

Get Up, Stand Up — The Wailers

Fortunate Son — CCR

Everything Counts — Depeche Mode

@codinghorror

🔘 Randy Newman - Mr. President (Have Pity On The Working Man) • https://youtu.be/JIlad66IcHw

@codinghorror Joan Baez and Pretty Boy Floyd. "Some rob you with a gun, some wirh a fountain pen" (roughly)

@codinghorror There are probably hundreds of blues songs that could work. John Lee Hooker's House Rent Boogie might be a good choice.

@codinghorror
When am I going to make a living? - Sade
Feel No Pain - Sade
All about the Money - Meja
Money too tight to mention - Simply Red
Walls Come Tumbling Down - The Style Council
Ghost Town - The Specials
West End Girls - The Pet Shop Boys
Johnny Come Home - Fine Young Cannibals

@codinghorror

this land is your land, this land is my land

also, anything by the IWW
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Red_Songbook

@codinghorror TomTom Club - Happiness Can't Buy Money

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=fQUpWsQ75is

haven’t had enough café but one glaring omission:

Donna Summers - She Works Hard For The Money

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@codinghorror maybe too aggressive:
Rush - Working Man

@codinghorror https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ&t=1

@codinghorror Nothing ever happens - Del Amitri (while American businessmen snap up Van Goghs for the price of a hospital wing)

@codinghorror
Nice playlist! I agree with others to add some Bob Marley in the mix. My contribution to the conversation would be the song "The Kids Don't Stand A Chance" by Vampire Weekend.

@codinghorror
Traffic - Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys"

"The percentage you're paying is too high-priced
While you're living beyond all your means
The man in the suit has just bought a new car
And the profit he's made on your dreams"