Banker Spankers

'We Are All In This Together' - George Osborne, Tory Party Conference 2009

Musical historians could no doubt detail the decades and decades of songwriters, especially of blues and folk, who have chartered the misery meted out to ordinary folk by the financiers and their institutions - and if Shakespeare had written the blues.....

I've commented on Springsteen's current Wrecking Ball which as a whole album addresses this issue and its consequences, and Todd Snider has a song New York Banker on his latest release Acoustic Hymns and Stoner Fables that runs the thread as the narrator learns his pension fund has disappeared, but the best of the latest for me has been Ry Cooder's No Banker Left Behind from his 2011 release Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down,

My telephone rang one evening, my buddy called for me

Said the bankers are all leavin’, you better come round and see

It started revelation, they robbed the nation blind

They’re all down at the station, no banker left behind

No banker, no banker, no banker could I find

They were all down at the station, no banker left behind

Wilco recently reconvened Woody Guthrie's 1964 stab at  accounting for this in his satirical The Jolly Banker,

My name is Tom Cranker and I'm a jolly banker,
I'm a Jolly banker, jolly banker am I.
I safeguard the farmers and widows and orphans,
Singin' I'm a jolly banker, jolly banker am I.

When dust storms are sailing, and crops they are failing,
I'm a Jolly banker, Jolly banker am I.
I check up your shortage and bring down your mortgage,
Singin' I'm a jolly banker, jolly banker am I.

When money you're needing, and mouths you are feeding,
I'm a jolly banker, jolly banker am I.
I'll plaster your home with a furniture loan,
Singin' I'm a jolly banker, jolly banker am I.

If you show me you need it, I'll let you have credit,
I'm a Jolly banker, jolly banker am I.
Just bring me back two for the one I lend you,
Singin' I'm jolly banker, jolly banker am I.

When the bugs get your cotton, the times they are rotten,
I'm jolly banker, jolly banker am I.
I'll come down and help you, I'll rake you and scalp you,
Singin' I'm jolly banker jolly banker am I.

When the landlords abuse you, or sadly misuse you,
I'm a jolly banker, Jolly banker am I.
I'll send down the police chief to keep you from mischief,
Singin' I'm jolly banker, jolly banker am I.

But the final slap - announced today: Barclays chief Bob Diamond takes home £17m in pay, shares and perks.