Instead of all of us running off to our respective rants regarding cultural appropriation and intersectionality after reading the following parody lyrics to the 1940s blues hit “Why Don’t You Do Right?” found in Robert Solow’s papers at the Duke University Economists’ Papers Archive, I strongly urge listening to and/or watching the following performances of the original song. I promise, once in your brain, this melody will lodge itself deep into your memory much as it had for Robert Solow’s generation of (overwhelmingly) male economists.
1941 (78 rpm record) Lil Green on Bluebird label.
1941 (78 rpm record) Nora Lee King on Decca
1942 (Film) Peggy Lee with the Benny Goodman Orchestra. This version cuts two stanzas but for that we get more Benny Goodman!
1950 (Video) Peggy Lee with The Dave Barbour Quartet
It is as difficult for me to imagine the following written by anyone else at M.I.T. besides Robert Solow, as it is difficult to imagine that his wife, the economic historian, Barbara Lewis Solow (Bobby) played no role in the following parody. Perhaps she inspired, co-wrote, or censored edited the lyrics. It is not certain that this was ever actually performed (any eye-witnesses out there?).
Now that you have learned the tune, you may embark upon deconstruction of the following artifact.
Note: the references to two textbooks by Stanley Fischer and Rudiger Dornbusch would suggest an earliest date of 1983 for this parody. By that time the reference to IBM calling might have been the last of a decade long series of skit-party pokes at Frank Fisher who served as the chief economic witness on behalf of IBM in a thirteen year antitrust case that was finally dropped in 1982.
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A song to the tune of “Why don’t you do right, like some other men do…Get outta here and get me some money too”
to be sung by somebody’s wife.
| Original lyrics | Solow |
| You had plenty money, 1922 But you let other women make a fool of you Why don’t you do right, like some other men do? Get out of here and get me some money too |
You could’ve written a terrific text But you just write that damned dy/dx Why don’t you do right, like some other men do? Get out of here and get me some money too |
| You’re sittin’ down, wonderin’ what it’s all about If you ain’t got no money, they gonna put you out Why don’t you do right, like some other men do? Get out of here and get me some money too |
You know when I picked you it was not for looks Now Stan and Rudi have those two big books Why don’t you do right, like some other men do? Get out of here and get me some money too |
| If you had prepared twenty years ago You wouldn’t ‘ve been driftin’ from door-to-door Why don’t you do right, like some other men do? Get out of here and get me some money too |
Your career started all right but it got stalled Where the hell were you when IBM called Why don’t you do right, like some other men do? Get out of here and get me some money too |
| I fell for your jive and I took you in Now all you got to offer me’s a drink of gin Why don’t you do right, like some other men do? Get out of here and get me some money too |
If you want a mama you can hug and squeeze There ain’t no future teaching Ph.D.s Why don’t you do right, like some other men do? Get out of here and get me some money too |
Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Robert M. Solow Papers, Box 83.
Image Source: Lil Green on Bluebird label file at www.archive.org