Hard Times

There's one surefire cure for the soul when times turn tough everywhere you look, and your pound is stretched so tight you could use it as a trampoline: sweet music. Every economic valley humanity's ever endured has inspired songs of pride, anger and hope that make hard times easier to bear. The Specials invoke the spirit of recessions past with their doom-laden, but soul-stirring, "Ghost Town". Ray Charles files a blues-drenched bankruptcy notice when he puts a soulful squeeze on the empty-pockets country classic "I'm Busted". And if those pinched-pocket problems start to pile up so high you can't see across to the other side, that's when you need to tap into the transcend-and-conquer vibe of Pete Seeger's hymn to the holy (human) spirit, "We Shall Overcome".

Discover more vibrant voices crying out for better fiscal weather, in Next Steps.

When it looks like the whole world's got its back up against the wall, there's no need to let your spirits sink — not with these recession-proof tunes to make life on the money-go-round feel like a crazy carousel ride. Randy Newman takes his troubles to the top man on "Mr. President (Have Pity On the Working Man)", the most soulful bailout request you'll ever hear. Bessie Smith was the first to tell the world "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out", in 1923, but 36 years later Nina Simone proved it again and it rings truer than ever today. And what's the wiser financial plan: looking out for number one or praying for divine intervention? Billie Holiday doubles down on a little bit of both with her gold standard "God Bless the Child".

In Deep Cuts, we'll hear the sound of the soul striking back at hard times.

Pushing through when hard times hit your door can feel like walking against a hurricane, but with anthems of outrage and — eventually — triumph on your side, you'll have just what you need to keep on plugging away. Jarvis Cocker calls it likes he sees it without mincing words on "Running the World", while humanitarian activist and principled folkie Harry Chapin spins the yarn of "The Day They Closed the Factory Down", and the Skids offer a Scots punk overview of the global fiscal picture on "Working for the Yankee Dollar". Bluesman Albert Collins looks up from the bottom on "When the Welfare Turns Its Back On You", and Al Jolson offers his cure-all solution for the fact that, in hard times, life can be rubbish: "Keep Smiling At Trouble".

Hard times may keep coming back like a bad penny, but they're never here to stay. While they're around, though, be sure to dance and sing them down to the ground with tunes that fill you up inside even if you're wallet's feeling a wee bit thin. Your ears will feel like a million bucks once they soak up these bankable blues-busters. From the salt-of-the-earth spirit of Woody Guthrie's dust-bowl rallying cry "Pastures of Plenty" (performed by Dave Van Ronk) to Phil Collins' count-your-blessings call for compassion on the deceptively smooth pop ballad "Another Day In Paradise", here are the songs that take the face-down financial outlook and hit it head-on with everything art has to offer us in times of trouble — faith, fury, feeling, and, most important of all, fun.