Why 1959? It was back in a time when almost all white Americans thought everything was great for everyone, which of course, it wasn’t if you were black, Italian, Jewish, poor, Asian …
That was the last year of the Fabulous Fifties where everything seemed possible if you were white and worked hard, and for most whites, life was good. Everyone else was still pretty much “in their place.” It was at the relative beginning of the Civil Rights era and the Cold War, so the conflicts had not come to the surface to the extent they did just a few years later.
The ruling class was completely unchallenged at that time (again, radically different than say, 1969), and I picture, as is in the lyrics, a bunch of privileged rich kids growing up to take on their fathers’ places in business, politics, and the world.
Lyrics
Father was a lawyer
While mother stayed at home
Cleaning up the secrets
Sisters got married
While the boys went off to Harvard
Drinking every evening
In Ivy halls they sat and laughed
And smoked and spent their daddy’s money
As they planned out all our futures
Pour another glass…
It’s the same old thing
You got the money
Got the golden rings
It’s the same old thing
We live the tragedies
While you sit there and drink
[Château Lafite]
1959
The strong they do just what they will
The weak they suffer what they must
They had the power, so it must be just
And it was clear who was who
The Blacks, Italians, and the Jews
Those were the good old days
It’s the same old thing
Daddy’s company was strong
It would be yours before too long
Pass on the golden future to the right ones
It’s dog eat dog and so they did
A big fat cat is just pig
If you make the rules they don’t apply to you
It’s the same old thing
You got the money
You got the golden ring
1959
I will not
Lay down and die
So you can stay alive
I will not
Give up my dreams
So you can have your comfort
I will not
Stand idly by
As you live off the blood of others
It’s the same old thing
We live the tragedies
While you sit there and drink
It’s the same old thing
But I’ll tell you the truth:
I would watch my back if I were you.