In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
The tall man with the high hat
And the whiskers on his chin
Will soon be knocking at your door
And you ought to be in
The tall man with the high hat
Will be coming down your way
Get your savings out when you hear
Him shout "Any bonds today?"
Any bonds today? Bonds of freedom
That's what I'm selling any bonds today?
Scrape up the most you can
Here comes the freedom man
Asking you to buy a share of freedom today
Any stamps today? We'll be blest
If we all invest in the USA
Here comes the freedom man
Can't make tomorrow's plan
Not unless you buy a share of freedom today
First came the Czechs and then came the Poles
And then the Norwegians with
Three million souls
Then came the Dutch, the Belgians and France
Then all of the Balkans with hardly a chance
It's all in the Book if only you look
It's there if you read the text
They fell ev'ry one at the point of a gun
America mustn't be next
Any bonds today? All you give
Will be spent to live in the Yankee way
Scrape up the most you can
Here comes the freedom man
Asking you to buy a share of freedom today
And the whiskers on his chin
Will soon be knocking at your door
And you ought to be in
The tall man with the high hat
Will be coming down your way
Get your savings out when you hear
Him shout "Any bonds today?"
Any bonds today? Bonds of freedom
That's what I'm selling any bonds today?
Scrape up the most you can
Here comes the freedom man
Asking you to buy a share of freedom today
Any stamps today? We'll be blest
If we all invest in the USA
Here comes the freedom man
Can't make tomorrow's plan
Not unless you buy a share of freedom today
First came the Czechs and then came the Poles
And then the Norwegians with
Three million souls
Then came the Dutch, the Belgians and France
Then all of the Balkans with hardly a chance
It's all in the Book if only you look
It's there if you read the text
They fell ev'ry one at the point of a gun
America mustn't be next
Any bonds today? All you give
Will be spent to live in the Yankee way
Scrape up the most you can
Here comes the freedom man
Asking you to buy a share of freedom today
Lyrics submitted by sillybunny
Any Bonds Today? Lyrics as written by
Lyrics © CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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While Norman Rockwell was the war bond drives’ most notable artist, Irving Berlin was its’ most celebrated composer. In 1941, as his contribution to the national defense effort, Berlin, composer of God Bless America in 1939, wrote Any Bonds Today? This song became the theme song of Treasury's National Defense Savings Program. Many copies of the sheet music were distributed to help the Government make the public aware of the savings bonds and savings stamps program. In publishing this song, Berlin copyrighted it in the name of "Henry Morgenthau, Jr., Secretary of the Treasury, Washington, DC." Among others, the famous Andrews Sisters were the primary performers known for this historic song. The song was also featured in Berlin’s musical “Blue Skies.”
{Wikipedia} Any Bonds Today? is a 1942 one and a half minute propaganda film distributed by Warner Bros. during World War II. It was produced by Leon Schlesinger's Termite Terrace studio and directed by Bob Clampett for the U.S. Treasury Department. (The song for the short had been written by none other than Irving Berlin.) The short had Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, and Porky Pig encouraging theater audiences to buy bonds for the war effort. An already short cartoon, even by the standards of film cartoon shorts (which rarely exceeded ten minutes in length), the film has been shortened in most releases today even further to excise a sequence where Bugs Bunny parodies a black-faced Al Jolson.