15-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
A Tax Day Jam Session
Image Destiny's Child onstage in 2005, giving a withering look to those bills in question. Credit... Rahav Segev
Lindsay is still out, which means you've got me (an editor who focuses on pop culture) on a day where you may need a bit of good fortune: Tax Day.
I don't know what kind of anxiety April 15 provokes in you, but I've collected a playlist inspired by a bit of family lore. As the story goes, my newly married dad once griped to my grandfather about how quickly bills ate up a paycheck, down to the last dollar. Gramps's response: 'Be glad you had that dollar.'
So in the spirit of celebrating having just enough, I'm sharing my Tax Day jams. Savvy reader, you do not need me to point out all the root-of-all-evil bangers, scrapin' and scrappin' classics or TV ad earworms that mention money, money, money. I am also not here to question the tax code. Instead, I've assembled a set of songs that bop in the face of financial constraints, because getting down is, for now, still free.
I fly in any weather,
Elena
Harlan Howard's lyrics are about as low as low gets ('my bills are all due and the baby needs shoes but I'm busted') and suit the songwriter's 'three chords and the truth' approach to country classics. But under Ray Charles's guidance, and with a blaring horn section, this 1963 single gains a 'but who cares?' lilt that earned Charles the Grammy for best R&B recording.
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