The New Millionaires

Steve Skaith / Mike Jones

Lyrics

You can spend a cheque in a morning
And go hungry the same afternoon.
Sometimes the only quarters between you and a rainstorm
Are the quarters of the moon.

You know for every one way to sit up
There must be five hundred ways to beg.
And how can you ever be a man of standing
With a chain wrapped around your legs.

Just like Arbogast on the top two stairs
You’re waiting for a carver to come cutting through your cares.
Living on your savings, saving up your prayers
Come on down, the new millionaires.

The famous say walk in their footsteps
But don’t you go tread on their toes.
And if you wait for luck to open up
You’ll be waiting there to see it close.

Well I think it was viscount
Or it might have been a prince
When he said enjoy your leisure.

Song Description

The new millionaires are the unemployed. Every Thursday they cash the cheques they receive from the labour office, but the money mightn’t even last until the next day. Sometimes the only quarters between you and a rainstorm are the quarters of the moon (wordplay: quarter = accommodation: quarter of the moon = quarter moon; 1 quarter = 25 cents). If a new situation arises, it only brings disaster – like Arbogast, the private detective in Alfred Hitchcocks “Psycho”. He is stabbed by Anthony Perkins, as he’s going up the stairs. “Enjoy your leisure time!” A member of the aristocracy said. If he had shared some of his wealth it would have sounded more convincing.