Give 'em Hell Harry [Tommy Shaw]
That's all he ever thought about
From the first time he touched those ivory keys
He never had a single doubt
Then in honky tonks and bars
Never once entertained the thought
Of playing a silly six string guitar
He was a piano player dog gone it, case closed
He found the roads in an awful state
I'm not talking about Missouri per se
But the thoroughfares weren't so great
He said "My name is Harry, Harry Truman"
When the lights came on they rang your liberty bell
From Missouri to the White House
There's one thing Harry knew
If you don't learn to milk a cow
They'll never ask you to
Those citizens were in luck
He strapped his family's old upright Kimble
Up in the bed of his county truck
And every day on his lunch break
All that summer long
He'd park his truck beside the lake
And play a medley of popular songs
The man sure knew how to string 'em together too
Led him to the White House
Under good old FDR
His piano now drew high class crowds
And he was smoking 50 cent cigars
They were building atom bombs
But how on earth was Harry to know
What the hell was going on
Until that fateful day
When Harry and the rest of the nation got
The news that the President had passed away
And in an instant the music stopped and the weight
Of the world fell upon his shoulders
With Churchill and Stalin too
They posed for pictures out by the bar-b-que grill
Then they went inside for stew
Grumpy old Churchill was soon filled with doubt
Over all of Stalin's demands
All Harry could seem to think about
Was Stalin's tiny little hands
Couldn't be much of a piano player, that's for certain
When the lights came on they rang your liberty bell
From Missouri to the White House
There's one thing Harry knew
If you don't learn to milk a cow
They'll never ask you to
And when all was said and done
He went back home and opened up a piano bar
And called it "Jefferson's Favorite Son"
Quit shaving, grew his hair down past his shoulders
And wore a fringed John Lennon vest
Got snide remarks from some of the local elders
But he was loved by all the rest
He'd put on a red velvet suit
And perform his medley of holiday songs
To a 21 gun salute
When the lights came on they rang your liberty bell
From Missouri to the White House
There's one thing Harry knew
If you don't learn to milk a cow
They'll never ask you to
Harry Truman learned piano at a young age and loved to play whenever he could. While the lyrics to this song would best be classified as a tall tale, it embodies the spirit of Truman nonetheless.
At age 30, after working as a clerk, bookkeeper, farmer. and national guard soldier, in 1914, he was appointed road overseer in southern half of Washington Township in Jefferson County, Missouri, so he did have a hand in the building of roads. Whether he did much traveling to play piano semi-professionally is unclear.
Truman fought in World War I and then became a lawyer and worked to complete the road system in Missouri. He eventually became a judge before entering politics as a senator from Missouri.
During World War II as the Vice President for President Franklin Roosevelt's unprecedented 4th term, Harry was thrust into the presidency at a critical time upon Roosevelt's death. He was picked to replace Spiro Agnew as VP because party leaders wanted more of a centrist since FDR would likely not survive the term. He didn't meet with FDR much in his short time as VP and was not briefed on the atomic bomb program or many other details of the war. As president he did meet with Churchill and Stalin. He also made the hard decision to use atomic weapons to end the war with Japan more quickly, and he was elected to a second term.
After his presidency he worked on his memoirs and established the Truman Library. Whether he owned and played in a piano bar isn't certain. He stayed in the public eye until his death, and their is no evidence that he grew out his hair. He may have played Santa at Christmas and sat at the piano to play carols, of course.
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