The current subprime mortgage financial crisis brings to mind Megadeth’s “Foreclosure of a Dream” – not that there are other metal songs about foreclosures. For those outside the US, a foreclosure is the repossession or sale of property by a bank when the property owner can’t make the mortgage payments. For various reasons (higher interest rates, housing market downturn, predatory lending, unwise borrowing, etc.), foreclosures are soaring in the US. In turn, this is causing turmoil among mortgage lenders and their investors.
Megadeth – Foreclosure of a Dream
This carries echoes of the American farm crisis in the early to mid-’80s. Farmers who had borrowed at artificially low interest rates in the ’70s faced higher interest rates, decreased exports due to domestic subsidies, and declining land values. Under President Reagan, farm foreclosures soared (650,000 between 1981 and 1987), with insurance companies and corporate agribusiness buying up much of this land. Members of Megadeth bassist Dave Ellefson’s family in Minnesota were victims of such foreclosures.
Hence, “Foreclosure of a Dream,” one of Megadeth’s more nuanced (and easy to play!) songs. You can see the lyrics here. Lines like “Barren lands that once filled a need / Are worthless now, dead without a deed” specifically apply to farms, but otherwise the song has universal relevance. “More borrowed money, more borrowed time” could apply to the ’80s savings and loan crisis, as well as the collapse of President George H.W. Bush’s infamous “Read my lips” promise, a soundbite in the song. The video is straightforward and effective, depicting a foreclosure auction. Dave Mustaine’s end-of-song melisma is perhaps the finest singing he’s ever done.
I don’t know how it is in other countries, but owning property is very much an American “dream.” As this song shows, the dream can become a nightmare.
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