Occupy Wall Street Songs

Subject: Occupy Wall Street Songs
From: Tigger the Tiger
Date: 22 Oct 11 - 11:38 AM

Will someone out there please write some really great songs for theses kids?Something like "The Times They are a-changing?"Also tell them to talk to their grandparents about how to organize?Plenty of old agitators out there.....A nice list of former SDS would help.

Subject: RE: Occupy Wall Street Songs
From: GUEST,999
Date: 22 Oct 11 - 12:21 PM

BEGONE, BEGONE YOU NEOCONS


Begone, begone you neocons
And take your billionnaires
I have watched you
From the moment of my birth
I have seen the riches that
Your corporate sons-of-bitches have
Stolen from the children of this Earth

I've watched you manufacture wars
That's what the body- bags are for
There's better ways to
Leave no child behind
I truly have come to believe
In a very simple litany
You're selling war
And mister I ain't buyin'

I see Justice standing proud
I hear Freedom singing loud
In a voice complete with deep devotion
We shall ride the wind
Unchained once again
Free as the sunlight on the ocean

#######################################

When I can be arsed I'll finish it.

Subject: RE: Occupy Wall Street Songs
From: Stringsinger
Date: 22 Oct 11 - 12:41 PM

Guest, 999 you are on the right track. Your song needs a strong chorus so that people can join in. I like the lines "I see justice standing proud, I hear freedom singing loud". I like your last verse a lot.

"Corporate sons-of-bitches" might be accurate but too hard to digest in a song.

You could however reference the Robber One Percent. If we can avoid excessive name calling in a song, it could reach more people.


Keep it up! More songs everyone!

Subject: RE: Occupy Wall Street Songs
From: GUEST,999
Date: 22 Oct 11 - 12:43 PM

The last verse IS the chorus, SS. Thanks for the remarks. The sob line stands. Just the way it is.

Subject: RE: Occupy Wall Street Songs
From: Crowhugger
Date: 22 Oct 11 - 01:02 PM

To my ear 999 already wrote a chorus--that 3rd verse would serve beautifully.

Subject: RE: Occupy Wall Street Songs
From: Stringsinger
Date: 22 Oct 11 - 01:24 PM

Here we go!!

Subject: RE: Occupy Wall Street Songs
From: GUEST,SteveT
Date: 23 Oct 11 - 04:33 AM

I've sung this a few times. As with most of mine, it sounds more in the "traditional" idiom rather than Bob Dylan.

Now the frost was set hard on the field
And the sun it hung low in the sky
The land it had ceased for to yield
The ewes and the cattle they died

Chorus
Oh where were you then in our need
As we called for your aid and we cried
Oh help us our children to feed
But you turned your heads and passed by

So we fled from the land in our droves
To the dark of the mills were condemned
Farewell to the pastures and groves
But our children were still cold and clemmed

The depression it robbed us of pride
And the mills they were all closing down
So we marched with the new union tide
To the south from our bleak northern towns

But you gathered your wealth from our need
Making money from money again
Making greed your religion and creed
Ignoring the working man's pain

Now you sit in your country estates
With your bonuses keeping you warm
Just look to your fortified gates
And hope that you weather the storm.

Subject: RE: Occupy Wall Street Songs
From: Joe_F
Date: 23 Oct 11 - 06:17 PM

Tho rather long & complicated for group singing, Four Prominent Bastards, written by Ogden Nash in 1933, seems to me to have the right spirit. Perhaps four groups could learn the versus, and everybody sing the chorus.

Subject: RE: Occupy Wall Street Songs
From: bobad
Date: 23 Oct 11 - 06:45 PM

Call It Democracy
Bruce Cockburn

Padded with power here they come
International loan sharks backed by the guns
Of market hungry military profiteers
Whose word is a swamp and whose brow is smeared
With the blood of the poor

Who rob life of its quality
Who render rage a necessity
By turning countries into labour camps
Modern slavers in drag as champions of freedom

Sinister cynical instrument
Who makes the gun into a sacrament --
The only response to the deification
Of tyranny by so-called "developed" nations'
Idolatry of ideology

North South East West
Kill the best and buy the rest
It's just spend a buck to make a buck
You don't really give a flying fuck
About the people in misery

IMF dirty MF
Takes away everything it can get
Always making certain that there's one thing left
Keep them on the hook with insupportable debt

See the paid-off local bottom feeders
Passing themselves off as leaders
Kiss the ladies shake hands with the fellows
Open for business like a cheap bordello

And they call it democracy
And they call it democracy
And they call it democracy
And they call it democracy

See the loaded eyes of the children too
Trying to make the best of it the way kids do
One day you're going to rise from your habitual feast
To find yourself staring down the throat of the beast
They call the revolution

IMF dirty MF
Takes away everything it can get
Always making certain that there's one thing left
Keep them on the hook with insupportable debt

Bruce Cockburn Live . Call It Democracy

Subject: RE: Occupy Wall Street Songs
From: Fossil
Date: 23 Oct 11 - 07:09 PM

Some of Joe Hill's songs might well fit (see thread on Joe Hill).

Other suggestions?

"Masters of War" (classic Dylan)

"If I had a Rocket Launcher" (Bruce Cockburn)

Subject: RE: Occupy Wall Street Songs
From: Rapparee
Date: 23 Oct 11 - 07:46 PM

Banks Are Made Of Marble

I've traveled round this country
From shore to shining shore.
It really made me wonder
The things I heard and saw.

I saw the weary farmer,
Plowing sod and loam;
I heard the auction hammer
A knocking down his home.

[Chorus:]
But the banks are made of marble,
With a guard at every door,
And the vaults are stuffed with silver,
That the farmer sweated for.

I saw the seaman standing
Idly by the shore.
I heard the bosses saying,
Got no work for you no more.

But the banks are made of marble,
With a guard at every door,
And the vaults are stuffed with silver,
That the seaman sweated for.

I saw the weary miner,
Scrubbing coal dust from his back,
I heard his children cryin',
Got no coal to heat the shack.

But the banks are made of marble,
With a guard at every door,
And the vaults are stuffed with silver,
That the miner sweated for.

I've seen my brothers working
Throughout this mighty land;
I prayed we'd get together,
And together make a stand.

[Final Chorus:]
Then we'd own those banks of marble,
With a guard at every door;
And we'd share those vaults of silver,
That we have sweated for

Subject: RE: Occupy Wall Street Songs
From: Charley Noble
Date: 23 Oct 11 - 08:14 PM

"I'm the 99" works well for me.

I did hear an updated version of "The Times Are a Changing" at the North America Urban Folk Songs conference yesterday as led by one of the oh so young students at the Elizabeth Irwin High School.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Occupy Wall Street Songs
From: Charley Noble
Date: 24 Oct 11 - 09:10 AM

Another old song that could be updated, All for Me Grog/Across the Western Suburbs:

Where is me bank,
Me community saving banks?
All gone for profit and for plunder!
Who can you trust
When all the banks go bust?
And across the Western suburbs we shall wander!

Then Woody Guthrie had this fine protest song on behalf of foreclosed farmers in the Dust Bowl:

My name is Tom Cranker
And I'm a jolly banker;
I'm a jolly banker,
Jolly banker am I...

I can look up the rest of that one if anyone has an interest (no pun intended).

Charley Noble, temporarily resident in NYC

Subject: RE: Occupy Wall Street Songs
From: Jeri
Date: 24 Oct 11 - 01:30 PM

James Gordon's We're the 99

Subject: RE: Occupy Wall Street Songs
From: Don Firth
Date: 24 Oct 11 - 02:02 PM

Verse from Guthrie's Pretty Boy Floyd:

As I've travelled through this country
I've seen lots of funny men;
Some will rob you with a six-gun,
Some with a fountain pen.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Occupy Wall Street Songs
From: GUEST,999
Date: 24 Oct 11 - 02:05 PM

Funny you should mention, Don. Last night an American friend for whom I'd sung that song forty-five years ago quoted that stanza with regard to the present situation in the US. Just mentioning, apropos of nothing.

Subject: RE: Occupy Wall Street Songs
From: GUEST,spew120
Date: 24 Oct 11 - 03:39 PM

Are there any incarnations of the "Blow the Man Down" shanty which would fit the bill??

Subject: RE: Occupy Wall Street Songs
From: Mo the caller
Date: 25 Oct 11 - 07:14 AM

In the UK the thread title might get you jailed for inciting a riot.

Subject: RE: Occupy Wall Street Songs
From: Suffet
Date: 26 Oct 11 - 04:53 PM

Please click here for a video of me singing Union Warriors at Occupy Wall Street in New York City on October 7, 2011. I originally wrote Union Warriors to honor NYC transit workers who went out on strike in 2005, and in honor of their union leader Roger Toussaint. However, it is really I tribute to all the warriors of organized labor, past, present and future.

I have been singing Union Warriors every time I have been at the OWS encampment in Zuccotti Park. My most receptive audiences have been at lunch time when union workers from nearby construction projects visit the site.

--- Steve

Subject: RE: Occupy Wall Street Songs
From: KathyW
Date: 26 Oct 11 - 07:28 PM

This isn't quite exactly on point since it pre-dates the whole "Occupy" thing, but my friend Tom Kastle wrote a protest song about the protesters being kept out of the capitol building in Madison, Wisconsin earlier this year.   (That was a short-lived situation, they are now allowed back in again.) Here's a video of the song on YouTube: http://youtu.be/lOnxh-7QfM4

Tom reports they've been having daily protest sings in Madison for months. I've pointed out this thread to Tom, he may show up and comment further about that and what they've been singing.

Subject: RE: Occupy Wall Street Songs
From: Tigger the Tiger
Date: 27 Oct 11 - 07:00 AM

No matter how people feel about Phil Ochs,I sure wish he were here to write a song now. He could usually hit the target very cleverly.

Subject: RE: Occupy Wall Street Songs
From: GUEST,Chris
Date: 03 Nov 11 - 07:24 AM

A song called "No It's Not OK" - avaialble for free streaming and download at:
http://www.reverbnation.com/spectacularfool


Lyrics:


You work all your life just to make ends meet
Forget about a pension and Social Security
You'll be working until you're eighty - that's downward mobility

No, it's not OK
There's a better way
Main Street's brighter day
Let's start it here on Wall Street

The game is stacked in the 1%'s favor
And we the 99 are not allowed at the table
Well the GDP says that there is wealth being created
But it floats to the top away from those who generate it

No, it's not OK
There's a better way
Main Street's brighter day
Let's start it here on Wall Street

They know that to conquer they must first divide
So they stoke up discontentment with those who are unionized
Sure they have nice pensions and sane working hours too
But instead of tearing them down why not build up me and you?
Because you deserve the same things for your labor
And the 99% are your friends and neighbors

No, it's not OK
There's a better way
Main Street's brighter day
Let's start it here on Wall Street

We don't want a handout we just want what we've earned
And a fair shake for those who have been so badly burned
Holding criminals responsible: what could be more mainstream?
It's time to stop the theft of the American Dream

Subject: RE: Occupy Wall Street Songs
From: KathyW
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 12:01 AM

Just found out that Mark Dvorak here in Chicago wrote a good song, "I'm the 99":
http://youtu.be/2GcDQrfTHM8

Lyrics & chord chart on his website under the "news" page:
http://www.markdvorak.com

Subject: RE: Occupy Wall Street Songs
From: Joe_F
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 02:20 PM

Tom Paxton's "I Am Changing My Name to Chrysler" might well be brought up to date. (There is nothing new under the sun.)

Subject: T.O.W. Where Are the Folk Songs?
From: Allan C.
Date: 13 Nov 11 - 06:00 AM

It seems to me that nearly every major social movement had a song or even more than one that encapsulated the main concept. I've been waiting to hear one for the Take Over Wall Street movement. Has anybody heard one yet?

Subject: RE: T.O.W. Where Are the Folk Songs?
From: GRex
Date: 13 Nov 11 - 06:14 AM

I don't have a new song but was thinking this morning that Keith Marsden's song 'Idlers and Scivers' (AKA 'Knocking Down the Door') has become relevant again.

         GRex

Subject: RE: T.O.W. Where Are the Folk Songs?
From: GUEST,Treacle Bolly
Date: 13 Nov 11 - 11:57 AM

Not "folk" but... time to disinter 10cc's "Wall Street Shuffle" ?

Subject: RE: Occupy Wall Street Songs
From: Charley Noble
Date: 13 Nov 11 - 05:26 PM

There's a fine rendition of "Save the Rich" put together by Garfunkel and Oates: click here for video!

It brings tears to my ancient eyes!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Occupy Wall Street Songs
From: Suffet
Date: 13 Nov 11 - 08:49 PM

Greetings:

Click here for a YouTube video of demonstrators in the Wisconsin State Capitol singing a version of Solidarity Forever that includes these two new verses that I wrote:

They say our day is over, and they say our time is through,
They say you need no union if your collar isn't blue,
Well that is just another lie the boss is telling you,
For the union makes us strong!

They divide us by our color, they divide us by our tongue,
They divide us men and women, they divide us old and young,
But they'll tremble at our voices, when they hear these verses sung,
For the union makes us strong!

The verses appeared in the centennial edition of The Little Red Song Book. I understand that the singing continues to take place at noon every day the Capitol is open.

The video was made on September 8, 2011, nine days before Occupy Wall Street began, so it technically is not an OWS song, but the sentiment is certainly the same and it was later sung at the OWS encampment in New York. I know because I led the singing!

--- Steve

Subject: RE: Occupy Wall Street Songs
From: Jeri
Date: 14 Nov 11 - 06:34 AM

Garfunkel and Oates: "Save the Rich"

Subject: RE: Occupy Wall Street Songs
From: Suffet
Date: 14 Nov 11 - 09:52 AM

Click here for The Music of Occupy Wall Street, a short documentary video by Natasha Del Toro. I'm the guy in the glasses, black baseball cap, blue plaid shirt, and beige jacket who talks at the beginning of the video and who reappears from time to time.

--- Steve

Subject: RE: Occupy Wall Street Songs
From: Joe Offer
Date: 14 Nov 11 - 04:01 PM

The Emma's Revolution duo (Pat Humphries and Sandy O) offer a free download of their song "Occupy Wall the USA" and a link to This Washington Post article:

Occupy Wall Street inspires a new generation of protest songs

By David Montgomery,

The night before the Oct. 6 start of the occupation of Freedom Plaza, the singer-songwriting duo Emma’s Revolution stood before a packed protest-planning rally at Busboys and Poets, fiddling with chords, harmonies and a lyric sheet.

They were in town from Occupy Boston and were still getting the hang of a song they had been inspired to write on the road down: “Occupy D.C.”

Who are we? Occupy D.C.

The crowd loved it, but Pat Humphries and Sandy O weren’t satisfied. Starting from scratch, Humphries crafted new lyrics and a melody, and they worked out the harmonies. The next evening, they carried their acoustic guitars to Freedom Plaza and performed “Occupy the U.S.A.” for the first time.

Chorus:

Welcome to the U.S. occupation

To win the hearts and minds

Defend all humankind

Tell the banks and the corporations

We’re here to occupy the U.S.A.

Sample verse:

We support our unions

And our right to organize

Students, homeless, immigrants

Are strengthening their ties

We have struggled far too long

Now let this be a sign

One percent in power

Meet the other 99!

“Sometimes, we walk away after an event and think [a new song] didn’t quite get it,” Humphries says. “Sometimes, we walk away and think, yes!”

This time felt like a yes to the women, but who knows? The first singles on the soundtrack of the revolution are being written on the fly and downloaded as we speak. Every songwriter secretly hopes to compose an anthem worthy of Dylan, Odetta, Chuck D, the Clash — pick your idol — but fans and critics will be the judge of that.

For now, what’s interesting about this new movement music is the role it’s playing in the organizing and how it identifies deeper streams that seem to link disparate cultures of rebellion in the United States and other parts of the world.

The Arab Spring; the pro-union demonstrations this year in Madison, Wis.; the plight of illegal immigrants; the execution of Troy Davis, and disenchantment with President Obama are among the themes that have inspired multiple songs by various artists in recent months.

“The Arab Spring really accelerated everything,” Sandy O says. “I think the Arab Spring is why Madison happened the way it did and why the occupations are happening the way they’re happening.”

Mount Rainier-based Emma’s Revolution saluted the Arab Spring in a new song called “Rise” and addressed Madison in “Stand Together.”

The duo wrote “Occupy the U.S.A.” as “a rally song to reflect back to the people that we as activist musicians are with them,” Sandy O says. “It’s really about them, it’s for them, and it’s something we want them to use.”

David Rovics had a different purpose in mind with his fresh tune “Occupy Wall Street.”

Rovics, based in Portland, Ore., also performed on Freedom Plaza, but there he presented his Arab Spring song (“Tunisia 2011”) and his anti-Obama song (“Four More Years”) because his Wall Street jeremiad wasn’t ready yet.

He finished it last week, and that night in a hotel room in Orlando, he sang it into the video camera of his iPhone, then uploaded it to YouTube. Now he’s on tour, playing it at every occupation he can get to.

He framed the lyrics as an answer to puzzled critics who keep asking, “Why occupy Wall Street?”

Because this is where they buy the politicians

Because this is where power has its seat

Because 99 percent of us are suffering

At the mercy of the madmen on this street

Because all of us are victims of class warfare

Being waged on us by the 1 percent

Because these greedy banksters rob the country

Leaving us without the means to pay the rent

Because the last time that we had a decent government

Was about 1932

Because we the people are supposed to run the country

But instead it’s all run by and for the few

Because now we know the rich do not pay taxes

But when they need a hand it’s us who bail them out

Because we suspected we lived in a plutocracy

But suddenly of late there is no doubt

Chorus:

And so we’re going to stay right here.

“2011 is a world historic year, right up there with 1848, 1917 and 1968, the way the movement is spreading from one country to another,” Rovics says. “It’s nice to write songs about things that are really happening.”

This music doesn’t get played on the radio. Performers such as Emma’s Revolution and Rovics tour relentlessly and have small but devoted national followings, drawing crowds of hundreds, thousands.

Emma’s Revolution’s next CD, “Revolutions Per Minute,” is due in November. Rovics allows fans to download songs for free and is releasing his next CD, “Big Red Sessions,” in November, as well.

While new songs were being tried out at the Washington occupation, the political hip-hop duo Rebel Diaz from the South Bronx was exploring Occupy Wall Street.

“I feel like we’re living in a historical moment,” says RodStarz, whose partner in Rebel Diaz goes by the name G1. “There’s definitely an energy, and it’s not only here in the United States. I think folks are just fed up.”

At Occupy Wall Street, Rebel Diaz noticed that people of color were under-represented among the demonstrators, some of whom were strumming acoustic guitars. Rebel Diaz doesn’t do acoustic guitars.

“We wanted to bring hip-hop to the white liberal table,” RodStarz says. “For the first time in a long time, large numbers of young white kids are no longer benefitting from the privileges of capitalism. Maybe they’re feeling what immigrants and poor communities have been feeling for years.”

Rebel Diaz had a hook and an idea for some lyrics when a television camera spotted the duo at the occupation. RodStarz and G1 started freestyling lyrics for the camera.

Back home in the South Bronx, they polished, recorded and uploaded the new song, called “We the 99%.” It’s on their new digital mixtape, “#OccupyTheAirwaves.” After years of performing, they plan to release their debut CD, “Radical Dilemma,” in December. The pair also aims to release a remix of the song featuring performers from occupations across the country.

Chorus:

We the 99 the 99 the 99 percent

We here, we arrived and we came to represent

Sample verse:

Your daddy lost his pension

Your daughter’s school needs fixin’

Your brother’s back in prison

The lesson here ain’t kumbaya

Like overnight the change gon’ come? Nah

But what they got?

We got 99, they got 1

Problem — and it’s us!

© The Washington Post Company

Subject: RE: Occupy Wall Street Songs
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 15 Nov 11 - 05:07 PM

Here's a good one that I stumbled on: We Are The Many - Makana

We Are The Many
Lyrics and Music by Makana
Makana Music LLC © 2011

Download song for free here:
http://makanamusic.com/?slide=we-are-the-many

We Are The Many

Ye come here, gather 'round the stage
The time has come for us to voice our rage
Against the ones who've trapped us in a cage
To steal from us the value of our wage

From underneath the vestiture of law
The lobbyists at Washington do gnaw
At liberty, the bureaucrats guffaw
And until they are purged, we won't withdraw

We'll occupy the streets
We'll occupy the courts
We'll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few

Our nation was built upon the right
Of every person to improve their plight
But laws of this Republic they rewrite
And now a few own everything in sight

They own it free of liability
They own, but they are not like you and me
Their influence dictates legality
And until they are stopped we are not free

We'll occupy the streets
We'll occupy the courts
We'll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few

You enforce your monopolies with guns
While sacrificing our daughters and sons
But certain things belong to everyone
Your thievery has left the people none

So take heed of our notice to redress
We have little to lose, we must confess
Your empty words do leave us unimpressed
A growing number join us in protest

We occupy the streets
We occupy the courts
We occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few

You can't divide us into sides
And from our gaze, you cannot hide
Denial serves to amplify
And our allegiance you can't buy

Our government is not for sale
The banks do not deserve a bail
We will not reward those who fail
We will not move till we prevail

We'll occupy the streets
We'll occupy the courts
We'll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few

We'll occupy the streets
We'll occupy the courts
We'll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few

We are the many
You are the few