At the Protests, the Message Lacks a Melody

[groovedaddy]

“Every successful movement has a soundtrack,” the songwriter Tom Morello told reporters after he had tried to fire up the crowd at the Occupy Wall Street Protest last week with a Woody Guthrie tune and one of his own labor songs.

Perhaps he is right, but the protesters in Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan have yet to find an anthem. Nor is the rest of the country humming songs about hard times. So far, musicians living through the biggest economic disaster since the Great Depression have filled the airwaves with songs about dancing, not the worries of working people.

Where have all the protest songs gone?

To be sure, a handful of songwriters are tackling the issue. Ry Cooder, the blues and rock guitarist known for his exploration of roots music, lambastes bankers and conservatives in his latest album, “Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down” (Nonesuch). Similarly, Mr. Morello, who began his career as the guitarist and chief ideologue for the band Rage Against the Machine, makes an unapologetic call for leftist revolution in his new album, “World Wide Rebel Songs” (New West Records).

On Tuesday Everlast, a Los Angeles songwriter who mixes rap and country blues, released an album, “Songs of the Ungrateful Living” (Martyr/EMI), with the song “I Get By,” a brooding meditation on the problems of the working-class people facing unemployment and foreclosures in today’s economy. “I voted for change, and it’s kind of strange/now it’s all I got in my pocket,” he sings on the track.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/19/arts/music/occupy-wall-street-protest-lacks-an-anthem.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha28

[Eddie Haskell]

1. How about "Ruins of the Realm" by James McMurtry?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0017I95AU/ref=dm_dp_trk11

[Eddie Haskell]

2. Here are the lyrics

Standin' in the middle of a Roman street
Marble dust all over my feet
Bearded masses at the gates
Dancin' in the ruins while it's not too late

Drivin' a Rolls through old Bombay
Rickshaw driver's in my way
Well he'd better move over and he'd better move fast
Dancin' in the ruins of a golden past
Dancin' in the ruins of the Raj
Queen and country's noble cause

Standin' on banks of the river Seine
I ain't got tuppence to my name
Stand my ground and I cast my net
Dancin' in the ruins where the sun don't set
Dancin' in the ruins of the Crown
Enfield rifles keepin' us down

I got a thirty-ought-six and a premium load
In a shotgun shack on a two lane road
Smack in the middle of the bible belt
Dancin' in the ruins all by myself

We got the National Guard with fixed bayonets
We got the ten commandments on the State House steps
We shalt not steal and we shalt not kill
Dancin' in the ruins of our own free will
Dancin' in the ruins of the South
Confederate flag taped over my mouth

We thank thee lord for all we got
While the multi-nationals call the shots
So scrape them hides and clean that slate
Dancin' in the ruins of the nation-state

We'll fight 'em in the land, we'll fight 'em in the air
Little cowboy says we got to fight 'em over there
You ain't seen nothing like it since Saigon fell
Dancin' in the ruins 'cause we might as well
Dancin' in the ruins of the realm
A fool and a mad man at the helm
Dancin' in the ruins of the Reich
Down in the bunker on a hunger strike

[Demeter]

3. Les Miserables

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYizXBQ5EQA&feature=related

[Cassandra]

4. Die Gedanken Sind Frei

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbwQXVcbkU0

[valerief]

5. I think rewritten lyrics to Beyond the Sea can be used.

===================================
Revised lyrics

Somewhere beyond the sea
Is my job but not me
I got the ax so what's a taaaaaax
Cut gonna do for guys like me?

Somewhere beyond the mass
Some banker's kicking my ass
He took my home, even my gnooooome
Cuz I'm not in the ruling class

It's far beyond the bank
SCOTUS is in their tank
I'll bet you a red cent
They own all government

And who are they, you say?
Tip of the one percent
My life they've spent so recklessly
Nothing is left over for me

Somewhere beyond the greed
Are folks who will be freed
We 99ers gotta win
So never again we'll go failin'

No more failin'
So long failin'
Bye bye failin'
Move on out, Geithner

================================
Original lyrics

Somewhere beyond the sea
somewhere waiting for me
my lover stands on golden sands
and watches the ships that go sailin'

Somewhere beyond the sea
she's there watching for me
If I could fly like birds on high
then straight to her arms
I'd go sailin'

It's far beyond the stars
it's near beyond the moon
I know beyond a doubt
my heart will lead me there soon

We'll meet beyond the shore
we'll kiss just as before
Happy we'll be beyond the sea
and never again I'll go sailin'

I know beyond a doubt
my heart will lead me there soon
We'll meet (I know we'll meet) beyond the shore
We'll kiss just as before
Happy we'll be beyond the sea
and never again I'll go sailin'

no more sailin'
so long sailin'
bye bye sailin'...
move on out captain

[reconciledinunison]

6. Billy Bragg's Ode to Joy as Rally Song

this is something that i have been thinking about for a month now.

i think it is important that the songs not be political, in the same way that the songs of the civil rights movement were basically just old time gospel songs. they have uplift, and to be joyful, and easy to sing. but they also have to have relevance to today's music. woodie is great but his time has passed, and he would understand that.

the song that most epitomizes OWS to me is Sit Down by James http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRD51qEJ8t4

but all movements also need rally call songs, in addition to theme songs--that song i think should be Billy Bragg's rendition of Ode to Joy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL0Tmq_qJXg

See now like a phoenix rising
From the rubble of the war
Hope of ages manifested
Peace and freedom evermore!
Brothers, sisters stand together
Raise your voices now as one -
Though by history divided
Reconciled in unison

Throw off now the chains of ancient
Bitterness and enmity
Hand in hand let's walk together
On the path of liberty
Hark a new dawn now is breaking
Raise your voices no as one!
Though by history divided
Reconciled in unison

Furnish every heart with joy
and banish all hatred for good.