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Remy's Occupy Wall Street Protest Song

Meredith Bragg | 10.10.2011 10:30 AM

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As the Occupy Wall Street movement spreads like a, well, financial contagion through global markets, intergalactic Internet sensation Remy and Reason.tv give the movement its anthem.

Written and performed by Remy and produced by Meredith Bragg.

About 2.45 minutes. Go to Reason.tv for downloadable versions. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to get automatic updates when new material goes live.

Follow Reason on Twitter.

For Reason's coverage of Occupy Wall Street, including video coverage from lower Manhattan, go here.

For more Remy & Reason.tv vids, go here.

For even more Remy, go to his YouTube channel.

Lyrics to the "Occupy Wall Street Protest Song"

Come gather round people
come and join your hands
we're taking Wall Street
and we're making demands
and we're heeding the call
and we're crying for help
only 1% of us have wealth

but first we need posters
we need to make signs
but to do so it seems
that we need some supplies

We need poster board
I can't make it myself
but it's 10 cents a sheet
at the store it's on sale
an example of economies of scale
it's so evil

They're saying that freedom
has done little to stop
Corporations from keeping
the wealth at the top
But at what point in history
would a kid and a king
both have clean water to drink?

George Washington was
the richest man of his age
But he lost all his teeth
at a very young age
Because they didn't have Scope
and they all crapped in trays
we're not wealthy?

now there's fountains on streets
from which clean water pours
Four dollar generics
at all big box stores
a sultan and student
both have iPhone 4s
it's not fair

Come gather young people
come on everyone
and I'll tell you a tale
of a fortunate son

He's born in a country
and given vaccine
and rendered immune
to all kinds of disease
the Kardashians are on
all his TVs
it's not perfect

Banks don't need bailouts
on that we agree
so let's start up a group
and let's take to the streets
because if we do that then
you know what that means
we're racist.
[End]

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Meredith Bragg is the director of special projects at Reason.

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  1. White Indian   15 years ago

    This is gibberish. The people of this planet need to get to some serious neo-paleolithic methodolgy (well researched and critiqued, mind you!) to solve our problems.

    Go ahead, read the stupid. I double-dog dare you.

    1. AlmightyJB   15 years ago

      You mean you didn't eat the dog?

    2. Mr. FIFY   15 years ago

      http://www.slaveryinamerica.or.....lavery.htm

  2. Realist   15 years ago

    Where the hell are all the comments from this weekend?

    1. PantsFan   15 years ago

      it's best not to go back there

  3. goneGalt   15 years ago

    Go back to the hit & run top page. Scroll down about eight stories below this one.

    Is there any, ahem, "Reason" some of these stories get re-posted?

    1. Realist   15 years ago

      "Is there any, ahem, "Reason" some of these stories get re-posted?"
      yes, it increases the content and takes no work. Libs love it!

  4. A. Freeman   15 years ago

    I applaud this folk singer. True words, as from those of the '60's.

  5. Anne A.   15 years ago

    The teabaggers definitely have a logical leg up on the Wall St. protesters, but unfortunately the only real change in government will be through revolution. Democrats to attest to the fact that voting someone different in doesn't change anything.

    Real constitutional limitation of government is necessary. Voting for a subset of the Republican party isn't going to result in real change.

    And now that song is stuck in my head. 🙁

  6. Cordell Doemling   15 years ago

    Brilliant. The protestors have access to clean water, and some poor people have TV's therefore economic inequality isn't a real issue. George Will would be proud of all the straw men you've managed to hoist in a single verse.

    1. Francisco d Anconia   15 years ago

      "...therefore economic inequality isn't a real issue."

      Can you please logically explain to me how "economic inequality" is hurting anyone?

      The rich have more than the poor. AND now the rich are getting even richer than they used to be...How exactly does this hurt the poor?

      1. Bradley   15 years ago

        It's hurting people to the extent that the rich become rich from the state's various monopoly privileges rather than making profit through a non-zero-sum system of voluntary market exchanges.

        The exact degree to which this does or doesn't apply depends on the specific industry and business. But the financial sector is arguably the most government-distorted part of the US economy, with the possible exception of the IP rent-seekers.

    2. Vake   15 years ago

      By historical and worldwide standards, the so-called "poor" of America are fantastically wealthy. That's just a fact, but facts are no good when you're dealing with jealousy.

      1. The Poor   15 years ago

        Go away! We're watching Game of Thrones!

      2. jtuf   15 years ago

        Democrats are the party of envy.

    3. cynical   15 years ago

      The pursuit of economic equality has historically tended to lead to widespread poverty. If inequality tends to make everyone better off, I think that's a relevant criticism of the envy movement.

      1. FredT   15 years ago

        Wealth distribution is only part of the reason to 'Occupy Wallstreet', it's not ALL about who gets rich and who stays poor, or who got screwed.

        The problem is we aren't a democracy, we're a plutocracy, a 'monied-aristocracy' which is able to saturate the 'market place of ideas' with the most ad space and thus advance a narrow agenda.

        Democracy is about having an informed electorate, capable of making informed decisions -- and we have a misinformed electorate! We have an electorate that's passively controlled by a narrative dictated by the plutocracy, looking to advance the interests of industry (which is normally contrary to the interest of the majority).

        'Occupy Wallstreet' is about taking control of democracy back!

        1. capitol l   15 years ago

          I'm guessing that you, and those that believe as you do, are informed and the rest of us are misinformed.

          1. Trespassers W   15 years ago

            I believe the phrase is "false consciousness". They just don't want to come right out and use it, and thereby show their hand too early.

        2. albo   15 years ago

          Occupy Wallstreet' is about taking control of democracy back!

          It's actually about a bunch of privileged white kids having their own 1960s moment like their grandparents did.

          It's incoherent anger expressed by the fatally naive against vague opponents.

        3. jtuf   15 years ago

          So FredT, how much cash did you have to pay to display your thoughts on this website before a large national audience?

  7. BoscoH   15 years ago

    I just wanna point out that few people actually have the iPhone 4s yet.

    1. Trespassers W   15 years ago

      Um... iPhone 4s have been out for what, at least a year now?

      1. Tab Spangler   15 years ago

        The Iphone 4s comes out this Friday. The song refers to the plural verson of the Iphone 4. This kind of confusion is how world wars get started.

        1. Tab Spangler   15 years ago

          Excuse me. iPhone. My capitalization was a war crime in itself.

        2. Trespassers W   15 years ago

          Wait a minute... how would you know how World War S gets started?

        3. Anon   15 years ago

          It's plural iPhone 4, not singular iPhone 4S.

  8. Jersey Patriot   15 years ago

    I don't want to hear anyone at Reason bitching the next time someone brings up Somalia.

  9. Sandi   15 years ago

    I took a shit on a tray once.

    1. albo   15 years ago

      Ah, the old fashioned German toilet.

  10. albo   15 years ago

    He's like a bizarro Billy Bragg. Awesome.

  11. jtuf   15 years ago

    The New York City Craigslist posted 100 new jobs in the last hour alone. If employees and employers were flexible, it should be easy to find work.

    1. Tab Spangler   15 years ago

      There is a special section on Craigslist for flexible people looking for work.

      1. Doktor Kapitalism   15 years ago

        Yoga instructors are in high demand, it would appear.

  12. buddy   15 years ago

    I live in NYC, and even though I'm not down with the revolution, I don't like it when cops go apeshit on people or when banks get bailouts, so I went down to Zucotti park to see if what I saw would challenge my pre-conceived narrow world-view. No, it didn't.

    There were like 5 Ron Paul people, but just about everybody else was sporting some brand of superlefty orthodoxy.

    Maybe that will change. Maybe more representative New Yorkers will be attracted by the presence of the morbidly obese TWU workers who make the MTA a shitshow that makes them late to work every other day and raises the fares every other week.

    It's weird because I'm as socially liberal as anybody in the park, to a tee, but somehow I don't think we'd end
    up very liberal if that crew was in charge. We may live in a time when the Puritans are the last true defenders of
    debauchery.

    1. GILMORE   15 years ago

      My friend (buddy?), I feel as you do

      Seriously, the fucking MTA/TSU made me a libertarian more than anything.

      I invite you to Teddys in Williamsburg any weekend brunch-time to be served stupid by Taylor... just walk in and yell, "GILMORE!"...I'm usually in the corner reading.

  13. jtuf   15 years ago

    I just crunched the numbers:

    5 weeks of protesting instead of working a standard 36 hour work week equals 180 hours of lost labor.

    At a minimum wage of $7.25 that comes to $1,305 in lost income.

    A fully assembled home factory (AKA a makerbot) costs $1,299. At this point in history, cost of protesting capitalism is greater than the cost of becoming a capitalist factory owner.

    1. jtuf   15 years ago

      Correction: I was citing the price for the user assembled model.

      http://store.makerbot.com/thin.....t-mk7.html

      1. buddy   15 years ago

        Ya, but their friends don't want to work for min wage. They might have to work with Mexicans.

        Working with Mexicans would be one way of saying that you aren't any better than Mexicans, which is an infinitely cool thing to say, but nobody would see your actions saying it, except Mexicans.

        In the park, you can breathe in the night air and say aloud something about
        how much you love and respect the Mexicans that aren't too good to do the
        things for you that you should never have to do. People, future tastemakers who will one day hate themselves comfortably, for selling out, in their Williamsburg condos, will hear you say it, and you'll feel like you've got a backing track by Brian Eno while you're saying it.

        Then one day you'll replay it in your mind with the caption, "We were beautiful and young" and cry a little about how beautiful and young you were.

        You could never really create that flash back with Mexicans who listen to that shitty, martial sounding music, and who will probably never have the kind of achingly gorgeous and selfless thoughts that you will one day be able to successfully channel into your own branding agency.

        Maybe that's what they're thinking? Safe bet as any.

  14. Stochastic Terrorism   15 years ago

    I do believe I lost my sh*t with the Arrested Development sign.

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