Very excited to be interviewed in the New York Times today about – go on, guess – the current state of protest music in the context of OWS. And in such fine company: Tom Morello, Ry Cooder, Peter Yarrow and Anti-Flag.
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DORIAN LYNSKEY is the author of 33 Revolutions Per Minute: A History of Protest Songs, published by Faber and Faber (March 2011) and Ecco (April 2011). He writes for the Guardian, The Word, Q, Spin and Empire.
33revolutionsperminute's Blog 
Dear Mr. Lynskey,
Good evening to you, My name is Rich Levering and I want to let you know I politely disagree with your comment that writing protest music for the WE ARE THE 99% occupy movement is “far more difficult topic for songwriters to wrestle with” / “What do you say about a financial crisis where the villains are obscure and the solutions are obscure. That’s a challenge.”
To me as a songwriter, with all due respect, is a challenge in itself. I know that the possibly the global conception of most Americans could possibly be that we are genrally lazy but in the musician community, especially in Philadelphia, I would say that there
has been more political and spiritual music than ever before. This was the biggest economic collapse since our Great Depression and they’re people that wake up every morning that work on Wall St. (some that have to walk gingerly through the occupied parks) that know they caused it.
In the article about how the Occupy Wall St. movement does not currently have an anthem or protest song they could rally behind as they did so
successfully in the past.. it just so happens I was creating a YouTube video for my song “Honest Man” on the exact same day that great article was published.
The song’s chorus /hook is ” stop sleeping you gotta start believing , are you happy with the life your leading” Come on WAKE UP !! ”
I believe if you are kind enough to view my three minute video I posted on YouTube (which shows pictures of the 99% protests from around the world including London) you will see that there are many of us who are “waking up” and speaking out against the economic / social injustice that has damaged 99% of the people on this beautiful planet that we all share… and the musicians at all these global rallys are the ones that will be and always be, on the frontline.
Thank you in advance for your time Mr. Lynskey, I hope you enjoy.
Richard Gillette Levering III
http://www.richlevering.com
*** YOUTUBE***
WE ARE THE 99% PROTEST SONG:
*Lyircs:
Honest Man
Written by: Rich Levering
Honest Man ©2011
by
Rich Levering
V1
Wake up it’s a brand new morning
Rub your eyes come on do you remember back when
You said I’ll never care about money
Honest man now your counting your bills
V2
Your drive is only heading one way
Look around because this world is changing
And you said “I’m gonna make a difference”
Honest man I think it’s you that needs saving
Bridge
So reach inside those hungry eyes
Your gonna be the way you used to see
You know it’s life its just up to you to decide
All you got to do is truly be let free
Stop sleeping you got to start believing
Are you happy in life your leading right now
(Come on wake up)
V3
So tell me what are you gonna do
If you see some chance man will you break on through
You know in life there is going to be a whole lot of pain
But don’t you know there will be chance in that pain
Bridge
So reach inside those hungry eyes
Your gonna be the way you used to see
You know it’s life its just up to you to decide
All you got to do is truly believe
Chorus
Bridge
Not sure if you’d qualify it as a protest song (I would) – but this at least exists…