I am a 99%.

I would like to make a late entry into the song contest. I shall capture the events and the ambience of Occupy Wall Street.

Oh aint it hard
to be an underpriveleged
OWS Camper.

Oh aint it hard
getting arrested as a poor
OWS Camper.

Then you gotta provide ID,
you disadvantaged
and despairing
OWS camper.

From your ID we see your address
poor Leftist waif, raging against capitalism
OWS Camper.

Your home address turns out to be a mansion,
manicured lawn, yes a heated pool,
worth much more than 500 k.
OWS camper

So the next time a friendly newsman
explains how poor and embittered you are,
try not to cry,
as you drive
your Lexus by,
OWS camper

This is the song that wins every time.  Don’t know the contest, don’t know the rules, but do know songwriters and Jackson Browne always wins.

Lives In The Balance.
I’ve been waiting for something to happen
For a week or a month or a year
With the blood in the ink of the headlines
And the sound of the crowd in my ear
You might ask what it takes to remember
When you know that you’ve seen it before
Where a government lies to a people
And a country is drifting to war

And there’s a shadow on the faces
Of the men who send the guns
To the wars that are fought in places
Where their business interest runs

On the radio talk shows and the t.v.
You hear one thing again and again
How the u.s.a. stands for freedom
And we come to the aid of a friend
But who are the ones that we call our friends—
These governments killing their own?
Or the people who finally can’t take any more
And they pick up a gun or a brick or a stone
There are lives in the balance
There are people under fire
There are children at the cannons
And there is blood on the wire

There’s a shadow on the faces
Of the men who fan the flames
Of the wars that are fought in places
Where we can’t even say the names

They sell us the president the same way
They sell us our clothes and our cars
They sell us every thing from youth to religion
The same time they sell us our wars
I want to know who the men in the shadows are
I want to hear somebody asking them why
They can be counted on to tell us who our enemies are
But they’re never the ones to fight or to die
And there are lives in the balance
There are people under fire
There are children at the cannons
And there is blood on the wire

Nice choice. Here’s another Cohen tune that captures the past few decades pretty well, if not necessarily OWS:

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows that the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows

This is very nice post thnaks for sharing this post.

Good choice.  Expresses the ambient emotions of these days clearly yet restrained by the shaping of art.  Angst, desire, reaching out, determination, possibility working against limitation ...

here are the lyrics of song i wrote early ‘03 or late ‘02 protesting coming war against
iraq march 19, ‘03.

i offered the song to StopWar.ca, a vancouver peace org put together in ‘02, but it
thought the song was not angry enough.
i have the song in my playlist—a capella, tho; however, do not know how to share it.
maybe s’mone at the apple shop can show me how to do it.

if anyone is interested in this song [it’s free] contact me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and i’d
send u the CD with the song.         
                      world loves iraq
promise me mommy
that u will guard me
thus u may save me,
from bombings and hell [or bushes and blairs]
promise me mama,
we wld not wander
anywhere yonder
nor in iraq
promise me mother
that u will love me,
never forsake me
for love is our peace
honeybits, goodnight
i’ll wake u tomorrow
eagerly hoping
for peace and joy
i will then promise
to love u and to shield u
over a life time
for better or worse
promises spoken
or sung in a rhyme
shld never be broken
no no not ever
that much we know
let us be happy,
for u and i know,
world loves iraq

How come I didnt win an award? I submitted this:

“You knew, they knew, we knew, I knew,
She knew, he knew…
We are us, but they are them.”

I demand a recount!

Here’s another original song for ya, “A Great Depression.” Hope you like it:
http://www.4groundmusic.org/AGreatDepression.mp3

A Great Depression
Jeff Coleman © 2011

I once had a sweet job in the city
I banked at the First Nationalized
Thanks to the econocataclysm
Priorities are reprioritized

Chorus:
My checkbook’s bleeding red
But Baby I’m not blue
It will be a great depression
If I spend it with you

Yesterday they repossessed our condo
Last night we went under-the-bridging
We’re happy in our new little love nest
The charming cardboard box they shipped our fridge in

Chorus:
Dow Jones may be fickle
But Baby I’ll be true
It will be a great depression
If I spend it with you

Bridge:
A stimulus package?
I got just what you need
Invest some time in me, girl
High interest guaranteed

Bills in every color of the rainbow
Creditors can take a flying leap
Even though we lost all our life savings
We still have lots of fun now, losing sleep

Chorus X 2:
The future’s DOA
But we’ll never be through
It will be a great depression
If I spend it with you

Foreplay beats foreclosure
We’re happy when we’re screwed
It will be a great depression
If I spend it with you