-Tom Morello
"...we travel as equals, or not at all..."
-Joseph Arthur
I don't know what it is... But music is inherently inspiring.
Music, as is noted in any history book or on any Wikipedia page, has played an integral role in most every protest movement - particularly the tunes that stride with chips on their shoulders, the tunes that rasp with collar-wringing provocations and rouse with fist-pumping rally-cries, the tunes that have a toughness, a certain sinewy splendor - not the top-40-fluff flaked out from popcorn machines, but the tunes that bend your ear, purse your face into a determined grimace, narrow your eyes, nod your head, the songs you want to walk to, want to march to, want to fight to...
Music is inherently inspiring. Best, then, when a large group of people want to a.) maintain the motivation to keep up the fight and b.) feel unified.
How else best, then, to achieve that, then with an affective soundtrack? If this is a chance for you to stand up, to feel some shred of heroism or vindication in your rat-race world of day jobs, student loans, water bills and spare-change for gas money, if this is your one chance to feel like you're swinging back against a tide of corruption, wouldn't you want some kind of cinematic soundtrack to spur you ever forth?
Here's a song that didn't make the cut of the Occupy This Album compliation:
Listen: Joseph Arthur - "Travel As Equals"
Makes you wanna move, doesn't it? "...in the light of freedom's call, in the heat of any matter, we travel as equals or not as all...the only way we can survive..."
Arthur, an indie/underground singer/songwriter born and raised in the rustbelt, did contribute another song, called "We Stand As One" to Occupy This Album: "...a compilation of music by, for and inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement and the 99%. Released by the non-profit record label Music For Occupy, Occupy This Album is available digitally (featuring 99-tracks + 1 hidden track) at iTunes and Amazon as well as physically (featuring 78-tracks) on a four-disc compilation distributed worldwide by Razor & Tie Records"
The Hollywood Reporter struck upon this in mid-November of last year: "How Music Is Playing an Integral Role in the Occupy Wall Street Protests - The compilations organizer, singer/activist Jason Samel is interviewed in this month's Rolling Stone magazine where he speaks to the vitality of contributors like Jackson Browne or David Crosby or Willie Nelson, as they can endear the Occupy Movement, seen mostly as a Gen-Y / Millennials -type fight, to the Babyboomers who still have some flower-power in their hearts.
Notables on the comp:
Patti Smith
Jackson Browne
Willie Nelson
Thee Oh Sees - "Robber Barrons"
Yoko Ono
Toots & the Maytals
Mogwai
Ladytron
Ani DiFranco
VIDEO: Joseph Arthur - "Occupy This Album" -Interview
