Listen

User menu

Search form

Occupy Gets Its Anthem

Occupy Gets Its Anthem
Thu, 9/27/2012
This article originally appeared on Rolling Stone

Click to listen to Tom Morello, Tim McIlrath, Serj Tankian and Occupy Wall Street's 'We Are the 99 Percent'

Since last fall's protestor-led occupation of Zuccotti Park, Tom Morello has been an active and vocal supporter of the Occupy Wall Street movement. The guitarist has regularly gigged at rallies under the guise of his workingman alter-ego, the Nightwatchman, and most recently performed at a commemorative gathering in lower Manhattan to mark the one-year anniversary of the movement's formation.

However, this hasn't seemed like enough of a contribution to Morello; he tells Rolling Stone that he felt the Occupy canon – largely comprised of "earnest folk songs" – was missing a true rock anthem. "It's our gift to the movement," he says of "We Are the 99 Percent," a fists-against-the-wall riff-riot that Morello penned with his "brothers in arms," Rise Against singer Tim McIlrath and System of a Down singer Serj Tankian. The track is now available to stream exclusively on RollingStone.com; starting tomorrow, it will be available for free download on Morello and Tankian's Axis of Justice website.

"I wanted to do a huge riff-rock anthem," Morello says of the track, which was recorded at his own Veritas Studio in Los Angeles, and to which McIlrath and Tankian contributed by remote. "It would feel like the excitement of the global Occupy Wall Street movement."

Morello says the idea to record an Occupy anthem came to him several months ago; however, he only got the ball rolling after last week's "re-energizing" anniversary performance. The song, anchored by Black Sabbath-worthy riffing, is a hard-charging behemoth; it's a call to action for the oppressed. ("If you feel the wave crashing down/ Don't just sit there and drown/ Fight back!" McIlrath roars.) In addition to the three musicians, it also features field recordings of Occupy protestors in Zuccotti Park and Liberty Square.

The success of Occupy Wall Street, Morello believes, has hinged on its ability to "inject into the global dialogue the horrific economic inequality that plagues the planet" and highlight the "grotesque global poverty and the growing inequality in our country." Morello says that he sees evidence of the movement's success in the current presidential campaign. "When is the last time when a Republican candidate for president has had his feet held to the fire because he's too rich?" he says.

3 WAYS TO SHOW YOUR SUPPORT

ONE-TIME DONATION

Just use the simple form below to make a single direct donation.

DONATE NOW

MONTHLY DONATION

Be a sustaining sponsor. Give a reacurring monthly donation at any level.

GET SOME MERCH!

Now you can wear your support too! From T-Shirts to tote bags.

SHOP TODAY

Sign Up

Article Tabs

This last month has shown America that society will gladly tolerate vigilante violence, provided a vigilante chooses the right target.

President-elect Donald Trump isn’t just appointing incompetent buffoons to his Cabinet, but deeply immoral individuals who are completely lacking in family values.

Biden cared more about the appearance of having an independent DOJ untainted by politics than he did about holding an unrepentant criminal ex-president accountable.

The American people clearly spoke, and the drubbing Democrats received requires looking beyond just issue polls, voting patterns, campaign strategy, or get-out-the-vote tactics.

The recent decisions by two of the most influential national newspapers of record to not publish their endorsements of Vice President Kamala Harris says a lot about how seriously they take Trump’s threats to democracy and his promises of vengeance against his enemies.

This last month has shown America that society will gladly tolerate vigilante violence, provided a vigilante chooses the right target.

If the Democrats’ theme of 2017 was Resistance, the theme for Democrats in 2025 needs to instead be Opposition — and these two GOP senators may be the models to emulate.

President-elect Donald Trump isn’t just appointing incompetent buffoons to his Cabinet, but deeply immoral individuals who are completely lacking in family values.

Biden cared more about the appearance of having an independent DOJ untainted by politics than he did about holding an unrepentant criminal ex-president accountable.

The country has never moved as close to the course it took under Benito Mussolini as it is doing now — and even if Meloni is not a neo-fascist politician, she has put herself in a position to appeal to and broaden fascism's political base.

On the eve of the historic November vote, it seems important to ask: What's wrong with men, how did we get here, and can we change this?

Posted 1 month 3 weeks ago

The recent decisions by two of the most influential national newspapers of record to not publish their endorsements of Vice President Kamala Harris says a lot about how seriously they take Trump’s threats to democracy and his promises of vengeance against his enemies.

Posted 1 month 3 weeks ago

The American people clearly spoke, and the drubbing Democrats received requires looking beyond just issue polls, voting patterns, campaign strategy, or get-out-the-vote tactics.

Posted 1 month 1 week ago

Biden cared more about the appearance of having an independent DOJ untainted by politics than he did about holding an unrepentant criminal ex-president accountable.

Posted 3 weeks 2 days ago

This last month has shown America that society will gladly tolerate vigilante violence, provided a vigilante chooses the right target.

Posted 4 days 17 hours ago

The country has never moved as close to the course it took under Benito Mussolini as it is doing now — and even if Meloni is not a neo-fascist politician, she has put herself in a position to appeal to and broaden fascism's political base.

Biden cared more about the appearance of having an independent DOJ untainted by politics than he did about holding an unrepentant criminal ex-president accountable.