This is what democracy sounds like-“Occupy” gets its own theme song

Chant after me:

“What do we want?”

“Something besides the same old, cliche worn chants you hear at every protest.”

“When do we want it?”

“NOW!”

And slowly but surely, the Occupy Wall Street, Seattle and other cities movement seems to be getting the message…at least the music. After a month devoid of its own theme song, the guitar duo “emma’s revolution” has taken up the cause with “Occupy the USA,” a catchy little ditty in the spirit of Joan Baez or Country Joe and the Fish (“And it’s one, two, three, what are we fighting for…”)

They aren’t the deepest lyrics ever written, but they get the point across. Actually, multiple points, observes 97.3 KIRO FM’s Dan Restione on Seattle’s Morning News.

“It’s a scattergun, they’re hitting it all,” Restione says.

In one stanza, he counts a handful of social issues, from foreclosure to pensions to hedgefunds to health care.

“I don’t know what ‘jobs for justice’ means, but that’s one,” he laughs.

You can listen for yourself:

Listen to Seattle’s Morning News on the new Occupy protest songs

Here’s a sample:

Welcome to the US occupation
To win the hearts and minds
Defend all humankind
Tell the banks and the corporations
We’re here to occupy the USA

The Congress and the hedge funds
Stole our houses and our pensions
Conspired to steal our healthcare
At Conservative conventions
We’re here to stand our ground
We demand our jobs with justice
We’re 99% in charge
Now you’ll just have to trust us

It’ll need some work before it reaches the pantheon of protest songs.

What’s your favorite? The list is endless and depends on your age and allegiances. The music site Spinner has a pretty good top 20, some obvious like Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” and Edwin Starr’s “War”, to lesser known like the Clash’s “Clampdown” (the Clash should be required listening for any protest movement, but I digress.)

Surprisingly, there’s little mention of what’s probably the quintessential American protest song, as appropriate today as it was when Woodie Guthrie first wrote it:

-Josh Kerns/97.3 KIRO FM