AS THE DRUMS PLAYED

AS THE DRUMS PLAYED

An ode to the Occupy Wall Street Movement

The most significant, peaceful and warranted protest in recent history occurred in New York City in 2011, the Occupy Wall Street Movement. Commencing with a couple thousand people in Zuccatti Park it eventually grew to many thousands of people encompassing the entire Financial District of NYC.  The movement was staged to highlight the growing and continuing gap between the ultra rich and the middle class, the Wealth Gap, in the USA and the world. The Wealth Gap, where the few have all the wealth and the many struggle to survive day to day, is history repeating itself and has led to the downfall of empires for eons.

In 2011 at the height of the movement I wrote a song, as all good folk rock songwriters would, titled BOTTOMS UP and now 10 Years on from the Occupy Wall Street protests “and nothing has changed” I have written and recorded AS THE DRUMS PLAYED.

I think the lyrics of the two songs pretty much sum up the then and the now and what the future looks like if there isn’t an “adjustment”. I don’t advocate for a system like what is generally referred to as Communism where everyone is supposedly equal as that has proven to be unworkable, and as human nature is, results in a similar Wealth Gap however rampant Capitalism is equally unworkable and like any pyramid scheme the same Wealth Gap is inevitable.

What the answer is I am not sure but I am sure of one thing … eventually the widening Wealth Gap will lead to the many at the bottom rising up and the few at the top coming down as has happened throughout history. At that point the Occupy Wall Street Movement will be looked back upon and some will say we probably should have paid more attention at the time.

As The Drums Played – Audio

As The Drums Played – Lyrics

A decade on from Occupy Wall Street and nothing has changed nothing has changed

The jobless the homeless and the hopeless too line the streets to many to name

The rich have gotten richer the middle join the poor and the poor are still poor

Billions always available available for war but nothing can be found found for the poor

The American Dream is now a nightmare lived day by day on some avenue somewhere

This can’t can’t be sustained and the economic political system that is to blame

A decade on from the point being made in Zuccotti Park as the drums played as the drums played

The ninety nine percent are now ninety nine and nine tenths as the drums played as the drums played

The Ponzi scheme that is capitalism has almost reached its zenith as the drums played as the drums played

When it all comes tumbling down who will be there to catch us  as the drums play as the drums play

Not to say that hard work hard work for success should be a thing of the past

But hard work to just get by at slave wages that just can’t last

In the corporate board rooms they pretend to care as they ship their Francs to Off Shore Banks

The career politicians put on a hell of a show but lobbyist gold well it sure does glow

They fight with each other for a big piece of the pie and their right to suck the peasants dry

Promises promises at election time but when the count is done amnesia hits their minds

Bankers regulating banks it’s like the fox is loose in the hen house

Big Medical dictates the laws they trust let them get sick it’s all profit for us

Corporates are people the Supreme Court says but when it comes to taxes they don’t pay their share

It’s circular bullshit up on Capitol Hills the nuts running the asylum and they keep lyin’ and they keep on lyin’

We thought that we got the message across but it was a decade ago they just won’t let go

They withstood the challenge and outlasted their foe drove us from the park and made us go

We got promised hope and change but when it was all said and done only hope remained

We occupied we testified we posted and marched they refused to give up re fused to let go

The occupation was peaceful the message delivered to hand but in the end they still ruled the land

So a decade on from Occupy Wall Street with nothing to show perhaps a more aggressive approach will be the go

A decade on from the point being made in Zuccotti Park as the drums played as the drums played

The ninety nine percent are now ninety nine and nine tenths as the drums played as the drums played

The Ponzi scheme that is capitalism has almost reached its zenith as the drums played as the drums played

When it all comes tumbling down who will be there to catch us as the drums play as the drums play

As the drums play     as the drums play     As the drums play      as the drums play

Bottoms Up – Audio

Bottoms Up – Lyrics

If the middle is shrinking the ends are getting longer the bottom’s getting weaker the top is gettin stronger but mind your P’s and Q’s  it might not last that much longer

It’s happened so many times before the pool at the bottom swallows up all the shimmering dew drops from above it doesn’t come from hate or love but the need to survive.

You can call it what you will but its heading for a spill you went to the well one too many times and it looks like the greed somehow  got the best of your needs.

Now your street of walls is filled with freaks and it’s a fair share of the spoils of which they speak you know the herbs and the oils which you so tightly keep

If you can’t see it plain as day from your castle walls then you can’t see at all like the Roman Empire as you fall the decadence the greed the money and all.

Your minions and lieutenants in their shrouds of power can’t help you now they can see which way the winds are blowin and which side of the bread is buttered for them.

If you are too blind to see you’ll never know what’s hit ya as your ivory towers come crashing down Yes even the red white and blue can’t save you now

If too few at the top hold all the gold the weight is too much for the balance to hold

The pendulum swings the top crashes down the bottom rises up it’s a story old as time

Romans learned their lesson look at them now and woe to be Greek and have to carry that plough the Mesopotamians are in a funk Mongol hoards now defunct

If you think it won’t happen here then have a good look around in a few hundred years they’ll be picking you up off the ground it may not happen fast but it could all fall down

The British, the Russians, the Greeks were just a few whose lust for gold and power just grew and grew but soon enough it was all they could do the last piece of gold to hang on to.

Its not too late but you better have a think it’s not how much you make it’s how much you take it’s not how much you make it’s how much you take

It’s not how much you make it’s how much you take