A great new song, The Bottom 99, by Rhiannon Giddens of the Carolina Chocolate Drops.  She sang it as part of her Sonic New York show with Sxip Shirey and other members of the Luminescent Orchestrii (Sarah Alden, Rima Fand), the CCD’s (Adam matta) and The Wiyos (Joe bass) at Joe’s Pub, and then went down to Occupy Wall Street with Sxip and sang it again.

Rough lyric transcription here, courtesy of @kayemmo 

http://kmo.livejournal.com/516204.html

Oh, listen all you people

my heart is filled with trouble

I don’t know what is wrong my heart is filled with trouble

I’ve got trouble on my mind

for what I see around me is getting worse all the time

the balance of the world it seems

is almost dead and gone

common cause and decency

are severed one by one

the rich keep getting richer

and the poor get poorer too

the wealth of the many in the hands of the few

they act like towering princes

we’re at the their beck and call

a dozen cars, a private jetwith our backs against the wall

they live their flights of fantasy

while we struggle just to eat

instead of living simply

that we might simply be

don’t look to politicians

to even up the score

don’t look for world leaders to do any more

don’t look for corporations

to lend a helping hand

they’ve helped themselves enough

and now it’s time to take a stand

listen now my people

to what I have to say

I do not mean to trouble you

or bother you today

I only want to sing about

as all people want to see

if we want it any different

it’s up to you and me