SHOCK-YOU-PY! Jello Biafra's Tribute to Occupy

Legendary punk rocker Jello Biafra has written a new anthem for the Occupy movement. We at OccupyWallSt.org wholly encourage supporting Jello's radical genius by paying what you can!

SHOCK-YOU-PY! is my own tribute about the Occupy movement. It's called SHOCK-YOU-PY! because I come from the side of resistance that has a soft-spot in my heart for pranks and creative sabotage of the non-violent variety. Not everyone involved will totally agree with that, but I like when protests incorporate theater. I realize not all resistance is going to be fun and games, but it should be (whenever possible) uplifting and a celebration of the fact that we are raising awareness and fighting against runaway dictatorship, looting by large corporations, and people who have so much money they can't figure out what to do with it all (which is Occupy's main goal.)

SHOCK-YOU-PY! is meant to be a sing-a-long song that can be played acoustically at protests, at least most of it can. I was torn between making it completely a sing-a-long song or the usual skull-crushing Guantanamo School Of Medicine type-song, so we mixed it and re-mixed it a lot. The forthcoming EP has the sing-a-long version on it. There is also the rock-a-long version where the electrified guitars are considerably louder which is exclusively available on bandcamp. I had trouble making up my mind between the two. I liked the warmth and the spirit of the sing-a-long version but the rock-a-long version - with the guitars really loud - sounded best in my car.

Since it takes a few weeks to get CDs and vinyl made especially before the Fall rush, we are throwing SHOCK-YOU-PY! up now before it's mastered. And for this download you have freedom of choice - weigh-in, pick your favorite, tell your friends. There will be a 3rd mix of SHOCK-YOU-PY! that is the best of both worlds which will be on the full-length album.

SHOCK-YOU-PY! is part of a larger project from the Guantanamo School Of Medicine's new album called White People and the Damage Done which is not going to be out in time before the election. It will probably be out in either November or in January, I'm not sure which yet. We thought we would throw SHOCK-YOU-PY! up immediately for people who are willing to help us out (please! please! please!) You can pay for the song otherwise it's going to be spread around anyway and it is meant to be spread around. Anyone who wants to put it on an Occupy comp can. I am way in debt trying to record this album and our label is struggling to survive so we are hoping that people will be willing to throw down to check out the song.

And what does this say about Occupy as a whole? It says that it is a ground-up movement that doesn't have central-planning and some people would think not enough planning. Who knows where Occupy will be in a year, it may even have a completely different name but what it means to me is the resurrection, rebooting, reigniting and strengthening of the spirit of Seattle which was the first outbreak of mass-protest against corporate rule and recognizing it as such in the mainstream media. That is going to go on because more and more people are losing their jobs while climate collapse gets even worse (witness all the droughts and fires, especially in my home state of Colorado.) I don't think the Occupy movement in spirit is going to go away, quite the opposite.

See below for lyrics:

Occupy! YEAH! YEAH!
Shock-you-py! YEAH! YEAH!

Once upon a time
There was a Great Depression
There was a president named Franklin
When he first got in
A labor leader or two said, “Yo!
Frankie baby, listen up!
These are our demands.”

And FDR said,
“I want to do it
Now make me do it.”
And the people made them do it
Yeah!

Unions they marched
General strikes
Unrest in every town
Up went the camps
They called Hoovervilles
They would not take them down

And so we got the New Deal
Not ‘kuz Scrooge found a heart
But driven by fear in the air
Of revolution

chorus:
Wake up and smell the noise
We won’t take it anymore
Corporate rule must go
We will occupy
We will shock-you-py
And we won’t back down

Ladies and gentlemen, our fearless leaders:

‘O’ please
Your corporate majesties
Won’t you pay a little bit of taxes?
Let us have just a little bit of health care
And holes poked in the top of the jar for air?

Mic check! (Mic check…)

ENOUGH! We say

Million homeless march on Washington
‘Cause they got nowhere to go
Million uninsured converge

And we’ll get Medicare for all
And why stop with the banks
Occupy the malls
Blockade corporate predators
Bosses’ front lawns!

Wake up and smell the noise
We won’t take it anymore
1% must blow
We will occupy
We will shock-you-py
‘Cause we won’t back down

Occupy! YEAH! YEAH!
Shock-you-py! YEAH! YEAH!

Occupy-
Means breaking down the walls
Let ‘em know that we won’t go
‘Til we repo what they stole
Shock-you-py

We’re the bull in the china shop
And we’re never gonna stop
‘Kuz sabotage is FUN
And necessary
FUN
And necessary
FUN
And mandatory

YEAH! YEAH! YEAH!
YEAH! YEAH! YEAH!

So to all who Occupy
And feel the spirit of Shock-you-py
THANK YOU
We won’t go away

We can’t all be here all the time
‘Kuz the change we want
Will take a long time
So tag-team like wrestling,
Re-charge
Flush the burn-out,
Come back strong

Lock-glueing, sit-ins
Boycotts, die-ins
Defend foreclosed homes
Occupy elections

Are just one more way
A prank a day
Keeps the dog leash
Away

Five years from now
Ten years from now
Remember who you are
No matter where
We all wind up
There’s ways to fight the power

Won’t have so much money
But we got our self-respect
Your kids might even like you
And you’ll save on psychmeds

Wake up and smell the noise
We can’t take it any more
Corporate coup must go
We will occupy
We will shock-u-py
And we won’t break down
We will occupy
We will shock-u-py
‘Kuz we can’t back down

Occupy! YEAH! YEAH!
Shock-you-py! YEAH! YEAH!

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Singer, writer, musician, spoken word performer, record label owner, and prankster, Jello Biafra came to prominence in the early 80s as the lead singer of Dead Kennedys. Biafra's current musical project the Guantanamo School of Medicine is his first new band since the demise of DKs, blending punk with a harder rock sound. JB/GSM have been enthusiastically received, both on record and on stage