Tom Morello's new protest song, "Stand Up" was just released and it features Imagine Dragons frontman Dan Reynolds. Even if you haven't heard the name Imagine Dragons, you most certainly heard their music on the radio, at your mall, checking out at Target, or wherever you might be. The song also includes producer The Bloody Beetroots and artist/activist Shea Diamond. And while they mean will, I will say this about the song…
It proves that Rage Against the Machine is greater than the sum of their parts. Take a listen:
This song is a little cringe to me, and I say this as somebody who agrees with the overall message. They mean well – 100% of their proceeds from "Stand Up" will be donated to the following organizations: NAACP, Know Your Rights Camp, Southern Poverty Law Center and the Marsha P. Johnson Institute – all excellent organizations.
Tom Morello says of the song
"I grew up in the tiny lily white, archly conservative town of Libertyville, Illinois. When I was a kid, someone hung a noose in my family's garage, there was occasional N-word calling, etc, etc. On June 6 of this year, there was a Black Lives Matter rally and march in that same town that drew over 1,000 people.
"It seems that the times, they are a'changin'. I was so inspired that night, I reached out to Dan from Imagine Dragons. The Bloody Beetroots and I had conjured a slamming track and within 24 hours, Dan had sent back a completed vocal. We got Shea Diamond, a black transgender woman with a long history of activism, on the track and the coalition was complete."
Here are the lyrics:
Stand up
Cause you are standing for nothing
Just shut up
Cause your words mean nothing
Everyone is at each other's throats
Everyone thinking that they know things that they don't know
Everyone painting the third coat on the wall of belief
Send me relief
When I call the police will they just kill me?
Will they just kill you?
When I call the police will they just protect me cause I'm white skinned too?
Every time you talk the system knows
Everywhere you walk the cameras go
Everything I say you already know
Everything in state is about to blow
Way back before Jim Crow
When I call the police will they just kill me?
Will they just kill you?
When I call the police will they just protect me cause I'm white skinned too?
Stand up
Cause you are standing for nothing
Just shut up
Cause your words mean nothing
Everybody stares like I'm just my gender
But I'm a living soul with my own agenda
Tell me how you are the priest and the prosecution
Tell me how you have a God who loves executions
Corruption in the blue line ripples out
Eruption in the streets bring the few and proud
Attention when the knees fall to the ground
Silently loud
When I call the police will they just kill me?
Will they just kill you?
When you call the police would they just protect you cause you're white skinned too?
Every day that passes I'm angrier
Every time the cops get a hall pass – build another barrier
Now it's stereotypical
No I'm not cynical
Political hypocritical
Corruption in the blue line ripples out
Eruption in the streets bring the few and proud
Attention when the knees fall to the ground
Silently loud
Stand up
Cause you are standing for nothing
Just shut up
Cause your words mean nothing
If you walked a mile in my shoes
You'd probably take em off wouldn't you
If you had to live in my truth
you'd probably tell a lie wouldn't you
When I call the police will they just kill me?
Will they just kill you?
Stand up
Cause you stand for nothing
Nothing
You stand for nothing
Stand up
Cause you stand for nothing
Just shut up
Cause your words mean nothing
Stand up
Cause you stand for nothing
Just shut up
Cause your words mean nothing
