CREDITS

Songs mastered by Matt Denton of Ragged Birds Music
Guitar solos by TJ Gerome from Eyes of Ghosts | >Eyes of Ghosts on YouTube
Drums/percussive soundscapes by Adam Soucy
Bass: Dustin Derry
Guitars & Organ: Trouble

^{Key: Am | BPM: 70, 4/4 time
Mood: Anthemic, gritty, defiant, empowering, passionate, bluesy, heavy guitars, driving drums & bass}

Lyrics

Sticks and stones may break your bones, and, my God, they do leave scars
They came for our jobs and they came for our homes... Good God this is a call to arms
They tell us to find religion, don't say that it's a prison and it's all already gone to hell
If one of us is bleedin', then none of us have freedom
Can't save the soul you sell

CHORUS
We are rolling thunder
We are stormy seas
We are full moon fever
A lit cigarette and a bottle of gasoline

A hundred years have ticked on by... look around: nothing's changed
Don't get hurt, don't get sick; they don't care if you die: gave you a number, not a name
The only sacred profits are their deposits - lay you off; replace you with a machine
The guillotine, the gallows, coming out of the shadows
Hope hell is hotter than they thought it'd be

BRIDGE
Backroom deals and the shadow docket - your raise bought a lobbyist
You get 15 minutes; they get a 3-martini lunch
1, 2, 3, 4-hour shift - not paid enough to put up with this
5, 6, $7.25... It ain't enough to stay alive

CHORUS 2
We are rolling thunder
We are stormy seas
We are full moon fever
A lit cigarette and a bottle of gasoline
We are rolling thunder
We are a fire in the night
We are lit gunpowder
We are out here fighting for our lives

^{©2023 Pretty 'N' Genius Music, BMI, All Rights Reserved.}

BEHIND THE MUSIC

Rolling Thunder

The year of our Lord 2023 was a hard year for me. The pressures of the pandemic had already caused the previous two years to be utter crap - my band broke up for good, I got ghosted by two clients I'd had for over ten years each, and I had been losing 2 to 3 people I cared about every month since January 2020 (some died, but some chose their ideology over our friendship, so that was hard) - but it really all came to head at the end of 2022 and into 2023. I was broke and struggling to find work. At one point, I was down to selling my clothes and guitars to make ends meet.

And I was angry. Seething. Every job I applied to wanted to work me juuuuust under full time hours so they wouldn't have to pay benefits, and the hourly wages for jobs that required a master's degree were all under $15/hour. It was (and still is) pathetic and I was SO ANGRY. I felt so frustrated and alone and like nobody cared about any of it. And no matter how hard or what I tried, it wasn't getting any better.

Rolling Thunder was born out of that anger. I channeled it into music, just like I always do. I wrote it from the perspective that there had to be others out there who felt like I do, who were in similar situations and were ready to fight for change.

The production inspiration playlist