BOB GRUEN
Richard Barone and Darryl “DMC” McDaniels.
Richard Barone, the Bongos frontman and solo artist, has released a new single, “All Fall Down” — co-written and recorded with Darryl “DMC” McDaniels of Run-DMC — that is particularly timely given the upcoming election. Combining anthemic rock with captivating hip-hop energy, it expresses frustration with leaders who lie, bully and subvert democracy in order to achieve and retain power. It is “an open letter to those who gain power through intimidation and division,” Barone said in a press release.
Barone’s inimitable singing — his growl reminds me of T. Rex’s Marc Bolan — and DMC’s powerful rapping unite behind an important message. They trade lines:
Barone: Greedy leaders with your dirty minds
DMC: Always harming mankind
Barone: You’re done wasting my precious time
DMC: I’m goin’ out of my mind
Barone: All through history, crime after crime … they all fall down
DMC: Everything crooked got to be straighter
Slay the enslaver, stop the dictator…
Barone: All for power, they kill what’s dear
DMC: Let me make this clear
Barone: Win through anger, rage and fear …
Spurting hatred, people cheer … but they all fall down
The cover of Richard Barone’s album, “Sorrows & Promises: Greenwich Village in the 1960s.”
“All Fall Down” shares a connection to the protest songs of the folksingers who, in the 1960s, lived in the same Greenwich Village neighborhood where Barone now resides. Barone celebrated their music in his 2016 album, Sorrows & Promises: Greenwich Village in the 1960s. He has also performed their songs with other artists, including John Sebastian, Melanie, Maria Muldaur and José Feliciano, at concerts in Montclair’s Outpost in the Burbs, at Central Park SummerStage and Joe’s Pub in New York, and elsewhere.
Barone wrote about the revolutionary ’60s Village music scene in his 2022 book “Music + Revolution: Greenwich Village in the 1960s” and teaches a course about music during that era at The New School in New York. In a previous interview, he spoke with me about the turbulent and creative time in The Village and the enveloping scene that included Bob Dylan, Peter, Paul & Mary, Tom Paxton, Phil Ochs, Dave Van Ronk, Eric Andersen and others.
How did he meet DMC?
“Darryl and I actually first met, casually, when The Bongos and Run-DMC were both just starting out,” he said. “I had loved their debut single ‘It’s Like That (and That’s the Way It Is).’ Then in 2018 we were on a panel together at a record store event at Rough Trade in Brooklyn. The panel was about creativity and the creative process, and right then and there we said we should collaborate. Darryl visited and spoke at my ‘Music + Revolution’ class at The New School — often about the idea of a message in music — several times, which was amazing.”
What inspired the song?
“The idea for this song had been brewing in my head for a while,” he said. “But it was during the Jan. 6 insurrection that the phrase ‘all fall down’ came to me — a message to leaders who seek to be dictators and how, eventually, they will fail.
“The idea slowly shaped itself into a song. I started sending my lyrics to Darryl, and he started sending me his lyric replies and his beautiful verses. We were both energized and motivated to record the song together as soon as possible.”
The cover of the “All Fall Down” single.
“The music and words are powerful, inspirational and motivating,” DMC said. “I love the combination of rock, folk and hip-hop. I called it futuristic folk-rock hip-hop protest music when I first heard it.”
In “It’s Like That” (1983), DMC and Joseph “Run” Simmons described the harsh realities of life, including unemployment, and encouraged listeners to reject prejudice. They rapped:
War’s going on across the sea
Street soldiers killing the elderly
Whatever happened to unity?
It’s like that, and that’s the way it is.
“All Fall Down” will be released on 12” vinyl with multiple versions of the song — including folk, hip-hop and alt-country mixes — on the B-side, according to a press release. It is coming out on Richard Gottehrer’s Instant Records label; Barone said that there is a feeling of reconnection for him, since Gottehrer produced the 1983 Bongos EP Numbers With Wings.
Barone said he and McDaniels plan to collaborate on another song soon.
The electrifying video for the song (watch below) uses New York’s Washington Square Park as its backdrop, with images of the park’s arch and fountain, where so many demonstrations have occurred. (For years the arch was covered with political slogans, before it was sanitized with paint.)
In the park, DMC tells unscrupulous leaders that “all of you are going down.” During the video’s final moments, we see news headlines regarding President Nixon, gay rights and the fall of the Berlin Wall, as well as protests against the Vietnam War and segregation.
“All Fall Down,” says DMC, is a “very important song for this generation, the ones before and, if things don’t change, the generations in the future.”
“All Fall Down” is available via various streaming services. Visit orcd.co/allfalldown.
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