Fiona Apple and the Bolt Cutters have covered Mother Earth’s “Revolution.” The song is set to appear on Right Now, the Dougie Bowne-produced album benefiting Doctors Without Borders.
The group’s rendition of the 1968 protest song was shared on the Instagram of Zelda Hallman, Apple’s roommate and best friend. The song was produced by the Bolt Cutters — Apple, Davíd Garza, Sebastian Steinberg, and Amy Aileen Wood — with each of their parts recorded remotely from places including Los Angeles, Houston, and the East Coast. “Amy masterfully brought them together to capture this moment’s energy,” they said in a statement.
The powerful song is an apt cover for the moment, following this week’s midterm elections results. Apple delivers the 1968 protest song with emotional force: “There’s a new world a comin’ near / Singing loud and clear / Revolution,” she sings. “Feel that rumblin’ along the ground; It’s a mighty sound / Revolution.”
In the statement accompanying the post, which featured a photo of the group as the song played, Hallman shared in the caption: “America is changing. You can feel it. It has a pulse, and it’s growing. This week’s election gave us something we’ve needed: hope for a more progressive, compassionate, inclusive, and just future. Tuesday was a victory, but only a beginning.”
The post continued: “Because something is happening. All across the world, people are marching for justice, freedom, and peace. Dockworkers are refusing to lend their labor to weapons shipments. People are confronting ICE, demanding freedom for Palestine, and calling for an end to the bombing of Gaza. From Ukraine to Sudan, the Congo, Yemen, and Myanmar, civilians face war, hunger, and displacement.
“People are fighting for reproductive rights, bodily autonomy, health care, and equal protection — regardless of race, religion, gender, or immigration status. For due process instead of detention and deportation without a fair hearing,” the statement reads. “For treaties with Indigenous peoples and Tribal Nations to be honored, and for justice for Native, Black, and LGBTQ+ communities. Especially for those deaths and disappearances of young people that remain unsolved and poorly explained.”
In July, Apple, via Hallman’s Instagram, shared a video in which she discussed the “endless barrage of horrors” in the world today and her attempt to capture it in a song. “It’s hard to focus, and when you do focus, I just keep second and third and 10th and millionth guessing myself, if I’m the one to say it, or if I’m saying it right,” she said at the time. “I just didn’t want you to think that I was turning a blind eye or that I didn’t see what was going on or that I didn’t care. I fucking care. I know not everybody’s expecting something from me, but I’m expecting something from me.”
The Mother Earth cover and accompanying post shared on Friday appears to have addressed some of the emotions Apple conveyed in July. “Our tax dollars should be spent feeding children, not bombing them while the wealthiest pay nothing and take everything. Question who profits from war and the scramble for resources, from Greenland to the Congo, given our own history of taking Indigenous lands, water, and mineral rights,” the post from Friday stated. “These aren’t separate struggles. They’re demands for dignity, freedom, justice, and love. Above all, we want peace. And we want it NOW!” It ended with: “Enjoy the music, share the hope, and let’s keep the revolution going and growing.”
Over the summer, “Horns of a Bull” arrived, Apple’s theme song for the miniseries Lucky.