Some songs refuse to stay buried. Not because they were hits or because they changed the world, but because the questions they ask never seem to go away. “Stone Throwing Riot: Thirty Years Later” is one of those songs.
Back in 1996, I was the lead singer of a punk rock band called Twisted Nixon. Like many young musicians, we were angry, idealistic, and trying to make sense of a complicated world. One of the songs we wrote was called “Stone Throwing Riot“. It was loud, fast, confrontational, and unapologetically punk rock. It was inspired by the images coming out of the First Intifada and by a conflict that already seemed ancient even then. We weren’t trying to solve anything. We were trying to understand it.
Thirty years later, I found myself revisiting the song. Not because I wanted to relive my youth, and not because I wanted to remake a punk anthem. The original still exists and belongs to that era. What interested me was something else entirely. The conflict that inspired the song had never really gone away.
The names in the headlines changed. The politicians changed. The technology changed. Yet the underlying questions remained remarkably familiar. Revisiting the song wasn’t an exercise in nostalgia. It was an acknowledgment that some stories continue long after the people who first told them have grown older.
The biggest difference between the 1996 version and the 2026 version isn’t the lyrics. It’s perspective. When you’re young, history feels immediate and urgent. When you’re older, history starts to look like a series of repeating patterns. You begin to notice how generations inherit conflicts they didn’t create, how old wounds are passed down, and how narratives become more complicated the deeper you look. Age has a way of slowing the tempo without softening the truth.
Part of the mythology surrounding the original song involves a mysterious character named Joe Allen. At least that’s what he called himself. Nobody really knew where he came from. He always seemed to appear whenever conversations turned toward Palestine, Israel, resistance, injustice, or history. He wore a keffiyeh over his face long before most Americans knew what one was, spoke passionately about events half a world away, and then vanished as mysteriously as he arrived.
Looking back, I sometimes wonder whether Joe Allen was ever meant to be a real person. Maybe he represented every young Palestinian. Maybe he represented every young Israeli. Maybe he represented every kid born into a conflict they didn’t create and couldn’t escape. In many ways, Joe Allen became the soul of this new version of the song.
TWISTED NIXON Presents The Original…
Stone Throwing Riot (1996)
When I decided to record *Stone Throwing Riot* again, I knew immediately that I didn’t want to recreate the original punk arrangement. That song had already been written.
Instead, I imagined what it might sound like if it were a lost James Bond theme from the 1960s. I heard sweeping strings, dramatic brass, smoky jazz clubs, noir atmosphere, and cinematic tension. The result is something entirely different from the original recording. It feels less like a protest song and more like a reflection on memory, history, and the strange way unresolved conflicts continue to echo through generations.
The spoken-word introduction was important to me because modern audiences are often encouraged to view complex events through the lens of the latest headline. Yet history rarely begins where the television cameras arrive. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict did not begin yesterday. It did not begin in 2023, the 1990s, or even the 1960s.
It stretches back through generations of displacement, fear, loss, resistance, nationalism, occupation, trauma, and revenge. Understanding that complexity doesn’t require taking sides. It requires recognizing the humanity of the people trapped inside the story.
“Stone Throwing Riot: Thirty Years Later” appears on my album “Love Letters from the Unholy Land“, a collection of songs that explores conflict, identity, faith, memory, love, propaganda, and the stories people tell themselves to survive. Some songs are angry. Some are hopeful. Some are deeply personal. Others simply observe. Together, they form a musical journey through a region that has inspired both extraordinary beauty and unimaginable heartbreak.
I don’t expect everyone to agree with this song. In fact, I hope they don’t. Art isn’t at its best when it tells people what to think. Art is at its best when it encourages people to think for themselves. The goal isn’t agreement. The goal is engagement. The goal is curiosity. The goal is conversation.
Thirty years later, the questions remain.
The riot happened then.
The song happens now.
LYRICS
Good evening My name is Johnny Punish
The next piece is a song called Stone Throwing Riot
I wrote it with my bandmates in Twisted Nixon back in 1996
At the time it was loud fast angry
And unapologetically punk rock
That’s the way it needed to be
We were younger men trying to make sense of an older war
Tonight, I’m not going to play it that way
I’m an older man now, and age has a way of slowing the tempo
Without softening the truth
So instead of shouting these words
I’d like to sit with them for a moment and share them with you
Because the story behind this song didn’t begin on October 7th
It didn’t begin in the 1990’s It didn’t begin in the sixties
It reaches back through generations of
Occupation displacement fear grief resistance and revenge
Yeah, long before hashtags Long before cable news
Long before most of us were paying attention
Back then we were trying to understand
What it meant when children armed with stones
Stood before soldiers armed with rifles and bulldozers
We weren’t looking for heroes or villains
We were looking for humanity
The song was written by myself my bandmates
Cousin Rich amazing friends Jake and Brian
And a young mythical man named Joe Allen
At least that’s what he called himself
I never knew if that was his real name
He was the inspiration He was always there
No one actually knew where he came from
Joe wore a Palestinian keffiyeh wrapped around his face
In truth, he could have been anybody
Maybe that’s the point
Maybe he was everybody
Every young Palestinian
Every young Israeli
Every kid born into a conflict they didn’t create
And couldn’t escape
Thirty years later, the questions remain
This is not a new story
This is Stone Throwing Riot
Reimagined
You see, the stones were small
The headlines were large
And somewhere between the two
History kept repeating itself
Settlements (on the West Bank)
Armaments (in the Gaza)
Terrorists (on the border)
What’s this (A new world order)
Security by your guns
Oppression by your religion
Employment for you if you beg
And there’s kids with rocks
And they’re dropping dead
It’s a
Stone Throwing (Riot)
Stone Throwing (Riot)
Stone Throwing (Riot)
Stone Throwing
Peace Process (what a fable)
Netanyahu (at the table)
Laughing at (the president man)
With US Cash (in his hand)
Smart money brothers look what you did
Advancing Zionism in the name of David
While United Nations falls on its face
And the US Congress what a disgrace
It’s a
Stone Throwing (Riot)
Stone Throwing (Riot)
Stone Throwing (Riot)
Stone Throwing
A little girl sleeps in tonight
While her brother packs his stones for the fight
And he takes aim at the soldiers machine guns
And takes a bullet in the back for freedom on the run
Cause they have none
Knocking down homes (in Ramallah)
Killing olive trees (where is Allah?)
Got your F-15s (with smartphones)
Better duck kids (throwing stones)
Born American Bee-bee boy
You have all the guns and American toys
But you’re not from there but you moved right in
Let the Intifada begin again
It’s a
Stone Throwing (Riot)
Stone Throwing (Riot)
Stone Throwing (Riot)
Stone Throwing
They’re desperate (Riot)
Oppression Taxation (Riot)
No Representation (Riot)
I’m talking big money man
No Peace for Land
No Peace for Land
Still Nothing
———————–
Written by Johnny Punish, Richard Abboud, Jason Wickstrom, Brian Jay Cline and the legendary Joe Allen
Produced by Punish Studios
