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Tom Morello at Occupy Wall Street (CC photo: David Shankbone)
This week on CounterSpin: Taylor Swift, Bruce Springsteen, Beyoncé and…Oprah? They’re among the entertainers in Trump’s ALLCAPS sights for, it would seem, endorsing Kamala Harris in the election? And/or maybe saying something unflattering about him or his actions—which, in his brain, and that of the minions who’ve chosen to share that brain, constitutes an illegal political contribution to his opponents, wherever they may lurk.
At a moment when politicians who swore actual oaths are throwing over even the pretense of democracy, or public service—or basic human decency—many of us are looking to artists to be truth-tellers and spirit lifters; to convey, maybe, not so much information as energy: the fearless, collective, forward-looking joy that can sustain a beleaguered people in a threatening time.
There’s a deep history of protest music and music as protest, and our guest is very intentionally a part of it. Tom Morello is a guitarist; part of Rage Against The Machine, Audioslave, Prophets of Rage and The Nightwatchman, among many other projects. His music has always been intertwined with his activism and advocacy for social, racial, economic justice; so we talk about the work of artists in Trumpian times with Tom Morello, this week on CounterSpin.
Transcript: ‘Dangerous Times Demand Dangerous Music’
Plus Janine Jackson takes a quick look at recent press coverage of the embassy shootings, a lawmaker’s arrest and commencement protests.
Re Tom Morello conversation: Native Americans have seen “This Land is YourLand” with different eyes, commenting that it’s not ‘ours’, but that it’s THEIRS! Just sayyin’… Being someone who had many tmes sung along with gusto and conviction, hearing that rather took the wind out of my sails. I mea, I got it! v(I’ve been keenly awarew of the ative America situation for a long time. (I even see the parallel wiutgho the Palestinins’ plight. The invading settlers treated the Natives quite the same as the Isreli’s are treating the APalesti8nians, who, after all, were the occupants of the land and were/are attaced by the settlers. Deflating. I am here as tge daughter of a father immigratinhg from The etherlands and a mother with long reach back into settlers in Iowa, Ilinois and even somme over the border into the South. So I am one of those intruders who thought that I had every right to be here perhaps until I relied I couldn’t sing “This Land is Your Land” with a clear conscience. Who was it (Balzac?) who said that history is the story of human migrations? Sounds about right. Some more bloody than others?
Anyway, I want to thank you for your excellent contributions to our awareness of the world around us.
Check out “No Money for Masters” or “Batman Snacks” by tao jones average. Another artist contributing to protest music.