White Rage Against the Machine
Read Time:9 Minute, 17 Second
I used to hate the band Rage Against the Machine. Not because of their political bent, but because my brother used to constantly play the opening guitar riff of “People of the Sun” over and over until my brain was ready to go from insanity to homicidal rage. The only reason I didn’t kill him at the time is that I didn’t want to clean up the mess. I mean, do you know how long it takes to pick up brain matter and wash the bloodstains off the walls? But on the upside, I don’t think there’s a jury on the planet that would have convicted me. That riff is fucking annoying.
Having said that, my attitude towards Rage has changed dramatically over the last twenty years, and even though I wouldn’t consider myself a huge fan, I do like some of their songs, most notably the song, “Testify.” I suppose the fact that they’re a leftist political band should have softened my attitude toward them, but this was back in the ’90s when I wasn’t quite as political as I am now. I think my attitude started to shift when their guitarist, Tom Morello, did a guest cameo on STAR TREK: VOYAGER. I figured if he was a fan, then Rage couldn’t be all that bad. Still, I can’t stand their lead singer, Zach De La Rocha, but I’ll get to that story in a minute.
Recently, a lot of conservatives have gone to Twitter to complain to Morello about the political messages in Rage’s songs, saying that they should just shut up and play music, which is ridiculous because A:) Their complaints are over twenty years too late, and B:) Morello has every right to put whatever message he wants to in his music. I mean, isn’t that why we have first amendment rights? I think it’s funny how republican idiots always want their rights protected but don’t give a shit about anyone else’s. If they want to listen to a band with a conservative bent, then may I suggest 3 Doors Down? After all, they were the only rock band stupid enough to play Trump’s inauguration.
As one former fan, Scott Castaneda put it on Twitter, “I use to be a fan until your political opinions come out. Music is my sanctuary and the last thing I want to hear is political bs when i’m (sic) listening to music. As far as i’m (sic) concerned you and Pink are completely done. Keep running your mouth and ruining your fan base.”
To which Morello responded, “Scott!! What music of mine were you a fan of that DIDN’T contain “political BS?” I need to know so I can delete it from the catalog!”
Which is too bad, because here I was really hoping to track down Rage Against the Machine’s cover of Barry Manilow’s “Copacabana”. I guess I’ll have to die without ever having heard it. But such is life.
Numbnuts Castaneda actually tried to clarify his comments to the Detroit Metro-Times. He said, “I’m just tired of hearing political stuff from these bands, even Pink, everybody else. It’s one of those things where ‘can we just listen to music and just enjoy life?’ EDM, techno, rock, I get all kinds of different stuff, and that’s my safe haven. I don’t want to listen to political stuff. And once someone taints that for me, it just kills the mood.”
I certainly hope he’s not a fan of Bob Dylan, Green Day, R.E.M., or Pearl Jam. He’ll be in for a rude shock. And what mood does Rage Against the Machine kill, anyway? Unless it’s angry masturbation to a picture of Tomi Laren, I don’t really want to know what this guy’s sex life is like. Scott, buddy, stick to Lawrence Welk. That seems to be more your style.
Historically, music has always been used to express political opinions to some degree. You’d have to be deaf not to notice. For anyone complaining about it, I suggest you either ignore it, stop listening to it, or preferably, stick an icepick in your ear. Republicans don’t need to worry about hitting their brains, mostly due to the fact that they don’t have any to begin with.
Former Speaker of the House and Republican vice-Presidential candidate, Paul Ryan, is an admitted fan of Rage Against the Machine. So if he can ignore their political message, (pretty much the way he ignored the wishes of the American people while in office,) the conservatives in this country can, too. It can’t be that difficult- you can’t understand their lead singer anyway!
Speaking of which, I owe you a story, don’t I?
Well, join me in the Wayback Machine where we’ll set the dial to the year 1996, when I was 25 years old and working as a clerk at Tower Records in the beautiful city of Pasadena, California. For you younger readers, this was when we actually had to buy our music on these things called CDs and cassettes. This was a time when we actually had to go to the effort of rewinding stuff to find the song we wanted to hear, and two or three years before something called Napster came into existence. Itunes wasn’t even a neuron in Steve Jobs’s dreams yet.
At any rate, one day I was at the counter in the store’s video room when this old lady who looked like she climbed out of Minnie Pearl’s grave came over and asked me for help. But if you’ve ever worked retail, then you know that whenever someone over the age of sixty asks you for help, they won’t just simply come out and say what they want- they’re going to bore you with their entire life story before telling you what they need.
So there I stood in the middle of the store, listening to this old biddie blather on about her granddaughter who just turned eighteen and recently graduated high school. Which would have been fine, but then she started in on the kid’s history virtually from the moment she popped out of her Mother’s womb. I was like, “Lady, do you mind? At the rate you’re going, your granddaughter will have graduated from college, gotten engaged, and have a pair of twins on the way!”
While I pretended to care, a short Hispanic dork with the worst dreadlocks I’ve ever seen came rolling up and completely cut off the old lady as though she wasn’t even there. He was shaking like a tweaker in desperate need of a fix and said, “Hey, man. Can you help me out real fast?’
Normally, I would have been grateful for the diversion, but I really did not like the look of this guy or his hostile attitude. I said, “Sorry, but I’m with a customer right now. If you’ll just give me a couple of minutes, I’ll be right with you.” He walked away and started to look around, thinking that I was almost done.
Not even close. The old lady kept telling me about her granddaughter’s biography. She had gotten up to her junior high school years. In my mind, I was like, “Lady! Can we just move it along?! You’ve been yammering so long that my milk has curdled!”
Which was when Dreadlocks walked back up and asked me for help again. This time, I was all, “Sir, there are other clerks on the floor who can help you, or you can walk up to the counter to ask a question.’
Dreadlocks spun on his heels and walked away in a huff. The old lady continued her narrative. We were up to puberty and the pre-teen years. After a while, I began to tap my foot and make the ‘wind-up’ gesture, not that she noticed. Dreadlocks came back and said, “Look, dude- there’s nobody else around! Can you help me or not?”
I was already annoyed and downshifting into anger. I said, “Listen, just as soon as I’m finished with this customer,” I indicated the old lady he steadfastly ignored, “I promise I’ll help you out with whatever you need, okay?”
Dreadlocks was pretty much a pressure cooker ready to explode, and I wasn’t far behind. The old lady finally made it into the high school years. It was just a matter of five or ten minutes. Ha! I wished! It was more like twenty, or at least it felt like it. By this time, Dreadlocks had finally had enough. He ran up and snapped, “All right, you’ve been with this hag for thirty minutes now! I’m in a hurry! Can’t you tell her to wait for a few minutes while I get my shit and get out?”
Dreadlocks did the one thing you never want to do- PISS ME OFF. I got in his face and shouted, “LOOK, YOU FUCKING LITTLE SHITBAG, THIS LADY WAS HERE FIRST!!! IF YOU CAN’T WAIT OR TOO FUCKING STUPID TO FIND WHATEVER THE FUCK YOU’RE LOOKING FOR YOURSELF, THEN EITHER BE PATIENT OR SHUT THE FUCK UP! NOW GET OUT OF MY FACE BEFORE I KICK YOUR ASS FROM HERE TO MALIBU!!!”
Dreadlocks locked eyes with me and seeing that I was dead serious, backed down without another word, and ran down the steps of the store. The old lady looked at me like I was a mental patient who just got off his meds. I took a deep breath and calmly told her, “I’m terribly sorry, Ma’am, but that guy just pushed my buttons. I apologize for my anger and the profanity.”
She gave me a warm smile and said, “That’s quite alright. That young man was rather rude, wasn’t he?”
“He sure was,” I replied.
The lady finally told me she was looking for Alanis Morrisette’s Jagged Little Pill cd, something that would have taken two seconds for anyone else. I sent her on her way and resumed working. A few minutes later, my co-worker, Cindy, came up and asked, “What was all that yelling about?”
“There was some little prick who kept bugging while I was with another customer, so I let him have it,” I said.
She gave me an incredulous look and said, “Do you even know who that guy was?”
Confused, I said, “Should I?”
“That was Zach De La Rocha, the lead singer of Rage Against the Machine!”
“Awww…. Shit! I wish you’d told me that earlier!” I said.
“Would it have made any difference?” Cindy asked.
“Hell yes,” I snapped my fingers. “I would have kicked his ass on general principle! I hate Rage!”
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OMG. politics in music goes back to when Jeebus was riding dinosaurs. Look at songs like Strange Fruit, What’s going on, and on and on and on. I just used fortunate Son in a comment about my own self a few weeks ago comparing my own self to one, except you know…the whole being a female deal. Look at all the people in the past that have used music to do good, Woody Guthrie, Joe Hill, Joan Baez and on and on and on. AYUP I was raised on this shit by two pinko commie loving rental units and kids that are in my orbit hear this on the regular since I shuffle the music in this house.
I even have to wonder about those cave paintings. “Vote for Alley Oop and the bison will come?”
Politics and the arts go way back folks. Be it poets, musicians or authors. Parliment took away Henry Fieldings livlihood in 1707 because of the play “Tom Jones” by passing an act that forbade plays making fun of nobles.
Tryint to remember when it became about politics. I can’t of course. I once read that before Beethoven’s 9th used Schiller’s bit about Joy, it was title “an die Freiheit” of Freedom but he changed it because he worried about being arrested for sedition. I’m not sure it’s true, but music has been about politics and religion for a long time. I remember when Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie were having their second childhoods and Bob Dylan was updating it and it was all politics. I remember the NY art scene in the 90’s where you’d see walls covered with neon signs with political slogans and feminist snark.
I never really got into it and while I love a wide variety of music, I never heard of these rage people. I was already an old man when they crawled out of the swamp. I Looked on Youtube and I won’t waste time hating them. Listened for about 10 – 15 seconds and that was enough. I have an easier time understanding Rammstein and they’re in German.
I have great memories of record stores – yes I said record. They had these little booths where you could listen on a turntable with headphones before you bought and often you just listened and maybe had an espresso and they had people with black t shirts and they burned incense to try to cover up other combustion smells. Groups had normal names that were usually someone’s actual name, whether it was Zoot Sims or Coltrane or even Chuck Berry and Little Richard if the store had that kind of clientele. Freaks like me would take them home and use my giant Rec-O-Kut turntable to transcribe to 1/4″ tape so I wouldn’t wear them out. Remember DBX encoding?
But you’re right. Talk to an old guy and you get a story.
I also remember those booths, and remember spending a lot of time in them, although I was more of a Roy Orbison, Elvis, Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band, and so on…Yes, talk to an old guy and you’ll get a story.