Rage Against The Machine
Sunday, April 7, 2024 Entry #89
Tom Morello is a self-described socialist, the co-founder of the hard rock/rap band Rage Against The Machine, a highly experimental guitarist, and an artist who has always combined music and activism. Morello is also a part-time member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band.
Morello has long acknowledged that he is a Springsteen admirer and fan. On an early Rage Against The Machine album, he covered Bruce’s 1995 song “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” Springsteen’s haunting homage to both John Steinbeck and Woody Guthrie. Morello first appeared onstage with Springsteen in 2008, adding his hypnotic, scratchy, squealy guitar shredding to “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” weaving together their two versions of the song. Like its influences, “The Ghost of Tom Joad” portrays its destitute and disenfranchised characters with sympathy and dignity and expresses outrage and shame at how society disregards them. Performing with Springsteen, Morello’s earnest presence gave the already powerful song extra immediacy. From there, Morello went on to provide guitar and vocal support on two subsequent Springsteen albums. One of the tracks Morello appeared on was a re-recording of “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” done up in the “Rage Against” style that Springsteen clearly now preferred over his own more folkie original. In addition, Morello has played guitar on a few Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band tours in recent years. The first one was in Australia, where Morello subbed for Little Steven, who was out filming a TV series. Later, Morello signed onto Springsteen’s entire 2014 tour, where he was a part of a veritable guitar-hero army with Little Steven, Nils Lofgren, and the Boss himself. I was lucky to see Morello with Springsteen at one of those exciting concerts.
Now, in LA, here was Morello once again performing alongside Bruce Springsteen. It was another indicator of the change in Springsteen’s attitude from last year’s iteration of the current tour. Back on the first, pre-peptic ulcer run, there were plenty of celebrity sightings among Springsteen’s audiences, but not even a Beatle, Sir Paul McCartney himself could get an invite to make a cameo appearance with the Boss onstage (see Entry #58, addendum 3). Springsteen was unwilling to be knocked off his carefully thought out performance plan then, but now he was nimbly calling audibles like in the “before (COVID) time.”
As I reported in my previous post (see Entry #88), Morello joined the band in the middle of Springsteen playing “American Skin (41 Shots),” contributing a fantastic guitar solo. After that, Springsteen and Morello launched into their signature duet. Here is Springsteen handing off the lead vocals to Morello on the final verse of “The Ghost of Tom Joad.” As you can see, Morello seized the moment with his raised fist, defiant stance, and righteously angry singing voice:
This most impactful verse is a paraphrase of the Tom Joad goodbye monologue in The Grapes of Wrath. The passage was popularized by Henry Fonda in the film version, and also directly referenced in Woody Guthrie’s song “The Ballad of Tom Joad.” In his song, Springsteen uses the message as a passionate reminder to all of us. We need to pick up where Tom Joad left off and continue the struggle for social justice, for that is how his spirit will live on:
“Wherever there’s a cop beating a guy/Wherever a hungry newborn baby cries/Where there’s a fight against the blood and hatred in the air/look for me Mom, I’ll be there/Wherever somebody’s fighting for a place to stand/Or a decent job or a helping hand/Wherever somebody’s struggling to be free/Look in their eyes Ma, and you’ll see me!”
Now, for some odd reason, I did not record any of Tom Morello’s extensive guitar soloing from the concert, but here is Bruce taking his own always formidable turn on the axe:
To give you a taste of Morello’s show-stopping style and flying hands, check out this YouTube clip of “The Ghost of Tom Joad” from years gone by with Springsteen, Morello and the E Street Band jamming it at the 2009 star-filled concert marking the 25th anniversary of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame:
Especially for progressive (even radical) politics-minded music fans, Tom Morello is an inspiration. For me, watching and hearing him from the pit playing onstage with Bruce Springsteen was an indelible moment to witness. But, the night was young, and there was much more Bruce Springsteen and E Street music to play, so Morello exited stage left, presumably to enjoy the rest of the concert as a fan.
Day 7