TOM MORELLO OCCUPIES AND RAGES AGAINST WALL STREET… WITH HIS BRAIN

Forget for a minute that Tom Morello is a very famous musician, and put aside your views on whether or not musicians should use their music as a platform to express political views. Now watch and listen to this interview with Tom Morello at the Occupy Wall Street protests — where he serenaded protestors last week — and as you’re doing so think of him of just one of 300-some-odd million U.S. citizens with an opinion to express, just like everyone else:

I don’t care who the guy in the above video is; his are some of the most well-articulated, smart, and reasoned opinions of the whole “Occupy” campaign I’ve encountered to date. Best of all, Morello does a great job of framing the issue not as Republican vs. Democrat — because it’s really not a partisaned issue at all — but as regular people vs. the entire government/corporation complex, regardless of party lines. Sure, Morello’s history leans very far left, but the “Occupy” movement is gaining steam precisely because it doesn’t recognize political affiliation. Tea Partiers should really be able to back its message too. Sure, certain groups are trying to co-opt the message, but Morello addresses that issue in the above interview too.

Now feel free to once again remember how famous Tom Morello is, how many people he can influence, that the guy’s a pretty fantastic musician and, oh yeah, has a degree in Political Science from Harvard. I’d say this is fairly important, wouldn’t you?

For more on Occupy Wall Street re: metal: check out Valient Himself of Valient Thorr’s thought on the matter in an exclusive MetalSucks guest blog.

-VN