Nightwatchman (Tom Morello) – The Rebel’s Toast
And then there is “Flesh Shapes The Day”, which opens with the lines, “Now you might have heard different/But I know it’s a fact/That Jesus, Mary, Joseph/And the Apostle Paul were black.”
“I have spent a lot of time in European museums where the little baby Jesus looks Scottish, with almost translucent skin,” he says. “As somebody who has spent time in the Holy Land, if the historical Jesus bore any resemblance to the people of the region, that would not be the case.”
After his pivotal pep talk from Rick Rubin, Morello began playing unannounced, pseudonymous solo spots. “On nights off, I would look in the local paper for open-mike nights, whether it was at country-western bars or anarchist bicycle shops,” he says. “I would go down, sign up as the Nightwatchman, and play my songs for the eight people and a latte machine.” More than once, what he intended as an especially poignant passage was undercut by the whirring of a blender, or a blast of hissing steam. “I believe that is what they call dues-paying,” he acknowledges.
Like any worthwhile artist with some drive, the Nightwatchman started landing better bookings. He supported Bragg and Steve Earle on the Tell Us The Truth tour, and joined punk band Anti-Flag on the Rock Against Bush road show. Then there were “countless union rallies, whether it was for the Immokalee Farm Workers, or for 10,000 steelworkers at the FTAA protests that were teargassed in Miami.”
Morello hasn’t just mastered the rhetoric. The songs underscore his convictions. “Let Freedom Ring” and “The Road I Must Travel” are rallying cries suitable for any march, while “Battle Hymns” and “Union Song” are tailored to address more specific matters (the Iraq war and unfair labor practices, respectively).
So it might seem odd that the months leading up to the release of One Man Revolution included a Tuesday residency at the Hotel Cafe in Los Angeles, where Morello was joined by high-profile guests including Serj Tankian (System Of A Down), Perry Farrell (Jane’s Addiction), Shooter Jennings, Nuno Bettencourt (Extreme), Wayne Kramer (MC5), and rapper Sen-Dog (Cypress Hill). Several of those friends — as well as former Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash joined Morello for the first of his three performances at SXSW 2007 in March.
Is this Morello’s attempt to trump Camp Freddy, the infamous Hollywood pickup ensemble that has hosted more drunken celebrities than a decade of Grammy after-parties? The guitarist lets loose a belly laugh. Far from it. Actually, he says, he was trying to rekindle the vibe of some of those in-the-round coffeehouse gigs or an old “Hootenanny” broadcast.
“The idea of the Hotel Cafe residency was to create, on one night, in one room, a little bit of the world we would like to see,” he explains. “It’s musicians you would never imagine sharing the stage before.” Cover charge was $10, the artists all donated their services, and money went to area homeless charities. “They really have been some of my favorite nights of music that I have ever been involved in,” he says.
Morello displays a quality lacking in many platinum-selling rock stars: Humility. “I have no credentials, coming into this, as a singer, or even as a lyricist,” he admits. “My only credential is my sincerity. And I think that’s enough. I believe in every word, in every note, in every one of these songs.
“There were some very early shows where, one night I’d be playing in front of 15,000 people in an arena, and the next I’d be playing for a dozen at some small bar somewhere,” he remembers. “But there was a great connection between performer and audience at the smaller Nightwatchman show…and that made me think that this is really going to be the next chapter of what I do. Honestly, there were some nights where I would feel like everybody in the room’s soul was at stake.”
ND contributing editor Kurt B. Reighley grew up listening to Judy Collins and the Kingston Trio. The Clash and Public Enemy entered his life much, much later.