Tom Morello on the artist he considered the punk rock version of James Brown
When you think about what it takes to be a great frontperson, James Brown pretty much had every characteristic required to be regarded as the finest of all time. He had charisma in multitudes, he had moves and the bags of energy required to pull them off time and time again during his marathon live shows, and most of all, he had the powerful voice to go with it. There aren’t many greater than Brown, and there probably aren’t many who can compare themselves to him either.
There are, of course, many who have tried to emulate everything that Brown was good at and who have referred to him as an inspiration towards their efforts. Michael Jackson himself was an exceptional performer, and his stage presence may have been significantly different if it weren’t for the influence of the ‘godfather of soul’, and Prince was also heavily impacted by Brown throughout his career.
However, some far less likely candidates have been likened to Brown for their unique ways of captivating their audiences. While some of them bear little to no resemblance to the singer in their delivery, style, or content, it’s their electric performance that invites the comparisons and allows them to be regarded as just as much of a force of nature as Brown was during the peak of his career.
Rage Against the Machine were known for blending together elements of funk with their hard rock and metal style, but in terms of musical output, that’s just about where the comparisons end between the Los Angeles band and Brown. That being said, the group had a magnetic frontman in Zack de la Rocha, and the levels of fervour in his performances also put him on the long list of candidates for great frontmen in the years following Brown’s career.
Speaking to Metallica’s Lars Ulrich on his Apple Music radio show, Rage Against the Machine’s guitarist Tom Morello spoke about the importance of his former band and how each member was vital to how they sounded. Ulrich began the conversation by asserting that the four albums that Rage Against the Machine released between 1992 and 2000 have proven to be timeless rock records and how “they sound as vital and as necessary 25 years later,” to which Morello had some interesting comments to make in response.
“They sound like they’re written for now,” Morello began, “but they were written during the Bill Clinton years.” He would then go on to pay compliments towards de la Rocha and his lyrical ability before asserting that “you’ve seen the band, there’s no frontman in the history of rock and roll – he’s like the punk rock James Brown – there’s nothing like the electricity of that guy.”
Considering the amount of praise that Brown would receive throughout his career, this is possibly the greatest endorsement of his former bandmate’s ability as a frontman. Morello would then continue by praising the connection between the rest of the musicians in the band, saying that “the way that Tim [Commerford] and Brad [Wilk] and I play together is very unique and the chemistry is the whole thing. I just feel fortunate that the band occurred.”
Despite having reunited on two occasions to play live shows, the band are still yet to follow up their final album, the cover record Renegades, with another studio release. Considering how good the band’s chemistry really was and how strong and influential their original run of records proved to be, it’s surprising that they haven’t attempted to add to their legacy by returning to the studio, but at the same time, perhaps they’re content knowing that their initial run was something they may never be able to capture again.
