Guitar Army reads like a history book in this context. It begins with the dawning of the rock and roll age--Elvis and the rest--and takes the reader from the beat culture to the hippies and the political freek culture of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Cops busting concerts and peoples apartments. Riots in the streets over the war in Vietnam and solidarity with the Black liberation movement. John Sinclair thrown in prison for ten years for two joints of reefer and John and Yoko joining with the MC5 and others to free the man from what was clearly a political verdict. And the MC5 kickin' out the jams, motherf*cker.
This book was published right around the historical moment that the political new left and the counterculture reached a critical mass in the minds of many youth and in the streets of the western world--especially the United States. Sinclair addresses the commodification of the counterculture by hip and not-so-hip capitalists, yet his words should resonate when he claims herein that the music still is the most important thing because no matter what, the people making the music still control the means of production.
A website connected to Audioslave/Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello and Serj Tankian of System of a Down called Axis of Justice has listed Guitar Army on its recommended reading list since the site went online several years ago. One hopes that the book's increased availability due to its republication will make these ideas that some consider naive and dated new again. Just in case the reader might be wondering what the book's message might sound like, the publishers have tucked a CD of rock music, poetry and rants in the book's back cover. Check out "The Motor City's Burning" by the MC5.
It's not only time to free the music from the corporate machine, it's time to free the world from the war machine. Those of us in the belly of the beast have a role in this struggle. A rock and roll soundtrack always helps.
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