Brain Soda Podcast - Episode 7 - Rage Against the Jazz Notes

Episode Date: March 18, 2023

On this week's episode we'll be discussing Rage Against the Machine's first album, the history of written music, and famous Jazz musician Duke Ellington!

Ladies and gentlemen, it's time once again for the amazing internet-shattering Brain Soda Podcast. I'm your host Kyle, and here with me today are my friends Brad, how's it going, and Frog. Let's get jazzy. We're gonna be talking about written music, Rage Against the Machines debut album, and Duke Ellington here today, and voiced in 1992. On the day of the presidential election, Rage Against the Machine comes out with their debut album, self-titled Rage Against the Machine, and I gotta say, man, as someone who grew up and got heavily into music in like the late 90s, early 2000s, Lip Biscuit and Corn were like those bands for me,

right? Like they were they were the bands that spoke to me and everything else. This record is from 1992, is in my opinion better than anything those bands put out, and like it's more important than so much of what that is. You say 1992. 1992 is when this album comes out, bro. No lie. I'm on election day, November 3rd, 1992, right? That is crazy. This album is ranked 368 out of 500 greatest albums of all time by Rolling Stone. That's the first time they had ever done that list. They've revisited it like twice since then, and both times they did it, moved up, and it's currently as of 2020, number 221, out of the 500 greatest albums of all time. So this is highly the music. Yes. Yeah. Well,

but of its time though too, because you got to think there's bands like Faith No More, you had the anthrax public enemy crossover. You're gonna you're gonna skip over the year 1992. The year that Dirt by Allison Chains came out and bring up those clowns. But that was another Grunge band. That's another point of distinction too. Yeah, this is Red Hot Chili Peppers, Faith No More, like funk metal, groove metal, but it's also got elements of hardcore and punk and rap. I mean, that is what Zach Delarroca is doing is rapping across most of these tracks and screaming for the most part. I recall seeing a video of their I want to I'm pretty sure it was theirs in a record store before they got big. And they were just like, like people didn't know what to think of

them. But they were good, you know, but it was just crazy to see like, well, as far as before, they were big. There's only a year worth that time. So like, so they got big with their first album, the self titled album. And they were only a band for like 11 months. Okay. And they just blew up from there. The first single off this album, not the first track on the album, the first single released to like promote it and get rate radio play and things like that is killing in the name. Okay. Yeah. So like one of their biggest songs. And honestly, man, I think part of it is when you look at what rage against the machine is sonically, aside from anything said politically, sonically, this band is about big booming like rhythm and big strong messages and vibes and it

connects with people on a certain level. Because if you're sitting there lifting weights, it works for you. If you're sitting there upset about the system, like this music is trying to convey across every single album and song that they've ever made, then it's there and it's speaking directly to you likely, right? Like, or if you're just sitting there and this is the type of stuff you like to listen to like me, it all fits into this world of why people get it. But when you look at how many people don't understand things about this band, obviously, we're not going to get into the politics of it very heavily. I do want to mention one thing about their politics is that I find it funny when politicians play their music when they're coming out because it's just right. Yeah, and Ryan being the

most flagrant of those offenders, right? But the thing is, is that I look at Facebook comments about their most recent tour where they were actively having protocols for COVID and people are like, man, they totally like ditched us for the system. And it's like, dude, like, you're dealing with the most leftist band of all time. I mean, but you do sound like a complete airheaded when you sit there and say something like, I can't believe this leftist band is doing a thing you feel like leftists are actively doing. Whether you agree with it or you don't, like what the f**k are you talking about? Speaking of that, when they came out, was there like lots of controversy when they started getting big? Because that was kind of right by the satanic panic and all that. I know

they're not related to that group. No, but I mean, they do have elements of their lyrics that are critical of Christianity and its role within modern American society. Okay, not very much, but it is prevalent, it is there. If a Karen hears Rage Against the Machine, they're going to think the worst. But I feel like there's a society of soccer moms right now, who when they were 18, 19 or whatever the age was, listened to Rage Against the Machine and then totally lost sight of it and in favor of whatever hot music trends were happening in 2002, in 2022, and in 1998. Yeah, well, I mean, like Karen's today were, yeah, I don't even like to use the word Karen's

necessarily, but you know, people that are like 40 years old were the teenagers of that time in 1992. Was there backlash, like let's say with like Elvis, you know, there was a bunch of backlash. Well, so, so the police department obviously was not very found of killing in the name because it's speaking directly on Rodney King and the LA riots, right? I mean, I think everybody knows. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Think about what some of those that workforces are the same that burn crosses. Okay. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna read you and there's there's elements of this that besides the funk and the hip hop and metal and punk, all kind of colliding like four cars going down meeting at a four way

stop and just hitting the gas into one another, right? It besides all of that, there is spoken word elements aside from the J. Edgar Hoover memo that he reads out on Wake Up, that this is part of Know Your Enemy, which by the way has a feature from a guy you may have heard of named Manured James Keenan, you know, the lead singer tool and a perfect circle, right? Not just a name drop real fast, but like that's like this cool little funky breakdown. And it comes into him saying these words, and it goes into stark silence by the time they end. So let me start. Just imagine that. Let me start and read them. Compromise, conformity, assimilation, submission, ignorance, hypocrisy, brutality, the elite, all of which are American dreams. He says that screaming it

aloud eight times in a row, as this fades out into nothingness behind all of his emotion in that voice. And it is so poignant and poetic and obviously politically charged as a statement. And I love it. It is and it's dark. I mean, it is very, but it is heavy music. You know what I mean? Like, yeah. And like, well, the singer, I see I'm not good with bands and names of Zach Del Roca is the guy's name. Yeah, he has such a distinct voice. Like if he were singing, you know, oh, that's right. It's the machine. Yeah. Well, and I went really quick. A thing that I always thought that was funny as a kid that grew up loving professional wrestling. I think low key, I was one of the people I was just making fun of, but in a way different way.

So do you guys remember the Degeneration X theme? Break it down. But you remember the song, right? I can't stand them. It sounds just like Rage Against the Machine and it's not Rage Against the Machine. That's my point is that I was like, that's a band that did a WWE theme song. Dude, they're so cool and had no idea about like the lyrical content of Rage Against the Machine. And then later grew up and understood politics and what was being said in these songs that have become football, stadium, highlight, reel, whatever, anthems and songs that people work out to or get replayed on the radio on the daily and like. That's what I mean. That's the weird thing is that Rage Against the Machine is

like, it's used as just, you know, oh, this is your oldies song now, you know, and it's crazy to think that this is like, you know. I mean, it's kind of it's uniformly on like rock, radio, video games that play stuff like Rage Against the Machine because like in 2000, they break up. Communication breakdown is essentially what it came down to as a band. Unanimously, it was almost said, not a lot of ill will or hard feelings, but they go on to make audio slave of Chris Cornell, right? Like these guys go on to Tom Morello was featured in Guitar Hero 3, Brad. Is that what it was? I think so. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like these guys are highly regarded members of our pop culture. I remember seeing Tom Morello again, not to get too political on Bill Maher all the

time. But like you really would see him go talk on CNN. Yeah, he's big like I see him more than anyone else. Like he's a guitar player, right? Mm hmm. Okay. Harvard educated guitar player. And like, I'm going to be perfectly honest with you. When you hear what Tom Morello does with a pedal and a guitar, it's it's so weird. There's parts where he's going up and down. And like you hear go and like it sounds like somebody's playing Atari to make it. It is crazy. But like there's there's not synthesizers on this record. But Tom Morello is one of those guys who really does just do something different than almost anybody else's ever you've ever heard do with a guitar. That's one of the things that's beautiful about this music. But like this band in love itself,

like amongst all the things that Tom Morello does with that guitar, bring you into a different mode and make you feel really feel. And then when you put Zach Del Roca on top of it, man, it is. So the top five songs are on Spotify. Are you listening them off to me right now or no? Yeah, I have it pulled up right now. The most I bet you I bet it's Bulls on Parade killing in the name of I guarantee you those are two of them. Probably Guerrilla Radio is one of them. That's number three. That's number three. I'll tell you already because you had the first two. First one was killing in the name of second was Bulls on Parade. Third is Guerrilla Radio. Then you have two more. So I doubt it. But one of them I think should be up there is testify.

It's not. No, man. The fourth one is from Battle of Los Angeles. Oh, yeah. The fifth one is from Bomb Track or not. Oh, it is Bomb Track. Yeah. Dude, that is an amazing song, too. So it's it's from Battle of Los Angeles, but it's not testify. Oh, it's sleep now on the fire. So frog, you're looking at the spot of fire right now. You can see that this album's artwork is a guy on fire. It is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk. And what it is is they cropped Malcolm Brown's Pulitzer Prize winning photo of that guy lighting himself on fire because of Buddhists being killed by an American bat government that once that picture came out, JFK like rescinded his backing of at least a little bit. It is an amazing record. And I think

every person on the planet owes it to themself politically and musically to listen to it at least once and try to take some of it in for real. And with that said, Brad, why don't you tell us how some of those notes would look with written music? So the way I kind of came about this subject was me and my wife were talking the other day and we were we were wondering like how did people start like writing music? You know, we were looking at this like crazy picture of it was like a song but it looked like artwork almost with that guy that's thinking about like when did writing music start? You know, so I figured that what a perfect topic, you know, so so when I started looking it up, you know, I found out that like the first instruments at least, you know, were like flutes

essentially, you know, like made out of bones or like mammoth ivory. Yeah, hollow, hollow rod. Exactly. Yeah, or like bird bones because they're hollow, you know, and stuff like that. They were like they were made like 42,000 years ago. Right. Again, like the episode five, it's not the first time but but it was the first recorded found. Yes, but right. But the first musical like notation or anything like that wasn't until like way after that, which was like 1400 BC. So this is like, you know, like 2400 years ago, right? And that was in a stone tablet found in a Ugarit in northern Syria. I'm going to butcher a bunch of names and stuff to this episode. So it's going to be great. Okay, I was going to say where is Ugarit. Yeah, it's in northern Syria. So

like but that was just like it was kind of like a hymn, you know, it was called the the Hurian hymn to Nicole. It was like a goddess of the orchards, you know, so there was like a for it to be that far back. Does that mean that almost a majority of it an overwhelming majority of it is of religious context? Probably. I mean, most of I'm sure was like, yeah, religious, you know, back then. And that's how most societies probably were exactly. So like, you know, like, yeah, like this one had like, you know, there was like instructions for like how to play a lear, which was like kind of like a guitar in a way or a violin, but it wasn't, you know, but not a loop. No, a lear. Okay, that's cool. And then like singing, singing instructions with like lyrics

and stuff. But is a lear more like a harp? No, I don't I guess. Yeah, it's a string instrument. But it's like, right? I guess it's like a harp. It's like a mini harp, like a mini harp. So I'm looking it up and it kind of looks like a banjo. It's like it's almost like a guitar that like doesn't have the neck, you know, think of it like that. Yeah, a snub nose guitar like like, yeah, yeah, like a sawed off guitar. Like that was that was used a lot, you know, all throughout like grease and stuff like that, you know, like the lyrics, the Greeks though, were the first to really like make like music theory, you know, like what like notes and stuff like that, you know, like, right, like, actually Pythagoras, the guy that made the Pythagorean

theorem, a squared plus b squared equals c squared, which is how you find like the sides of a triangle, essentially. Yeah, he actually was, he looked into that a little bit too. And he looked at like music intervals, you know, like the different like beats of music. And Greeks also invented what's called the tetrachord, which is like four notes on a scale. And I looked in the tetrachord because I wanted to explain it more. But I got like so confusing music theory to me, like, it's just it's crazy. But it's it's really cool. Because I'll tell you why that someone who's always been musically inclined to sit there and look at sheet music is daunting. I feel it really, I agree. I learned how I learned I played the flute in like, I think from like fifth to seventh grade. So I

like learned how to read music. And, you know, I like played I learned about the ukulele when I was older, like red music with that stuff like that. And it's really it's a good thing to know. Because like, when you know it, it's almost like reading a book, you know, it's like you look at it like reading a book almost, it's really cool. Like what you like are good at reading it, you know. And I, you know, I think everybody should learn it. That's why like one of the things about music is why people like do it. You know, it's or why people want to have their kids and stuff going into music classes and stuff is that it really triggers a part of your brain that's different, which the Greeks were really good at. Yeah, because it's symbolism. Exactly. You're creating music

like the way you create that you read it and create it's almost like a language, but it's not, you know, it's it's kind of crazy. It's like a different language in a way. Yeah. So anyways, around the sixth century, which like we're going to fast forward a little bit, you know, going like like Pythagoras was like, I think like 400s, I think BC or something like that, 400s or 500s into the sixth century, eight or C, the common error. That was the the center Boethius wrote about like a book about like the principles of music. And that he like brought math and music to like kind of early medieval Europe, because like five, you know, the 500s was kind of after the fall of the Western civilization of Rome and all that. So like from there, like that

wasn't like that was like pretty much it for a while. You know, there wasn't or well, I guess Pope Gregory around shortly after that created like a music school, but like they just use like kind of the principles of like Greek scholars and everything like that from there on for like, you know, almost 500 years, you know, I can't say like 500 years, like in like 650, there was this guy named Saint Isidore of Seville that like kind of made made new ems, I think is how you pronounce it and E U M E S. But it's like symbols above like lyrics, you know, and that kind of like gives you an idea of like what? Yeah, exactly. Except it didn't it only went higher or lower, you know, like so you can go like, you know,

right, you know, like what the notes exactly were. But so like, yeah, like, like I said, so like for like 500 years, that's pretty much what things were like, pretty much music was only saying in churches, like you said, you know, like religious things, like, I mean, there was other songs, obviously, but nothing that was really wrote down or anything like that, you know, except for in churches. And then around 1000 CE, there was this Italian music theorist named Guido De Rezzo. I think you pronounce his name. But he introduced what the four lined stave system. So the staves are like, what you like the horizontal lines, you know, you see on when you're reading music, right? Yeah. So like, yeah, right, you know, like, that's like kind of like essential

to how you read music. Now, you know, because that's like, you go up a stave system, now it's five lines, I guess, where's position is what note it is, right? That if you, I guess you guys don't know how to read music, right? Because you guys didn't take any I learned tabs for base. That's way different. That is way different. Yeah, I understand that the terms like the lines and the notes and the stuff like that. But as far as reading the words and making sense, no. So essentially, to keep it really basic, because like, there's way a crazy number of symbols and stuff that I do not know about, right? But you have your like, you know, you have your lines, your horizontal lines, right? And then you have like the dots, right? And like the dots can be different, like

shape or, you know, they mean either like not filled, which is like a whole note, which lasts like the longest, you know, like four or a half note, or a half note, or, you know, you got your quarter and your eights and all like, and they're all different shapes, right? So you like, that's how you can kind of tell like how fast you're going to play it. And then where's position on that, that, you know, stave is like what note it is, right? So you connect all that together, and you got yourself music, right? Essentially, from like, that's essentially, from then on, that's kind of what we have, you know, essentially today. I mean, but there's been other things, like, you know, well, and he also this Guido Tearezzo guy, he organized pitches into groups

called hexachords, right? So like different like pitches, you know, and then he also signed like time signatures, like how, you know, the time signatures on it and something called solfege, which is like do re mi fa solati, you know, so we want to have sound of music without that guy. Right. Wow. Yeah. That is a lot. Yeah. Like when you think about how important all those things are, like half of what I thought when you mentioned musical notes was like that stuff was exactly that. Exactly. So that's cool that he's like the guy who's most prevalent in music theory. He seems to be, yeah, it's pretty crazy. Yeah. And like, but you had like, he still didn't have note lengths and everything though, which were created around like 1250 by this, this guy,

Franco of Cologne, you know, he invented the system of like four different note lengths. And, you know, like it continued, like, because like, now, like, like I said, there's so many, there's all these different notes for like how to increase like loudly you're playing it, I guess. Like, it's just, it's crazy. If you're looking like what brought me to this subject of was like, we were looking at this thing where it was like, it was a song, but it was the composer's face was the music. Like if you looked at the sheet music, it was a picture of his face. Okay. That's it. Yeah. We're like, how can that even, you know, yeah. No, like, I mean, that's, you know, I just like, that's pretty much what I found out. Like it's crazy that like, you know, like it went back a

lot farther than I thought. There's this guy named Duke Ellington. I don't think he's alive anymore. Is he? Oh, no, he wouldn't be alive. He was born. He's born 1899. He kicked the door open for the 1900s. Wow. Wait, I barely know about this guy. I'm actually probably know a lot about this guy, but he's a jazz guy. Yeah. So he's definitely jazz. Um, he so I, I spent a lot of a lot of minutes per se listening to Duke before we got onto this podcast, just to kind of get a better look. And I actually know a lot more music than what I thought I did because he plays music that I like and listen to currently. And okay, it's amazing. It's amazing who he's worked with. He's and actually he's got the largest personal recorded jazz legacy in the world. Like he's,

we'll get into that here in a minute. So Duke Ellington, like I said, born 1899. He was born in Washington, D.C. ended up jumping over to New York and hanging out in Harlem, which is kind of where he got his start. I mean, did he do that? Like, how old was he? I want to say 11 ish. Okay. Because I think he was seven when he started taking music lessons. Oh, so he was like, you're saying when he started playing in Harlem? Yeah, yeah. So because his parents were pianists. That's what he's famous for being a famous pianist. That's what they played was the piano. Well, his mom surrounded him with these extravagant women that taught piano lessons to show him respect early and respect the woman early. You know what I mean?

That's kind of right. That's kind of how he was raised. Like, I want you to show the learn music and learn manners. And then that's unusual in those days. Right? I mean, yick. Well, manners. Yes. Yeah, the early 1900s and it was unusual in those days. In 1999, he ended this is far after he passed away. But he ended up winning the Pulitzer Prize for all the all the contributions that he made to the music world. He earned 14 Grammys over his timeframe. So basically, in the 1930s, he began a nearly a 30 year collaboration with a composer known by the name of Billy Strayhorn, which I've heard of him quite a bit. Just listen to the music. I don't know if you guys have. I don't think I have. So a lot of these cats were around when Sinatra was

big. And there's actually right. Yeah, the big band era. Was he in his right? Was he in Sinatra's group? No, he wasn't part of the Rat Pack. That was I think that was Sammy Davis, Frank Martin and Jerry Lewis. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, there was a there's a fifth one that I can never remember. And like, I don't think he was there the whole time. Joey Bishop. Is that who it was? See the last one. I think so that Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Joey Bishop and Peter Lofford. So Duke Ellington, like, so did he just stay around New York or did he travel around America? Because like, I mean, I know there was like a big scene or like in the Midwest, who wasn't there? And like, I don't think Detroit got too big until like Motown was it or

not. Yeah, that's that's because that you're starting to get into funk around that time. Yeah, that's later. But I'm saying like, Chicago, did he like, did he or just stay stuck around New York? Yeah, he bounced around New Jersey. He went, I mean, played in Virginia, I think because well, when he started that 30 year collaboration, they balanced all over the world and they did thousands of compositions together. I was going to say, I'm sure he's a world traveling musician has probably played on six continents or something. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. That's pretty cool. I don't think he's the father of jazz music, but I think he's definitely, he was holding hands with the guy, you know what I mean? Yeah.

And he actually died on my sister's birthday, which is kind of crazy, May 24th. Wow. In 1974, he ended up dying in New York City. So he lived a pretty long life then and he got to see it like, I mean, I had people that were born like 1900 and around, you know, around that time period, it's just insane to think about what they saw. Like if they lived to be like 80 years old, let's say, or even 100 would be even crazier to see the internet, you know, to go from like barely having cars to the internet is man. Yeah. Right. So the million dollar question is frog, if you were directing, who would you cast to play Duke Ellington and Duke Ellington film? So I was kind of looking at some pictures of this cat and an older cat might,

Morgan Freeman might work, but the thing is, so I watched a few YouTube, there's not very many, there's a couple of YouTube videos of this guy. Right. And he, he talks like this. It's kind of weird. So it's hard to find somebody that would fit the bill. I'm looking at a picture of him, a younger, maybe Terrence Howard, a younger one. I kind of see it. I was going with Anthony Mackie or Jamie Foxx. I was thinking Jamie Foxx too, but he already did Ray Ray. He's just that's one of my favorite films. Exactly. I mean, he's great at it, don't be wrong, but you know, he can't be every single, you know, oh, there's a, there's a musician, let's get Jamie Foxx. Exactly. Yeah. But I don't know, it'd be kind of hard. Man,

looking at pictures, I really don't know. A couple of them do look like a little bit like Terrence Howard though. I think he can kind of pull it off in some spots. I was thinking about the guy from Breaking Bad, this whole new picture that you see of him here. Yeah, that one guy, yeah, a little bit. I don't know. Yeah. Gustavo Fring is the character's name. He's a little too slim to play him, I think. I mean, but you can fat suit easy. That's not hard. That's true. Because I was thinking for a while, Steve Urkel's dad, but he's too thick. Yeah. You're talking about Mr. Wait, not Winslow. Renable Johnson, I think. I don't know who Steve Urkel's dad is. I only know what the Winslow Johnson. Yeah, no, that's not Dad though.

That's just like, exactly. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're right. It is the neighbor. He's on. Wait a minute. There's a character for Duke Ellington and Big Mouth. Is there? Yeah, I'm looking at it right now. I'm going to the wiki for it. Duke Ellington's wiki from Big Mouth. Big Mouth is a show on Netflix from Nick Kroll and it's the ghost of Duke Ellington. Okay. So it as a character on Big Mouth, Duke Ellington's first appearance is in the episode ejaculation and his voice actor is Jordan Peele. That is perfect. I don't even know that I'm looking at a picture that is the perfect like actor for him is Jordan Peele. He can do almost anybody. That's true. But still, yes. Yeah. Yeah, I would agree. That would

be a good I wonder if Jordan Peele would like direct it now that he is the helm of so many films. He's taking on some bigger roles in producing, hasn't he? He has. He's a great like, I mean, everything he does is great. He writes and directs those movies, doesn't he? That's what I thought. Yeah. I think so. Yeah. So that was really cool, Frog. I'm glad that you shared that with us, man. Like, I didn't know anything about Duke Ellington. I got two new albums to listen to. I can't wait. So yeah, Kyle, you want to take us out? And with that, ladies and gentlemen, we thank you for joining us here on the Brain Soda podcast. We will see you next Saturday. Have a good night, everybody. So yeah, good night. Hey, everybody, it's Kyle here from the Brain Soda podcast reminding

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