One month ago, Eagles of Death Metal were in
mid-performance at the Bataclan Theater in Paris when their show was
interrupted by a terrorist attack that left 89 dead there (and 130 total in
coordinated attacks elsewhere in the region). All the members of the rock band
survived and were understandably traumatized, but they swiftly determined to
return to Paris to perform as an act of defiance against the jihadists who targeted
cultural expression as well as a hall full of innocent concertgoers. The band
instinctively understood the power of rock music as a force for rebellion and
liberation.
With its power to inspire hope and a yearning
for personal freedom, rock’s barely restrained energy has always been a raucous
threat to repressive governments and cultural totalitarians around the world. Islamists
in Pakistan and Afghanistan have been known to blow up CD shops to silence the music.
Che Guevara and the Castro regime in Cuba despised rock and persecuted
musicians. A documentary called Rockin’ the Wall, narrated by my friend the
actor Adam Baldwin, charts the role of rock in bringing down the Berlin Wall.
As recently as 2010, Iran’s Ayatollah Khameinei
declared that music is incompatible with Islamic values, particularly music from
what the fundamentalists deem to be a decadent Western culture. Khameinei banned
Western music in his country, forcing many musicians into exile or underground.
A thriving heavy metal scene, for example, now serves as a voice of resistance
against the theocratic regime.
Western musicians and audiences aren’t
accustomed to this kind of oppression. Living in the land of freedom and prosperity
as we do, it’s easy for us to take that for granted until something like the
Bataclan atrocity opens our eyes – and prompts us to rally in defense of
freedom. “So much that was taken from Paris on the tragic night of November
13th is irreplaceable,” U2’s Bono said about the attack. “For one night,
the killers took lives, took music, took peace of mind – but they couldn't
steal the spirit of that city.” In an open letter to his friends, Eagles of
Death Metal drummer Josh Homme wrote, “We dare not give another second of
precious time to those who have tried to steal our freedoms and take away our
power.”
Other musicians responded with a similar
determination not to be cowed. Singer Josh Groban told the hosts of The View that he
and his crew agreed music would help restore some healing normalcy, so they
decided not to cancel his performance in Paris shortly after the attacks.
“Music heals. It brings people together and we're real proud of that,” said
Groban. “With music, with art, we’re in a privileged position that we have a
chance to bring people together for all the right reasons.”
Boston-based musician Will Dailey and his
band were on tour through the northwest of France when the attacks happened.
Their next show was cancelled for safety concerns, so Daily and crew set up
shop in a community center to play before a small audience and stream the show
online. “They attacked music,” Dailey says of the
jihadists. “Music is unity, universal communication, therapy, safe expression.
[Our show] was a counter-attack in a way. It is freedom. Folk music, Rock and
Roll, hip hop – they have always been about freedom.”
Less than a month after the attacks, U2
invited Eagles of Death Metal back onstage in Paris for the Irish
band’s final show of their Innocence + Experience 2015 world tour. “They were
robbed of their stage three weeks ago, so we'd like to offer them ours
tonight,” Bono told the crowd. The bands played a cover of Patti Smith's
“People Have the Power” together before U2 left the stage so Eagles of Death
Metal could play their own “I Love You All the Time.”
In a Facebook post about their emotional return to Paris, Eagles of
Death Metal addressed “the healing, defiant power of rock ‘n roll”: “The bad guys never
take a day off, and therefore we rock ‘n rollers cannot either... and we never
will.” The note concluded by thanking U2, the people of France, and “everyone
in the world who continues to prove that love, joy, and music will always
overcome terror and evil.”
It may take more military firepower than love,
joy, and music to overcome terrorists like ISIS, but our freedom of expression
and rock’s subversive power are indispensable defenses against totalitarian
aggression. As Paul McCartney put it in his song “Freedom,” written in response
to the terror attacks on September 11, 2001:
This is my right, a right given by God
To live a free life, to live in freedom
Anyone who wants to take it away
Will have to answer, ‘cause this is my right.
From Acculturated, 12/14/15
