So, there’s a back story to this song.
In the late 80’s and early 90’s I was a member of the Los Angeles Chapter of the Black Rock Coalition which is a group of musicians who played Rock music, but weren’t necessarily White. Now, that might seem to some like a strange issue — but the reality is that Black people originally created Rock ‘N Roll starting with Chuck Berry, along with Chubby Checker, Little Richard and Ike Turner. Many people say that the very first Rock N Roll song every recorded was “Rocket 88” by Ike Turner’s band in the 1950’s. “Hound Dog” was a song by Big Mamma Thornton before Elvis got ahold of it. It’s also fair to give credit to Buddy Holly, The Big Booper and Richie Valens(uela) but primarily it was Black Music, borne largely from the Blues.
Originally it was called “Race Music” or “Ni**er" Music. When Radio DJ and promotor Allan Freed would have Rock ‘N Roll concerts on more than one occasion it broke out into a Race Riot. Many people didn't want their young (white) kids listening to the “Race Music.”
Eventually, that music was stolen from Black people after the invasion of British Rockers landed on U.S. shores. From the Beatles, to the Blues Breakers, the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin “Rock” slowly changed from being Black Music, to being British Music. And that made it safe to be White Music. That made it safe for Pat Boone to rerecord and release Little Richard’s “Tootie Fruity” and chart higher than the original version while it was still being played.
20 years after that transition took place guitarist Vernon Reid, journalist Greg Tate and manager Konda Mason formed the Black Rock Coalition in New York to try and change the tide of history and reclaim the music that Black people had lost.
I joined in 1988 after Konda moved to LA and started a new Chapter which met at UCLA. Being a talkative sort, I was relatively prominent in those meetings even though I didn’t have a band of my own at the time. That took a while to accomplish with many false starts and stops. One of the other people in many of those meetings was Tom Morello.
Tom didn’t talk much, but he was there. What I didn’t know at the time was that he was already in a signed band on Geffen Records, which was called Lock Up. He and his band were already shooting videos, like this one for the song “Nothing New.”
The band had signed a multi-record deal, but the response to them was a bit lackluster — and they were accused of being a “Chili Peppers wannabe” band. Something that also happened about a year later to the band Extreme from Boston. All of this is hilarious because the Chili Peppers were largely influenced by Funkadelic with George Clinton and guitarist Eddie Hazel - one of the last prominent Black Rock and Fuck bands of the 70s. Clinton even produced one of the Chili Peppers early albums.
At the time I was obsessed with Funk-Rock bands — and I became a big fan of Lock Up and particularly of Tom Morello’s guitar playing which was highly technical. He was in many ways a “shredder” like many others of the era — but he also had an additional flair that wouldn’t truly express itself until his later records with Rage Against the Machine. I only had one chance to see Lock Up live during a gig at the Coconut Teaser in Hollywood. And it was a great show - but I was disappointed that they didn’t play what I felt strongly was their best song - “Peacekeeper.”
What I didn’t know at the time was that was their final show, as the band had been dropped by their label and soon broke up. A couple years later Tom re-emerged with RATM and took off into the stratosphere with his newly re-tooled playing style. We lost track of each other.
Years later, in the mid 90’s I ran into Tom once again at a Ronnie James Dio show at the Hollywood House of Blues. I didn’t recognize him, but he recognized me. We got into a conversation about the old days with the BRC - which I didn’t even realize he was a member. And then I brought up the fact that I was a fan of Lock Up, that I had been at their final show and that they didn’t play their best song - Peacekeeper.
He’s said “That song jams.” I said, “Yes, why didn’t you play it?” He didn’t really have a good answer for that all these years later - and also that was about the time that Dio was about to hit the stage, so he excused himself and headed closer to get good position.
I hadn’t actually come to the show to see Dio who I was only a marginal fan of, I had come to see the opening band for that gig, which as Atomic Opera from Houston, Texas. So while Tom headed for the stage, I walked out to find the members of AO to chat with. Two seconds after walking out of the door and mumbling that it was wild to meet Tom Morello, Atomic Opera’s guitarist Jonathan overheard me and went - “TOM MORELLO — Where?”
“He’s back in there” - I pointed at the House of Blues.
“Show me!!” he said. Ah, shit.
So we went back in to the middle of a pretty monstrous mosh to try and find Tom again. After about 40 minutes, I gave up. It was impossible. I went back outside.
Years later, my wife and I became friends with former Dokken bassist Jeff Pilson who was doing solo acoustic gigs with his side-band “A Better Mousetrap” in the Burbank area. We actually got pretty close, and used to house sit for Jeff when he was out of town recording with Dokken. One day hanging out by his pool, Ronnie James Dio came walking up. It as then that I learned that Jeff had played bass for Dio — in fact, Jeff had been the bassist onstage during that show I walked out of at the House of Blues. (He played on Dio’s Strange Highways album in 1994, he’s now bassist with Foreigner, Black Swan with Robin McCauley, The End Machine with George Lynch and Robert Mason and The Revolution Saints with Dean Costranova and Doug Aldrich) So, me being an idiot, I mentioned to Ronnie that if I had known that Jeff was on bass — I would have stayed.
And he says “So you really didn’t like the music then?”
Oh shit.
Fortunately, my wife jumped in at this point and stated that she had been a fan of Ronnie since seeing him on his first-ever tour with his original band “Elf.” Which he enormously appreciated. Whew.
I admired Ronnie’s singing enormously, but I just wasn’t into his songs with all the pseudo sword and sorcery. I had actually read the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings and I really don’t think it sounded like that. The one thing about his band I really liked was guitarist Vivian Campbell, but then by this time he and Ronnie had split — and that would have been a really sore subject if I’d brought it up.
Jumping forward a few more years, I heard on the radio that Tom Morello was going to do a performance at Occupy LA — so I hopped in my car and headed on down there. Tom recognized me immediately, which was funny. Before his performance, we had a chance to chat and I told him my entire Dio story, including running into him at Jeff’s house.
Then I gave him a CD of my version of the song “Peacekeeper” which I had recorded on my own after I had complained that Lock Up didn’t play on their final show.
That’s the version that’s included in this podcast post. It’s not perfect, but it’s a pretty good recreation.
You can join me debating the issues and the facts inside the belly of the beast on my Facebook Group: Army for Truth.
Have a listen to my new Vocal Cover — "Everybodies Fool" originally recorded by Evanescence.
And check out my new Patreon where you can download copies of my covers and original songs. You can also stream tracks from my previous Solo CD from ReverbNation.
And You can send Funds to Support me via Paypal
Cover Song - "Peacekeeper" (Originally by Tom Morello and Lock Up)