Music Review // Rusty Reid "American Villain"

https://rustyreid.bandcamp.com/track/american-villain

For a long while, I felt like you could listen to music by an artist regardless of their political beliefs and choose to like them for their sound rather than what they might do off stage.   This was, in fact, the plot of an episode of "Growing Pains" which had Brad Pitt as a special guest rock star.  But there is a difference between being a jerk (like that Brad Pitt character was) and being racist.   So, over time, I got to the point where I realized it is important to be political in some aspect even if you feel like you're just a musician or just someone who happens to write about music.

More so to the point, I feel like people ignoring the beliefs of the music which they listen to is why so many right wing idiots dance around to Rage Against the Machine (they sing the songs but they know not what they mean)   Once you begin listening to "American Villain", you can pretty much assume who it is about.  I don't know when the last time the United States had such a huge villain as this.   Then when you get to the lines: "A cheat, a creep, a crook, a thief/Traitorous commander-in-chief" you can be assured this song is about the one and only Donald Trump and his reign of terror over the United States.

There is a lot which can be said about Donald Trump.   There are likely people writing books about it.  But one line I did think was interesting in here was: "The history books will warn/Of conservative plague" and I hope they do because history books tend to have a way of forgetting a lot of the bad things which happened in history and paint it in a way which seems to benefit someone else.   So, if nothing else, if you have kids or plan on having kids when you're older, when they're old enough, let them listen to this song as a history lesson and way to have an open conversation about the "American Villain".

Through these words Rusty Reid does more justice than I could typing up paragraph after paragraph.  One of the differences between this song and me trying to type up how I feel as well is that Rusty Reid makes it sound good.   This is a dreamy rock n roll, which reminds me of Stone Temple Pilots to some extent but also a theme song from James Bond.   How I wish time aligned so that Scott Weiland could have done one 007 song.    But having the music of Rusty Reid might in fact be better.  He's the voice of a generation which everyone might not agree with but he's right and he's got loads of talent.