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| Also listed in: Campus Progress Blog | Live Blogging the SXSW Music Festival |
Amid the sea of noisy rock and indie pop, the music at SXSW took a decidedly more serious note on Thursday night when an A-list set of musicians gathered to celebrate the release of album filled with songs inspired by the film "Body of War."
The movie follows the life of Iraq war veteran Tomas Young, who was paralyzed from the waist down in his first week of duty in Iraq. It is an incredibly moving film; and the soundtrack is no less impactful. Thursday's performers included Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave), Ben Harper, Billy Bragg, Mason Jennings, and Serj Tankian (System of a Down).
The crowd reached a fever pitch at the end of the set, when Tom Morello sang an often-censored verse from the Woody Guthrie song "This Land is Your Land" (audio slightly distorted on video):
Not the version you learned in elementary school, to say the least.One bright sunny morning in the shadow of the steeple
By the Relief Office, I saw my people
As they stood hungry, I stood there wondering
If this land's still made for you and me
