Gang of Four‘s co-founding guitarist Andy Gill passed away in February from an unspecified respiratory illness. To mark what would have been 65th birthday, rockers Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine) and Serj Tankian (System of a Down) have teamed up to celebrate with a cover of “Natural’s Not in It”.
The song is the lead single off the upcoming tribute album The Problem of Leisure: A Celebration of Andy Gill and Gang of Four, although it originally appeared on the landmark 1978 record Entertainment!. The new cover is a loving salute from two longtime fans. Via Spin, Morello explained in a statement,
“Andy Gill was one of a handful of artists in history who changed the way guitars are played, Gang of Four were just incendiary and completely groundbreaking with Andy’s confrontational, unnerving and sublime playing at the forefront. His jagged plague-disco raptor-attack industrial-funk deconstructed guitar anti-hero sonics and fierce poetic radical intellect were hugely influential to me.”
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Check out “Natural’s Not in It” below. The Problem of Leisure: A Celebration of Andy Gill and Gang of Four will arrive sometime in May, and a tracklist is expected next month. Earlier this year, Morello dropped the Comandante EP. He’s also interviewed in the upcoming Serj Tankian documentary Truth to Power, which is out February 19th.
