We all have our tastes in music and usually they are quite easily seperated into two distinct categories – stuff I like and everything else. A musician is going to have to have a reasonably thick skin to absorb the blow that not everyone thinks he is perfection embodied. But why would you deliberately go out to find if your music was considered torture? Could it be for the money?

Working on the assumption that no-one offended by Beethoven ever tried to blow up the Tube, rock music was famously played to the terror suspects in Gitmo. Now according to the Washington Post a number of high-profile musicians – including members of Pearl Jam, R.E.M. and the Roots – pressed the government Thursday to name the songs used.

The songs were said to be played for hours – sometimes days, a practice the musicians say amounted to torture, and one the Obama administration says has been discontinued. Listen to Pearl Jam for hours on end? Damn right that’s torture, you sadistic bastards. Music can of course be useful to potential terrorists. Anyone planning to fly a plane as a weapon should learn from John Denver’s last song as a pilot “Rocky Mountain Higher Than I Thought It Was”.

 In an effort to declassify all records related to what they say was the use of music as torture, several musicians have endorsed a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the National Security Archive, according to the newspaper. “I think every musician should be involved,” singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash, daughter of Johnny Cash, told the Post. “It seems so obvious. Music should never be used as torture.”

“The fact that music I helped create was used in crimes against humanity sickens me,” Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, said. Have you ever listened to the music you made, sunshine? Put down the crack pipe, diffuse the fumes and give it a go sometime. It should be you in the orange jumpsuit for crimes against humanity.

You’ve got to wonder though…are they doing this for the good of mankind or because their careers have dried up and no-one listens to them any more? In this recession, and with dwindling royalties, that coke habit is going to seem more and more of a luxury. What’s the betting they are really angling for a performing rights payout for air time soon? After all, all they have to do is prove that their own work was torture….