joelj@ctn.cogs.susx.ac.uk
The following transposed from the CD inlay card, except track 2,
'Killing in the name', which isn't listed on the UK inlay card,
so I had to decypher them myself.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
rage against the machine (c) 1992 RETRIBUTION MUSIC (BWI)
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
GUILTY PARTIES:
ZACK DE LA ROCHA - VOCALS
TIMMY O. - BASS
BRAD WILK - DRUMS
TOM MORELLO - GUITARS
PRODUCED BY RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE & GGGARTH
MIXED BY ANDY WALLACE
A&R: MICHAEL GOLDSTONE
FOR RAGE PROPAGANDA WRITE
RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE
P.O. BOX 2052
LOS ANGELES, CA 90069
NO SAMPLES, KEYBOARDS OR
SYNTHESISERS USED IN THE
MAKING OF THIS RECORDING.
1. BOMBTRACK
It's just another bombtrack
And suckas be thinkin' that they can fade this
But I'm gonna drop it at a higher level
'Cause I'm inclined to stoop down
Hand out some beat-downs
Cold runna train on punk ho's that
Think they run the game
But I learned to burn that bridge and delete
Those who compete at a level that's obsolete
Instead I warm my hands on the flames of the flag
As I recall our downfall
And the business that burned us all
See through the news and views that twist reality
Enough
I call the bluff
Manifest destiny
Landlords and power whores
On my people they took turns
Dispute the suits I ignite
And then watch 'em burn
The thoughts of a militant mind
Hardline, hardline after hardline
Landlords and power whores
On my people they took turns
Dispute the suits I ignite
And then watch 'em burn
Chorus:
Burn, burn, yes ya gonna burn
Burn, burn, yes ya gonna burn
Burn, burn, yes ya gonna burn
Burn, burn, yes ya gonna burn
Another funky radical bombtrack
Started as a sketch in my notebook
But now dope hooks make punks take another look
My thoughts ya hear and ya begin to fear
That ya card will get pulled if ya interfere
With the thoughts of a militant mind
Hardline, hardline after hardline
Landlords and power whores
On my people they took turns
Dispute the suits I ignite
And then watch 'em burn
Chorus
2. KILLING IN THE NAME
Some of those that work forces are the same that burn crosses
Some of those that work forces are the same that burn crosses
Some of those that work forces are the same that burn crosses
Some of those that work forces are the same that burn crosses
Huh!
Those who die or justify, for wearing the badge take the chosen way
Those who die or justify, for wearing the badge take the chosen way
Those who die or justify, for wearing the badge take the chosen way
They justify those who die, for wearing the badge take the chosen way
Now ya do what they tell ya
Now ya do what they tell ya
Now ya do what they tell ya
Now ya do what they tell ya
Some of those that work forces are the same that burn crosses
Some of those that work forces are the same that burn crosses
Some of those that work forces are the same that burn crosses
Some of those that work forces are the same that burn crosses
Huh!
Those who die or justify, for wearing the badge take the chosen way
Those who die or justify, for wearing the badge take the chosen way
Those who die or justify, for wearing the badge take the chosen way
They justify those who die, for wearing the badge take the chosen way
Now ya do what they tell ya (and you're under control)
Now ya do what they tell ya (and you're under control)
Now ya do what they tell ya (and you're under control)
Now ya do what they tell ya (and you're under control)
Fuck you I won't do what you tell me
Fuck you I won't do what you tell me
Fuck you I won't do what you tell me
Fuck you I won't do what you tell me
3. TAKE THE POWER BACK
In the right light, study becomes insight
But the systems that dissed us
Teaches us to read and write
So-called facts are fraud
They want us to allege and pledge
And bow down to thier God
Lost the culture, the culture lost
Spun our minds and through time
Ignorance has taken over
We gotta take the power back
Bam! here's the plan
Mother fuck Uncle Sam
Step back, I know who I am
Raise up your ear, I'll drop the style and clear
It's the beats and lyrics they fear
The rage is relentless
We need a movement with a quickness
You are the witness of change
And to counteract
We gotta take the power back
Chorus:
We gotta take the power back
We gotta take the power back
The present curriculums
I put my fist in 'em
Eurocentric every last on e of 'em
See right through the red, white and blue disguise
With lecture, I puncture the structure of lies
Installed in our minds and attempting
To hold us back
We've gotta take the power back
'Cause holes in our spirit are causin' tears and fears
One-sides stories for years and years and years
I'm inferior? Who's inferior?
Yea, we needa check the interior
Of the system who cares about only one culture
And that is why
We gotta take the power back
Chorus
The teacher stands in front of the class
But the lesson plan he can't recall
The student's eyes don't perceive the lies
Bouncing off every fucking wall
His composure is well kept
I guess he fears playing the fool
The complacent students sit and listen to the
Bullshit that he learned in school
Europe ain't my rope to swing on
Can't learn a thing from it
Yet we hang from it
Gotta get it, gotta get it together then
Like the mother fuckin' weathermen
To expose and close the doors on those who try
To strangle and mangle the truth
'Cause the circle of hatred continues unless we react
We gotta take the power back
Chorus
No more lies
4. SETTLE FOR NOTHING
A jail cell is freedom from the pain in my home
Hatred passed on, passed on and passed on
A world of violent rage
But it's one that I can recognize
Hanving never seen the colour of my father's eyes
Yes, I dwell in hell but it's a hell that I can grip
I tried to grip my family
But I slipped
To escape from the pain and an existance mundane
I gotta 9, a sign, a set and now I got a name
Read my writing on the wall
No one's here to catch me when I fall
But death in on my side
Suicide
A jail cell is freedom from the pain in my home
Hatred passed on, passed on, passed on
A world of violent rage
But it's one I can recognize
Having never seen the colour of my father's eyes
Yes, I dwell in hell but it's a hell that I can grip
I tried to grip my family
But I slipped
To escape from the pain and an existance mundane
I gotta 9, a sign, a set and now I got a name
Read my writing on the wall
No one's here to catch me when I fall
Caught between my culture and the system
Genocide
Read my writing on the wall
No one's here to catch me when I fall
If ignorance is bliss
Then knock the smile off my face
If we don't take action now
We settle for nothing later
We'll settle for nothing now
And we'll settle for nothing later
5. BULLET IN THE HEAD
This time the bullet cold rocked ya
A yellow ribbon instead of a swastika
Nothin' proper about ya properganda
Fools follow rules when the set commands ya
They said it was blue
When the blood was red
That's how you got a bullet blasted through ya head
Blasted through ya head
Blasted through ya head
I give a shout out to the living dead
Who stood and watched as the feds cold centralized
So serene on the screen
You was mesmerized
Cellular phones soundin' a death tone
Corporations cold
Turn ya to stone before ya realize
They load th clip in omnicolour
They pack the 9, they fire it at prime time
Sleeping gas, every home was like Alcatraz
And mutha fuckas loast their minds
Just victims of the in-house drive-by
They say jump you say how high
They load the clip in omnicolour
They pack the 9, they fire it at prime time
Sleeping gas, every home was like Alcatraz
And mutha fuckas lost their minds
No escape from the mass mind rape
Play it again jack and then rewind the tape
Play it again and again and again
Until ya mind gets locked in
Believin' all the lies that they're tellin' ya
Buying all the products that they're sellin' ya
They say jump
Ya say how high
Ya brain dead
Ya got a fuckin' bullet in ya head
Just victims of the in-house drive-by
they say jump you say how high
Ya standin' in line
Believin' the lies
Bowin' down to the flag
Ya gotta bullet in ya head
6. KNOW YOUR ENEMY
Born with insight and a raised fist
A witness to the slit wrist
As we move into '92
Still in a room without a view
Ya got to know
Ya got to know
That when I say go, go, go
Amp up and amplify
Defy
I'm a brother with a furious mind
Action must be taken
We don't need the key
We'll break in
Something must be done
About vengence, a badge and a gun
'Cause I'll rip the mike, rip the stage, rip the system
I was born to rage against 'em
Fist in ya face, in the place
And I'll drop the style clearly
Know your enemy
Word is born
Fight the war, fuck the norm
Now I got no patience
So sick of complacence
With the D E F I A N C E
The mind of a revolutionary
So clear the lane
The finger to the land of chains
What? The land of the free?
Whever told you that is your enemy
Something must be done
About vengence, a badge, and a gun
'Cause I'll rip the mike, rip the stage, rip the system
I was born to rage agaisnt 'em
Now action must be taken
We don't need no key
We'll break in
I've got no patience now
So sick of complacence now
I've got no patience now
So sick of complacence now
Sick of sick of sick of sick of sick of you
Time has come to pay
Yes I know my enemies
They're the teachers who taught me to fight me
Compromise, conformity, assimilation, submission,
Ignorance, hypocrisy, brutality, the elite
All of which are American dreams
7. WAKE UP
Although ya try to discredit
Ya still never edit
The needle, I'll thread it
Radically poetic
Standin' with the fury that they had in '66
And like E-Double, I'm mad
Still knee-deep in the system's shit
Hoover, he was a body remover
I'll give ya a dose
But it'll never come close
To the rage built up inside of me
Fist in the air, in the land of hipocrisy
Movements come and movements go
Leaders speak, movements go
When their heads are flown
'Cause all these punks
Got bullets in their heads
Departments of police, the judge, the feds
Networks at work, keepin' people calm
You know they went after King
When he spoke out on Vietnam
He turned the power to the have-nots
And then came the shot
Wit' poetry, my mind I flex
Flip like Wilson, vocals never lackin' dat finesse
Whadda I have to do to wake ya up
To shake ya up, to break the structure up
'Cause this blood still flows in the gutter
I'm like takin' photos
Mad boy kicks open the shutter
Set the groove
Then I stick and move like I was Cassius
Rep the stutter step
Then bomb a left upon the fascists
Yea, the several federal men
Who pulled schemes on the dream
And put it to an end
Ya better beware
Of retribution with mind war
20/20 visions and murals with metaphors
The networks at work, keepin' people calm
Ya know they murdered X
And tried to blame it on Islam
He turned the power to the have-nots
And then came the shot
What was the price on his head
WAKE UP!
8. FISTFUL OF STEEL
Silence
Something about silence makes me sick
'Cause silence can be violent
Sorta like a slit wrist
If the vibe was suicide
Then you would push da button
But if ya bowin' down
Then let me do the cuttin'
Some speak the sounds
But speak in silent voices
Like the radio is silent
Though it fills the air with noises
Its transmissions bring submission
As ya mold to the unreal
Mad boy grips the microphone
Wit' a fistful of steel
Chorus:
Fistful of steel
Fistful of steel
Fistful of steel
Fistful of steel
Yes, it's time to flow like the fluid in ya veins
If ya will it, I will spill it
And ya out just as quick as ya came
Not a silent one
But a defiant one
Never a normal one
'Cause I'm the bastard son
With the visions of the move
Vocals not to soothe
But to ignite and put in flight
My sense of militance
Groovin', playin' this game called survival
Status the elite, the enemy, the rival
The silent sheep slippin', riffin', trippin'
Give ya a glimpse of the reality I'm grippin'
Steppin' into the jame and I'm slammin' like Shaquille
Mad boy grips the microphone
Wit' a fistful of steel
Chorus
A .44 full of bullets
Face full of pale
Eyes full of empty
A stare full of nails
The roulette ball rolls alone on the wheel
A mind full of fire
And a fistful of steel
If the vibe was suicide
Then you would push da button
But if ya bowin' down
Then let me do the cuttin'
9. TOWNSHIP REBELLION
Rebel, rebel and yell
'Cause our people still dwell in hell
Locked in a cell
Yes, the structure's a cell
Mad is the story I tell
How long can we wait
Come on, seein' what's at stake
Action for reaction
If your mind's in a somewhat complacent state
Get a check-up
This is a stick-up
Our freedom or your life
I wish I could be peaceful
But there can be no sequel
Chorus:
Now freedom should be fundamental
In Johannesburg or South Central
On the mic, 'cause someone should tell 'em
To kick in the township rebellion
Yea, so you thought you could get with the hardlines
That fill your mind
The thoughts, battles fought
And lessons taught
Ans I'll display the fitness
And flip like a gymnast
Raise my fist and resist
Asleep, though we stand in the midst
Of the war
Gotta get mine
Gotta get more
Keepin' the mic warm against the norm
'Cause what does it offer me
I think often it's nothin' but a coffin
Gotta get wreck
'Till out necks never swing on a rope
From here to the cape of no hope
Chorus
Why stand
On a silent platform
Fight the war
Fuck the norm
10. FREEDOM
Solo, I'm a soloist or a solo list
All live, never on a floppy disk
Inka, inka, bottle of ink
Paintings of rebellion
Drawn up by the thoughts I think
It's set up like a deck of cards
They're sending us to early graves
For all the diamonds
They'll use a pair of clubs to beat the spades
With poetry I paint the pictures that hit
More like the murals that fit
Don't turn away
Get in front of it
Chorus:
Brotha did ya forget ya name
Did ya lose it on the wall
Playin' tic-tac-toe
Yo, check the diagonal
Three brothers gone
Come one
Doesn't that make it three in a row
Anger is a gift
Chorus
Yo, check the diagonal
Three million gone
Come on
'Cause they're counting backwards to zero
Environment
The environment exceeding on the level
Of our unconciousness
For example
What does the billboard say
Come and play, come and play
Forget about the movement
Anger is a gift
Freedom, freedom, yea right
--
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