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A-Z (artist name) of Guitar Tab
A    B    C    D    E    F
G    H    I    J    K    L
M    N    O    P    Q    R
S    T    U    V    W    X
Y    Z    0-9

A-Z (artist name) of Guitar Tab
A   B   C   D   E   F   G   H   I   J   K   L   M   N   O   P   Q   R   S   T   U   V   W   X   Y   Z   0-9

Click HERE for an easy print version of rage against the machine - rage against the machine album lyrics


################################################################
# The following is the author's own interpretation of the song #
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                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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