With everything that’s going on in the world, I figured writing about this band was appropriate.
“Some of those that work forces,
Are the same of that burn crosses.”
Obviously listening to Rage Against The Machine is essential. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DX4tMcImWolDJ?si=JRtzYFprSgmLkdsRtVOFtA
I can’t tell you exactly when I first heard Rage Against The Machine, but it was early on my musical journey. I knew the hits, Killing in the name, Guerrilla Radio, Bulls on Parade etc., but that’s about as deep as I went. I don’t know why, but I was content with knowing just the hits. I was young so I wasn’t political at all either, so their lyrical content didn’t mean anything to me. My deep dive into RATM didn’t happen till 2001 and that’s thanks to my friend Mark and his DVD.
It was a Friday night and I was staying at Mark’s place. This usually meant staying up late, eating pizza and playing music. He was a guitarist and had recently acquired some DJ decks. We used to just run through his entire CD collection. Manson’s Antichrist Superstar to Wu-Tang’s The W through to Green Day’s Nimrod and beyond. I remember us both getting bored so we tried teaching ourselves how to scratch on his decks. Suffice to say we sucked. Right there and then I gained respect for DJ’s, it’s a whole lot harder than it looks. We’d play a beat and take turns trying to scratch over it, it was fucking horrible but a load of fun. I remember while he was attempting to be the next Mix Master Jay, I rifled through his VHS/DVD collection. We could re-watch Family Values for the 100th time?
I kept flicking through until a cover caught my eye. It depicted a cartoon Mexican guerrilla army and the words...
RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE - THE BATTLE OF MEXICO CITY.
“This any good?” I enquired.
“Yeah, it’s alright. Put it on if you want.”
Sure, why not. I suck at scratching...
The first thing I noticed was the venue they were playing in, It looked like an abandoned warehouse. There were massive concrete pillars cutting the crowds into even sections. Above the crowd hung the bands massive back of stage banner. Adorning it was their now-famous silhouette cover of ‘Battle for Los Angeles’ just this time it read 'Battle of Mexico City'. It looked raw, illegal and most interestingly dangerous.
Zach De La Rocha starts the show as he starts every show...
“Good Evening we are Rage Against The Machine from Los Angeles, California.”
Then the band kicks in.
As the build-up ascends, the crowd are already moving like a tidal wave. It was mesmerising. The band hits the peak...
“UH!”
You know the sound...
The band launch into Testify. Zach’s dreadlocks are violently swinging to the beat.
“The movie ran through me,
The glamour subdues me..”
Zach is one of the greatest MC’s ever and I stand by this. Few can match his intensity and raw emotion whilst maintaining such an easy flow.
“They’re better live than on CD!” I exclaimed, I was hooked. You could see the passion, you could feel it seeping through the tv screen. The lyrics started to stand out to me. I still had no idea what he was referring to, but I knew I should listen and look into it. The camera work is something I took notice of also. There’s a particular camera which is handheld. It just emphasised the chaos of the show. I was upset I’d never get to see them live as they’d already disbanded in 2000.
The next week I went out and bought the Battle of Los Angeles album, though I still didn’t look into the lyrics...
“It has to start somewhere
It has to start sometime
What better place than here?
What better time than now?”
The album kicks off the same way with the same songs as the DVD. A strong start, but apart from Testify, Guerrilla Radio and Sleep Now In The Fire, I didn’t know any of the other songs. Calm Like A Bomb stood out on first listen and was such a unique song sonically. The bass has an overdrive/wah thing going on, whilst Tom Morello’s signature wah antics are on full display. The two together would give it a weird psychedelic/space feeling if it wasn’t for Brad Wilk’s drumming. He straight up lays the beat down, loud and sleazy. This trio of musicians are perfect for each other. The foundations they lay for Zach's rhymes are flawless. Born Of A Broken Man and War Within A Breath became favourites of mine, as the album became a regular listen in my bedroom. I wouldn’t purchase another RATM album (thanks Limewire!) until the release of their DVD Live at the Grand Olympic Auditorium.
By this time (2003) I knew a lot more songs, but still, I hadn’t dived into their lyrical content.
“A white hooded judge, a syringe and a vein,
And the riot be the rhyme of the unheard...”
This DVD is one of my favourites. It was filmed at their last ever show in LA. For a band that was apparently in-fighting constantly it didn’t show. Once again the passion of the band and the crowd is amazing. Both band and audience are locked together, following every twist and turn. A highlight of the concert was seeing Cypress Hill come out for How I Could Just Kill A Man, but the real treasure for me was in the special features. In there, they had their performance at the 2000 Democratic National Convention. For those not in the know, a huge protest was set up outside the Democratic National Convention. MTV has planned to get Rage to perform for free as part of their campaign to get the youth to vote. The police and council kept knocking MTV back as they were afraid of what could potentially happen with Rage playing, so they gave up. Some of the protesters who were meant to speak gave up their prime time slots so the band could play. This is a video of that show and the aftermath. I recommend watching it. This was a turning point for me. This, along with some other material, helped me to start to look at politics, to start to try and understand what was happening. I had a fleeting interest in Australia and world politics until this point. The Iraq war started, Schwarzenegger ran and won for Governor of California, and Kirstie Marshall was kicked out of question time in parliament for breastfeeding. What a time to jump into politics...
...and I think that’s the point of this blog. There’s never a “good time” to jump into politics. Just do it. Educate yourself by reading credible, C-R-E-D-I-B-L-E sources, ask questions and listen. I do not pretend to know or have an opinion on every major political/social situation going on in the world, but I do try and keep myself informed about what is going on. The Black Lives Matter movement isn’t new, God we’ve been watching African-American people get killed by cops on our tv for years, and that’s the exact reason why all these riots and protests are happening. They’ve had enough. I’ve had enough and I’m not affected by it, I couldn’t begin to imagine what it would be like to live with that kind of fear. This is their time to speak and our time to show our support.
I was shocked and fucking furious when I read the stats about Indigenous Australians dying in custody and that’s why we are having protests here. I firmly believe we can change, but that’s a change you need to make for yourself. You need to decide to be better, to be better informed. I know I have changed and I’ll continue to strive to be better. Between the fuckery of news channels and the clusterfuck of social media, there is the truth. No, Not “5G causes coronavirus” conspiracy theory "truth", I'm talking about actual truth. We need to spread that truth cause sure as shit the TV isn’t going to do it, and as the modern poet Zach De La Rocha once said...
"Who controls the past now, controls the future
Who controls the present now, controls the past."
Or was that Orson Wells...?
...None of the above, Fuck it, cut the cord.
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