So as part of my recent ‘rediscovery of music I listened to a few years ago’ series – made possible by a generous contribution from the Annie E. Casey Foundation* – I’ve been listening to a lot of Rage Against the Machine lately.
Hard to beat songs like “Ghost of Tom Joad” and ‘Renegades of Funk” but for me the all time classic Rage song will always be ‘Killing in the Name Of.”
Revisiting that catalogue, and in particular “KITNO” has been interesting.
One, listening to Rage in the olden days helped deal with the tepid liberalism of the Clinton years, but also complimented them. At least we were kind of in charge back then.
Two, the left could use a band like Rage right now, to energize and piss off young people again. It’s easy to forget that Rage wasn’t a fringe band like many lefty acts or punk rock band; they sold tens of millions of records, and their second album debuted at number one.
Three, funny to realize that the tea baggers would probably enjoy singing along with the chorus of ‘Killing in the Name Of,” at least the part where Zach repeatedly shouts “Fuck You I Won’t Do What You Tell Me!”
Four, what’s really funny is a 48-year old man listening to a song where you repeatedly shout “Fuck You I Won’t Do What You Tell Me!” Who am I talking to?
Finally, I guess our 13-year old has been dipping into my iPod. This morning as Ariadne got out of the car she said ‘Love you mom, love you Evan, don’t love you dad.” At least she used the PG version of “Fuck You I Won’t Do What You Tell Me!”
* I'm lying about that.
1 comment:
I'm with you on the fact that we could use a band like rage to stir up young people again. Did you read about Tom Morello's latest record in RS a couple issues ago?
My favorite rage memory was that "Evil Empire" came out during the Chicago Bulls' 72-10 season when they beat the Sonics in the finals to claim the title. "Bulls on Parade" indeed.
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