🎵 Rage Against The Machine Bulls on Parade Reaction 

One of the best verses ever in music

@@gbraxton7 So fucking good

@@Sam-sj5hw Its too bad we still find ourselves divided in the Rupub v Dem bianary... If we could somehow vote Authoritarians v everyone else the country might look a lot different.. Of corse people seem to embrace Authoritarianism when the government is forcing people to do something they happen to agree with at the time...

So true and that goes back to removing books from schools and rubble that used to be a library because the authoritarian right wing of our government has been systematically defunding and destroying the public education system for decades in order to dumb down Americans because stupid people are much easier to distract and manipulate into voting against their own best interest and it has worked perfectly. And on the other side democrats have been corrupt, weak, pathetic, useless, fucking coward losers who have never "won" a negotiation or policy battle that had not been stripped of all meaningful social spending and had corporate giveaways added to it in my 52 years of life. That is because since McCutchen ruling in late 70's and then citizens united corporations have been able to outright purchase our government by legally bribing politicians who are then nothing more than actors playing their roles from the script given to them by their corporate owners. The really fucked up part is that democrats and republicans are bribed by the EXACT same corporations who then give out the orders to be followed and ALL of our elected officials follow those orders up to and including the presidents. And the orders are for republicans to set up as many transfer of wealth scams to funnel taxpayer money to the top and cut as much tax liability for corporations and the rich as possible. Meanwhile democrats are ordered to be fucking losers and and act like they are trying to help Americans but in reality to get only the barest minimum of social spending as they can possibly get away with because every dollar used to help Americans is a dollar that can't be stolen from taxpayers. And all of the culture war nonsense and constant conspiracies and accusations by republicans is simply a distraction technique because as long as voters are arguing amongst themselves about what bathroom somebody uses or if a math text book has critical race theory in it or not they are not paying close enough attention to realize all of the lies and misinformation that keeps the whole scam rolling and they for damn sure ain't paying attention to the hundreds of billions of tax dollars that has been stolen from them every year and continues to be stolen at higher and higher rates. But hey they are too busy hating minorities or gays or poor people for needing assistance because they are paid slave wages to notice that we the citizens of The United States of America are not united and have been divided so we can be robbed blind and then support and vote for the very thieves who are stealing from us so they can continue to steal. It is truly disgusting what the extreme corruption has turned our Country into

funny how its the democrats doing this now, and it was written against the republicans.

Seconded

3rd 4th etc.

Definitely

Killing in the name!

mandatory RATM. listen for the "down row-DE-ohh" if it's a first listen

Tom (lead guitarist is a native chicago suburb kid) was my collage roommate's friend coming from a Wisconsin kid in the early 2000s. This shit was so real and is still so real with Russian invading Ukraine.

Didn’t realize he was so young then, crazy!

Wow! Super cool info, thanks man! ✊✊

I'm pretty sure that Zak was older than 18 when the first album was released. And this came from the second.

\m/ hell yeah brother

Ahh no way! My metal sistaaaa! That's so cool and thank you for joining us!

Facts

Yeah, this is the official video. They definitely cultivated an abrasive sound, they want you to pay attention when they come on...

Listen to it in surround sound if possible it will make all the difference

Still sounds amazing to me.

I'll add to this by saying the mix was not really intended to be listened to on headphones. On a speaker setup it wouldn't be as jarring.

Great video..

It really is too bad the Occupy Wallstreet movement got subverted by the government and turned into modern day progressivism. What could have been.

my fkn favorite music. thats a must

Doo doo doo doo doo (Heartbreaker) after would be badass

Thanks for reacting to this one. I knew you’d find it interesting! 😁

Rush has some deep lyrics in their music.

Sad Rage turned into Rage for the Machine

No offense, but it wasn't even close to the message of the song, I'm not blaming them, it's a tough message to get without lyrics in front of you and never hearing the song, but I wouldn't say they nailed it either. The song is about the the Military Industrial Complex in this country, and it's corrupt power over everything. The bulls are the corrupt leaders, politicians and manufacturers, and they'll keep filling there pockets with shells, and rally around their own kind(family) to protect that complex, if that means removing books from school, or turning a library into a arms warehouse, or cemetery, they don't care. The phrase five sided fist-a-gon he uses in first verse is a slang term for the pentagon. Eisenhower, in his farewell speech in 1961, coined the term Military Industrial Complex, and warned that we were in danger of creating one, and that it would be the downfall of our country, he even noted at that time in 1961, that the U.S. Military annual budget for security alone, was more than the net income of every single corporation in the country. He also warned we must protect against attacks on the scientific process, and science itself, and a lack of emphasis or belittlement of education and knowledge by our youth. Sound familiar? Today, the worlds top 10 arms manufacturers are in the U.S. The top 50 of the top 100 military contractors are in the U.S. Lobbyists for those companies are by far the most powerful lobbyist in D.C. and our military's annual budget is more than every single countries in the world combined if you exclude Russia and China. That goes beyond being a force to be reckoned with, that gets us to the point we've been for 60yrs, if there is a surplus of ammo, and equipment, and the Military Industrial Complex loses a few points in the market, then I guess they better keep their fingers crossed for a war or at least a conflict. By fingers crossed, I mean if a brown person's camel farts the wrong way in the middle east, then we better go and kick their ass, and if you don't think that the lobbyists help make those decisions, then you'd be wrong. Unfortunately, it's our brave young men and women that pay the biggest price, and it's not defending freedom, our military hasn't fought for freedom, for real, since WWII.

@@sunshynff I dunno I think it was very close to that message, except Lex got the metaphorical expression of it

@@sunshynff thanks for the exact history lesson. She was close though. She kinda got the message with just one listen. When most people in her position probably wouldn't even got that far. No offense but, Tune it down a notch. Not everyone is as smart and knowledgeable as you.

@@markcook1059...None taken, thanks for saying it politely, I read my comment back and I did come on a little strong, that was not my intention. I live in area where not very many people are interesting in learning something new or seeing the other side of an issue. Since retiring a few years early been trying to stay busy being involved in my community, so my default setting is to come straight out of the box with verbal guns blazin'. I've been working on reigning that in a bit, especially online. Thanks again for the polite constructive criticism, can't be mad at that! Wish more in my community were like you and others on this channel.✌🏼❤️

@@sunshynff likewise,I'll cheers to that

OR rally round the family, pocket full of shells means the families left in the wake of destructed societies have to band together and fend for themselves and recycling brass shells for food keeps them alive.

Spot on mate, all this time and she explained it differently about the matador. Awesome

Total cred to Lex’s analysis!

Lex's analysis is really interesting.

I'm afraid you've missed it. "They rally 'round the family/With a pocket full of shells" is about the right-wing strategy of paying lip-service to "family values" while keeping white people terrified of some mythical racialized horde that's about to invade their homes and kill their families. They want white people focused on the fear and hate they use to keep them buying guns and not noticing that the same right-wing is stealing their wages to buy weapons from their arms-dealer cronies and build privatized prisons to lock-up all the supposedly-violent "super-predator" Black people to profit those same wealthy-connected oligarchs. It's simple divide-and-conquer of the working classes. Tale as old as time; it's always been class warfare, and we've always been losing. LBJ had it down when he said, "If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.” He observed that truth some 60 years ago, and the GOP is still running that same playbook.

The band is really confused since they support socialism. Socialism ends up becoming exactly what they sing against.

Indeed. It's union slang. Bulls on parade meant: get ready for a fight, the cops are coming.

Bull, as in “bull market”. As in Wall Street

Aren't prison guards referred to as bulls too?

@@jeffreyblack6611 I always assumed everyone knew/thought that, too. ZDLR re-visited that theme again a year later in “No Shelter” with “the market bulls got pockets full”.

Mmm, not quite. "Bulls" was specific to the brutal private security companies hired by the robber barons of the day (robber barons whom we've inexplicably allowed to re-emerge, because apparently one Great Depression and skin-of-our-teeth escape from fascism wasn't enough), particularly those of railroad companies who would use them to crack the skulls of poor people desperately riding the rails to find work. "Bulls on parade" meant the Pinkertons or similar strike-breaking thugs were coming, so you'd best get gone. The term "bull" came from the rank stupidity and unthinking violence of such fascist jack-boots, which is grossly unfair to male cows, but apt.

5 sided fisticon

They don't gotta burn the books they just remove em

They missed this while they reacted? 😣

while arms warehouses fill as quick as a cell, rally round the family, pocket full of shells.

@@enrique7208 "fill as quick as it sells"

oh yes please...this is the best track they ever did

Good suggestion! A must y'all!

Your a dope

That song might upset the conservatives in the comments section lol

This. Y’all!

It blows my mind that people assume that just because they're aware of something that surely everyone must be.

@@kant12 he basically just saying that rage should be bigger than they are.

@@kant12 This song is ranked place 15 on VH1's list of 40 Greatest Metal Songs.

Controlled opposition is a thing.

January 6th was rage

@@johnnyhempseed84 A good one

@@johnnyhempseed84 You ever read rage lyrics and go "wait am I the machine?"

@@jayflach3408 I lost interests in Rage Against the Machine as I got older. I use to like them, but never really a lot. But once I grew up and realized they are pro-Communism or support Che Guevera, I stopped listening. I still think the music kicks ass, and it rocks, but the lyrics I can't get into. But music is music even if I don't like the ideology. In terms of your question, we become the machine when we don't fight the machine.

Good choice. Although if they've seen the film The Matrix they may recognise it?

@@adamkaige I saw the Matrix in the theater and was just slack jawed at the end credits when that song played.

@@adamkaige its a cut up edited version in the matrix though, really does not do it justice

Watch it with Brass Against the Machine

I thought it was Wall Street with that bull statue, Bulls on Parade they make a whole lot of money off the war machine

Bulls on parade is what they use to called the riot police during Rodney King issue🤦‍♂️

“Bulls” is slang for the police… “bulls on parade” is the cops being out in force.

Bulls also is Wall Street with the military complex all about the dollar

The thing is, "bulls" can be taken as all of this with appropriate context and is a creative use of double, or in this case, multiple entendre. Considering how well read ZDLR is, it would be in his comfort zone to do word play like this and he's done it multiple times too in other Rage songs. While the song is primarily a criticism towards the American military industrial complex, it isn't just limited to it.

💯 that is the exact meaning

Your first sentence is incorrect.

@@nk1974 Don't be a sheep. RATM has always supported the military.

@@patpulis9922 where? give me one verse in any rage song that says they agree with militarization. I’ll wait.

@@patpulis9922 I think you may be a bit confused lmao.

Omg...best

Maynard and Zach together 🤪

Yeah that’s two of their best.

Bullet In The Head is even better. Just my opinion.

Or the military industrial complex. “What we don’t know keeps the contracts alive and movin’ “ - meaning military contracts

Agreed. Evil Empire is one of the best albums of our generation, back from lyrics mattered.

Correct

The whole band was very rebellious.

I think what you meant to say was Audioslave is just the band of RATM without Zack on vocals.

Thank you S.H. I thought it was based on a native American resiv. That had been raided by police/ gov.

Agree

" They don't gotta burn the books, they just remove them. " They control it.

Banning them at a governmental level would have been unconstitutional, breach of freedom of speech/expression and such. That being said, any radio station could choose to not play them, because they're a private business.

Riot formation.

Yes, "Bulls on Parade" is slang for police action in the vicinity. It derived specifically from the Labor Movement, as cops came to break up strikes. It is therefore a metaphor for "authority" using their power to control/disrupt any challenges to that authority.

It's the military industrial complex.

Yes pink pop ‘93 is outstanding

THIS. Down Rodeo, comrades.

Even though they identify as far left (nevermind the corporation that is RATM and $300 tickets and blocking reaction vids) many of the songs especially from the 90s RATM resound even with people like me who lean way right because they are issues that transcend political ideals.

They're anti-Capitalist anarchists. Not really either "left" or "right". Although those definitions don't really mean much nowadays. Or to put it another way, the mainstream political spectrum is not a straight line______It's a constantly revolving distorted circle. Hence some of the similarities and cross-overs we see among people who identify or are labeled "far-left" and "far-right". Essentially it's all capitalist. For example, what many Americans believe to be "Communism" is really just another form of State-Capitalism (literally the extreme opposite to Communism in which there would be no government, no state, no money, etc). But in this system we were all born into and conditioned upon, we're trained to perceive apples as oranges.

Same happens with Pink Floyd and Roger Waters, go figure

@@jerry60k those $300 tickets and blocked vids aren’t rlly them tho. It’s all the people above them that control that. So essentially, the machine lmao.

I wouldn’t say far left? They’re not anything?! On another note, there is a funny RU-vid clip created during Trumps Presidency with Republicans mashed up together saying exactly what you said….so funny! How many Trump supporters were jamming ‘killing in the name of’ but didn’t know what they singing! 🤣🤣

Fam, y'all need to check Killing in the Name, and Take The Power Back!!!! Zach and Tom are still out there backing what they stand for!!!! They marched with BLM and MGK actually covered Killing in the Name during the marches etc too. 😉

I think he’s talking about the bulls in OUR own government. Rally ‘round the family, pocket full of shells. They claim to be about “family values” all the while starting wars to “keep the contracts alive and movin’.” To keep their pockets full of $.

I've always thought of it as the Wall St "bulls" and the "rally around the family, with a pocket full of shells" was how the government does everything that they can to protect them.

@@throwaway3457 that is a good interpretation. I am reading that people think this is about other governments in ‘those’ sh*thole countries and not our own. They have been brainwashed and blinded by false patriotism. They don’t want to see this government and country for what it truly is. It’s founding had legal human trafficking and slavery for heaven’s sake!

@@nk1974 not exactly... included in The World's Authoritarian Leaders is our own. this is the literal interpretation as i learnt it in an interview with Tom Morello, though he did not pen this lyric exactly i don't think: not just North America is guilty of horrendous oppression, you know. in this case, de La Roche is ALSO directing it at the Mexican government which was harassing indigenous peoples, named the Zapatistas, too.

@@selectronium when I walk to the rubble that used to be a library, line up to the mind cemetery now… maybe Zack visits libraries in South America, and Mexico, I don’t know.