"Bombtrack" is the song by Rage Against the Machine

Rage Against the Machine

Rage Against the Machine is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1991, the group's line-up consists of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, bassist and backing vocalist Tim Commerford, guitarist Tom Morello and drummer Brad Wilk...

 that opens their self-titled debut album

Rage Against the Machine (album)

Rage Against the Machine is the debut studio album by rap metal band Rage Against the Machine. The album was released on November 10, 1992...

. Like most of Rage Against the Machine's songs, the song's lyrics discuss social inequality

Social inequality

Social inequality refers to a situation in which individual groups in a society do not have equal social status. Areas of potential social inequality include voting rights, freedom of speech and assembly, the extent of property rights and access to education, health care, quality housing and other...

, proclaiming that "landlords and power whores" were going to "burn". The intro riff was composed by Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello

Tom Morello

Thomas Baptiste "Tom" Morello is a Grammy Award-winning American guitarist best known for his tenure with the bands Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave, his acoustic solo act The Nightwatchman, and his newest group, Street Sweeper Social Club...

 when he was playing with the band Lock Up

Lock Up (US band)

Lock Up was a rock band that featured Tom Morello on guitar before Rage Against the Machine was formed.The band was founded by the original guitar player Mike Livingston and Kevin Wood on bass. They had previously played together in the band Ella and the Blacks, which also included Brian Grillo...

, and, upon hearing it, they told him it was too "heavy". Impressed by their song, Rage Against The Machine named it Bombtrack in reference to hip hop

Hip hop

Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated in African-American and Latino communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing...

 terminology in which the word 'bomb' means 'the greatest'.

A music video

Music video

A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...

 was released, depicting support for the Sendero Luminoso

Shining Path

Shining Path is a Maoist guerrilla terrorist organization in Peru. The group never refers to itself as "Shining Path", and as several other Peruvian groups, prefers to be called the "Communist Party of Peru" or "PCP-SL" in short...

 Maoist revolutionary group and its leader Abimael Guzman

Abimael Guzmán

Manuel Rubén Abimael Guzmán Reynoso , also known by the nom de guerre Presidente Gonzalo , a former professor of philosophy, was the leader of the Shining Path during the Maoist insurgency known as the internal conflict in Peru...

. The video clip did not appear on the group's first home video, citing Rage's first altered political opinion. In 2003, the video finally appeared as bonus material on their Live at the Grand Olympic Auditorium

Live at the Grand Olympic Auditorium

Live at the Grand Olympic Auditorium is the most recent album released by Rage Against the Machine on November 25, 2003. It is a recording of two shows Rage played at the Grand Olympic Auditorium in their hometown of Los Angeles on September 12 and 13, 2000...

DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

.

The single artwork features Cuban

Cubans

Cubans or Cuban people are the inhabitants or citizens of Cuba. Cuba is a multi-ethnic nation, home to people of different ethnic and national backgrounds...

 photographer Alberto Korda

Alberto Korda

Alberto Díaz Gutiérrez, better known as Alberto Korda or simply Korda was a Cuban photographer, remembered for his famous image Guerrillero Heroico of Argentine Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara.-Early life:Korda, whose real name was Alberto Díaz Gutiérrez, was born on 14 September 1928 in...

's famous image of Che Guevara

Che Guevara

Ernesto "Che" Guevara , commonly known as el Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist...

, Guerrillero Heroico

Guerrillero Heroico

Guerrillero Heroico is an iconic photo of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara wearing his black beret taken by Alberto Korda. It was taken on March 5, 1960, in Havana, Cuba, at a memorial service for victims of the La Coubre explosion and by the end of the 1960s turned the charismatic and...

. A mirrored version of the iconic two-tone portrait by Irish artist Jim Fitzpatrick

Jim Fitzpatrick (artist)

Jim Fitzpatrick is an Irish artist famous for Irish Celtic Art. Perhaps his most famous piece is his iconic two-tone portrait of Che Guevara created in 1968 and based on a photo by Alberto Korda....

, Guevara's face is further doctored in a way reminiscent of Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol

Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...

's prints of Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....

.

Perhaps the song's most notable appearance outside of the music industry would be its appearance in Oliver Stone

Oliver Stone

William Oliver Stone is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Stone became well known in the late 1980s and the early 1990s for directing a series of films about the Vietnam War, for which he had previously participated as an infantry soldier. His work frequently focuses on...

's controversial film Natural Born Killers

Natural Born Killers

Natural Born Killers is a 1994 crime/black comedy film directed by Oliver Stone about two victims of traumatic childhoods who became lovers and psychopathic serial killers, and are irresponsibly glorified by the mass media...

, when Mickey breaks out of his prison cell in search of Mallory.

The song's main riff also bears a certain resemblance to the riff of Alice In My Fantasies, from Funkadelic

Funkadelic

Funkadelic was an American band most prominent during the 1970s. The band and its sister act Parliament, both led by George Clinton, began the funk music culture of that decade.-History:...

's 1974 album Standing on the Verge of Getting It On

Standing on the Verge of Getting It On

Standing on the Verge of Getting It On is the sixth studio album by Funkadelic, released on Westbound Records, released in 1974.On this album, the lyrics generally take a backseat to the music and the jamming. It is one of the most popular Funkadelic albums among fans, and considered an essential...

.

Live performances

The song made its live debut on March 8th, 1992, in San Luis Obispo, California.

The acoustic version of the song was only played live once. This was at the KROQ Acoustic Christmas on December 12th, 1993.

The lyrics, "Hardline, hardline after hardline!" are, on occasion, changed to "Hardline after muthafuckin' hardline!" as well as the line during the chorus, "Burn! Burn, yes ya gonna burn!" are occasionally changed to, "Burn! Muthafucka, burn!"

When first recorded in the studio, and during live performances, bassist Tim Commerford

Tim Commerford

Timothy Robert Commerford , also known by his various monikers/stage names is the bassist/backing vocalist for American alternative metal band Rage Against The Machine and the now-defunct supergroup Audioslave.-Biography:Tim Commerford was born on February...

 is known to sing in the chorus along with de la Rocha.

Track listing

CD

1. "Bombtrack"
2. "Bombtrack [Evening Session version]"
3. "Bombtrack [Live version]"

• The 'Evening Session' version was recorded on BBC Radio 1
  BBC Radio 1
  BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
  
   during Mark Goodier
  Mark Goodier
  -Early career:Mark Goodier was born in Rhodesia . His family moved to the UK when he was a child, eventually settling in Scotland. He was educated at George Heriot's School, in Edinburgh. He became a mobile DJ in Edinburgh and then joined local station Radio Forth at the age of 19...
  
  's Evening Session.

7"

1. Bombtrack - 4:03
2. Bombtrack (Live) - 6:00

Special Pinkpop Edition

On the 24th of June 1994, a special edition of the "Bombtrack" CD single was released for the Pinkpop

Pinkpop

Pinkpop Festival, or Pinkpop for short, is an annual festival held at Landgraaf, Netherlands. It is held annually on the Pentecost weekend...

 Music Festival

Music festival

A music festival is a festival oriented towards music that is sometimes presented with a theme such as musical genre, nationality or locality of musicians, or holiday. They are commonly held outdoors, and are often inclusive of other attractions such as food and merchandise vending machines,...

's 25th birthday. This version contains an alternative track listing.

1. "Bombtrack"
2. "Freedom" (Live)
3. "Settle for Nothing" (Live)
4. "Bombtrack" [Evening Session version]
5. "Bullet in the Head" [Remix]
6. "Take the Power Back" (Live)
7. "Darkness of Greed"
8. "Bullet in the Head" (Live)
9. "Bombtrack" (Live)

Tracks 3 & 8 recorded live at Melkweg

Melkweg

The Melkweg is a popular music venue and cultural center in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. It is located on the Lijnbaansgracht, near the Leidseplein, a prime nightlife center of Amsterdam. It is housed in a former warehouse and is divided into a number of spaces of varying sizes...

 in Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

, Feb 7th '93. Track 6 recorded live in Vancouver

Vancouver

Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, April 11th '93. Track 9 recorded live in Minneapolis, USA April 5th '93. Track 5 remix by Sir Jinx

Sir Jinx

Sir Jinx, born Anthony Wheaton, is an American hip-hop record producer and rapper from South Central Los Angeles, California.-Beginnings:...

.

The Evening Session version of Bombtrack is a completely reworked, slower 'swing' version of the song with altered lyrics, which later appeared on Evil Empire

Evil Empire (album)

-Track listing:All songs written and arranged by Rage Against the Machine and all lyrics by Zack de la Rocha.#"People of the Sun" – 2:30#"Bulls on Parade" – 3:49#"Vietnow" – 4:39#"Revolver" – 5:30#"Snakecharmer" – 3:56#"Tire Me" – 3:00#"Down Rodeo" – 5:20...

's Without A Face.

The song's bassline

Bassline

A bassline is the term used in many styles of popular music, such as jazz, blues, funk, dub and electronic music for the low-pitched instrumental part or line played by a rhythm section instrument such as the electric bass, double bass, tuba or keyboard...

 was used as an alert to listener's of Howard Stern

Howard Stern

Howard Allan Stern is an American radio personality, television host, author, and actor best known for his radio show, which was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2005. He gained wide recognition in the 1990s where he was labeled a "shock jock" for his outspoken and sometimes controversial style...

's radio show when Stern was broadcasting out of WXRK in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 to let the listener the show was returning from a commercial break.

External links

• Official website
• Axis of Justice Tom Morello and Serj Tankian
  Serj Tankian
  Serj Tankian is a Lebanese-born Armenian-American singer–songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist, playwright, record producer, poet, and political activist...
  
  's Activist Website "Axis Of Justice
  Axis of Justice
  Axis of Justice is a non-profit organization co-founded by Serj Tankian and Tom Morello. Its purpose is to bring together musicians, fans of music, and grassroots progressivism to fight for social justice together.-Formation:...
  
  "
• Vietnow.com Rage Against The Machine news resource and forum