Bulls on Parade
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| “Bulls On Parade” | |||||
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| Single by Rage Against the Machine from the album Evil Empire |
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| Released | 1996 | ||||
| Format | CD, 7", 12" | ||||
| Genre | Rap metal Alternative metal Funk metal |
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| Length | 3 min 51 s | ||||
| Producer | Brendan O'Brien, Rage Against the Machine | ||||
| Rage Against the Machine singles chronology | |||||
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"Bulls on Parade" is a song released by Rage Against the Machine in 1996, and can be found on their second album Evil Empire. One of Rage's signature songs, it deals with what is commonly referred to as the "military-industrial complex", which is the tendency of industry (the arms industry in particular) to encourage military action in order to gain military contracts, and therefore increase its profits. Lines such as "Weapons; not food, not homes, not shoes, not need, just feed the war cannibal-animal," and "what we don't know keeps the contracts alive and moving / they don't gotta burn the books they just remove 'em" are just a couple of examples of the several references to the military-industrial complex throughout the song. With the words, "Terror rains, drenching, quenching the thirst of the power dons," the song suggests that the fear of terrorism is used to manipulate the American populace into supporting dubious military action. The phrase "terror rains" also serves as a double entendre, which suggests that "terror reigns" by way of the government terror as a tool.
The song was performed on Saturday Night Live in April of 1996. Their two-song performance was cut to one song when the band attempted to hang inverted American flags from their amplifiers, a protest to having presidential candidate Steve Forbes as guest host on the program that night.
The song features one of Tom Morello's most famous guitar riffs and a highly unusual solo that sounds more like a turntable than a guitar by making use of the toggle switch and rubbing his hand along the strings parallel to the neck of the guitar. It is usually cited as the most famous example of Tom Morello's extremely innovative guitar playing antics, along with "Calm Like a Bomb" from their next album The Battle Of Los Angeles.
The song is also featured in the videogame, "Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock". It also made number 15 on VH1's top 40 metal songs.
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[edit] Music video
The video for “Bulls on Parade” contains footage from the Sydney Big Day Out (25th of Jan, 1996) and their side show at the Hordern Pavilion in Sydney (27th of Jan, 1996). Throughout the video shots of young people protesting in the streets with political signs, military drills, flags, and other similar images are montaged together. An antique-style film is used which promotes scratches, dust and film grain.
Several scenes show people wrapping 'Evil Empire' banners on walls, telephone posts and posting up other propaganda. In the scene where a character wearing a black "Libertyville" jacket with a baseball cap is painted by the renown Phantom Street Artist Joey Krebs who paints his iconoclastic figures on cities wall. This is the actual portrait created by the street artist of Tom Morello himself. Various lyrics are flashed on top of these scenes in a scrawled sort of cockwriting throughout.
[edit] Track listing
- "Bulls on Parade"
- "Hadda Be Playin' on a Jukebox [Live-version]"
[edit] Charts
| Year | Single | Chart | Position[1] |
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| 1996 | Bulls on Parade | Australian Singles Chart | No. 29 |
| 1996 | Bulls on Parade | Dutch Singles Chart | No. 46 |
| 1996 | Bulls on Parade | French Singles Chart | No. 27 |
| 1996 | Bulls on Parade | New Zealand Singles Chart | No. 22 |
| 1996 | Bulls on Parade | Norwegian Singles Chart | No. 4 |
| 1996 | Bulls on Parade | Swedish Singles Chart | No. 9 |
| 1996 | Bulls on Parade | Mainstream Rock Tracks | No. 36 |
| 1996 | Bulls on Parade | Modern Rock Tracks (US) | No. 11 |
| 1996 | Bulls on Parade | Official U.K. Top 40 | No. 8 |
[edit] Samples
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"Bulls on Parade" Sample of "Bulls on Parade" from Evil Empire (1996) featuring an innovative, hip-hop influenced guitar solo by guitarist Tom Morello. - Problems playing the files? See media help.
[edit] Trivia
- The Lyric "We don't have to burn the books, we just remove them" is a quote from the novel Fahrenheit 451.
[edit] References
- ^ Australian, Dutch, French, New Zealander, Norwegian and Swedish Singles Charts Lescharts.com(Retrieved December 26, 2007)
[edit] External links
- Official Website
- Axis of Justice Tom Morello and Serj Tankian's Activist Website "Axis Of Justice"
- Vietnow.org Rage Against The Machine news resource and forum
- Bulls on Parade at Allmusic
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