Rage Against The Machine Chords by Rage Against The Machine

Standard (EADGBE)

Chorus

Burn, burn, yes ya gonna burn

Another funky radical bombtrack

Started as a sketch in my notebook

But now dope hooks make punks take another look

My thoughts ya hear and ya begin to fear

That ya card will get pulled if ya interfere

With the thoughts of a militant mind

Hardline, hardline after hardline

Landlords and power whores

On my people they took turns

Dispute the suits I ignite

And then watch 'em burn

Chorus

2. KILLING IN THE NAME

Some of those that work forces are the same that burn crosses

Huh!

Those who die or justify, for wearing the badge take the chosen way

They justify those who die, for wearing the badge take the chosen way

Now ya do what they tell ya

Some of those that work forces are the same that burn crosses

Huh!

Those who die or justify, for wearing the badge take the chosen way

They justify those who die, for wearing the badge take the chosen way

Now ya do what they tell ya (and you're under control)

Fuck you I won't do what you tell me

3. TAKE THE POWER BACK

In the right light, study becomes insight

But the systems that dissed us

Teaches us to read and write

So-called facts are fraud

They want us to allege and pledge

And bow down to thier God

Lost the culture, the culture lost

Spun our minds and through time

Ignorance has taken over

We gotta take the power back

Bam! here's the plan

Mother fuck Uncle Sam

Step back, I know who I am

Raise up your ear, I'll drop the style and clear

It's the beats and lyrics they fear

The rage is relentless

We need a movement with a quickness

You are the witness of change

And to counteract

We gotta take the power back

Chorus

We gotta take the power back

The present curriculums

I put my fist in 'em

Eurocentric every last on e of 'em

See right through the red, white and blue disguise

With lecture, I puncture the structure of lies

Installed in our minds and attempting

To hold us back

We've gotta take the power back

'Cause holes in our spirit are causin' tears and fears

One-sides stories for years and years and years

I'm inferior? Who's inferior?

Yea, we needa check the interior

Of the system who cares about only one culture

And that is why

We gotta take the power back

Chorus

The teacher stands in front of the class

But the lesson plan he can't recall

The student's eyes don't perceive the lies

Bouncing off every fucking wall

His composure is well kept

I guess he fears playing the fool

The complacent students sit and listen to the

Bullshit that he learned in school

Europe ain't my rope to swing on

Can't learn a thing from it

Yet we hang from it

Gotta get it, gotta get it together then

Like the mother fuckin' weathermen

To expose and close the doors on those who try

To strangle and mangle the truth

'Cause the circle of hatred continues unless we react

We gotta take the power back

Chorus

No more lies

4. SETTLE FOR NOTHING

A jail cell is freedom from the pain in my home

Hatred passed on, passed on and passed on

A world of violent rage

But it's one that I can recognize

Hanving never seen the colour of my father's eyes

Yes, I dwell in hell but it's a hell that I can grip

I tried to grip my family

But I slipped

To escape from the pain and an existance mundane

I gotta 9, a sign, a set and now I got a name

Read my writing on the wall

No one's here to catch me when I fall

But death in on my side

Suicide

A jail cell is freedom from the pain in my home

Hatred passed on, passed on, passed on

A world of violent rage

But it's one I can recognize

Having never seen the colour of my father's eyes

Yes, I dwell in hell but it's a hell that I can grip

I tried to grip my family

But I slipped

To escape from the pain and an existance mundane

I gotta 9, a sign, a set and now I got a name

Read my writing on the wall

No one's here to catch me when I fall

Caught between my culture and the system

Genocide

Read my writing on the wall

No one's here to catch me when I fall

If ignorance is bliss

Then knock the smile off my face

If we don't take action now

We settle for nothing later

We'll settle for nothing now

And we'll settle for nothing later

5. BULLET IN THE HEAD

This time the bullet cold rocked ya

A yellow ribbon instead of a swastika

Nothin' proper about ya properganda

Fools follow rules when the set commands ya

They said it was blue

When the blood was red

That's how you got a bullet blasted through ya head

Blasted through ya head

I give a shout out to the living dead

Who stood and watched as the feds cold centralized

So serene on the screen

You was mesmerized

Cellular phones soundin' a death tone

Corporations cold

Turn ya to stone before ya realize

They load th clip in omnicolour

They pack the 9, they fire it at prime time

Sleeping gas, every home was like Alcatraz

And mutha fuckas loast their minds

Just victims of the in-house drive-by

They say jump you say how high

They load the clip in omnicolour

They pack the 9, they fire it at prime time

Sleeping gas, every home was like Alcatraz

And mutha fuckas lost their minds

No escape from the mass mind rape

Play it again jack and then rewind the tape

Play it again and again and again

Until ya mind gets locked in

Believin' all the lies that they're tellin' ya

Buying all the products that they're sellin' ya

They say jump

Ya say how high

Ya brain dead

Ya got a fuckin' bullet in ya head

Just victims of the in-house drive-by

they say jump you say how high

Ya standin' in line

Believin' the lies

Bowin' down to the flag

Ya gotta bullet in ya head

6. KNOW YOUR ENEMY

Born with insight and a raised fist

A witness to the slit wrist

As we move into '92

Still in a room without a view

Ya got to know

That when I say go, go, go

Amp up and amplify

Defy

I'm a brother with a furious mind

Action must be taken

We don't need the key

We'll break in

Something must be done

About vengence, a badge and a gun

'Cause I'll rip the mike, rip the stage, rip the system

I was born to rage against 'em

Fist in ya face, in the place

And I'll drop the style clearly

Know your enemy

Word is born

Fight the war, fuck the norm

Now I got no patience

So sick of complacence

With the D E F I A N C E

The mind of a revolutionary

So clear the lane

The finger to the land of chains

What? The land of the free?

Whever told you that is your enemy

Something must be done

About vengence, a badge, and a gun

'Cause I'll rip the mike, rip the stage, rip the system

I was born to rage agaisnt 'em

Now action must be taken

We don't need no key

We'll break in

I've got no patience now

So sick of complacence now

I've got no patience now

So sick of complacence now

Sick of sick of sick of sick of sick of you

Time has come to pay

Yes I know my enemies

They're the teachers who taught me to fight me

Compromise, conformity, assimilation, submission,

Ignorance, hypocrisy, brutality, the elite

All of which are American dreams

7. WAKE UP

Although ya try to discredit

Ya still never edit

The needle, I'll thread it

Radically poetic

Standin' with the fury that they had in '66

And like E-Double, I'm mad

Still knee-deep in the system's shit

Hoover, he was a body remover

I'll give ya a dose

But it'll never come close

To the rage built up inside of me

Fist in the air, in the land of hipocrisy

Movements come and movements go

Leaders speak, movements go

When their heads are flown

'Cause all these punks

Got bullets in their heads

Departments of police, the judge, the feds

Networks at work, keepin' people calm

You know they went after King

When he spoke out on Vietnam

He turned the power to the have-nots

And then came the shot

Wit' poetry, my mind I flex

Flip like Wilson, vocals never lackin' dat finesse

Whadda I have to do to wake ya up

To shake ya up, to break the structure up

'Cause this blood still flows in the gutter

I'm like takin' photos

Mad boy kicks open the shutter

Set the groove

Then I stick and move like I was Cassius

Rep the stutter step

Then bomb a left upon the fascists

Yea, the several federal men

Who pulled schemes on the dream

And put it to an end

Ya better beware

Of retribution with mind war

20/20 visions and murals with metaphors

The networks at work, keepin' people calm

Ya know they murdered X

And tried to blame it on Islam

He turned the power to the have-nots

And then came the shot

What was the price on his head

WAKE UP!

8. FISTFUL OF STEEL

Silence

Something about silence makes me sick

'Cause silence can be violent

Sorta like a slit wrist

If the vibe was suicide

Then you would push da button

But if ya bowin' down

Then let me do the cuttin'

Some speak the sounds

But speak in silent voices

Like the radio is silent

Though it fills the air with noises

Its transmissions bring submission

As ya mold to the unreal

Mad boy grips the microphone

Wit' a fistful of steel

Chorus

Fistful of steel

Yes, it's time to flow like the fluid in ya veins

If ya will it, I will spill it

And ya out just as quick as ya came

Not a silent one

But a defiant one

Never a normal one

'Cause I'm the bastard son

With the visions of the move

Vocals not to soothe

But to ignite and put in flight

My sense of militance

Groovin', playin' this game called survival

Status the elite, the enemy, the rival

The silent sheep slippin', riffin', trippin'

Give ya a glimpse of the reality I'm grippin'

Steppin' into the jame and I'm slammin' like Shaquille

Mad boy grips the microphone

Wit' a fistful of steel

Chorus

A .44 full of bullets

Face full of pale

Eyes full of empty

A stare full of nails

The roulette ball rolls alone on the wheel

A mind full of fire

And a fistful of steel

If the vibe was suicide

Then you would push da button

But if ya bowin' down

Then let me do the cuttin'

9. TOWNSHIP REBELLION

Rebel, rebel and yell

'Cause our people still dwell in hell

Locked in a cell

Yes, the structure's a cell

Mad is the story I tell

How long can we wait

Come on, seein' what's at stake

Action for reaction

If your mind's in a somewhat complacent state

Get a check-up

This is a stick-up

Our freedom or your life

I wish I could be peaceful

But there can be no sequel

Chorus

Now freedom should be fundamental

In Johannesburg or South Central

On the mic, 'cause someone should tell 'em

To kick in the township rebellion

Yea, so you thought you could get with the hardlines

That fill your mind

The thoughts, battles fought

And lessons taught

Ans I'll display the fitness

And flip like a gymnast

Raise my fist and resist

Asleep, though we stand in the midst

Of the war

Gotta get mine

Gotta get more

Keepin' the mic warm against the norm

'Cause what does it offer me

I think often it's nothin' but a coffin

Gotta get wreck

'Till out necks never swing on a rope

From here to the cape of no hope

Chorus

Why stand

On a silent platform

Fight the war

Fuck the norm

10. FREEDOM

Solo, I'm a soloist or a solo list

All live, never on a floppy disk

Inka, inka, bottle of ink

Paintings of rebellion

Drawn up by the thoughts I think

It's set up like a deck of cards

They're sending us to early graves

For all the diamonds

They'll use a pair of clubs to beat the spades

With poetry I paint the pictures that hit

More like the murals that fit

Don't turn away

Get in front of it

Chorus

Brotha did ya forget ya name

Did ya lose it on the wall

Playin' tic-tac-toe

Yo, check the diagonal

Three brothers gone

Come one

Doesn't that make it three in a row

Anger is a gift

Chorus

Yo, check the diagonal

Three million gone

Come on

'Cause they're counting backwards to zero

Environment

The environment exceeding on the level

Of our unconciousness

For example

What does the billboard say

Come and play, come and play

Forget about the movement

Anger is a gift

Freedom, freedom, yea right