4. RAGE AGAINST THE
MACHINE "Sleep Now In The Fire" (1999)
From the album "The Battle Of Los Angeles"
From the album "The Battle Of Los Angeles"
What’s ol’ painty-can Zack De La Rocha doing here, eh? Can’t be anything to do with a high-pace
exercise playlist I put together when I joined the gym…
This song is from after I’d forgotten RATM existed, which
happened about halfway through “Evil Empire”, when it became clear that the
excellent first three tracks (seriously, how good is “Vietnow”? Go and have a listen. Go on, I’ll still be here.
…
…
…How good was that, eh?
And thanks for coming back) were not quite illustrative of the
mediocrity of the rest of the album. I
still hear songs they did after that album and think they’ve done a comeback
single – and more fool me, as there’s some great material from that era which I’m
still catching up with, this track being a case in point.
Unfortunately, much like Rasputin, it was a shame how they
carried on. Bereft of De La Rocha, who
they lost on a trip to Homebase to pick up some cornflower gloss for his
bathroom skirting boards, RATM’s musicians formed Audioslave with the now sadly
missed Chris Cornell from Soundgarden, who had a heck of a set of pipes and was
a good guitarist in his own right. The
partnership yielded one extremely good lead single in “Cochise”, one OK
follow-up in “Show Me How To Live”, and the rest… Anyway, moving on!
Worse was to come, as the rebels reunited and went utterly
mainstream. But in their defence, they
were only taking advantage of an unlikely avenue for re-ignition: getting the
UK Christmas number one spot. At that
stage, whoever won reality television show “The X Factor”, which conveniently
wrapped up the week before Christmas, got Christmas number 1 – they were in the
biggest shop window available in the late 00’s, a prime-time Saturday night
terrestrial television show.
In 2008 some dissent had emerged around the incumbent’s use
of the song “Hallelujah”, and campaigns were launched to get different, more
credible versions to number one – and they failed. But the next year, RATM’s F-bomb-ridden
classic “Killing In The Name” was picked as the protest song of choice, and
with the band’s blessing (and their constant promotion of it once the
originally grassroots campaign looked like being a winner), it stormed the
charts and squatted atop the Xmas hit parade.
This, to me, is not just a cash-grab masquerading as
revolution, but also a total besmirching of the grand tradition of the UK
Christmas number one. As holders of this
once-honourable office, it is your duty to turn up on Christmas Top Of The Pops
in a Christmas ganzie – not one of these archly ‘cool’ efforts with “GARLIC
BREAD?” or X-Wing fighters or stuff from bloody “Breaking Bad” on, but a proper
one, in red, white and green with reindeer and holly and that kind of shit all
over it – ideally in a rocking chair, and croon your hit with a knowing smile
whilst fake snow falls around you.
Instead they turned in a turgid pre-taped live performance, which
naturally cut off before the unbroadcastable bit of that song, as we all
wondered what the point was, and certain online groups completely missed the
point and started planning what obscure classic they were going to get to
number one next year. But since the band
themselves won’t do it, then I’ll embrace the festive spirit of forgiveness,
and put aside those differences to remember when RATM had a shred of
credibility, by giving this cracking tune a quick airing.
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