That's a call to myself, for sleeping around and not posting for a long time..or so you think. I'm all stirred up right now - I just heard one of my favourite ground-breaking songs..It's called 'Wake Up'. By Rage Against The Machine. Pure exciting guitar riffs and awesome rapping by Zach. The song kicks off with a heavy riff that sounds like Led Zeppelin's 'Kashmir'. After that it only rises in tempo toward the end, where he screams out and insists we wake up!
Those of you not familiar with the song, please look back to The Matrix, where at the end, Neo calls up from a phone booth and doles out a threat, before flying away to this song. Those of you not familiar with the movie, life ain't worth living right now, is it!
The Message
Yeah, there's a message. Most of RATM's songs carry a message. The song wouldn't have been great without its motivatingly penned lyrics. It's about how the governments use their authority to muffle the protests, to sideline the obvious and to simply hide the truth. In particular, they stick to the example of the American government.
'Movements come and movements go,
Leaders speak, movements cease
When their heads are flown'.
Not scared to take names either -
'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'.
And one of the most powerful statements -
'Networks at work, keepin' people calm
Ya know they murdered X
And tried to blame it on Islam'.
It's not just love
For all those of you still leading life with an ear only for the pop divas and the boy bands, you have no idea what you are missing out on. You obviously do realise that life is not just about love and heartbreak, right? The real life has problems, wars, politics. Hell, these mushy crooners don't even sing about humanity or the environment. How hard is it to write a song that goes - 'You are my fire, my one desire', and then 2 lines later - 'Am I your fire, your one desire'. I used to write better poetry when I was in 2nd grade. And even then I wrote about emporers and heroes.
Music as a weapon
I've heard statements like - 'Music is a really strong tool. You can use it carry any message through' - many a time. Then, why do so many of these cacophonists choose to send only one message through? Love, beauty, weeping after a heartbreak, sex? Ok, that's 4, but eventually it amounts to nothing, just a few mushy females and their sad boyfriends who go through this hell just for the sake of..you know what!
Why doesn't anybody sing about the environment and the extinction of rare species? Oh, wait, Megadeth did, with Countdown To Extinction.
Tell the truth, you wouldn’t dare.
The skin and trophy, oh so rare.
Killed a few feet from the cages,
Point blank, you’re so courageous
Why doesn't anybody sing about the treacherous stupidity of a war being fought in Iraq. Oh, wait, System Of A Down are already nominated for a Grammy with B.Y.O.B (Bring your own bomb).
Why do they always send the poor?
Why don't presidents fight the war?
Why doesn't anybody write about dreams and deja-vus, stuff that happens to us everyday. Oh, wait, Iron Maiden has Dream Of Mirrors dedicated to this freaky feeling.
Have you ever felt
the future is the past
but you don't know how...?
A reflected dream
of a captured time
Is it really now, is it really happening?
Why doesn't somebody write out against dictators that still rule some parts of this world. Oh, wait, Sepultura have penned Orgasmotron in their honour.
I Twist The Truth, I Rule The World, My Crown Is Called Deceit
I Am The Emperor Of Lies, You Grovel At My Feet
One last why doesn't. Why doesn't somebody write about the soldiers who defend our borders, goto war, blindly obeying the decisions made by superiors who sit in the comfy interiors of their palaces. Oh, wait, Metallica have already penned For Whom The Bell Tolls on that pretext.
For a hill men would kill, why? They do not know
Suffered wounds test their pride
Morons all of these to waste time and creativity to write about real stuff. Who listens to this crap? Without love, there's only wars, bad presidents, and nightmares. Boy Bands rock! Britney rulz.
Wake Up!
Whadda I got to, whadda I got to do to wake ya up
To shake ya up, to break the structure up.
It's sad to see that all the song-writing credits goto mushy or latino or hip-hop singers, while these other artists really churn out creative and meaningful stuff. I'm gonna be like the Missionary and try to convert every friend of mine to give these artists a shot, and see for themselves what they are missing. Meanwhile, you go and grab these songs I listed and give them a deserved hearing.
'It has to happen sometime,
It has to happen somehow,
What better place than this,
What better time than now!'
3 comments:
Ok. I'll listen to Orgasmatron then :). Anyway, nice list of songs you got here. The lyrics are one of the main reasons why I like Rock too. I could add a few more to that list, but lets not make it longer. Incidentally, Pop artists too go on a Voyage to bring Global Awareness. MJ's Heal the World & Earth Song, Phil Collins' Another Day in Paradise are a few examples. The advantage these pop icons have is of the fan-following. The fans worship them & the message is passed on. But look at the majority of Metal fans. Majority of them are drug-addicts, smoking & drinking, shooting, maiming people. They dont even Get what the songs say. But the message has to be passed on. :D
I know you can list a few pop-style songs in this category too. But, my point is, they are too few and far between.
And I am surprised you would fall for this unfair portrayal of Metal band-members and their fans. Here in the US, where doing drugs is not really uncommon, it is just as likely for a hip-hop artist to be a hippy, and the pop divas to pop pills and drugs. I think the image of drugs and violence has stuck with the metal bands and they have been glorified to such an extent, that the other genres shy away from it now.
I agree that Audioslave doesn't dish out the same kinda songs like RATM did. But, it does have a lot to do with their legacy of being RATM and they are firmly stepping away from that, and people just have to accept it!
As for MTV, I dont get that too in my hotel's tiny menu of channels. I'll try and catch Hatebreed somehow, somewhere.
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