Song of the Day: Bulls on Parade (by Rage Against the Machine)

Posted on March 21, 2025 by Arleigh

Anyone who lived through the mid-1990’s cannot say that they have never heard of Rage Against the Machine. They ushered in the rap metal/rap rock/alternative metal scene which would include such acts as Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit, Kid Rock and Body Count just to name a few.

While the genre itself had some early beginnings with such metal and rap groups as Anthrax and Cypress Hill, respectively, it was with Rage Against the Machine that the scene really came into its own. As Scott Ian would later say, it was with Rage Against the Machine that rap metal as a genre was born.

Today’s “Song of the Day” with Rage Against the Machine’s 1996’s second single from Evil Empire, the band’s second studio album. That song is “Bulls on Parade”. The band released their self-titled album in 1992 that gave birth to the rap metal scene with “Killing in the Name” the birth cry of the genre. While success would follow the band pretty quickly with this debut album and their subsequent festival appearances it would be with “Bulls on Parade” that they would also achieve their most mainstream success.

A song decrying the military-industrial complex that the United States has become through the decades, the song was a mainstream-friendly calling card (as mainstream as RATM could ever be seen as) for the band known for it’s anti-establishment, anti-authoritarian and revolutionary lyrics. The band would be the boogeyman for the traditional and conservative movement many years even after the band’s break-up in 2000.

It is at the 2:30min mark that one of the most inventive and unique sounding guitar solos that signifies “Bulls on Parade” as having reached legendary status. Lead guitarist Tom Morello replicates the vinyl scratching typically heard with DJ artists in rap and club records. It is not your typical rock guitar solo, but a rock guitar solo it is nonetheless.

Bulls on Parade

Come wit’ it now
Come wit’ it now

The microphone explodes, shattering the molds
Either drop the hits like De La O or get the fuck off the commode
Wit’ the sure shot, sure to make the bodies drop
Drop and don’t copy yo, don’t call this a co-op
Terror rains drenchin’, quenchin’ the thirst of the power dons
That five sided fist-a-gon
The rotten sore on the face of mother earth gets bigger
The triggers cold empty ya purse

Rally ’round the family with a pocket full of shells
They rally ’round the family with a pocket full of shells
They rally ’round the family with a pocket full of shells
They rally ’round the family with a pocket full of shells

Weapons not food, not homes, not shoes
Not need, just feed the war cannibal animal
I walk the corner to the rubble that used to be a library
Line up to the mind cemetery now
What we don’t know keeps the contracts alive and movin’
They don’t gotta burn the books they just remove ’em
While arms warehouses fill as quick as the cells
Rally ’round the family, pockets full of shells

Bulls on parade

Come wit’ it now
Come wit’ it now
Bulls on parade
Bulls on parade
Bulls on parade
Bulls on parade
Bulls on parade

Great Guitar Solos Series

Song of the Day: Gipsy Danger (by Ramin Djawadi)

Posted on July 23, 2013 by Arleigh

This latest “Song of the Day” will be the second of what will be a trifecta of my favorite tracks from the Pacific Rim soundtrack by composer Ramin Djawadi. The first one was the main theme from the film and featured Rage Against the Machine lead guitarist Tom Morello providing lead guitar work. This second track I’ve chosen is siply titled “Gipsy Danger”.

Where the main theme has been everyone’s favorite in the entire soundtrack it’s difficult not to enjoy the motif for the main character of the film. Let’s be honest and just admit to ourselves that the main character in Pacific Rim is the jaeger christened Gipsy Danger. The track which introduces her theme in the film actually precedes the main theme. We actually hear the “Gipsy Danger” theme right from the start of the film. It combines some of the hard rock melodies and chords from the film’s main theme, but also expanding on the deep bass tone (sounding like a fog horn blowing) that punctuates throughout this theme more than it did in the main theme. This deep sound I always thought of as the “monster arriving” musical cue. It appears not just when Gipsy Danger makes her initial appearance but also whenever a kaiju emerges from the ocean and makes landfall to cause destruction. It’s a sound cue similar to classic giant monster flicks from Japan that announces either Godzilla or one of his kaiju brethren which was followed-up by the iconic monster scream.

We get both the rock and roll and heroic sound from the main theme combined with the more ominous musical cue in this chosen track. It pretty much focuses on one of the film’s taglines about creating monsters to fight monsters. The Gipsy Danger jaeger is a monster in her own right. But then she’s our monster and we always have a fondness for monsters as long as it’s our own.

Song of the Day: Pacific Rim Theme (by Ramin Djawadi feat. Tom Morello)

Posted on July 12, 2013 by Arleigh

Ok, to say that my latest musical obsession comes directly from Pacific Rim shouldn’t be quite a surprise. I’ve been so hyped about Guillermo Del Toro’s valentines card to all things mecha and daikaiju that it is only logical that it should progress right to it’s soundtrack. The latest “Song of the Day” is the awesometastic and auralgasmic opening theme song to Pacific Rim composed by Game of Thrones composer Ramin Djawadi featuring the lead guitar stylings of Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello.

The “Pacific Rim Theme” is quite the homage to the classic mecha and giant robot anime series of the 70’s and early 80’s. It doesn’t go for the recent trend of classical-based opening credits song with the latest mecha series from Japan, but it instead goes for the full-on rock’n’roll treatment. It’s mostly brass and strings with some cameos from the horn section. It also makes great use of the electronic style that evokes early John Carpenter and some of the scifi action films of the early 80’s.

It helps to have Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine doing lead guitar duties throughout the piece.

In the film, the Jaeger pilots were seen as rock stars by the public and this theme made damn sure that we know that when it plays out in the beginning.