RATM- Sleep Now in the Fire
Some of you are interested in looking at music lyrics that contain references to historic events. One song several people have expressed interest in is Rage Against the Machine's "Sleep Now in the Fire."
Lyrics:
http://www.ratm.net/lyrics/sle.html
After reading the lyrics and listening to the song(you may choose another song as well) post your comment here. In your comment, you may want to discuss which historic events or references are made in the song. You may also want to discuss the overall message of the song and/or the "tone" of the song. (What does the song mean? What if anything, does the artist or group hope to achieve by writing and performing this song?)
Another song kids have analyzed in the past is Flipsyde's "U.S. History."
Lyrics:
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/flipsyde/ushistory.html
Past posts dealing with music and history:
http://hansengeorge.blogspot.com/2008/06/more-on-theme-of-history-through.html
http://hansengeorge.blogspot.com/2007/11/music-that-made-difference.html
http://hansengeorge.blogspot.com/2008/06/examining-us-history-through-lyric.html
Lyrics:
http://www.ratm.net/lyrics/sle.html
After reading the lyrics and listening to the song(you may choose another song as well) post your comment here. In your comment, you may want to discuss which historic events or references are made in the song. You may also want to discuss the overall message of the song and/or the "tone" of the song. (What does the song mean? What if anything, does the artist or group hope to achieve by writing and performing this song?)
Another song kids have analyzed in the past is Flipsyde's "U.S. History."
Lyrics:
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/flipsyde/ushistory.html
Past posts dealing with music and history:
http://hansengeorge.blogspot.com/2008/06/more-on-theme-of-history-through.html
http://hansengeorge.blogspot.com/2007/11/music-that-made-difference.html
http://hansengeorge.blogspot.com/2008/06/examining-us-history-through-lyric.html
Comments
"The court has come. The court of the Nations and into the courtroom will come the martyrs of Majdanek and Oswiecim. From the ditch of Kerch the dead will rise, they will arise from the graves, they will arise from flames bringing with them the acrid smoke and the deathly odour of scorched markings. And the children they too will come, stern and merciless. The butchers had no pity on them. "They are the victims" judged the butchers. Today the tear of a child is the judge, the grief of a mother is the prosecutor.
You were what you were
Clean cut, unbecoming
Recreation for the masses
You always mistook fists for flowers
Welcome welcome soldier smiling
Funeral march for agony's last edge
6 Million screaming souls
Maybe misery - maybe nothing at all
Lives that wouldn't have changed a thing
Never counted - never mattered - never be
Arbeit macht frei
Transports of invalids
Hartheim Castle breathes us in
In block 5 we worship malaria
Lagerstrasse, poplar trees
Beauty lost, dignity gone
Rascher surveys us butcher bacteria
Welcome welcome soldier smiling
Soon infected, nails broken, hunger's a word
6 Million screaming souls
Maybe misery - maybe nothing at all
Lives that wouldn't have changed a thing
Never counted - never mattered - never be
Drink it away, every tear is false
Churchill no different
Wished the workers bled to a machine"
A link to all the lyrics on the album:
http://www.metrolyrics.com/the-holy-bible-album-manic-street-preachers.html
In their early days (pre-1995) They had a 2nd guitarist and co-writer of Lyrics named "Richey James Edwards" who went missing in 1995. He was an emotional unstable young man who had a nasty drug habit, an eating disorder, and self destructive tendencies which made many believe he committed suicide. He was also an avid reader, an intellectual and extremely politically involved. All the members of the group were disdainful of much of pop culture and were also politically involved.
For the mentioned album, Richy wrote all of the lyrics, hence why I'm focusing on him. Since he isn't in the band anymore, the groups other albums are a but less politically motivated, and musically they've become less harsh punk influenced, to more of an almost mellow feel.
the nina,pinta,and santa maria talk about the columbus who brought over the slaves from africa in which the slave owners would rape there slaves and the noose talks about that was most associated which blacks when they were hung, which was also known as lynching.
The Nina the Pinta and the Santa Maria is like drakew said, the ships that columbus used to transport native Americans/Caribbeans as slaves. Noose rapist and overseer talk about the later history of american slavery, and the agents of orange is a reworking of "Agent Orange" which was a chemical developed to quickly decay and destroy foliage in the vietnam war. Priests of Hiroshima I think refers to the Jewish priests that survived the hiroshima bombing supposedly by praying.
So Basically it's another cliche song by rage, full of anger and really awesome innovative guitar work, especially the radio at the end, haha.
Anyway, good analysis of the song. This was your final project! Have a great summer!
I like exclamation points!