Rage Against The Machine - "Freedom" (guitar cover) video free download

This is my cover of Rage Against The Machine's song "Freedom" (1992). Like many of RATM's songs, it goes after racist America, this time in the form of domestic rather than foreign policy. This lyric "Brother, did you forget your name" is reference to the words of Malcolm X who said that when African slaves were brought to America, they were made to assimilate into white culture, and they lost their African names along with their cultural heritage ("You even lost your mind!" is how he put it.). The X in his name stands for his lost African name which was stripped from his family by white Americans. Where MLK sought for blacks Americans to integrate into white America through assimilation, Malcolm X sought to revive African American history to the time before slavery so that they cold take pride in their culture rather than bow down to the white man. Thus, he called himself a "field negro" (who toils and thus hates his master) and MLK a "house negro" (who is treated nicely so he loves his master and tries to please him). The lyrics "anger is a gift" reminds me of MLK's concept of "righteous indignation" in which he shows that reason and emotion are not separable (as DesCartes suggested in the 18th century), for it is perfectly reasonable to be angry in an unjust situation. I also love the "what does the billboard say, come and play...forget about he movement" line that goes after what Kurt Cobain called "stupid and contagious here we are now entertain us" people.

The song's video seeks the justice of a fair trial in the Leonard Pelltier case. He is a Native American that the band believes was imprisoned unjustly for allegedly killing FBI agents.

I played the on my Fender Violet Deliriums ESM Signature Model Blacktop HH Jaguar (ESM = Explosive Space Modulator) which has Seymour Duncan SH-1 pickups, a killswitch, and some neato stickers on the pickguard. I tune it in drop-D. I ran it through my 1970s Silverface Twin Reverb with various effects. I used a Boss ME-6 for the basic distortion sound. Tom Morello gets the crazy high pitched sound in the intro riff by playing above the nut on his black Telecaster (his main drop-D guitar in RATM), but I found it better to play it on below the bridge on the D string of my Jaguar. During the verses, I click on harmonizer in fifths (Digitech XP-100, Patch #24, pedal in up position) and leave it on until Zack whispers "anger is a gift." For the solo, I switch to the neck pickup. Also, check out that mosh riff at the end -- it sounds a lot like the main riff in Jimi Hendrix's song "Freedom." To record it, I played the MP3 with my Mac on Itunes, and recorded it using the Mac's PhotoBooth program which puts it in mirror image (sorry). I used a Samson CO1U microphone with USB connection into my Mac.

Uggh! Pull, pull. Wuh! Come on! Uggh!

Solo, I'm a soloist on a solo list. All live, never on a floppy disk.

Inka, binka, bottle of ink.

Paintings of rebellion drawn up by the thoughts I think.

Yeah! Come on!

The militant poet in once again, check it. 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.

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 on!

Doesn't that make it three in a row?

Anger is a gift

Come on! Uggh! Check that! Uggh! Come on! Yeah! Uggh!

Brotha, did ya forget ya name? Did ya lose it on the wall playin' tic-tac-toe?

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, yeah right....