"Bombtrack" is a song by American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

band

Rage Against the Machine Rage Against the Machine (often abbreviated as RATM or shortened to Rage) was an American Rock music, rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1991. It consisted of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, bassist and backing vocalist Tim ...

. It is the band’s third single and the opening track on their self-titled debut album. Like most of Rage Against the Machine's songs, the song's lyrics discuss

social inequality Social inequality occurs when resources within a society are distributed unevenly, often as a result of inequitable allocation practices that create distinct unequal patterns based on socially defined categories of people. Differences in acce ...

, proclaiming that "

landlords A landlord is the owner of property such as a house, apartment, condominium, land, or real estate that is rented or leased to an individual or business, known as a tenant (also called a ''lessee'' or ''renter''). The term landlord applies ...

and power whores" were going to "burn". The riffs were composed by Rage Against the Machine bassist

Tim Commerford Timothy Commerford (born February 26, 1968) is an American musician, best known as the bassist and backing vocalist for rock band Rage Against the Machine and supergroups Audioslave and Prophets of Rage. Since 2013 and 2015, respectively, he ha ...

. The song is one of three on the album in the key of F along with " Know Your Enemy" and "Fistful of Steel".

Cover

The single artwork features Cuban

photographer A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who uses a camera to make photographs. Duties and types of photograp ...

Alberto Korda's famous image of

Che Guevara Ernesto "Che" Guevara (14th May 1928 – 9 October 1967) was an Argentines, Argentine Communist revolution, Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, Guerrilla warfare, guerrilla leader, diplomat, and Military theory, military theorist. A majo ...

, ''

Guerrillero Heroico ''Guerrillero Heroico'' (, ) is a photograph of Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara taken by Alberto Korda. It was captured on 5 March 1960, in Havana, Cuba, at a memorial service for victims of the ''La Coubre'' explosion. By the end of the ...

''. A mirrored version of the iconic two-tone portrait by Irish artist Jim Fitzpatrick (T-shirt version).

Music video

A music video was released, depicting support for the Peruvian

Maoist Maoism, officially Mao Zedong Thought, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed while trying to realize a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic o ...

organization

Sendero Luminoso The Shining Path (, SL), self-named the Communist Party of Peru (, abbr. PCP), is a far-left political party and guerrilla group in Peru, following Marxism–Leninism–Maoism and Gonzalo Thought. Academics often refer to the group as the Co ...

and its leader Abimael Guzman. In the video, the group played inside a cage, mimicking Guzman being shown to journalists inside a cage after his capture by the Peruvian military. The initial sequence of the video feature the sentence "For 13 years the people of Peru have waged revolutionary war against their oppressive U.S.-backed government. Their movement is known as the ''Sendero luminoso'' or Shining Path." The group mentioned Shining Path again in the lyrics of " Without a Face." The video clip did not appear on the group's first home video, citing Rage's first altered political opinion. In 2003, the video finally appeared as bonus material on their '' Live at the Grand Olympic Auditorium'' DVD.

Track listing

CD #"Bombtrack" #"Bombtrack vening Session version #"Bombtrack ive version *The 'Evening Session' version was recorded on

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and Contemporary hit radio, current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including ...

during

Mark Goodier Mark Goodier (born 9 June 1961) is a Zimbabwean-born British radio disc jockey and broadcaster best known for his time on BBC Radio 1 between 1987 and 2002. He had two spells presenting the station's Top 40 singles chart, from September 1990 ...

's Evening Session. 7" # "Bombtrack" – 4:03 # "Bombtrack" (live) – 6:00

Special Pinkpop edition

On May 23, 1994, a special edition of the "Bombtrack" CD single was released in the Netherlands for the

Pinkpop Pinkpop is an annual music festival held in Landgraaf, Netherlands. It is usually held on the Pentecost weekend (''Pinksteren'' in Dutch, hence the name). If Pentecost falls on an early date in May, the festival is held later in June. Starting in ...

Music Festival A music festival is a festival, community event with music, performances of singing and instrument playing that is often presented with a theme such as musical genre (e.g., rock music, rock, blues, folk music, folk, jazz, classical music), nation ...

's 25th birthday. This version contains an alternative track listing. #"Bombtrack" #"Freedom" (live) #"Settle for Nothing" (live) #"Bombtrack" vening Session version#"Bullet in the Head" emix#"Take the Power Back" (live) #"Darkness of Greed" #"Bullet in the Head" (live) #"Bombtrack" (live) Tracks three and eight recorded live at

Melkweg Melkweg (Dutch for "Milky Way") is a music venue and cultural center on Lijnbaansgracht, near Leidseplein in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It is housed in a former dairy and includes four music halls as well as a cinema, a restaurant and an exhibitio ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

, February 7, 1993. Track six recorded live in

Vancouver, British Columbia Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

, Canada, April 11, 1993. Track nine recorded live in

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

, United States, April 5, 1993. Track five remix by

Sir Jinx Anthony D. Wheaton (born June 3, 1970), professionally known by his stage name Sir Jinx, is an American hip-hop record producer and rapper from Los Angeles. He is a cousin of multi-platinum producer Dr. Dre. He began his career as a member of th ...

. The Evening Session version of "Bombtrack" is a completely reworked, slower "swing" version of the song with altered lyrics, which later appeared on ''

Evil Empire An evil empire is a speculative fiction trope in which a major antagonist of the story is a technologically advanced nation, typically ruled by an evil emperor or empress, that aims to control the world or conquer some specific group. They are ...

''s "Without a Face".

In popular culture

In 2017,

Stone Sour Stone Sour was an American rock band formed in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1992. The band performed for five years before disbanding in 1997. They reunited in 2000; since 2015, the group has consisted of Corey Taylor (lead vocals, guitar), Josh Rand ...

covered the song as part of

Metal Hammer ''Metal Hammer'' is a heavy metal music magazine and website founded in 1983, published in the United Kingdom by Future, with other language editions published by different companies available in numerous other countries. ''Metal Hammer'' featu ...

's ''Metal Hammer Goes '90s'' compilation album, and appears on the deluxe edition of their 2017 album '' Hydrograd''. Perhaps the song's most notable appearance outside of the music industry would be its appearance in

Oliver Stone William Oliver Stone (born ) is an American filmmaker. Stone is an acclaimed director, tackling subjects ranging from the Vietnam War and American politics to musical film, musical Biographical film, biopics and Crime film, crime dramas. He has ...

's controversial film ''

Natural Born Killers ''Natural Born Killers'' is a 1994 American romantic crime action film directed by Oliver Stone and starring Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis, Robert Downey Jr., Tommy Lee Jones, and Tom Sizemore. The film tells the story of two victims ...

'', when Mickey breaks out of his prison cell in search of Mallory.

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1992 songs 1993 singles Epic Records singles Rage Against the Machine songs Song recordings produced by Garth Richardson Songs written by Tom Morello Songs written by Brad Wilk Songs written by Tim Commerford Songs written by Zack de la Rocha Shining Path