"Bulls on Parade" 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 second song from their second studio album, ''

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 ...

'' (1996). It was released as the album's first single on April 1, 1996.

Background and composition

"Bulls on Parade" deals with the

U.S. military The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. U.S. federal law names six armed forces: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and the Coast Guard. Since 1949, all of the armed forces, except th ...

and its aggressive tactics. It mentions how the arms industry encourages war to obtain military contracts with lines such as, "Weapons, not food, not homes, not shoes, not need, just feed the war cannibal-animal," and "What we don't know keeps the contracts alive and moving." The song is widely known for its popular

guitar solo A guitar solo is a melody, melodic passage, instrumental section (music), section, or entire piece of music, pre-written (or improvised) to be played on a classical guitar, classical, electric guitar, electric, or acoustic guitar. In 20th and ...

containing a vinyl scratch effect used by

Tom Morello Thomas Baptist Morello (born May 30, 1964) is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, and political activist. He is known for his tenure with the rock bands Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave. Between 2016 and 2019, Morello was a membe ...

, done by toggling between two pickups, one on and one off, while rubbing his hands on the strings over the pickups to create an effect akin to someone scratching a

vinyl record A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English) or a vinyl record (for later varieties only) is an analog signal, analog sound Recording medium, storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, ...

. Morello has stated that the sound he was going for was a "sort of '

Geto Boys Geto Boys (originally spelled Ghetto Boys) were an American hip hop group originally formed in Houston, Texas. They saw commercial success in the 1990s with the lineup consisting of Bushwick Bill, Scarface and Willie D. The group became best ...

' sound, menacing" with

E♭ tuning Guitar tunings are the assignment of pitches to the open strings of guitars, including classical guitars, acoustic guitars, and electric guitars. Tunings are described by the particular pitches that are made by notes in Western music. By c ...

in both guitar and bass, and a

wah-wah pedal A wah-wah pedal, or simply wah pedal, is a type of effects pedal designed for electric guitar that alters the timbre of the input signal to create a distinctive sound, mimicking the human voice saying the onomatopoeic name "wah-wah". The peda ...

fully in the treble position.

Live performances

"Bulls on Parade" made its live debut on January 25, 1996, at the

Big Day Out The Big Day Out (BDO) was an annual music festival that was held in five Australian cities: Sydney, Melbourne, Gold Coast, Queensland, Gold Coast, Adelaide, and Perth, as well as Auckland, New Zealand. The festival was held during summer, typi ...

festival in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, Australia. The track then made its international debut on ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL'') is an American Late night television in the United States, late-night live television, live sketch comedy variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Michaels and Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC. The ...

'' in April 1996. The band was going to play two songs, but were expelled from the building after hanging American flags upside down from their amplifiers. At various shows, the band has dedicated the song to George Bush and

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He was Leader ...

for their role in the war on terror.

Covers

"Bulls on Parade" has been covered numerous times by different artists of various genres including British rapper

Dizzee Rascal Dylan Kwabena Mills (born 18 September 1984), known professionally as Dizzee Rascal, is a British rapper and MC. He is often credited as a pioneer of British hip hop and grime music and was ranked by ''Complex'' as one of the greatest British ...

in 2009, among others. On February 14, 2019, American rapper

Denzel Curry Denzel Rae Don Curry (born February 16, 1995) is an American rapper. Born and raised in Miami Gardens, Florida, Curry started rapping while in the sixth grade and began working on his first mixtape, ''King Remembered Underground Tape 1991–1995 ...

performed a cover of the song on the Australian radio station

Triple J Triple J is an Australian government-funded national radio station founded in 1975 as a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). It aims to appeal to young listeners of alternative music, and plays far more Australian conten ...

as part of ''

Like a Version ''Like a Version'' is a long-running weekly segment on Australian youth radio station Triple J. It involves musicians playing two songs live in the Triple J studio, one of their own songs and then a cover version. The series was created by pres ...

''. The cover was met with critical acclaim.

Music video

The video for "Bulls on Parade", directed by

Peter Christopherson Peter Martin Christopherson (also known as Sleazy; 27 February 1955 – 25 November 2010) was an English musician, video director, commercial artist, designer and photographer, who was at one time a member of design agency Hipgnosis. He also ...

and produced by Fiz Oliver at Squeak Pictures, premiered on

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

's ''

120 Minutes ''120 Minutes'' is a television program in the United States dedicated to the Alternative rock, alternative music genre, that originally aired on MTV from 1986 to 2000, and then aired on MTV's associate channel MTV2 from 2001 to 2003. After it ...

'' on April 14, 1996. On July 31, 1996, it was nominated for Best Hard Rock Video in the

1996 MTV Video Music Awards The 1996 MTV Video Music Awards aired live on September 4, 1996, honoring the best music videos from June 16, 1995, to June 14, 1996. The show was hosted by Dennis Miller at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The show centered on the Smashin ...

. The video contains footage from the

(January 25, 1996) and their side show at the

Hordern Pavilion Hordern Pavilion (known locally as The Hordern) is a building located in Moore Park, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, on the grounds of the old Sydney Showground. Now known as a sports venue, dance party and music concert venue, the Hordern ...

(January 27, 1996). Throughout the video shots of young people protesting in the streets with political signs, military drills, flags, and other similar images are montaged together. An antique-style film is used which promotes scratches, dust and film grain. Several scenes show people wrapping ''

'' banners on walls, telephone posts and posting up other propaganda posters designed by

Barbara Kruger Barbara Kruger (born January 26, 1945) is an American conceptual artist and collagist associated with the Pictures Generation. She is most known for her visual word art that consists of black-and-white photographs, overlaid with declarative ca ...

. There is a scene where a character wearing a black "Libertyville" jacket with a baseball cap is painted by the renowned Phantom Street Artist Joey Krebs who paints his iconoclastic figures on city walls. This is the actual portrait created by the street artist of Tom Morello himself. Various lyrics are flashed on top of these scenes in a scrawled sort of chicken-scratch throughout.

Accolades

*The song was voted number 15 on ''VH1's 40 Greatest Metal Songs''. *The song came in 46th place on the Triple J Hottest 100, 1996. *The song came in at 89th place on the Triple J Hottest 100 of All Time in 2009. *The cover of Denzel Curry placed 5th on the

Triple J Hottest 100, 2019 The 2019 Triple J Hottest 100 was announced on 25 January 2020. It is the 27th countdown of the most popular songs of the year, as chosen by listeners of Australian radio station triple j. A record-breaking number of votes (3.21 million) were c ...

. *Its solo is listed number 23 on Guitar World's 100 Greatest Solos list published in 2009.

In other media

* "Bulls on Parade" features in '' Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock'' where it is unlocked after defeating

in a guitar battle. The song also appeared as a playable track in ''

Guitar Hero Live ''Guitar Hero Live'' is a 2015 rhythm game developed by FreeStyleGames and published by Activision. It is the seventh main instalment and the twelfth overall instalment in the ''Guitar Hero'' series. The game was released for PlayStation 3, ...

'' and ''

Rock Band ''Rock Band'' is a series of rhythm games first released in 2007 and developed by Harmonix. Based on their previous development work from the Guitar Hero, ''Guitar Hero'' series, the main ''Rock Band'' games have players use game controllers mod ...

'' in its Metal Track Pack. * It is the theme song for the defense of the NFL's

Houston Texans The Houston Texans are a professional American football team based in Houston. The Texans compete in the National Football League as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division. The team plays its home games at N ...

, and is played in the stadium at home games to invigorate the crowd and players before games. The song is also played every time the defense stops their opponent on third down, along with every fourth down stop resulting in a

turnover on downs In gridiron football, a turnover on downs occurs when a team's offense has used all its downs but has not advanced the ball enough to earn another set of downs. The resulting turnover gives possession of the ball to the team on defense. Backgro ...

. The song has been officially endorsed by former Texans LB

Connor Barwin Connor Alfred Barwin (born October 15, 1986) is an American professional American football, football executive and former player who is the head of football development and strategy for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League (NF ...

. * For Australian radio station

, American rapper

covered "Bulls on Parade" with Harts on guitar. *

The Prodigy The Prodigy are an English electronic music band formed in Braintree, Essex, in 1990 by producer, keyboardist, and songwriter Liam Howlett. The original line-up also featured Rapping, MC and vocalist Maxim (musician), Maxim, dancer and occasi ...

sampled the song in their 1997 single " Smack My Bitch Up". * The

New York Red Bulls The New York Red Bulls are an American professional association football, soccer club based in the New York metropolitan area. The Red Bulls compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference (MLS), Eastern Conferenc ...

use the song for the team's goal song.

Track listing

# ''Bulls on Parade'' # '' Hadda Be Playing on the Jukebox'' (Live)

Charts

Certifications

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bulls On Parade Rage Against the Machine songs Houston Texans 1996 singles Protest songs 1996 songs Songs against capitalism Song recordings produced by Brendan O'Brien (record producer) Songs written by Tom Morello Songs written by Brad Wilk Songs written by Tim Commerford Songs written by Zack de la Rocha Epic Records singles Nu metal songs Anti-war songs