{"id":70183,"date":"2025-10-10T15:15:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T15:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/70183\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T15:15:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T15:15:12","slug":"rage-against-the-machine-the-story-behind-sleep-now-in-the-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/70183\/","title":{"rendered":"Rage Against The Machine: the story behind Sleep Now In The Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

By 1999, Rage Against The Machine<\/a> were well established as one of the most important and influential bands of the decade. Their revolutionary amalgam of huge, heavy guitar riffs, inescapably propulsive grooves and furiously righteous, rapped vocals were utterly unique and inadvertently created a blueprint for what would become the nu metal<\/a> movement.<\/p>\n

But, although nu metal was currently the dominant style in alternative music, it had long since ceased to represent the ideals that drove Rage\u2019s music. While Limp Bizkit<\/a> were doing it for the nookie, Rage\u2019s entire reason for existing was to raise awareness and attempt to bring about societal change, so the band were unsurprisingly unimpressed by the state of the music that now surrounded them.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just happen to be the band who have been able to create this open space within pop music,\u201d vocalist Zack de la Rocha said in 1999, \u201cand try to set in motion a new era where more dissident voices in commercial music can become part of the dialogue. It comes with great responsibilities, though \u2013 for every Nirvana<\/a> there were 10 or 15 Bushes or whoever, and with Rage there\u2019s been some not so good bands.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, after a lengthy absence following 1996\u2019s Evil Empire, when Rage returned with their much-anticipated third album there was much to prove. Sitting among the track listing of said album was a song that would give the band yet another era-defining anthem, and cause such a furore that everyone from rock fans to mainstream news channels had to take note of it. The song was Sleep Now In The Fire, and it provided the soundtrack for arguably the band\u2019s greatest act of rabble-rousing.<\/p>\n

There was some quite heavy discussion in the aftermath of Evil Empire that the interpersonal tensions within the band could potentially lead to their split. \u201cI didn\u2019t feel that my contribution was being acknowledged among the four of us,\u201d Zack confessed to Kerrang!, before cautiously noting: \u201cI don\u2019t see why we can\u2019t continue, primarily because we have overcome a lot of the tensions. I don\u2019t think that, in our heart of hearts, we were really ready to destroy this gift that we\u2019d fought for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rage Against The Machine – Sleep Now in the Fire (Official HD Video) – YouTube
\n\"Rage<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

In 1998, Rage returned to the studio to create what would become their third album, The Battle Of Los Angeles<\/a>. Famously, the band would jam ideas out in the studio, and a riff that guitarist Tom Morello had been playing around with for some time would end up being the catalyst for the new album\u2019s most notorious track.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main guitar riff had been bouncing around in my head for a while,\u201d Tom told Guitar World in 2000 about the genesis of Sleep Now In The Fire. \u201cWe finally put all the pieces together working on the album. The song had the working title \u2018MC5\u2019, because it has that raw feel of The Stooges or The MC5 mixed with Rage\u2019s thunderous rhythm section. The song really took shape when we married the main guitar riff to a very 70s, rolling bassline. I couldn\u2019t help but envision a huge festival audience jumping up and down to this one.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the music for Sleep Now In The Fire coming together nicely, Zack added his lyrical flair, seething against capitalist greed, namechecking the conquest of the native American people, slavery, US forces bombing Hiroshima in the Second World War and the use of Agent Orange during the Vietnam war.<\/p>\n

Like much of his work, it was a scathing takedown of society\u2019s very worst traits, but it was written in a far more stress-free manner than previous records. \u201cThis time the guys took the musical reins and I came in to do the lyrics,\u201d Zack said. \u201cIn the end it was a healthier, more fulfilling process than past times.\u201d<\/p>\n

The finished track was one of the finest songs in Rage\u2019s catalogue \u2013 skyscraper huge and capturing the anger, the punk energy, the skilful musicianship and the ingenuity of the four men. This focused, more unified Rage now had an anthem for their new album. They also had a happy accident that gave the song a nice little cherry on top when Tom discovered one of his guitar pedals could pick up some very interesting interference.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile using an old, vintage distortion pedal called a Tone Bender, I found out that when I turned on the pedal but didn\u2019t play anything, I picked up a crystal clear signal from a Korean radio station,\u201d he told Guitar World. \u201cIn earlier mixes of Sleep Now In The Fire, that radio thing was featured more prominently. We had the signal running through the entire song, it was a little annoying, so we decided just to stick it at the very end. I always like to say there are no samples on any of our records, and this is a good example. That radio signal was no sample \u2013 it was played!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"Rage\n<\/p>\n

Rage Against The Machine singer Zack de la Rocha performing live in 1999. (Image credit: Frank Micelotta Archive\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The Battle Of Los Angeles was released on November 2, 1999. It received rave reviews both in and beyond the rock and metal press, with Time Magazine and Rolling Stone both naming it the best album of the year. The album followed Evil Empire to the top spot in the US Billboard chart, proving that in a world obsessed with Korn<\/a>, Limp Bizkit and the fast-rising Slipknot<\/a>, Rage Against The Machine were far from yesterday\u2019s men.<\/p>\n

But that was merely the beginning for Sleep Now In The Fire. Released as a single two days after the album, it took on an even greater significance thanks to its now-iconic video. Rather than create a typical promo clip of the band playing live in a studio, Rage enlisted controversial director and activist Michael Moore \u2013 best known these days for his Oscar-winning documentary Bowling For Columbine \u2013 to film them playing a guerrilla gig on the front steps of the New York Stock Exchange during the opening week of the US Presidential campaign on January 26, 2000.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d Michael wrote on his website two days after the event, \u201cthat moshpit, the one that has thrown a big weird monkey wrench into the first week of the presidential campaign, was ours.\u201d<\/p>\n

The stunt was inspired by the filming of part of the latest series of Michael\u2019s TV show, The Awful Truth, with the director initially hauling a truck of rock fans to various parts of the United States and offering to endorse potential presidential candidates if they jumped into their moshpit. \u201cSimple as that,\u201d wrote Michael. \u201cNo large sums of dirty money, no favours or back-room deal making. Just dive into the outstretched arms of 100 degenerate, but registered, youth and you are our candidate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael had been asked to direct a new video for the band a few weeks previously, and hhe ad the idea to bring the band to the Stock Exchange with his crew in tow, inspired by the lyrical message contained within the song. \u201cTheir song is about the evils of our economic system,\u201d he explained, \u201cand the era of greed which we live in. So, I had a few ideas\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

The director obtained a permit for the band to perform on the federal steps, but not the sidewalk in front of it. Tom told Interview magazine that Michael told him to \u201cget up on the steps and play and no matter what happens, don\u2019t stop playing. No matter what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rage Against The Machine – Sleep Now In The Fire (from The Battle of Mexico City) – YouTube
\n\"Rage<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

Michael remembered the crowd forming immediately when the band began playing: \u201cQuite a large crowd came out of the brokerage houses and banks where the business of America is conducted on a daily basis. The police also came out. They ordered the makeshift concert to cease, but before we had a chance to stop, four officers jumped me and put me in one of those locks like you see on the excellent and informative show, Cops. One tried to break my arm, the other put a choke hold on my neck.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Tom, the police pulled leads from his amp and grabbed drummer Brad Wilk\u2019s sticks as the band watched Michael being carted away by the police. \u201cThen Michael, in his second directorial edict of the afternoon, says, \u2018Take the Stock Exchange!\u2019\u201d Tom told Interview magazine. \u201cAnd so, as Mike is being dragged away in handcuffs, which you see in the video, we rush the New York Stock Exchange.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe police were so distracted by carting me away they couldn\u2019t catch up with the band, who had made it through the first set of double doors,\u201d Michael recalled. \u201cAt that moment, someone must have hit the riot button inside the Stock Exchange, because these large steel gates came crashing down in front of the second set of double doors. For the first time that anyone could recall, the New York Stock Exchange went into lockdown an hour before its official closing time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The incident became headline news. Conservative commentators lined up to criticise Rage Against The Machine. It was even referenced in the presidential debate that evening, with future President George W. Bush angrily condemning their actions. Rage\u2019s impromptu shutdown of the Stock Exchange has been immortalised in what is generally considered to be one of the greatest music videos of all time \u2013 one that proved that, even if the scene around the band had changed, they still remained at the very forefront of the cutting edge.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn retrospect it felt like a historic victory against evil,\u201d Tom mused on the song\u2019s legacy. \u201cIt was a pretty spectacular, historic rock\u2019n\u2019roll thing we made. They don\u2019t make them like that anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

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