Rage Against The Machine "Killing In The Name Of"

I was catching my breath after The Ramones.  It was Lollapalooza 1996, and earlier I had wormed my way to the front of the stage to soak up what I knew would be my last chance to see the Punk icons.  Now, sweaty and beat from the hot sun, I had retreated to a place a good football-field-away from the stage.

"When Rage Against The Machine comes on, we are moving back," said the Mom to her 10 year old boy.

"Aww, Mom!" said the kid standing next to me.

Now, God bless this Mom, for taking her 10 year old to Lollapalooza.  Fat chance of my Mom ever having done such a thing.

But I thought, Lady, give me an f-n break and just relax.

When The Ramones had played, there was a mosh pit that extended out in a swirl some 100 feet from the stage.  For Mom and the boy to be caught up in any of the mayhem, the pit would have to more-than-triple in size.  Not bloody likely, I thought.

An hour later, I was hoping that the kid had listened to his Mom.

Lollapalooza 1996 made a stop in a field outside of Knoxville, Tennessee, and I will tell you I have never, never, never seen anything like it in person.

And (let me apologize for this in advance) the only place that I've seen anything even comparable, was in watching "Triumph Of The Will."

"Triumph Of The Will" was Leni Renifenstal's Nazi propaganda film.  It showed Hitler at the height of his speaking powers.  They made us watch it in film school, and I remember really being struck, even though I didn't understand German, that Hilter had such a powerful way of speaking, and influencing his audience, that he seemed to be producing mass hysteria---and compliance---with his incendiary rhetoric.

There is nothing more frightening than 25,000 kids jumping up and down, in unison, screaming, in unison, "FUCK YOU I WON'T DO WHAT YOU TELL ME. FUCK YOU I WON'T DO WHAT YOU TELL ME. FUCK YOU I WON'T DO WHAT YOU TELL ME."

The mosh pit had more than tripled in size, and the dust from the dry earth rose up from the crowd.  Somewhere, far to stage left, a couple of people through empty "personal pizza" boxes in the air.  Within 30 seconds, pizza boxes went up by the dozens in that area, and the idea caught on.  Like "The Wave" at a baseball game, boxes and paper plates were spinning in the air from left to right across the field.

The band was in complete command.

I have no doubt that after a half-hour of the set, had the band said, "We'll storm Knoxville and burn it to the ground!" that the crowd would have done this, without a second thought.

But they knew what they were in command of and wielded the power carefully.

While Zach de la Rocha was speaking out against the government during a breakdown section of the song, someone raised the Rebel flag.

Can you imagine?  The f-n Confederate flag?

I think there was a moment, when he would have liked to say something.  A pause.

But instead, he just stopped.  And glared.  Like you've never seen a man glare before.

I don't know who raised the flag, what he was thinking or what happened next---I was too far away from it.

All's I know is, the flag came down quickly and decisively.

"FUCK YOU I WON'T DO WHAT YOU TELL ME."

Ironically, he didn't have to say a word for the crowd to do exactly what he wanted.


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Tom Morello plays the Newport Folk Festival this weekend.  It won't likely be as crazy, but it might be as powerful.  Listen in at www.mvyradio.com

Disclaimer:  I feel the need to apologize for comparing anything to Hitler.  Obviously, RATM's politics are as far as you can get from the Nazis.  I was only comparing how the audiences reacted to the speakers.

For a lighter take on the ridiculousness of a crowd chanting "FUCK YOU I WON'T DO WHAT YOU TELL ME" in unison, please see the scene from Monty Python's "Life Of Brian" below.



Hear the song on Youtube.


See the scene from "Life Of Brian" on Youtube.