Rage Against the Machine - Sleep Now in the Fire

Crawl with me into tomorrow or I'll drag you to your grave.

Album: The Battle for Los Angeles [3rd album]
Recorded: Hollywood, California
Genre: Metal, Alternative Metal, Rap Metal
Album Release: November 2nd 1999
Single Release: November 4th 1999 [2nd single]
Length: 3:25
Producer: Rage Against the Machine & Brendan O'Brien
Vocalist: Zach De La Rocha [age 29]
Label: Epic Records [subsidiary of Sony]

Music Video


Live

Charts, Streams & Sales

Australia (albums): #2 [x1 platinum]
Canada (albums): #1 [x3 platinum]
Finland (albums): #2
France (albums): #10
Germany (albums): #7
New Zealand (albums): #1
Norway (albums): #2
Sweden (albums): #4 [x1 gold]
UK (albums): [x1 gold]
USA (albums): #1 [x2 platinum]
Spotify: 156,000,000 +
YouTube Music: 39,000,000 +
Grammy Awards Nominee 2001: Best Rock Album [losing to Foo Fighters]
MTV Video Music Awards Nominee 2000: Best Rock Video [losing to Limp Bizkit]
Rock Hard 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time: #369
Rolling Stone Best Albums of 1999: #1
Time Magazine Best Albums of 1999: #1

Credits

Bass, drums, guitar

Details

• In the music video, which was directed by left-wing agitator Michael Moore, the band invade Wall Street causing such a commotion that trading temporarily ceased on one of the worlds major stock exchanges for two entire hours. Around 200 people attempted to storm the building and were only stopped by the closing of emergency titanium doors. Sharp-eyed viewers might notice a trader holding up a "Trump for President" sign, which refers to the now commander-in-chiefs initial attempt for the presidency in 2000. He ran as a candidate for the Reform party.
  
  
• 'Sleep Now in the Fire' is about how we rest while the world burns in both metaphorical greed and in the environmental effects of such greed. The band claim that imperialism continues in the modern day through the financial enslavement of developing countries by those in the west.
  
  The lyric "The world is my expense, the cost of my desire" accuses America of spreading a destructive capitalism throughout the world. The line "Jesus blessed me with its future and I protect it with fire" refers to the hypocrisy of a Christian country exporting its beliefs at the barrel of a gun, when the 6th commandment explicitly states thou shall not kill. The song was wrote before the military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq began and shows a growing unease with the use of American force abroad.
  
  It's ironic that Trump, who RATM actively campaign against, enacted a policy of American non-interference in the world's military affairs. This is the same policy the band advocate for on 'Sleep Now in the Fire' but when tit was enacted they were still unhappy. Such is the way of protest music. There must always be something to rail against.
  
  It's ironic that a politician on the right enacted policies that people on the left spent years supporting. It's also telling that Trump found much support among working class voters who traditionally support the left which suggests a growing disconnect between left-wing leadership and their base. It's becoming evident that poor, working class people want strict restrictions on immigration progressive politicians are unwilling to endorse. 
  
  
• I think radical left wing politics come from a place of deep empathy and burning injustice young people have that fills them with an urgent need to act in order to make the world a better place. As you get older, you realise the world will never be perfect and if the left had all the answers the obvious problems would be solved by now. The best we can do is to keep what's useful and adapt to new challenges while making incremental progress through hard work and dedication. Real change takes time and isn't something that should be rushed. Young people are always in a hurry.
  
  The right must not become insular and realise if they don't provide opportunities for the worse off the world becomes a bleaker place for all of us. It isn't a persons fault if they're born into unfortunate circumstances and life is harder for some people than it is for others. This tension between the generations is often played out in music and is a usual dynamic found in protest songs.
  
  What the singers object to usually comes down to a difference between young and old. Young people vs old people, young societies vs old societies. People accumulate wealth with age and it's often the people who started with nothing who are least likely to share what they've earned through hard graft.
  
  Even if key indicators of social progress, such as food poverty and infant mortality, are greatly improved when compared to previous generations, as they are in America, the scope of the aggrieved expands to cover the entire world. America is blamed for the woes of other countries while the governments of said countries are excused. It's human nature to never be content, which is why protest music will always be relevant. In the winter people curse the cold but by the end of the summer they curse the heat.
  
  
• The inclusion of a Korean radio stations broadcast at the end of the song was accidental. Tom Morello's amp was picking up the signal and he couldn't tune it out so the band decided to keep it in.
  
  
• RATM helped to pioneer the sub-genre of rap metal in the early 90's. This type of music employs rapping over live instrumentation such as guitars making it distinct from hip hop, which is largely an electronic form. Some bands incorporate elements from hip hop such as a DJ while others use guitars to simulate similar noises.
  
  

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