#BBC6Music #RageAgainstTheMachine #ZackdelaRocha #TomMorello #RapRock #1990s
"Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!"
25 years ago Rage Against the Machine debuted with eponymous album.
* "Know Your Enemy" features Tool vocalist Maynard James Keenan on "additional vocals", and also features Jane's Addiction drummer Stephen Perkins on trashcan percussion.
* Keenan has been known on occasion to appear onstage with the band to perform the song.
* The cover features a photo of the self-immolation of Thích Quảng Đức, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, in Saigon in 1963. The monk was protesting President Ngô Đình Diệm's administration for oppressing the Buddhist religion. The photograph drew international attention and persuaded U.S. President John F. Kennedy to withdraw support for Ngô Đình Diệm's government. It was taken by Associated Press correspondent Malcolm Browne; a similar photograph earned the award of World Press Photo of the Year in 1963.
* The songs on Rage Against the Machine all feature political messages.
* The lyrics for each song were printed in the album booklet with the exception of those for "Killing in the Name", which were omitted; the booklet reads "2. KILLING IN THE NAME", skips the lyrics and continues with the next song.
* The video for "Freedom" was directed by Peter Christopherson and produced by Fiz Oliver at Squeak Pictures. It premiered on MTV's 120 Minutes on December 19, 1993. According to CVC Broadcast & Cable Top 50 chart, "Freedom" was the Number 1 promo in January 1994.
* The video is focused on the case for Leonard Peltier, who was one of the leaders of the American Indian Movement (AIM). The band is performing live in a small venue throughout the video. During the video, footage from the Peltier case is examined and detailed with shots of Peltier and other members of AIM. There is also a reenactment of what took place on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The footage of this reenactment is from Michael Apted's 1992 documentary Incident at Oglala.
* BBC Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe named Rage Against the Machine as one of four 'Masterpieces'. This was his best album, on December 2, 2008.
* In a contemporary review, NME wrote that "what makes RATM more than just another bunch of prodigiously capable genre-benders is their total lack of pretension or contrivance ... the results burn with an undeniable conviction."
* The album is included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. In 2012, the album was ranked number 365 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
