"Sleep Now in the Fire" | ||||||||
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Single by Rage Against the Machine | ||||||||
from the album The Battle of Los Angeles | ||||||||
Released | 2000 | |||||||
Format | CD, 7", 12" | |||||||
Recorded | 1998 | |||||||
Genre | Rap metal | |||||||
Length | 03:25 | |||||||
Label | Epic | |||||||
Producer | Brendan O'Brien | |||||||
Rage Against the Machine singles chronology | ||||||||
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"Sleep Now in the Fire" is the fifth track from the 1999 album The Battle of Los Angeles by the band Rage Against the Machine. It was released as a single in 2000. The song contains lyrics about greed, such as the conquest of Native Americans, Christopher Columbus' voyage by Nina, the Pinta, and Santa Maria and U.S. slavery in the 1800s as well as criticism of actions taken by the US government in wartime, including the bombing of Hiroshima and the use of Agent Orange in the Vietnam War.
Guitarist Tom Morello's solo is also notable as he simply uses feedback from the amp, along with using his whammy bar to adjust the pitch of the feedback. By flicking his toggle switch on and off, he is able to create the high-pitched solo.
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Sleep Now in the Fire made its live debut on September 11, 1999, at the Oxford Zodiac in England.
After breaking up in late 2000, the three instrumentalists formed the band Audioslave with vocalist Chris Cornell. During their 2005 Out of Exile tour, the band played an instrumental version of Bulls on Parade, followed immediately by Sleep Now in the Fire with Chris Cornell.
After Audioslave broke up in 2007, Tom Morello: The Nightwatchman played a brief teaser riff consisting of the opening guitar riff and drumbeat after finishing a cover of American Band on the Fabled City tour.
On the 1999 DVD "The Battle of Mexico City", Zack de la Rocha changes the lyrics in the second chorus singing "Snuffed out in the fire, Sleep now in the fire", instead of "The cost of my desire, Sleep now in the fire."
The music video for the song which was directed by Michael Moore with cinematography by Welles Hackett, features the band playing in front of the New York Stock Exchange, intercut with scenes from a satire of the popular television game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire which is named "Who Wants to Be Filthy F#&%ing Rich". Quoted at the end of the song is Republican politician Gary Bauer stating that, "a band called 'The Machine Rages On' - er - 'Rage Against the Machine', that band is anti-family and it's pro-terrorist", following an incident outside of fellow Republican Alan Keyes' 2000 primary campaign town hall event, where Keyes jumped into a mosh pit formed while Rage Against the Machine was playing.[1] Actor Garrett Wang is briefly seen in the video enjoying the music.
The shoot for the music video on January 26, 2000, caused the doors of the New York Stock Exchange to be closed. In fact, the Stock Exchange locked its doors mid-day in response to fears of crowds gathering to watch the filming.[2] This was not recorded as a closure as trading on the exchange floor continued uninterrupted.[3]
"We decided to shoot this video in the belly of the beast", said Moore, who was detained by police for an hour and threatened with arrest during the shooting of the video, as Moore had a permit to film on the steps of City Hall but not in the surrounding street[4]. The band was escorted from the site by security, after band members attempted to gain entry into the Exchange.
The video was nominated at the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards for Best Rock Video but lost to Limp Bizkit's "Break Stuff", causing the infamous incident where bassist Tim Commerford climbed a large piece of the award show set in protest of losing to Limp Bizkit.
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