Lyrics for Calm Like a Bomb as interpreted by piesupreme

Calm Like a Bomb Lyrics
I be walkin god like a dog
My narrative fearless
Word war returns to burn
Like Baldwin home from Paris, Uh
Like steel from a furnace
I was born landless
Yes its tha native son
Born of Zapatas guns
Stroll through the shanties
And tha cities remains
Same bodies buried hungry
But with different last names
The vultures robbin everything
Leave nothing but chains
Pick a point on the globe
Yes tha pictures tha same
Theres a bank, theres a church, a myth and a hearse
A mall and a loan, a child dead at birth
Theres a widow pig parrot
A rebel to tame
A whitehooded judge
A syringe and a vein
And the riot be the rhyme of the unheard

What ya say? What ya say? What ya say? What?
Calm like a bomb

This aint subliminal
Feel the critical mass approach horizon
Tha pulse of the condemned
Sound off Americas demise
Tha anti-myth rhythm rock shocker
Yes I spit fire
Hope lies in the smoldering rubble of empires
Yes back through tha shanties and tha cities remains
Same bodies buried hungry, uh-huh
With different last names, uh-huh
The vultures robbin everyone
Leave nothing but chains
Pick a point here at home
Yes the pictures tha same
Theres a field full of slaves
Some corn and some debt
Theres a ditch full of bodies
Tha check for the rent
Theres a tap, tha phone, tha silence of stone
The numb black screen
That be feelin like home
And the riot be the rhyme of the unheard

What ya say? What ya say? What ya say? What?

Calm like a bomb

Theres a mass without roofs
A prison to fill
Theres a countrys soul that reads post no bills
Theres a strike and a line of cops outside of tha mill
Theres a right to obey
And a right to kill

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  • 44 Comments
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bdm56
05-24-2002

Rated 0 
I'm suprised no one has written about this song yet, I think it is one of Rage's best. This song is about revolution. It is saying that no matter where you look in the world their is oppression and that there are people ready to fight back against this oppression. 'Calm like a bomb' refers to these people lying in wait so that the oppresser does not realize the danger until the day they go to far and a revolution blows up in their face.

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No-use-for-a-name
09-02-2002

Rated 0 
this is a very good song indeed, almost as good as maria :) i love the title, "calm like a bomb" dunno why but it's very thought out!

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godisadrug
03-04-2003

Rated 0 
I agree with bdm56. One of my favorite lines is, "Feel the critical mass approach horizon." This just means that, like bdm56 said, the opression is going too far and that the opressed will soon revolt. This song is a great example of RATM's politcal theme and incredible use of lyrics.

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x1FLYguy1x
03-28-2003

Rated 0 
godisadrug, your rite! this band is way cool
they are the only band since u2, hendrix and nirvana to really speak out

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ilikepork
04-21-2003

Rated 0 
I like the line, "Tha pulse of the condemned/Sound off Americas demise." I think it means that those people who were convicted of crimes because they posed a threat to the goverenment will control the 'revolution'. When they are provoked and their pulse quickens America will fall.
ANybody know what it means when he says Same bodies buried hungry/But with different last names.
"Hope lies in the smoldering rubble of empires" I think is a very interesting line. After this revolution you can hope something better will form. But when America first formed the founding fathers wanted our federal government to be decentralized and relatively weak. But the American federal government has some how become as powerful and influential as it is today. If there was a revolution, I doubt a government system in existance would work. There would have to be something completely new.

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LP
05-10-2003

Rated 0 
Finally, a post that does not have people insulting each other like children. Maybe it is because this song is a hidden gem in Rage's repertoire. bdm56, I couldn’t agree with you more, I too am confused as to why there is so little recognition or attention given to this song. Also, No-use-for-a-name, I also agree with you as to how well “thought-out” the title is. RATM has a knack for making someone discover the anger they have within. When I first heard this song, I got so pleasantly enraged :) that I just had to figure out what the song was about.

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BrazilianFan
06-18-2003

Rated 0 
the intrumental part on; "...calm like a bomb, calma like a bomb..." just make want to break anything around me.....this song really kicks ass!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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dhssocrstr
06-20-2003

Rated 0 
yo yo yo peeps listen, this song is about how no matter where u look there is death, racism, poverty, drugs, racism, our society is crap, but there are those who see this being angered by it and want to rise above it and fix it, society takes alot from people and these people will be the ones to rise up and fight against it

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CrazyWinters
05-25-2004

Rated 0 
ilikepork, i think the line
same bodies buried hungry
but with different last names
means people are dying, but the government isnt telling you what they are really dying of

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WouldItBeYou
06-07-2004

Rated 0 
What ya say? What ya say? What ya say? What?

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fadastic
11-25-2004

Rated 0 
"Same bodies buried hunger/But with different last names" refers to the fact that millions die of starvation, yet people just see them as bodies. With different last names.

I thought that line was pretty self-explanitory.

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AzWeThinkIam
02-02-2005

Rated 0 
and the riot be the rhyme of the unheard!

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Gummy
04-02-2005

Rated 0 
Same bodies buried hungry /but with different last names

I think this works in relation with the line 'pick a point on the globe/ the pictures the same' to say everywhere you look there it's the same: dead bodies everywhere (any korn fans here?); but with different last names lets us differentiate between them, so we can see there's more than one, its happening everywhere (pick a point on the globe...)

I don't know if i've explained that very well but whatever.

BTW this song ROCKs our Bass player loves it best- it's the only solo (at the beginning) he can play lol.

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TREXOR
04-05-2005

Rated 0 
first heard this song at the end of the matrix reloaded. good stuff

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funky_bass_guy
04-05-2005

Rated 0 
Lovely song, I think everything has been said really. I agree the title is clever.

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VoiceOfTheVoiceless
06-10-2005

Rated 0 
"Like Baldwin home from Paris"
James Baldwin was a black American playwright and author who was born in Harlem, New York and first published in the 1940's. He eventually became so disgusted with American racial issues that he moved to Paris for ten years. Moving back to the United States in 1960, he immediately became very active in the civil rights movement. Some of his works include Go Tell it On the Mountain and the play Blues for Mr. Charlie.

"Born of Zapata's guns"
Emiliano Zapata was the military and ideological leader of the Mexican Revolution of 1909. The goal of the Indian movement which he led was to take the land from the hacienda-based landowners and return it to the peasant farmers from whom it had been stolen. His motto was "tierra y libertad," "land and freedom," and his ideals, actions, and goals are echoed by today's Zapatista movement.

"Widow pig parrot"
Maureen Faulkner is the widow of the Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. She has campaigned incessantly for the execution of Mumia Abu Jamal and is aligned entirely with the Fraternal Order of Police in Philadelphia and acts as a spokeswoman for them in regards to the Jamal case.

"A whitehooded judge"
The uniform of the racist Ku Klux Klan organization is historically and currently a tall, white hood and white robe, designed to hide the identity of the Klansmen.

"A country's soul that reads 'post no bills'"
"Post No Bills" is a phrase spray-painted onto walls in urban areas everywhere to discourage any pasting of banners, posters, and the like. These handbills may be advertisements or the like, but are often political in nature.

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MusicIsYourMaster85
12-09-2005

Rated 0 
VoiceOfTheVoiceless has many good points and gets "Widow pig parrot" right on. But I believe you have to look at more than just that line to understand what Zach was going for. "Theres a widow pig parrot/ A rebel to tame/ A whitehooded judge/ A syringe and a vein" The line "Widow pig parrot" is exactly what VoiceOfTheVoiceless said, but the other 3 lines all refer to Mumia Abu Jamal. He is the rebel to tame, the whitehood judge was the racist judge that was on his trial, and "A syringe and a vein" is really powerful, being Mumia's execution by lethal injection.

For the rest of the song bdm56 really got it, as well as the others, but the line I would really like is "Hope lies in the smoldering rubble of empires" which shows that after the people destory their oppressors, there is still hope is rebuilding. which is a theme echoed throughout the Battle of Los Angeles CD.

This is why I love Rage Against the Machine, no matter how many times you hear a song, you can always find hidden metaphors and meaning in the songs.

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corgan56
01-07-2006

Rated 0 
Just to add on to what VoiceofTheVoiceless said, the ku klux klan also used they're uniforms to make people think that they were the ghosts of civil war soldiers that died for the south.... Fuck Tha KKK

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Calm Like a Bomb
01-26-2006

Rated 0 
Very funky song. Meaning is quite marxist which i completely support. Although it probably has nothing to do with it, the song relates to the chartist movement in England in the mid 19th century.

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bkat004
01-29-2006

Rated 0 
Favouirite part is the audience singalong of “whatcha say, whatcha say, whatcha say,what!” and gotta dig that bass solo at the start!

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SRV Blues
02-02-2006

Rated 0 
I agree with pretty much all the comments on this page before mine. The only thing which i felt all the previous comments left out is the death penalty. Observe the line "a syringe and a vein". I think it refers to lethal injection, the death penalty of choice in the US.

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Lester_91
02-19-2006

Rated 0 
I really like RATM

I dont know y (maybe just because of the line: Calm like a bomb) but it sounds like its about some1 about to go insane (or already is) and is gonna go postal

for those of u who dont know wat postal is, its when some1 goes insane and goes on a killing spree at work. the term comes because the most deaths involing ppl goin insane and killing co-workers is in post offices.

"The mail just keeps on coming. It never stops Jerry!" - George Kostanza- Seinfeld

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JohnnyVegas
02-19-2006

Rated 0 
try Newman there seinfeld boy

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qazedc
02-21-2006

Rated 0 
If the lyric "Widow pig parrot" really is about Maureen Faulkner, the widow of Officer Daniel Faulkner, then my respect for RATM just dropped several notches.

To talk about a women whose husband was shot through the eyes and call her husband a pig is pretty bad.

Her husband, Daniel Faulkner, was killed by Mumia. The evidence is very strong. Mumia was found at the crime scene with a gun registered in his name that contained bullets that matched the caliber found in Faulkner's brain. Plus, several eyewitnesses testified to their certainty that Mumia was the shooter.

Stop insulting the officer's widow!!!!!! And screw the argument that "even if Mumia did it, he was justified." I know some cops and they are generally good people. No one has the right to cap one in the head. The more I think about it, the more Zach de la Rocha pisses me off because he supports BS causes like that (I support some of his non-BS causes, but he makes himself look stupid by signing on to every liberal cause in existence without critical thought).

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funk
02-24-2006

Rated 0 
Shit I never saw the reference to the Zapatista movement...wow Lester 91, did you really think anyone needed an explanation of that?

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