Lyrics for Bulls on Parade as interpreted by piesupreme

Bulls on Parade Lyrics
Come wit it now
Come wit it now

The microphone explodes, shattering the molds
Either droppin hits like de la mode or get the fuck off the commode
With the sure shot, sure to make the bodies drop
Drop and don't copy yo, don't call this a co-opt
Terror rains drenchin', quenchin' the thirst of tha power dons
That five sided fist-a-gon
Tha rotten sore on the face of mother earth gets bigger
Tha triggers cold empty your purse

Rally round the family
With a pocket full of shells
They rally round the family
With a pocket full of shells
They rally round the family
With a pocket full of shells
They rally round the family
With a pocket full of shells

Weapons not food, not homes, not shoes
Not need, just feed the war cannibal animal
I walk the corner to the rubble that used to be a library
Line up to the mind cemetery now
What we don't know keeps the contracts alive and movin'
They don't gotta burn the books they just remove 'em
While arms warehouses fill as quick as the cells
Rally round tha family
Pockets full of shells

Rally round the family
With a pocket full of shells
They rally round the family
With a pocket full of shells
They rally round the family
With a pocket full of shells
They rally round the family
With a pocket full of shells

Bulls on parade

Come wit it now
Come wit it now

Bulls on parade
Bulls on parade
Bulls on parade
Bulls on parade
Bulls on parade

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presidentandceo
06-25-2003

Rated 0 
How incredible to hear this song when it came out and think it was good, yet hear it post-Iraqi Freedom(and study the lyrics) and see that they were right! Holy shit.

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suckmykiss
06-28-2003

Rated 0 
I'm thinking Joelindsay is right about the family values thing. But I think they "rally round the family" (use the broad concept of supporting "family values" to gain power through winning popular support in elections) "with a pocket full of shells" (once they get into power they pull the shells out of their pocket and start wars all over the place)

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ninjakittay
07-07-2003

Rated 0 
bulls on parade definatly means that the us is growing more powerful, and more hostile, and are like bulls on a parade that cant be stopped, also i agree with fuzz master the pandas are growing large and must die, just the other day i went down the street and this panda came out of nowhere and started clawing at me and then i realized it was a warepanda and it clawed at my face until i was out of commision, then come full moon i ate the cat and the fish and the dog and i found myself attracted to several small members of the bear family, then i found myself running through the woods at a panda sort of pace, i came to a giiantt castle and wet inside and i asked the other warepanda where we were going and the told me we were going to see the one panda, after a series of halls and corridors we got to a throne room, the one panda was actually janet reno, she mistaked me for jay leno and jumped down and clawed my face so i hit the self destruct given o every ware panda at transformation and the whole population of pandas was destroyed exept a select few, this however was several years ago.

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Op Ivy Skanker
05-09-2004

Rated 0 
idk if this is gonna help anyone understand better but the quote "Ya eighter drop tha hits like de la o or get tha..." is refering to Geneovo (forgot how to spell his name) De La O. He helped Zapata during the Mexican revolution by blowing up trains and other things

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RATM13LJH
05-31-2004

Rated 0 
This song is about republicans and their "Family Vaules" BS.
"The Rally Round The Family" they "focus on the family" and "With A Poket Full Of Shell means they are ready to tare they family apart by war, greed for money, and if the family is black they will, like in the case of Muia, fram them to their deths. Also notice "Wepons not food not homes not shoes". This oviously means they goverment would rather spend money on war,instead of the famliy's needs. "The Triggers Cold Emptey Your Purse" means the goverment in "need" of money make you pay unessesary taxes and "empty your purse". WrinceledPhole is right about "With a sure shot sure to make the bodies drop". Wepons today will be so killing suffishint(or how ever ya spell it) a singel wepon may kill an entire state. Last, for it is all I can say on the countna I have to go to bed, What We Don't Know Keeps The Contracts Alive And Move'n" means what the goverment hides from us keeps them in power. *Evil Grin*....But now we know! Muhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha*inhales*hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha....hahaha..hahaha..haha....ha.....*coughs*

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sausage
06-03-2004

Rated 0 
All those bullshit government people say that we need to protect oursleves, protect ourselves, we are always under constant threat. (After 911, Bush has to always say we're at a risk of attack, so if we are attacked, people can't blame it on him). But I think that really the song is about how they have so many weapons, and they justify having them to "protect the family" They rally around the family , i.e. telling everyone if we don't have these weapons our families are at risk, when really they are just oil-thirsty. If we keep going at this pace where we are afraid of everyone, pretty soon there will be no human contact, because "you never know if someone is gonna hurt you" what dumbasses

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BadAcidTrip
10-13-2004

Rated 0 
this is what the song means. Pocket full of shells was defined above as how the government keeps its military plans out of sight. Rally round 'tha' family means that with military out of site, they push family ideals, and how their government helps the common family is pushed in the publics face. the rest of the song speaks loudly and clearly, if anyone has further thoughts email me at maclennan_angus@hotmail.com because i dont check this site as often as i should

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rage_anarchist123
11-30-2004

Rated 0 
Rally round tha family, pockets full of shells
Rally round tha family
With pockets full of shells

they have your own children kill you with a loaded gun

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esalts13
01-24-2005

Rated 0 
greatsest song of all time......why didnt rage get more politicial impact? ahhh, look at their lyrics, its incredible how much they dissed america, and our media just played them off into some lame rock group. How did they not get more people pissed, wow, maybe people just dont take music seriously? who knows, but shit im suprised and bummed, cus if they would have, they would still be together....(the reason why ZDLR left was b/c they werent getting enough political affect)

http://www.geocities.com/squallracer@sbcglobal.net/

GO TO THAT SITE!

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El Cato
02-03-2005

Rated 0 
I reckon you all got it already really, such lines as "Terror rains drenchin', quenchin' tha thirst of
Tha power dons" refers to the excuse of the major powers in the world (the US, the UK etc) that a country harbours terrorists, as a motive for war and an excuse for the slaughter of thousands of innocents. "Rally round the family..." is about the various 'special relationships' world leaders have which come out especially in times of war.

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okspeck
02-10-2005

Rated 0 
"i think the song is about the US feds and thier war... or war in general... bulls on parade... bull market = upwards economy... bulls = rich people... they are talking about the rich govt. is using funds on huge war aresenals... parade as in going crazy about it... thousands on new weapons... i.e. the bunker busters in Iraq right now..."

I just wanted to quote this answer from 'diggledog' because it seems to be the most correct one. Rage opened with this song at the DNC protest in 2000 as well as their last concert at the Grand Olympic Auditorium in LA later that year. It was one of their most potent songs and it's about the obscenity of American military spending.

References to bodies dropping, the Pentagon, weapons over food, the "war cannibal", and arms warehouses are all clues.

"They rally 'round the family with a pocket full of shells" is a reference to the disintegration of the most fundamental political unit in any democracy: the FAMILY. The "bulls" are parading and masquerading as leaders while all the while concealing their massive weapons stockpiles, oblivious to the American families suffering in their wake.

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Mr.Graves
02-23-2005

Rated 0 
this song is about how the more money is spent on weapons of destruction rather then where it's needed, in the poor areas of the country

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misplaced_surfer
03-09-2005

Rated 0 
Go ahead, hate America. Believe tyrants that torture his own people, kills women and children on a fucking whim, and swindled billions of dollars from oil for food while his people starved and tried to blame their suffering on "U.N. Sanctions" when he had million dollar palaces and billion dollar bunkers. I've seen what this madman did to his own people. I've seen the mass graves. I've talked to Iraqis who were tortured by Saddam's regime IN FRONT OF THEIR OWN FAMILIES. Before you're gonna praise a song or band that's pro-socialist (because that form of government really works. The Nazis had a fun time killing millions with their beliefs), try to understand what their about.

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Petary791
03-22-2005

Rated 0 
Ha I used to think the "shells" meant seashells; now my guess is that it's about gunshells. :-P

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robbie t
03-24-2005

Rated 0 
yeah but surfer dude, the Nazi's were NATIONAL socialists which i believe would be fair to conclude that RATM are not. There is a difference between the two, but some of your other comments are fair.

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meursaultsrevolver
04-13-2005

Rated 0 
oh no they're fucking not. in admitting that he's seen all that shit and spoken to the people he's telling us that his opinion is highly subjective. and none of that shits important because it's superfluos, the point is that they did it for money, not to help those people, otherwise they'd have done it fucking ages ago.

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Thunderbolt
07-09-2005

Rated 0 
My interpretation is similar to that of BadAcidTrip. I think it's about conservatives pushing family values in politics (rally round tha family!) while simultaneously having hawkish views on war.

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VodkaLix
10-05-2005

Rated 0 
As this song is about war, i reckon the title refers to an arms rally, demonstration thing, like in Russia and China when they send their ICBM's and t-90's and stuff down the main road outside the kremlin or something. Bulls standing for weapons. Fantastic song either way, cant get enough of the live version on live at the grand auditorium, the build up is so great.

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thejuggernaut
10-06-2005

Rated 0 
i think its about an anarchy/military situation (the government takes over, and the people revolt) and protecting the ones you love, with lethal force ("rally around the family, with a pocket full of shells")

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minorxxthreat
10-20-2005

Rated 0 
I really think this was about the russian revolution when they overthrew Czar Nicolas the II.Czar Nicolas got his job becuase he was next in the family line, he did nothing to improve the economy. At that point a political group called the Bolsheviks went to the Czar's mansion and took his family and servants and sourrounded them out in the woods (rally round the family) and shot them all to death (and pockets full of shells). Also a few lines like "while arms warehouses fill as quick as the cells" could represent how russia began building up its weapon supply/army and started imprisoning what they called "policitcal dissidents". Like in Nazi germany, communist russia was big into book burning because stalin didnt want the educated people to be able to tell the common man communism isnt right and it only benefits the leaders. Also bulls on parade could have some connection with the bolsheviks who killed the royal family (bulls-bolsheviks).

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Calm Like a Bomb
12-05-2005

Rated 0 
minor-x-threat, be careful when you say that communism isnt right. especially when talking about a Rage song!

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AntiPop245
01-23-2006

Rated 0 
I think this song is about how America sold arms to the Saudi Arabians ( Rally round the family). And how they gave them weapons rather than shoes and food. And then they condemned the contracts ever existed (What we don't know keeps the contract alive and movin, They don't need to burn the books they just remove them)

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nephos
02-21-2006

Rated 0 
I'll start here since I can't make sense of the first few lines:

"Terror rains drenchin', quenchin' tha thirst of
Tha power dons"
Equates politicians in power to "dons", a term for leaders of organized crime families, to liken them to criminals.

"That five sided fist-a-gon"
Clearly, a reference to the United States' pentagon, but using the word fist. The most obvious and likely intent is that we enforce our own laws, here and abroad, with war (the fist signifying bullying, further, violence).

"Tha rotten sore on the face of mother earth gets
Bigger"
This can be interpretted in two ways:
1) America is the rotten sore, which grows; this seems to be popular
2) The rotten sore is simply scorched land from wars

"Tha triggers cold empty ya purse"
First of all, "tha triggers cold..." makes it seem as if something is wrong. The speaker of this line would be the politician, stating that the trigger is cold, and we are obligated to warm it. And when we start beating the war drum, the nation's citizens will need to fund it.

"They rally round tha family
With pockets full of shells"
As has been said, a lot of politicians talk about family values, yet are completely ready to send us off to war. Naturally, this points at their hypocrisy.

"Weapons not food, not homes, not shoes
Not need, just feed tha war canibal animal"
Obvious enough, he's talking about how we spend money to fund war instead of helping feed, cloth, or house people.

"I walk tha corner to tha rubble that used to be a
Library
Line up to tha mind cemetery"
Again, like the last line. But this is a bit more striking because while food, shelter, and clothing are essential needs, education isn't requred for human survival. Instead, it is pivotal for our development. The allocation of resources to our wars in lieu of libraries (symbolic for education in general) causes us to progress in the wrong direction.

"What we don't know keeps tha contracts alive an
Movin'
They don't gotta burn tha books they just remove 'em"
This is similar to the last statement, though a bit more specific. By disallowing certain books, threats of simply thinking radically are severely hindered. You can't really oppose something if you don't know it's even there to be opposed.

"While arms warehouses fill as quick as tha cells"
Simply put, we're building weapons and incarcerating people at the same rate. Considering the song, up to now, has been speaking about how those in power are pouring so much effort into war (and, naturally, building weapons as well), it would follow that cells filling as quick as arms warehouses are filling... quite fast. Someone said something about political prisoners and people who disagree with the government. Sorry, but that is utterly moronic. People are simply being put in jail. I'm pretty sure that huge prison population of persons who were put in for smoking crack weren't exactly POLITICAL prisoners. This is just a statement about how ridiculous our prison system is. It is ridiculously easy to be sent to a prison in the U.S.

"Bulls on parade"
Bulls, throughout history and in many different cultures, have been a symbol of power. We're talking about those in power in America.

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DownRodeo278
03-15-2006

Rated 0 
hey i got a question...wut does Che Guevara have to do with RATM?

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DownRodeo278
03-15-2006

Rated 0 
hey i got a question...wut does Che Guevara have to do with RATM?

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