Rage Against the Machine – Down Rodeo

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  General Comment:For those who aren't aware, the "Rodeo" referred to in the song is "Rodeo Drive" which is a street in California lined with luxury shops where the very wealthy go.
  
  Knowing that, and other lines of the song, the meaning is about consumerism and materialism and how people care more about the items they have than real things that matter such as politics and humanitarian issues.
  
  The part about "brown skinned man..." is about how many of the wealthy live sheltered lives and have very sheltered views and have not experienced hardships that others have.
  
  In the context of the song, the person is trying to get people to realize there is more to life than money and make people aware of what is happening in the world.
  
  "Rollin down Rodeo with a shotgun" does not mean he is trying to kill the people there, it is a figurative term.
  
  The "shotgun" is the message he is conveying and is his weapon of choice.

  Flag coleman132002on April 17, 2013   Link

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  General Comment:Just a quiet peaceful dance

  Flag readmedotexeon August 16, 2010   Link

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  General Comment:Bangin' this bolo tight on this solo flight
  Can't fight alone:
  bolo-a large, heavy, single-edged knife or machete for hacking, used in the Philippines and by the U.S. Army.
  He is wielding a machete, fighting
  
  Funk tha track my verbs fly like tha
  Family stone:
  i don't know what 'tha track' refers too but fly like the family stone refers to a funk band from the 70s i think. so i think he is just bragging about his vocal talent, idk what do u think?
  
  Tha pen devils set that stage for tha
  War at home:
  i think this refers to a government oppression to the point that the population will eventually rebel.(communism)
  
  Locked wit out a wage ya standin' in tha drop
  Zone:
  in a communism you earn no wage and with rebellion there is fighting in the streets.
  
  The clockers born startin' at an empty plate:
  clockers- ppl who time races. with communism the wealth is shared. people are starved to feed others. sometimes even the people who are growing the food starve to death because its shipped away. idk thats all i can come up with this line confuses me (starting at an empty plate?)
  
  Momma's torn hands cover her sunken face
  We hungry but them belly full:
  Government performs atrocities and people are hungry for revenge or justice or whatever u want to call it.
  
  The structure is set ya neva change it with a
  Ballot pull:
  it doesn't matter who you vote for because all the politicians on the ballot with the possibility to win are all corrupt. all you can do is pick the lesser of two evils.
  
  In tha ruins there's a network for tha toxic
  Rock:
  in the ruins of a country there's mass crime usually drug cartels
  
  Shool yard ta precinct, suburb ta
  Project block:
  in a communism the economy is shit so there are a lot of slums
  
  Bosses broke south for new flesh and
  A factory floor:
  In a communism areas are divided up to be controlled by individuals (czars), usually assigned by industry.
  
  The remains left chained to the
  Powder war:
  remains of a country will be left to live in oppression until rebellion if it is even possible.
  
  Can't waste a day when the night brings
  A hearse:
  cant waist a day that we have the opportunity to vote in people who will keep the American constitution intact and our rights as citizens before it turns to night where we lose our rights and the government abuses its power.
  
  So make a move an plead the fifth 'cuse ya
  Can't plead the first:
  in a communism there is no freedom of speech. there is no freedom at all.
  
  Can't waste a day when the night brings
  A hearse
  So now I'm rollin' down rodeo wit a
  Shot gun these people ain't seen a
  Brown skin man since their grandparents bought
  One:
  in communism anything goes especially slavery... in fact the whole thing is mass slavery.
  
  Bare witness to tha sickest shot while suckas
  Get romantic:
  i think he is refereing to the sappy people who vote for agencies that are painted to look good and in reality are corrupt.(acorn, epa, ect.)
  
  They gonna send us campin' like they did my man
  Fred Hampton:
  government silencing rebellion
  
  Still we're lampin' still clockin' dirt for our
  Sweat:
  with communism you get nothing for your work
  
  A ballots dead so bullets what I get:
  when democracy dies you do what your told or get a bullet.
  
  A thousand years you had the tools
  We should be taken 'em
  no idea. this is where i quit but that what i think of so far.
  
  feel free to disagree

  Flag poomon April 13, 2010   Link

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    Zack is talking about CAPATILISM in this song.

    Flag zapata537on October 09, 2011  
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  General Comment:LA riots in the 1990s, not long after the Watt riots. I think it's about both tbh..
  
  "A ballots dead so bullets what I get" this is referring to the speech made by Malcolm X, 'Ballot or the Bullet'.
  
  "... these people ain't seen a
  Brown skin man since their grandparents bought
  One" Referring to slavery.
  
  It's all about American racism, and how basically African-Americans were treated like absolute sht, Black men lynched infront of their wives and children, hanging limp from trees, a black sillohette against the light from the burning cross marking the sign of the KKK.
  
  
  So, yep! Watts/LA riots. Fighting for the right to not be killed when a policeman takes the fancy, not to be bludgeoned to death like Rodney King, be shot in tha back of the head like Latasha Harlins. So be tied to the back of a pickup truck and dragged three miles like James Byrd. Not to be hung for your race.

  Flag IrSpudPls?on July 21, 2009   Link

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  General Comment:The rungs torn from the ladder can't reach the tumour
  One god, one market, one truth, one consumer
  
  the rungs torn from the ladder could be a broken system reference where the people at the top stay up there and everyone at the bottom is stuck down there...
  one god, one market, one consumer could mean they only want sheep who will buy whatever theyre selling or saying.
  one truth?? is that a facist truth? cas thats not the truth then? this one confuses me.

  Flag bubububenon April 29, 2009   Link

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  General Comment:"A thousand years they had tha tools
  We should be takin' 'em"
  
  anybody have any insight into these lines? they have me very confused.

  Flag bubububenon April 29, 2009   Link

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  General Comment:"Bare witness to tha sickest shot while suckas get romantic"
  
  anyhting to be said for this?
  everyone knows that the cops brutally murdered fred hampton in cold blood, but what they have done is romanticised, refering to the honers bestowed upon the pigs afterwards?
  well were not gonna let that happen this time - "They ain't gonna send us campin' like they did my man Fred Hampton"

  Flag bubububenon April 29, 2009   Link

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  General Comment:Yep i have the cd sleave right here its dance for sure ;)
  sagster86 nice work thanks for setting that striaght you too masterof47 !
  This song is a jam!
  zack doesnt get stoned.

  Flag bubububenon April 29, 2009   Link

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  General Comment:its been 4 years since someone has posted the correct lyric, and they still aren't up yet. WTF?

  Flag ChuckBeanson March 09, 2008   Link

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  General Comment:Ok, for any who still think it isn't "Just a quiet, peaceful dance", IT IS! Now, it may not necessarily refer to the Native American Ghost Dance, but it refers to mourning, in a way, the things that the poor never had and will never have (and what I heard of the las parts was "Just a quiet peaceful dance for the things we'll never have" and "Just a quiet peaceful dance for the things we never had")

  Flag Redreaperon January 28, 2008   Link

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