Evil Empire

Hi Son,

It was 250 years ago today when the Declaration of Independence was signed. The Revolutionary War was won by 13 colonies and this document was the announcement that they were breaking away from Great Britain. That would be the beginning of 13 original colonies becoming 50 states covering the middle of North America along with Alaska and Hawaii. “The Land of the Free” is where we reside. A land that was colonized by immigrants from northern Europe. Now many people of that ancestry no longer consider their lineage to be of immigration, but now of founding natives. It’s ignorance to me, because our lineage had different skin tones and spoke a different language than the civilization that was largely displaced. It’s difficult for me to get my head around this kind of thinking. There is a lot to be grateful for living where we do. However, I get exhausted thinking of those who turn up their nose at someone who “doesn’t speak English” and is somehow “displacing their lives.” I grew up loving the Fourth of July. Mainly because I got to blow a bunch of shit up in your great aunt and uncle’s backyard in rural Missouri. I struggle with it now. The overlying reason being that there was enough of a population to vote back in an individual who did not respect the tradition of “peaceful transfer of power.” It’s not the country I was raised to live in and I fear this will happen again 2+ years from now. Normally when this time of year comes around, I feel like listening to Rage Against the Machine. It provides some relate-ability to what I am feeling about the people occupying our nations capital. The words from Zack De La Roca help put a lot of context to my feelings.

I wrote to you a year and a half ago after the second inauguration of he who will not be named on this letter about Rage’s first record. Just seeing and hearing every thing going on the moment that person was given the keys to the Oval Office again enraged me. In all honesty, I don’t feel that same intensity as I did in January 2025. Unfortunately, I believe it’s because some of what has been implemented from that administration has become normalized. It has been mentally and emotionally trying. A lot of their first record was scathing and provided a lot of shock value to the music industry and the public. The music from their self-titled album was also phenomenal. Three and a half years later their second album, Evil Empire, was released on April 16, 1996. Evil Empire would experience immediate success having reached #1 on the US Billboard 200 within it’s first week. It would reach triple platinum status (3M+ copies sold) only 4 years after it’s release.

Now since my letters to you typically describe my personal experience and how I learned about the record, I’ll take a step back to the same year Evil Empire reached triple platinum status, 2000. This will come as no surprise to you, but your dad was a band geek. I played trumpet in high school in both Concert Band and Marching Band and then continued that into college. As I’ve said many times, it wasn’t until college when I finally started to catch up on all of the music I did not get into from the 1990s. The Bearcat Marching Band: “The Musical Pride of the Northwest” would march into the football stadium for every home game. Half of the time, the band would screw around and do some funny-looking stepping (like sideways, or crouching down and going around orange cones in a snake formation). Make no mistake, we were no Ohio State, but we still put on a show. Well at least I felt like the center of attention for about 10 minutes before every football game. The drumline would play a cadence whenever the rest of the band was not playing their instruments. One of the cadence’s went “dum dum dum, dum dum dum, dum dum dum.” After that the band shouted “Come Wit’ It Now!” The first time I did that, I had no damn clue what I was imitating. It would be a few more weeks of this before I finally took the time to find out why I yelled that phrase.

That phrase, “Come Wit’ It Now” was the opening lyric to Rage’s song “Bulls On Parade.” What I did not expect was the “kick you in the balls” guitar riff and opening before Zack shouted that line. It is one of the most intense and raw songs I have ever heard in my life.

“The microphone explodes, shattering the molds
Either drop tha hits like de la O or get tha fuck off tha commode”

Oh I’m off the toilet, Zack! Then the chorus is just loud, but also sublime in my ears. For me it’s the most raw and intense vocal that Zack does on any song in Rage’s catalog.

“Rally round tha family! With a pocket full of shells
They rally round tha family! With a pocket full of shells
They rally round tha family! With a pocket full of shells
They rally round tha family! With a pocket full of shells”

The message behind the song is profound. It’s a criticism of the weapon’s industry and it’s perception that it encourages war. “What we don’t know keeps the contracts moving.” It’s a very direct message that most militia, namely the US military, does not truly believe in using it’s power for peace, but more for beating the other parts of the world. When I say the military is responsible, I mean that the people in charge of the military namely the Secretary of Defense and Commander in Chief.

The name of the record, “Evil Empire” came from a speech made by Ronald Regan when speaking of the Soviet Union. He called the USSR the “Evil Empire.” The band using the same moniker to describe how easily the United States can be perceived in the same way by the rest of the world. “Bulls on Parade” is the second track of the record. The opener is “People of the Sun.” The opening riff by Tom is much more dialed back than “Bulls on Parade.” Zack comes in with “Yeah people come up” and then Brad Wilk comes in with the drums followed by Tim’s bass and then Zack begins ripping off the lyrics. It’s an excellent opener. Just like “Bulls on Parade” the sound is more raw than their self-titled album. The feeling I get from that is that the message is more poignant given the tone. The first three tracks of “Evil Empire” would actually be the only three singles released off of the record. Track three is “Vietnow.” The message of the song is in response to “right-wing AM radio shows.” Shit, if only this song were released in the last 10 years. If the band thought there was a message to be sent in 1996, that has now amplified exponentially. It’s also believed that the lyrics were influenced by James Baldwin’s novel, “Go Tell It On the Mountain.” The book is not directly written about Baldwin, but it’s believed to largely be about his upbringing in 1930s Harlem. Baldwin himself is one of the most influential civil rights activists who spread his message mainly through his writing.

Track 6, “Tire Me,” won a Grammy for Best Metal Performance in 1996. The message criticizes Capitalism and the constant villainizing of Communism. It suggests the government using the conflict of the Cold War as a way to convince citizens that Capitalism is the way of the good. Rather than allow the public to judge for itself, the government overbearingly wants the country to champion it’s belief system. The lyrics repeat “Ya tryin’ to tire me…Why don’t you get from in front of me” to suggest pulling the wool over your eyes. The music is very good. I’m kind of surprised though this would be the “Best Metal Performance” given there are other tracks on “Evil Empire” that I would have put ahead of it, namely “Bulls on Parade.” The next track “Down Rodeo” is a great song that I constantly overlook. I had mentioned to someone else that I only listen to it when I put on the record, rather than seek the song on its own. It’s another scathing criticism that lives today. The social inequality between rich and poor. The song was written a few days after the 1992 LA Riots which happened in response to the verdict of the Rodney King trial. The chorus was saying from the perspective of a poor individual protesting during that event, while traveling down one of the richest neighborhoods in the country. Suggesting their ancestry prospered from slavery.

“I’m rollin' down Rodeo with a shotgun, These people ain’t seen a brown skin man, Since their grandparents bought one.”

Track 8 is “Without a Face.” This song speaks volumes today given what has happened since January 2025 by the Department of Homeland Security’s goons called ICE. It speaks to the hardships of immigrants coming into the US from Mexico and how difficult the US is making it. The title of the song speaks to the label that all immigrants from Mexico are treated as “nameless people.”

“Walk unseen past the graves and the gates
Born without a face
One motive, no hope, uh
Yeah, born without a face”

Many individuals taken into custody by ICE have been treated inhumanly. Especially while they are detained. There have been many stories about detention centers overcrowding and under resourcing detainees. In my opinion the whole process implemented by DHS is completely wrong.

The closer on “Evil Empire” is “Year of tha Boomerang.” This song was recorded a few years before and included on the soundtrack for the movie “Higher Learning.” The movie focuses on incoming freshman college students who experience issues surrounding race and sexual abuse. The lyrics of the song describe the potential of an uprising against capitalism and corporations which oppress the working class from benefiting off of better living wages and health care. “I got no property but yo, I’m a piece of it.” There’s a really good review by The Gator describing this song and the entire album.

I realize I hardly talked about the music in “Evil Empire.” Like the rest of Rage’s music, it’s intense and loud in the best sense of those two terms. The essence of their work has always been their message. The themes they cover in “Evil Empire” are just as prevalent today than they were 30 years ago. It’s overwhelming to think we are still raging about the same issues today, if not more. I can’t remember a time in my life until now where the government is trying like hell to keep the public at bay to better the financial elites in society. It feels hopeless. The anthems of Rage Against the Machine continue to stress to society to question authority and notice the lack of equality in race, sexuality and financial wellness. I hope so badly when you are old enough to live on your own the direction of the United States has broken away from the oppression many of our neighbors experience. Unfortunately 250 years hasn’t been long enough to get there.

Love,

Dad

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