| Rage Against the Machine – Hadda Be Playin' On The Jukebox Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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The cold war was seen in the Western World as the struggle of freedom fighters (U.S. backed guerrillas and armies) against the evil empire (Soviet-backed guerrillas and armies). The poem indicates it was just gang warfare; that's what I meant by analogy. "The CIA and the Mafia are in cahoots against the commies" refers to tactics used by the U.S. Government in collaboration with the mafia to inflict damage on the other side. I never attached the world analogy to this part of the poem. |
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| Rage Against the Machine – Hadda Be Playin' On The Jukebox Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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This is my interpretation of the song: The poem uses the analogy that the global conflicts during the cold war between the U.S. government and the old Soviet Union were gang warfare: "The horses head in a capitalists' bed The Cuban turf It rumbles in hitmen And gang wars across oceans" The U.S. government is controlled by a few very wealthy minority and they employed the CIA as instigators and the U.S. armed forces as the muscle. The Soviet Union was also controlled by a very wealthy minority who used the KGB as instigators and the red army as the muscle: "Multinational capitalists Strong armed squads Private detective agencies for the oh so very rich And their armies and navies and their air force bombing planes" There seems to be a connection between the tactics used by the mafia, and the tactics used by Government agencies to defend territory. There also seems to be collaboration between the two (mafia and U.S. Government) against the Soviet Union: "It had to be the FBI and organized crime working together in cahoots against the commies" The poem reaches its climax, when the result of this gang warfare between rich people is revealed to be millions of poeple killed: "THEY had to be rich, THEY had to be powerful They had to murder in Indonesia 500000 They had to murder in Indochina 2000000 They had to murder in Czechoslovakia They had to murder in Chile They had to murder in Russia And they had to murder in America." In the beginning of the poem, the author imagines and wishes that this knowledge would be distributed in every corner of the U.S: "It had to be flashin' like the daily double It had to be playin' on TV It had to be loud mouthed on the comedy hour It had to be announced over loud speakers" |
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