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The movie ran through me
The Glamour subdue me
The tabloid untie me
Im empty please fill me
Mister anchor assure me
That Baghdad is burning
Your voice it is so soothing
That cunning mantra of killing
I need you my witness
To dress this up so bloodless
To numb me and purge me now
Of thoughts of blaming you
Yes the car is our wheelchair
My witness your coughing
Oily silence mocks the legless
Boys who travel now in coffins
On the corner
The jurys sleepless
We found your weakness
And its right outside your door
Now testify
Now testify
Its right outside your door
Now testify
Yes testify
Its right outside your door
With precision you feed me
My witness Im hungry
Your temple it calms me
So I can carry on
My slaving, sweating,
The skin right off my bones
On a bed of fire Im choking
On the smoke that fills my home
The wrecking ball is rushing
Witness your blushing
The pipeline is gushing
While here we lie in tombs
While on the corner
The jurys sleepless
We found your weakness
And its right outside your door
Now testify
Yeah testify
Its right outside your door
Now Testify
Now Testify
And its right outside your door
Mass graves for the pump and the price is set, and the price is set
Mass graves for the pump and the price is set, and the price is set
Mass graves for the pump and the price is set, and the price is set
Mass graves for the pump and the price is set, and the price is set
Who controls the past now controls the future
Who controls the present now controls the past
Who controls the past now controls the future
Who controls the present now?
Now Testify
Testify
Its right outside your door
Now Testify
Testify
Its right outside your door
The Glamour subdue me
The tabloid untie me
Im empty please fill me
Mister anchor assure me
That Baghdad is burning
Your voice it is so soothing
That cunning mantra of killing
I need you my witness
To dress this up so bloodless
To numb me and purge me now
Of thoughts of blaming you
Yes the car is our wheelchair
My witness your coughing
Oily silence mocks the legless
Boys who travel now in coffins
The jurys sleepless
We found your weakness
And its right outside your door
Now testify
Its right outside your door
Now testify
Yes testify
Its right outside your door
My witness Im hungry
Your temple it calms me
So I can carry on
My slaving, sweating,
The skin right off my bones
On a bed of fire Im choking
On the smoke that fills my home
The wrecking ball is rushing
Witness your blushing
The pipeline is gushing
While here we lie in tombs
The jurys sleepless
We found your weakness
And its right outside your door
Yeah testify
Its right outside your door
Now Testify
Now Testify
And its right outside your door
Mass graves for the pump and the price is set, and the price is set
Mass graves for the pump and the price is set, and the price is set
Mass graves for the pump and the price is set, and the price is set
Who controls the present now controls the past
Who controls the past now controls the future
Who controls the present now?
Testify
Its right outside your door
Now Testify
Testify
Its right outside your door
Song Info
Copyright
Lyrics © Wixen Music Publishing
Writer
Brad J Wilk, Timothy Commerford, Tom Morello, Zack M De La Rocha
Duration
3:30
Submitted by
piesupreme On Apr 01, 2001
More Rage Against the Machine
Killing In The Name
Guerrilla Radio
Bulls on Parade
Sleep Now In The Fire
Wake Up
Add your song meanings, interpretations, facts, memories & more to the community.
the war isn't going on the other side of the world... it's right outside your door. Hollywood, TV, the media fill peoples minds with smoke, and the glamour creates false perceptions of what the reality is. People are fed with so full with bull shit that they no longer hunger for truth. While the wrecking ball is rushing, we lie comfortably in self-complacence.
Thats exactly what that means. The quote... "Who controls the past, controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past." is a quote by George Orwell
whenever i rock out to this song in my car, its powerfully ironic.
Thats true that its a George Orwell quote, but George Orwell was an anti-communist, his books 1984 was about what will happen in a futuristic communist society, and Animal Farm was a satire of communist Russia. So George Orwells quote "Who controls the past, controls the future. Who controls the present, controls the past." is saying that the future is controlled by the past which is controlled by the present, so you have to watch who controls the present becuz they control everything. Rage took this quote and added "Who controls the present now?", which is saying that Orwells quote is true, but that our government isn't one that we want to leave in control of the future either.
Orwell was not an anti-communist, he just doesnt support communism in its extreme form, or in a twisted fascist form with a dictatorship. In 1984 the fascist political party of big brother was INSOC which was English socialism, but that doesnt mean that orwell was agaisnt socialism. He even supported types of socialism, he just recognized that people had to be careful with socialism and not let the government have to much control, regulation, and power which is true for any form of gov. Animal Farm was about communist Russia, but it blamed the terrible situation on fascism disguised as...
Orwell was not an anti-communist, he just doesnt support communism in its extreme form, or in a twisted fascist form with a dictatorship. In 1984 the fascist political party of big brother was INSOC which was English socialism, but that doesnt mean that orwell was agaisnt socialism. He even supported types of socialism, he just recognized that people had to be careful with socialism and not let the government have to much control, regulation, and power which is true for any form of gov. Animal Farm was about communist Russia, but it blamed the terrible situation on fascism disguised as communism. The two pigs represented Stalin and Lenin. The first Pig "Lenin" was a true communist who claimed to rule in the interest but he died and the second pig "Stalin" took over and ruled in the interest of his own fascist objectives. It illustrates that communism failed because of fascists like Stalin not because communism itself is bad. RATM supports left sided gov. and they wouldnt refrence orwell and 1984 on more than one occasion if it was agianst their political beliefs. Dead Prez also made a song about animal farm and they are leftists as well. If orwells novels were anti communist these artists wouldnt reference them in the same way that they do.
There were three pigs actually, The first pig, old major, could be Lenin but resembles marx more closley. and then the two main pigs, which i was referring to before, snowball and napolean definitely represent soviet leaders. snowball who i thought was Lenin also seems to represent trotsky after reading it a second time and studying the history of russia in more depth. and napoleon definitely represents stalin.
There were three pigs actually, The first pig, old major, could be Lenin but resembles marx more closley. and then the two main pigs, which i was referring to before, snowball and napolean definitely represent soviet leaders. snowball who i thought was Lenin also seems to represent trotsky after reading it a second time and studying the history of russia in more depth. and napoleon definitely represents stalin.
@necroticworld Orwell was actually a socialist himself, opposing it when it is wrongly implemented or taken to extreme forms. In truth, socialism is a horrible economic system in ANY form. Orwell was just smart enough to see it was dangerous. but apparently not smart enough to see that it was intrinsically detrimental.
@necroticworld Orwell was actually a socialist himself, opposing it when it is wrongly implemented or taken to extreme forms. In truth, socialism is a horrible economic system in ANY form. Orwell was just smart enough to see it was dangerous. but apparently not smart enough to see that it was intrinsically detrimental.
@necroticworld long time between comments but for the record, Orwell was not anti Communist. He in fact, fought for the Bolsheviks in the Spring Revolution so u couldn't have it more wrong. He was very much pro socialism. He was anti Stalinist which is where the confusion lies. Animal Farm is a pro socialism, anti toltarianism/Stalinist work that makes the claim that Capitalism and socialism are the sane under toltarianism
@necroticworld long time between comments but for the record, Orwell was not anti Communist. He in fact, fought for the Bolsheviks in the Spring Revolution so u couldn't have it more wrong. He was very much pro socialism. He was anti Stalinist which is where the confusion lies. Animal Farm is a pro socialism, anti toltarianism/Stalinist work that makes the claim that Capitalism and socialism are the sane under toltarianism
I love how Zack tells the television anchorman to dress up all the acts of violence that happen to be 'bloodless' and squeaky-clean. This is really what the media does and we don't get the half of what happens most of the time.
Also, I think that the 'Who controls the past now controls the future' means that the same type of people have been in control forever, no matter what political party they belong to.
I love this song, and i also think its about all the bullshit we are fed, but i think its mainly how te government covers up whats really happening in the middle east by giving us propaganda. They tell us whats happenign it bloodless and then goes on to say how boys are traveling in coffins. As citizens all we notice is the change in gas prices when all our soldiers overseas are getting slaughtered.
it is about government and how someone who testify about their war crimes
This song is about all the lies that the media feeds to us under orders from the government. people just sit back and eat it up like it's the truth... god I love RATM.
Actually, George Orwell was a communist, he was just concerned with the intellegent elite overtaking the society and transforming it into a dictatorship.
This song is obviously about our dependency of oil and automobiles.
"Yes the car is our wheelchair" That one is pretty straightfoward.
"We found your weakness/And its right outside your door " That one means the same thing.
"With precision you feed me/My witness Im hungry " "With precision you feed me", in my opinion is talking about filling up at the gas station. The whole witness thing is a little hard to understand. The way I see it is he is using "Witness" in the way that religious groups use it. If you think about it our obsession with the automobile is almost a religon in itself. This also relates to "testify," a word religious groups use when they profess their beliefs.
All of the references to war and "Bagdad Burning" are talking about American imperialism in the Middle East where we invade to secure our oil interests.
"Mass graves for the pump and the price is set, and the price is set " That also relates to our Mid-East oil interests too. Mass Graves for the pump means that people are being killed so you can inexpensively fill up your gas tank.
Excellent Song