Without A Face

This is one of my absolute favourite rage songs. just reading the lyrics is amazing in itself then when you listen to how they fit them into such a banging tune. Just sums up everything rage are all about.

As written above the song is about the story of a mexican immigrant trying to send money back to his family, and the circumstances that meant he was'nt able to provide for them in his own country. The first verse seems reasonably well explained so i'll just talk about the second.

I tried ta look back ta my past long lost A blood donor ta tha land owner holocaust Pops heart stopped, in came tha air drop, Flooded tha trench he couldn't shake the toxic shock

-hes talking about how the migrant used to have a history in farming in mexico before the 'land owner holocaust' where the US dropped large amounts of DDT ( a drug to kill mosquitoes a attempt to lessen malaria in the US.) The side affect being that all mexicos crops were ruined.) Previously the mexicans had this self sustainable farming but after the DDT drops the land owners could not pay the bills with no crops to show and the land was bought by american vineyards 'raped for the grapes'

Maize was all we needed to sustain, now her Golden skin burns, insecticide rain Ya down with DDT, yeah you know me, rapped from tha Grapes, profit for tha bourgeois War tape boomin' path is luminoso, I'm headed North like my name was kid cisco

• luminiso means 'shining' in spansish. However it is a reference to Sendero Luminoso, a Maoist organisation founded in Peru in the 80's. Its goal being a cultural revolution to overthrow a government it felt was only looking after the bourgeois and the common workers. Zacks basically saying that that seems to be he only option left to the mexicans. Kid cisco was a fictional charchter that headed north from mexico into the US.

To survive one motiveno hope, it's hard ta Breathe wit Wilson's hand around My throat

-reminding us that all these problems were caused by the US's actions.

Strangled and mangled another SS Curtain call, when I tried ta cross Tha white wall

obviously, comparing the wall to the berlin wall.

hope that helps. love this tune.

this song was written in response to the building of a wall, constructed as soon as the Berlin wall fell, between the border of the US and Mexico. there is a history of conflicts along this border concerning immigration. 'wilson's hand round my throat' refers to the republican governor who campaigned entirely on an anti-immigration platform. there are various references here to Latin history &culture, like 'path is Luminoso' which refers to the Shining Path, a revolutionary group in Peru, or Kid Cisco, a Mexican cowboyish type of hero among others.

"They say that as soon as the wall in Germany fell that the US government was busy building another one at the border between the US and Mexico. Since 1986 as a result of a lot of the hate talk and histeriam that the government of the United States has been speaking, 1500 bodies have been found on the border. We wrote this song in response to it. It's called Without a Face." -Zack de la Rocha (Live & Rare album)

This is a great example of Rage lyrics at their finest. The song's about an illegal Mexican immigrant working in the US to send money back home to his family.

The lyrics are fucking amazing in this song. "I jack for Similac, fuck a Cadillac" refers to not even being able to think about owning a car and having to steal for something as basic as baby formula.

One of my favorite lyrics of all time is "It's my life for their life, so call it a free trade." Free trade referring to a free market or capitalist economy, but he uses word play to point out that the immigrant is trading his life to keep his family alive (at the same time pointing out that illegal immigrants, as well as lower class people, remain in poverty in order to maintain class systems that keep capitalist societies afloat).

Pure fucking genius.

wow you know a lot. i love the drums in the chorus of this song.

this song is definetely about the holocaust," Strangled and mangled another SS ",an SS was a nazi soldier in a concentration camp,"Walk unseen past tha graves and tha gates",walking past the crematories and the gates out of the concentration camp,trying not to be seen in fear of death, and when ur in a concentration camp,you have absolutely no say,"born Without a face "...

no, delta joy is right, because if you had "Live and Rare" that's exactly what he says before they play it. well, more or less

ya it isnt bout the hollocust but the line refering to the SS is prb comparing naiz to republicans, capitalist etc.

nouse4ausername is rite about it being about an illegal mexican "got no card so i got no soul" and i think the free trade bit is about nafta and how mexican framers are losing their land because of nafta

This song is not about the holocaust or Berlin.....it is about mexican migrant workers and illegal aliens. All of the lyrics below point to this......

"Got no card so I got no soul, life is prison no" -Obvious green card reference

"So I'm sendin' paper south under tha barbed wire" -Concerns sending money back across the border to family

"I took a death trip when I tried ta cross tha White wall" -Mostly white americans live behind the "white" wall of the border.....Master state vs. Slave state....US vs. MX

"Maize was all we needed to sustain, now her Golden skin burns, insecticide rain" -Maize was a staple, pre-european, grain crop in mexico, i.e. corn......mexican skin tone, ecological problems of mexican expansion

"To survive one motiveno hope, it's hard ta Breathe wit Wilson's hand around My throat"

• Reference to then govenor of California Pete Wilson