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Wake Up (Rage Against the Machine song)

"Wake Up"
Song by Rage Against the Machine
from the album Rage Against the Machine
Released November 3, 1992
Length 6:04
Label Epic
Songwriter(s) Tim Commerford, Zack de la Rocha, Tom Morello, Brad Wilk
Producer(s) Garth 'GGGarth' Richardson, Rage Against the Machine
Rage Against the Machine track listing
"Know Your Enemy"
(6)
"Wake Up"
(7)
"Fistful of Steel"
(8)

"Wake Up" is a song by American rap metal band Rage Against the Machine. It is the seventh track from their self-titled debut album. While never released as a single, it remains a staple of their live shows and is usually played as the last song before the encore. It appeared in the feature film The Matrix, which increased the song's exposure.

The lyrics discuss racism within the American government and the counter-intelligence programs of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); a spoken portion of the song is taken from an actual FBI memo in which its director J. Edgar Hoover suggests targets for the suppression of the black nationalist movement. The song also makes references to prominent African-American figures targeted by the government such as Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., and goes as far as saying that the government arranged their assassinations.

The closing lines to the song are:

These lyrics refer to a speech made by Martin Luther King Jr., which paraphrases part of a well-known Bible verse, "whatever a man sows, this he will also reap" (Galatians 6:7). The speech was delivered at the end of the Selma to Montgomery March on the steps of the State Capitol Building in Montgomery, Alabama. The final lines in that speech read "How Long? Not long, because 'you shall reap what you sow'."

"Wake Up" is one of many songs by Rage Against the Machine that is played in drop D tuning on the guitar and bass.


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