Rage Against the Machine | Bulls on Parade
Rage Against the Machine’s “Bulls on Parade” - a 1996 military-industrial complex critique born from jam sessions and cassette demos, featuring Tom Morello’s revolutionary “DJ scratch” guitar solo.
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Story Behind “Bulls on Parade”
The Jam That Became a Anthem
By autumn 1995, Rage Against the Machine had proven themselves as a potent political force. Their self-titled debut had caught fire, propelled by Lollapalooza and tours that showcased their raw, uncompromising blend of hip-hop rhythms, metal aggression, and revolutionary messaging. Now they gathered at Cole Rehearsal Studios in Hollywood with producer Brendan O’Brien to record their second album, Evil Empire. The title itself carried political weight—referencing Ronald Reagan’s notorious description of the Soviet Union, which Rage Against the Machine now applied, ironically, to the United States.
“We didn’t know it would be the first single when we started jamming on it,” Tom Morello later recalled. What they knew immediately was that they’d stumbled onto something potent. Rather than labor over pre-composed arrangements, the band embraced an approach suited to their anarchic energy: jam, record the cassette demo, then cut the real track. As Morello described it, “Our method of working was pretty much ‘jam, roll the cassette tape, then cut the real track.’ Not a lot of time for overthinking and over-tinkering.”
This spontaneous methodology shaped every aspect of the track. Bassist Tim Commerford, who was immersed in jazz at the time, contributed the syncopated opening riff that would become the song’s driving heartbeat. Drummer Brad Wilk crafted what Morello called an “awesome, artillery marching beat”—percussive combat that mirrored the song’s subject matter. Meanwhile, frontman Zack de la Rocha was still writing lyrics when the band recorded the main track, layering criticism of the military-industrial complex over music that sounded like warfare itself.
The Critique That Cut Through Noise
“Bulls on Parade” arrived with surgical precision about its targets. De la Rocha’s lyrics dissected how the arms industry encourages military conflict to secure contracts and profits. The “five-sided Fistagon” referenced the Pentagon as “the rotten sore on the face of Mother Earth that just gets bigger.” The message was unmistakable: weapons manufacturing, not human need, drives policy decisions. This wasn’t abstract political theory—it was a direct indictment of systemic priorities.
What elevated the song beyond typical protest music was its refusal to offer easy answers or comfortable moral resolution. Instead, Rage Against the Machine presented the system’s logic naked and unadorned. The resulting track felt dangerous—not because it advocated violence but because it articulated rage so convincingly that listeners felt compelled to reckon with their own complicity or resistance.
“Bulls on Parade” Recording and Production Details
The Cassette Tape Democracy
Producer Brendan O’Brien understood that the band’s strength lay in their collective intensity. His directive was simple: maintain energy. Rather than obsess over perfection, the band captured performances while momentum remained alive. This approach prioritized authenticity over polish—the cassette tape became a democratizing tool, preventing any single member’s vision from dominating before the band could argue for alternatives.
Each musician brought distinct influences. Morello was drawing from Geto Boys’ dark, sinister production aesthetic, layering dark guitar textures underneath the verses. He developed the wah-wah guitar part that would become the song’s rhythmic signature—not as an effect applied after the fact, but as an integral component of the composition itself, creating what fans described as the distinctive “wacka-wacka” sound that defined the track.
The Guitar as Turntable
Tom Morello’s solo represents one of rock’s most innovative instrumental moments. Rather than showcase virtuosity through speed or complexity, Morello created a sound that mimicked a DJ scratching vinyl—an homage to hip-hop culture that also expressed the song’s themes of disruption and counter-cultural resistance. His technique was deceptively simple yet revolutionary: he toggled between two pickups (one on, one off) while rubbing his fretting hand across muted strings, simultaneously manipulating a wah-wah pedal clicked all the way down to create white noise.
The result sounded like controlled chaos—industrial destruction rendered as music. Morello used a Marshall 50-watt 2205 amp and Peavey cabinet, equipment he’d relied on “at every rock concert I’ve played since high school and on every record I’ve ever made.” The guitar was recorded in E-flat tuning, though the band later adapted the song to F-sharp for live performances. This sonic innovation became immediately iconic—Guitar World would eventually rank the solo as number 23 on its list of 100 Greatest Solos.
Notes About “Bulls on Parade” by Rage Against the Machine
Release Date: April 1, 1996 (single), November 1996 (album)
Duration: Approximately 3:36
Genre: Alternative Metal / Rap Metal / Political Rock
Album: Evil Empire (2nd studio album, track 2 of 11)
Recording Location: Cole Rehearsal Studios, Hollywood, California
Recording Timeline: Autumn 1995
Songwriting: Zack de la Rocha (lyrics), all band members (composition)
Producer: Brendan O’Brien, Rage Against the Machine
Label: Epic Records
Guitar Tuning (original): E-flat
Chart Performance: Lead single from number-one album; album peaked #1 on various international charts
Rage Against the Machine “Bulls on Parade” Era Details
Album Details
Album: Evil Empire
Release Date: November 1996
Label: Epic Records
Format: CD, LP, Cassette
Total Tracks: 11 songs
Producer: Brendan O’Brien, Rage Against the Machine
Album Concept: Second installment of band’s revolutionary political messaging; title references Reagan’s “evil empire” description of Soviet Union, ironically applied to United States
Recording Location: Cole Rehearsal Studios, Hollywood, California
Chart Performance: Debuted at #1; number-one album establishing band as major commercial force
Context: Released during height of political tension in mid-1990s; captured band’s frustration with systemic inequalities
Band Members/Personnel
Zack de la Rocha - Lead vocals, lyrics
Tom Morello - Guitar, composition
Tim Commerford - Bass guitar, composition
Brad Wilk - Drums, composition
Brendan O’Brien - Producer
All tracks written by De la Rocha, Morello, Commerford, and Wilk
Production Philosophy
Jam-based recording method: record cassette demos while jamming, then cut real track
Minimal overthinking; emphasis on capturing raw energy
Collaborative composition: each member contributed essential parts
Brendan O’Brien focused on maintaining intensity rather than pursuing perfection
Recording happened while de la Rocha was still developing lyrics
Critical Context
First album to establish band as legitimate commercial force following Lollapalooza exposure
Solidified band’s status as politically outspoken rock act
Song later covered by Denzel Curry (placed 5th on Triple J Hottest 100, 2019)
Song featured in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock video game
Interesting Facts About “Bulls on Parade”
The SNL Controversy That Proved the Message
Rage Against the Machine performed “Bulls on Parade” on Saturday Night Live in 1996 during what became one of the show’s most controversial episodes. Before the performance, the band displayed upside-down American flags on their amplifiers—a protest gesture they’d incorporated into their live shows. SNL producers requested they remove the flags, fearing offense to Steve Forbes, the billionaire presidential candidate hosting that night. The band complied with the flag removal, but the incident encapsulated exactly what “Bulls on Parade” addressed: institutional power suppressing dissent in service of elite interests.
The performance became legendary precisely because the song’s message transcended the music itself. Every element—the upside-down flags, the producer’s censorship request, the band’s eventual compliance—enacted the song’s critique of systemic control in real time.
A Guitar Solo That Changed Everything
Tom Morello’s “DJ scratch” solo on “Bulls on Parade” represented a fundamental reimagining of what electric guitar could express. In an era when guitar solos typically showcased technical mastery through speed and complexity, Morello created a solo that was neither particularly fast nor traditionally “musical”—yet it became instantly iconic. By toggling pickups while hand-muting strings and manipulating wah-wah pedals, he created an entirely new vocabulary for guitar expression, one that honored hip-hop culture’s scratching tradition while pushing rock instrumentation into experimental territory.
The solo proved that innovation didn’t require abandoning accessibility. The resulting sound was immediately recognizable, frequently imitated, yet somehow always identified with Morello’s original conception. It opened possibilities for countless musicians who realized that guitar techniques could serve artistic expression beyond conventional melody.
The Military-Industrial Critique That Endures
Nearly thirty years after its release, “Bulls on Parade” retains urgent relevance. The specific critique—that weapons manufacturing, not social need, drives policy—has only become more demonstrable through subsequent decades of military spending and infrastructure disinvestment. The song’s refusal to offer false hope or compromise distinguishes it from protest music that ages poorly because it depended on temporary political circumstances.
Instead, “Bulls on Parade” articulated structural truths about how power operates. The mechanisms De la Rocha described—how arms dealers profit from conflict, how information control maintains the system—persist across political administrations and historical moments. This is why the song remains relevant to new generations discovering it, why it continues to galvanize audiences at live performances, and why it became the NFL’s Houston Texans defense theme song (a detail that surely would have amused Rage Against the Machine’s political sensibilities).
Common Questions
Q: What does “Bulls on Parade” mean? A: The song critiques the military-industrial complex—specifically how the arms industry encourages military action to secure lucrative contracts while resources for social needs (food, homes, education) are neglected. “Bulls” symbolize both aggressive military force and the profitable “bull market” of war profiteering.
Q: How did Tom Morello create the famous guitar solo? A: Morello toggled between two pickups (one on, one off) while rubbing his fretting hand across muted strings, simultaneously manipulating a wah-wah pedal clicked all the way down for white noise. The technique mimics DJ scratching and creates a sound like controlled industrial chaos. He recorded this through a Marshall 50-watt 2205 amp.
Q: How was “Bulls on Parade” written and recorded? A: The band recorded cassette demos while jamming, then cut the real track with minimal overthinking. Producer Brendan O’Brien prioritized capturing the group’s raw energy. Tim Commerford contributed the opening riff, Brad Wilk created the drum beat, Morello developed the guitar parts, and De la Rocha wrote lyrics while the music was being recorded.
Q: Was “Bulls on Parade” always meant to be the first single? A: No. Morello stated they “didn’t know it would be the first single when we started jamming on it,” but they “realized quickly that it was a most potent piece of music.” Its power made the choice obvious once the song was completed.
Q: What guitar tuning was used for the original recording? A: The original was recorded in E-flat tuning, though the band later adapted it to F-sharp for live performances to accommodate changing band configurations and vocalist comfort.