Breakdown
The song is in 4/4. In the opening of the song, Tom Morello uses his guitar's toggle switch to switch between a pickup that is turned off, and one that is on, to create a tremolo effect. Morello's effect is to imitate classic rock synthesizer sounds. After this, it starts up in a fast paced riff, which has been called similar to Edgar Winter Group's "Frankenstein". This then leads into the verse, another fast paced riff centered upon the bass guitar. Both the main and secondary riffs were written by Tim Commerford on an acoustic bass. The song is in the key of F# minor. The chorus then returns to the original riff again, and then returns to the verse. Then, the song goes into a slower, 4/4 beat with palm muted guitar, background percussion by Stephen Perkins and the trance-like vocals of Maynard James Keenan performing his famous 14-words ("I got no patience now/so sick of complacence/time has come to pay", 33 words total including repetition). All is brought to an end by Tom Morello's guitar solo using the DigiTech Whammy pedal and toggle switch until the tempo slows down dramatically with a false ending. It goes back to the original riff and the music stops with just Zack speaking the last line "All of which are American dreams". The album version differs in some ways from the demo version. The original has no singing, uses distortion under the guitar solo without the effect of the whammy pedal, and is notable for the misspelling of defiance as D-E-F-I-E-N-C-E. There is also a different drum breakdown and the "Compromise..Conformity.." section is not present.
Read more about this topic: Know Your Enemy (Rage Against The Machine Song)
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