| Bullet in the Head | |
| Cover: | Bulletinthehead2.jpg |
| Alt: | A classroom with students and a teacher facing to the American flag with their right hand over their hearts. In red letterbox is white text "rage against the machine" with red text at the bottom of the cover "Bullet In The Head". |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | Rage Against the Machine |
| Album: | Rage Against the Machine |
| Released: | December 29, 1992 |
| Genre: | Rap metal · funk metal |
| Length: | 5:07 |
| Label: | Epic |
| Producer: | Garth "GGGarth" Richardson, Rage Against the Machine |
| Prev Title: | Killing in the Name |
| Prev Year: | 1992 |
| Next Title: | Bombtrack |
| Next Year: | 1993 |
Bullet in the Head is a song by American rock band Rage Against the Machine, released as the second single from their 1992 eponymous debut album. A fan favorite and one of the album's heaviest tracks, "Bullet in the Head" refers to the band's belief that the government uses media to control the population, drawing comparisons between typical residences and Alcatraz. The track was transferred intact from the band's demo, also titled Rage Against the Machine.[1]
Both front and back images for the single's artwork were by the French photographer Marc Riboud.[2]
"Bullet in the Head" is mentioned in the lyrics to Pennywise's "I Won't Have It", from their 1995 album About Time. In the booklet of the album, Zack de la Rocha's name is also mentioned next to the "Bullet in the Head" part.
This song was to be the second performance on Rage Against the Machine's set during an April 1996 episode of Saturday Night Live. However, the band was kicked out after only one song for hanging inverted American flags from their amplifiers.[3]
A video clip was recorded in a warehouse in New York. While not often cited, this isn't a mimed video, but a live performance recorded for the BBC's program The Late Show which aired on the 23rd February 1993. In the words of Tom Morello, "The tour bus pulled up in front of the BBC studio, we ran through the song once in front of the cameras, then left to play a club that night." The BBC was apparently forced to censor the music video following an incident on BBC Radio 1’s UK Top 40 Countdown show earlier in the week when Bruno Brookes accidentally played the full uncensored version of "Killing in the Name" earlier in the week prompting 138 complaints. The video appeared on the band's self-titled DVD, released November 25, 1997 on Epic Records.[4]