Wake Up
A closing staple of live shows, featuring a real FBI memo and a spoken-word segment often replaced with political speeches.
"Wake Up" is a song by American rock band Rage Against the Machine, appearing on their first album Rage Against the Machine. 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. The spoken word portion of the song, using a real memo from J. Edgar Hoover, is often replaced with a speech addressing contemporary issues, given by frontman Zack de la Rocha. It appears in the 1999 film The Matrix during the final scene.
Quick Facts
- Artist
- Rage Against the Machine
- Released
- November 3, 1992
- Genre
- Hard rock
- Length
- 6:04
- Label
- Epic
- Writer
- Tim Commerford
- Zack de la Rocha
- Tom Morello
- Brad Wilk
- Producer
- Garth 'GGGarth' Richardson, Rage Against the Machine
Lore & Background
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 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."'
Reader's Guide
The song is one of many by Rage Against the Machine that is played in drop D tuning on the guitar and bass. It was used in the end credits of the 1999 blockbuster hit The Matrix and was also featured on its soundtrack. It is one of many songs in the soundtrack which fades-out rather than stops. An orchestral cover of the song by musician Sebastian Bohm was featured in the trailer for the fourth installment of the franchise, The Matrix Resurrections. Another cover, performed by Brass Against, is featured over the film's end credits, mirroring its use in the original film. The intro to the song played at the end of X2's soundtrack at Six Flags Magic Mountain in California. The ride got rid of the soundtrack in its entirety in 2025. On other occasions, de la Rocha has used this segment of the song to denounce the United States' handling of Hurricane Katrina, condemn globalism, urge solidarity among the lower classes against the wealthy elite, and express support for protesters in response to the Great Recession.
More in Songs & Singles
Elsewhere in Rage Against the Machine
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