Sleep Now in the Fire (3:25)

“Sleep Now in the Fire” is the fifth track from the 1999 album The Battle of Los Angeles by the band Rage Against the Machine. It was released as a single in 2000. The song contains lyrics about greed, such as the conquest of Native Americans and U.S. slavery in the 1800s as well as criticism of actions taken by the US government in wartime, including the bombing of Hiroshima and the use of Agent Orange in the Vietnam War.

Tom’s solo is also notable as he simply uses feedback from the amp, along with using his whammy bar to adjust the pitch of the feedback. By flicking his toggle switch on and off, he is able to create the high-pitched solo. At the end of the song, there is some sound from a Korean radio station that guitarist Tom Morello picked up on his amp.

The video was nominated at the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards for Best Rock Video but lost to Limp Bizkit’s “Break Stuff”, causing the infamous incident where bassist Tim Commerford climbed on a large piece of the award show set. Commerford later stated he had pulled the stunt in protest that cameras at the awards show were already hovering over Limp Bizkit before anything was even announced, with which he disagreed.