Year Of Tha Boomerang by Rage Against the Machine

Album: Evil Empire (1996)

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Songfacts®:

Frantz Fanon coined the phrase "Year of the Boomerang" in a speech about the time when violent uprisings will come back and nail imperialists in the face. >>>
Suggestion credit:
Tim - Pittsburgh, PA
Dachau, Germany was the site of the "Dachau Massacre" in 1945, where, following liberation of the Dachau concentration camp, American soldiers allegedly murdered 520 surrendering Waffen-SS soldiers.
French psychiatrist Frantz Fanon, while working in Algeria's Blida-Joinville in 1956, resigned from his position in the French government when he heard from his Algerian patients stories of torture by the French during the Algerian war, and, instead, worked openly with the Algerian Independence movement from then on. He was an ambassador to Ghana, as well as a military strategist. He was best known, however, for his writing, which established him as an influential figure of the anti-racist political movements of the time. He died in Washington D.C in 1961 under the name Ibrahim Fanon while battling Leukemia. He was 36 years old."
Mount Tai, or Mount Tai Shan, as it as known, is one of the "Five Sacred Mountains' of China, associated with sunrise, birth, and renewal. >>>
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Ian - New York, NY, for above 3
This song appears on the soundtrack for the movie Higher Learning, and excerpts of the song are used throughout the film. >>>
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Steven - Waldwick, NJ
In the live version of this song performed at Cal State in 1994, Zack de La Rocha introduces the song by saying, "Some men dream of a patriarchal society," explaining that L7 (a female band), who took the stage previously, was their (pro-patriarchal society men's) "worst nightmare." This is a direct reference to the opening lines of the song, "Tha sistas are in, so check the front line," denouncing oppression of women's rights. >>>
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Alex - Chattanooga, TN

Comments: 5

Fricky00 from P-town“So I grip the cannon like Fanon and pass the shells to my classmates.” I think what Zack does here is analogize himself to Fanon who was also a word-smith. So ‘gripping the cannon’ is essentially a using the pen, or teaching, through books, poetry or music... and ‘pass the shells to my classmates‘ is teaching your peers about the exploitation & injustices of imperialism & colonialism so that they can rise up in revolution against those injustices.
Matt from Winnipeg, MbMt. Tai part

"The bosses right to live is mine to die, so I'm goin' out heavy, kinda like Mt. Tai". This refers to a poem written by the Chinese revolutionary communist leader Mao Tse Tung. To paraphrase the poem:

"Death can be a light as a feather, or as weighty as Mt. Tai. To die in the service of the reactionaries is a death as light as a feather. To die in the service of the People is a death as weighty as Mt. Tai."

So, he's basically saying that he's dedicating his life to the people. Sweet!
Carlo from Munich, Germanyi offer you my deepest condolences, i myself live in germany and i always get confronted with this theme but in spite of some of my friends saying that this issue is has been discussed so often that it's not important anymore,i do beleive that we always have to keep the ns regime and auschwitz and dachau(i visited the cc there - i cried)in mind for not giving racism and fascism a chance.
Pk from Sedalia, MoI always thought this was about being trapped in a concentration camp and then hanging Nazi war criminals until I read the lyrics. If the Dachau thing up there is true then those Nazi's deserved it, my grandfather died in Auchwitz and its not funny in the slightest when people make Nazi jokes about Jews around me.
Steven from Waldwick, NjThis song was on the soundtrack for "Higher Learning" and also had excerpts of the song throughout the movie

credit: http://www.musicfanclubs.org/rage/discography.htm Soundtracks and Compilmations

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