It turns out that one of rock’s best-known lines was originally not meant to be sung at all. Speaking with Rolling Stone, Rage Against the Machine’s guitarist, Tom Morello, revealed that Killing in the Name, one of the band’s most known songs, was instrumental at first.
“There’s a Rage Against the Machine video from Cal State Northridge—which is our first public performance—where we open the show with an instrumental version of ‘Killing in the Name’”, Morello said, “and Timmy [Commerford, bassist], I think, came up with that really cool [bass riff]. [Drummer Brad Wilk’s] crowd-bouncing beat is there from the very, very beginning. And then Zack [de la Rocha, vocalist] laced it with the historic lyrics.”
Morello explained they even left the lyrics out of the album’s sheet first. “I think it’s two lines, 16 ‘f** yous’, and one ‘motherf**r.’ And we’re like, in the midst of all this grand political poetry, let’s just that one stand for itself,” Morello added.
Morello continued to explain the lyrics: “‘F** you, I won’t do what you tell me’ is a universal sentiment. While it’s a simple lyric, I think it’s one of [Zack de la Rocha’s, singer] most brilliant. And to me, it relates to [19th century U.S. abolitionist] Frederick Douglass,” he explained.
Killing in the Name was released on the band’s debut self-titled album in 1992.
