“Know Your Enemy” by Rage Against the Machine

"Know Your Enemy" comes off Rage Against the Machine's self-titled 1992 album on Epic, and it's built on riffs Tim Commerford first worked out on an acoustic bass. Zack de la Rocha wrote the words and fires them off over Tom Morello's guitar and Brad Wilk's drums, but the song's big swerve is the bridge: Perry Farrell was meant to sing it, never showed, and the part went to Tool's Maynard James Keenan, who had once been in the running to front Rage. Jane's Addiction drummer Stephen Perkins sat in on extra percussion. Garth Richardson produced it with the band, and Andy Wallace mixed.

The demo was a different animal, more than 30 seconds shorter and with no singing. It was never an official single, yet radio had latched onto it by 1993, and AllMusic later found it instantly memorable and surprisingly direct.

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