Born of a Broken Man

Produced by

Rage Against the Machine & Brendan O’Brien

A very personal song that Zack De La Rocha wrote about his father. Beto De La Rocha was a member of Los Four, a very influential group of Chicano artists. Beto tried to… Read More

Nov. 2, 19991 viewer74.5K views

Born of a Broken Man Lyrics

[Verse 1]
My fears hunt me down
Capturing my memories
The frontier of loss
They try to escape across the street where
Jesus stripped bare
And raped the spirit He was supposed to nurture
In the name of my
In the name of my

[Chorus]
Born of a broken man, but not a broken man
Born of a broken man, never a broken man
Born of a broken man, but not a broken man
Born of a broken man, never a broken man

[Verse 2]
Like autumn leaves his sense fell from him
An empty glass of himself shattered somewhere within
His thoughts like a hundred moths
Trapped in a lampshade
Somewhere within
Their wings banging and burning
On through endless night
Forever awake he lies shaking and starving
Praying for someone to turn off the light

About

A very personal song that Zack De La Rocha wrote about his father. Beto De La Rocha was a member of Los Four, a very influential group of Chicano artists.

Beto tried to build bridges between the artists in Los Angeles, the workers, and Chicanos against the Vietnam war. Tragically he suffered a mental breakdown; he became despondent and hyper-religious, destroying all his art and locking himself away in a 40-day fast until he ended up at the psychiatric ward of the L.A. County Hospital.