Raise Your Voice

Ten years to the date, Bad Religion released their tenth LP, No Substance!

An album I had been meaning to listen to again for a while now, especially knowing it was soon ten years since being released. So I decided to play it now, and I checked, and it was released May 15th 1998!

There are many tracks I could have chosen from, I initially was thinking of "The Biggest Killer in American History", which is about Edward Teller, who is dubbed "the father of the hydrogen bomb", but instead decided to choose "Raise Your Voice"

"Raise Your Voice" in my opinion could be the second "Punk Rock Song", as it states how we should raise our voice, be heard, as opposed to being silent. A pretty huge topic, that applies to the vast majority of humankind.

If the entire population of the United States had raised their voice, and excercised their right to vote, who knows who could have been the forty third president of the United States of America. Maybe it wouldn't have been a two party system.

We can wonder all we want, but the world is the way is.

If everyone was heard, knowing what we know now about global warming, it could bring corporations to their knees, and force them to switch to 100% earth friendly vehicles. Animal cruelty could be a thing of the past, and so on.

The point being government, and corporations hold the power now, and despite being 'democratically' elected (in some places), we feel they could still do a much better job. This is where you and I come in. If we make ourselves heard instead of being "silent in shame", we can change the world. Ben Harper comes to mind: "I can change the world, with my own two hands" (from Diamonds on the Inside, 2003)

So... Raise Your Voice!

All the lyrics:

(Spoken)
I think this is a song we could redo in every language of every country we go to.

Fa fa fafa fa fa fafa raise your voice!
Don't be played like someone else's board game
Don't be classed out like some desolate redoubt
Don't be misled you've got a lot on your head
And nobody's gonna pay attention when you are dead
So, fa fa fafa fa fa fafa raise your voice!
It's the primary rule, you gotta wanna be fooled
It's our daunted restraint that keeps us silent in shame
It's our nature to be adversarial and free
Our evolution didn't hinge on passivity
Fa fa fafa fa fa fafa raise your voice!

Companion blog

I thought I'd make a companion blog to go with this one, I explain it over there better, so I'll spare most deatils, but essentially the companion blog will contain a review of the album the song came from, that gets discussed here. The blog is called Reason For Concern.

Waste of Time

Alas, first post on a blog I have been meaning to start for a long while! On with the show.

The first post of this blog is one I had intended to start this blog with all along...

The album I will refer to is one I believe is easily in the top 10, even top 5 of the best new school punk rock albums of the nineties, heck I think it could even be all time, not counting some of the new not so very great punk of today. So it is Pennywise's About Time.

About Time is an album I gave a lot of rotation in my cassette player. Many songs can be blogged about in here, but I'll start with track two, "Waste of Time".

This track is essentially referring to religion, and how there isn't enough time in our lives to ponder the big questions, that is about whether there is a heaven, and so on. I could end right there, as that just about sums it up. It also states how towering churches and holy temples are telling him how to live his life, as with many of us, but that doesn't quench his mind. With the big question, as stated above, being if there is a heaven, there's many answers from many religions no doubt. So it is best to focus on the present tense, and live our lives. I made up the present tense part, but it does say "get on with your life". I agree, and add that we should live life to the fullest each and every day. This ties in with another Pennywise song, or lyric at the very least, but there's time for that in another post. So, get on with your life!

First two verses, and the chorus:

I got a question, for all you sinners
Have you ever wondered is this all there is to life?
A quick adventure, not much to mention
A slow procession leading us to die!

Is there a heaven, a distant valley,
A golden meadow waiting for us in the sky?
No one right answer, spirit seems broken
Still I just can't help but wonder why?

Seems like a tragic waste of time,
Who cares what happens when you die?
Life's too short to wonder why,
Get on with your life.