Rise Against

The second song on my sound track of life is Rise Against's "Swing Life Away". The group is a hardcore punk band that originated out of Chicago and is fairly well known because of the Van's Warp Tour. The band has received accolades. For example, it was in the "Lords of Dogtown" movie, on the "Nervous Break Down" soundtrack and the band's fourth album, "The Sufferer & Witness," was on the Billboard top 200, which is immense for an underground punk band. The band has released four records.


"Swing Life Away" is a song that is slow moving with low guitar pitches, subtle drum/bass beat and soft vocals that are relaxing and harmonious. It sounds like Eric Clapton's unplugged record. It is short, but to the point and with masterful lyrics. It begins with questions, not detail or emotion like most songs in this era. "Am I loud and clear or am I Breaking up?" This band has something to say, and this relates to the narcissistic position I elaborated on before. The emotion starts to rise with "Am I still your charm or am I just bad luck? "Are we getting closer or are we just getting more lost?" This gives the listener and me a feeling of a love song, but you were fooled! It really is about political policy and how it prevents people changing their lives. "I'll show you mine if you show me yours first" is humorous because the first thing that comes to my mind is sexual; however, it really means lifestyles.


"Let's compare scares I'll tell whose is worse" gives great meaning to me because I was in a horrible automobile accident that I almost did not survive. I have many scares to prove it both physically and mentally, but this lyric really means scars of upbringing and lifestyle. Although the lyric may not speak directly to me in those terms, I connected to it by my interpretation. So "lets unwrite these pages and replace them with our own words"! Now the song goes into chorus and brings the deep meaning of the song alive.


"We live on front porches and swing life away, we get by just fine here on minimum wage" speaks to the lower class unemployed person who has dreams, but they are shattered by the political system's favoritism for the higher-class. This makes me react to all the political propaganda imposed by our politicians such as the No Child Left Behind act, for which politicians then cut funding! Give me a break. President George Bush does not care for the masses. In fact, the financial element emerges once again. Now the direction turns off the political message to the love emotion, "If love is a labor I'll slave to the end, I won't cross these streets to you hold my hand". This lyric informs the politicians and listeners that you can bring down almost all aspects of my life, but my love for another.


Then reality sinks in and the vocalists realizes that he can make a change if he is strong enough. "I've been here so long I think its time to move." Then he offers a thought of why he is miserable, "Winters so cold, summers over too soon". Why leave a depopulated area when you have friends? "I've got some friends some that I hardly know, we had some times I wouldn't trade for the world ". This message proclaims that friends are there and then nowhere so, "We chased these days down with talks of places that we will go. Aw, it was just a conversation with his loved one about leaving a ghetto and forming a pop culture lifestyle with warm air and money in our pockets." This is relevant to me because I often have the same conversation with the same dream of leaving my hometown and living the American dream, but my future job of financial success now resides in China!