(EDITOR'S NOTE —Our good friend Guiseppe DiNardi analyzes what's makes a good punk song, including the one tune that never fails to get him off his ass. And don't miss the playlist at the end of this piece.)
When I need to get something done that I don’t want to do, when I need some inspiration to face a challenge I don’t want to face, or when I generally catch myself being a wuss and want to banish that feeling from my life, there’s one song that never fails to light a fire under my ass and change my perspective: “Rise Above” by Black Flag.
This song is so effective at riling me up that I have to be careful when I play it. In fact, sometimes, when the song pops up on my punk rock playlist, I skip it so I don’t do something stupid. Like the other day, the song came on when I was setting the table for dinner. If I didn’t skip it, I would have broken every glass in the house.
I have often wondered why this song affects me as much as it does, and, so, I thought I’d take the opportunity to dig into it and find out.
Unless you’re a soulless monster, the first thing you hear when listening to Rise Above is the rage. It’s upfront, unavoidable, and contagious. Yet, rage and punk rock have been joined at the hip ever since Johnny Rotten proclaimed he was “pissed” and wanted to “destroy.” In punk rock, rage is a feature, not a bug. It’s standard issue and omnipresent, which means it’s not unique to this song, so there must be something else.
Defiance and rebellion, perhaps? Yeah, that’s in there too. But again, rebellion has been an ingredient in punk from the get-go. In fact, punk has been synonymous with going against the grain and flouting social norms from the term’s earliest use. (According to Merriam-Webster, the word punk originally meant “prostitute.”) A lot of punk songs are defiant and rebellious, but they don’t all charge my battery like Rise Above. Why? What does this song have that others don’t?
After reading the song’s lyrics a few dozen times and mulling them over a bit, I’ve decided that what sets “Rise Above” apart from a lot of other jams is the current of underestimation and subversive intelligence that runs through the song.
Consider the part of the lyrics that hit me the hardest and make me feel like I could run through the wall: “We are born with a chance … I am gonna have my chance.”
RRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Like all good writing, these lines say so much with just a few choice words. They not only say, “You’re not stopping me,” and “I’m not doing what you want me to do,” they proclaim, “I know there’s more out there for me than this,” that, “Your myopia won’t hold me back,” and “Underestimate me at your own peril.”
Fuck yeah!
This, to me, is the hallmark of the best in punk rock lyricism: a blistering and intelligent critique of the powers that be wrapped in an enticing coating of anger and defiance. Shit like this never ceases to get my motor running, and now that I’ve had that chance to think about it, I can see that this lyrical quality is something all my favorite punk songs share. But hey, don’t take my word for it, listen for yourself.
Playlist:
Black Flag – “Rise Above”
The Jam – “This Is the Modern World”
Dead Kennedys – “Halloween”
The Clash – “Clampdown”
Verbal Assault – “Trial”
Corrosion of Conformity – “Technocracy”
Husker Du – “Divide and Conquer”
Cro-Mags – “We Gotta Know”
Bad Religion – “Inner Logic”
Jets to Brazil – “Morning New Disease”
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