Gonna do something new with my blogs, I'm going to take a song every few days and run down it's meaning and how I can relate to it.
Today we have the Dead Anthem by The Rabble.
This is a song about how it feels to be a punk today, how it feels like a way of life in decline, this is obvious from the lines
"We are the chorus of a dying anthem, over 30 years on now"
"I dream it's cold and the vessel is shrinking
Below the sea, where Poseidon's King, and the ship is now sinking"
The "over 30 years on" being a reference to punk's rise in the late 70's.
It makes reference to the distinctive nature of punk style and attitude, but also how it can be turbulent, troubled, lonely, exciting and terrifying, this is shown throughout the song by likening it to violent waves, crashing and breaking on jagged shoreline.
"Submerged in the crash and
Swell of distinction and don't you
Forget it now"
"Now I reside in a slow decline
To the ocean of reckoning
Riding a wave with a lone desire
To glide on the crest of awakening"
Now I can obviously relate to this as almost any punk would, however it's the first verse that really gets my attention and reminds me of my own life
"I spend a lot time off the line
With a vampire that drains the blood
Then hit the surf head-on and I am
Driftwood, swallowed-up by a pioneer's flood
Breakers collide with eyes
Blurred by ever-hostile poetry
And the channel will open up again, just like
The parting of red sea"
Now this part is interesting, I think it makes reference to a relationship with girl who wasn't a punk and who stopped the writer from going to gigs, seeing his punk friends etc.... A controlling type, a "Vampire who drains the blood" and when they broke up he dived straight back into the turbulent waters of the punk world and got lost in increasingly "hostile poetry" (A way of describing punk lyrics) and how he felt welcomed back "And the channel will open up again".
This part is very relate-able for me as my ex wasn't punk, she liked some alternative music and start like a lot of the more commercial punk I like, but because I was with her, when I can home to Brighton after uni I didn't look for the local punk scene, she didn't keep from it, I just didn't bother because I was with her, although she was definitely like a vampire draining my soul, HA! And once we broke up after a few months I found my amazing new punk friends and threw myself into the world I had longed for, I "Hit the surf head on".