Smart Punk Rock

by Josh Highland on May 10, 2006

I sit at a desk for 8 – 10 hours a day, so I listen to ALOT of music. It had been a while since I listened to a Bad Religion album. When I was in high school Bad Religion was one of my favorite bands, along with AFI. One thing that I always liked about Bad Religion was how thought out and intelligent they lyrics were (same reason I like iron maiden so much).

The other day at work, I threw in "recipe for hate". Amazing. The flow of the songs and the emotion and meaning behind the songs swept me up. I ended up listening to every bad religion album over the last 2 days at work.

As I listened, I kept track of some of the lyrics that I didnt understand the meaning of. Here is a short sample:

  • sheaves
  • maelstrom
  • quintessential
  • provisions
  • sartorii
  • paradigm
  • anomalies
  • affinity
  • stratified
  • aberrations
  • automatons
  • sequestering
  • antithetic
  • porticos
  • sagacious
  • opulent
  • heed
  • pseudo
  • malevolent
  • utopia
  • disposition
  • superlatives
  • altruistically
  • hewn
  • recompense
  • pretension
  • enshroud
  • populace
  • garner
  • mirth

Yes, a punk rock band using "antithetic" and "opulent" in the proper way in a song. Needless to say, dictionary.com has been my friend lately.

I love the fact that Bad Religion, mainly Greg Graffin doesnt dumb things down just because he is in a punk rock band. I really respect Bad Religion for that. I might not agree to everything that he sings about, but I respect them very much. If you havent listened to Bad Religion, I suggest that you do your self a favor, and listen to the music, and read the lyrics, you just might learn something.


"10 million dollars on a losing campaign
20 million starving and writhing in pain
big strong people unwilling to give
small in vision and perspective
one in five kids below the poverty line
one population runnin' out of time

…This is just a punk rock song,
written for the people who can see
somethings wrong…"

  • digg Smart Punk Rock
  • facebook Smart Punk Rock
  • stumbleupon Smart Punk Rock
  • twitter Smart Punk Rock
  • delicious Smart Punk Rock
  • reddit Smart Punk Rock
  • friendfeed Smart Punk Rock
  • posterous Smart Punk Rock
  • tumblr Smart Punk Rock

{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }

1 Josh Highland September 13, 2007 at 12:37 pm

time to add another one to the list… surfeit

Leave a Comment

Previous post:

Next post: