"Get Up, Stand Up" by Bob Marley
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: don't give up the fight!
Preacherman, don't tell me,
Heaven is under the earth.
I know you dont know
What life is really worth.
It's not all that glitters is gold;
Half the story has never been told:
So now you see the light, eh!
Stand up for your rights. come on!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: don't give up the fight!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: don't give up the fight!
Most people think,
Great God will come from the skies,
Take away everything
And make everybody feel high.
But if you know what life is worth,
You will look for yours on earth:
And now you see the light,
You stand up for your rights.
Get up, stand up!
Stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up!
Don't give up the fight! (life is your right!)
Get up, stand up! (so we can't give up the fight!)
Stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up! (keep on struggling on!)
Don't give up the fight!
We sick an tired of your ism-skism game
Dying and going to heaven in a jesus name, lord.
We know when we understand:
Almighty God is a living man.
You can fool some people sometimes,
But you can't fool all the people all the time.
So now we see the light (what you gonna do? ),
We gonna stand up for our rights!
So you better:
Get up, stand up! (in the morning! git it up!)
Stand up for your rights! (stand up for our rights!)
Get up, stand up!
Don't give up the fight! (don't give it up, don't give it up!)
Get up, stand up!
Stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up!
Don't give up the fight!
Get up, stand up!
Stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up!
Don't give up the fight!
****************************************************************
Analysis:
Throughout, "Get Up, Stand Up" by Bob Marley, there are a lot of references to religious views. The same chorus is repeated before and after the three different verses in this song. The entire song, overall, talks about how people need to stand up for what THEY think and believe instead of feeing into what leaders want to be believed. Without own thoughts and mind, the world would be made up of a bunch of clones. All sense of individuality would be lost. The chorus is just the same line repeated multiple times. "Get up, stand up; stand up for your rights". That chant-like chorus is telling its listener that it's time to do something about your rights. Instead of sitting back and watching what's going on around them, it's time that they basically put their foot down to whatever corrupt and absurd things may be going on. In verse 1, Bob Marley refers to "preacher man." He is saying don't tell people what is supposed to be believed; that leads to false hope. "I know you don't know"; that line is basically calling out all religious leaders and preachers. No one knows for sure what happens when you see the "light", but it's time to stop trying to get people out there to believe the lies. These preachers tell of the things that they were told and fed from the corrupt leaders of America. Bob Marley is almost trying to make them rethink what they have been forcing feeding listeners; do they really know what happens? So, then how can they so confidently sit there and read line after line and verse after verse. No matter how in-depth they try to make it, it is still false. It’s time everyone realizes it as well. Verse 2 refers a lot to a famous Christian belief. That is that God will come down from the heavens and take everyone that believes in Him back to heaven to let them feel their eternal happiness and high. Also, if we are “good” in this life, then and only then, we can go to heaven and live forever there. However, if we go against what our leaders tell us then we are not being good and will in turn go to hell. However, Bob Marley is saying that everyone needs to stop waiting around for that and find real happiness here on earth. He seems to be sick of people who don’t live for today. The people that take life and all it has to offer for granted and that don’t realize the gift of life itself. Bob Marley wants everyone to stop listening to corrupt people and find their own way. Also, the word "jah" that is repeated in this song means God in Rastafarian culture. There has been known to be an ongoing “calling out” between Christian Church and Roman Catholicism and Rastafarians and Marley himself. In the song when he refers to have of a story having never been told refers to slavery and Maccabean history. Bob Marley, like many, discourage how the corrupt government only gives out the information they want us to have and the rest will be hidden from us. Marley could be seen as a rebel because he willingly calls them out and asks that others do the same. A line in the song also says that “But if you know what life is worth, you will look for yours on earth; and now you see the light.” This means that if you know the real beauty in life and in things around you and how priceless and special they are, then you would find your happiness here. This is much better than just waiting to die for your so called eternal happiness in heaven.
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: don't give up the fight!
Preacherman, don't tell me,
Heaven is under the earth.
I know you dont know
What life is really worth.
It's not all that glitters is gold;
Half the story has never been told:
So now you see the light, eh!
Stand up for your rights. come on!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: don't give up the fight!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: don't give up the fight!
Most people think,
Great God will come from the skies,
Take away everything
And make everybody feel high.
But if you know what life is worth,
You will look for yours on earth:
And now you see the light,
You stand up for your rights.
Get up, stand up!
Stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up!
Don't give up the fight! (life is your right!)
Get up, stand up! (so we can't give up the fight!)
Stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up! (keep on struggling on!)
Don't give up the fight!
We sick an tired of your ism-skism game
Dying and going to heaven in a jesus name, lord.
We know when we understand:
Almighty God is a living man.
You can fool some people sometimes,
But you can't fool all the people all the time.
So now we see the light (what you gonna do? ),
We gonna stand up for our rights!
So you better:
Get up, stand up! (in the morning! git it up!)
Stand up for your rights! (stand up for our rights!)
Get up, stand up!
Don't give up the fight! (don't give it up, don't give it up!)
Get up, stand up!
Stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up!
Don't give up the fight!
Get up, stand up!
Stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up!
Don't give up the fight!
****************************************************************
Analysis:
Throughout, "Get Up, Stand Up" by Bob Marley, there are a lot of references to religious views. The same chorus is repeated before and after the three different verses in this song. The entire song, overall, talks about how people need to stand up for what THEY think and believe instead of feeing into what leaders want to be believed. Without own thoughts and mind, the world would be made up of a bunch of clones. All sense of individuality would be lost. The chorus is just the same line repeated multiple times. "Get up, stand up; stand up for your rights". That chant-like chorus is telling its listener that it's time to do something about your rights. Instead of sitting back and watching what's going on around them, it's time that they basically put their foot down to whatever corrupt and absurd things may be going on. In verse 1, Bob Marley refers to "preacher man." He is saying don't tell people what is supposed to be believed; that leads to false hope. "I know you don't know"; that line is basically calling out all religious leaders and preachers. No one knows for sure what happens when you see the "light", but it's time to stop trying to get people out there to believe the lies. These preachers tell of the things that they were told and fed from the corrupt leaders of America. Bob Marley is almost trying to make them rethink what they have been forcing feeding listeners; do they really know what happens? So, then how can they so confidently sit there and read line after line and verse after verse. No matter how in-depth they try to make it, it is still false. It’s time everyone realizes it as well. Verse 2 refers a lot to a famous Christian belief. That is that God will come down from the heavens and take everyone that believes in Him back to heaven to let them feel their eternal happiness and high. Also, if we are “good” in this life, then and only then, we can go to heaven and live forever there. However, if we go against what our leaders tell us then we are not being good and will in turn go to hell. However, Bob Marley is saying that everyone needs to stop waiting around for that and find real happiness here on earth. He seems to be sick of people who don’t live for today. The people that take life and all it has to offer for granted and that don’t realize the gift of life itself. Bob Marley wants everyone to stop listening to corrupt people and find their own way. Also, the word "jah" that is repeated in this song means God in Rastafarian culture. There has been known to be an ongoing “calling out” between Christian Church and Roman Catholicism and Rastafarians and Marley himself. In the song when he refers to have of a story having never been told refers to slavery and Maccabean history. Bob Marley, like many, discourage how the corrupt government only gives out the information they want us to have and the rest will be hidden from us. Marley could be seen as a rebel because he willingly calls them out and asks that others do the same. A line in the song also says that “But if you know what life is worth, you will look for yours on earth; and now you see the light.” This means that if you know the real beauty in life and in things around you and how priceless and special they are, then you would find your happiness here. This is much better than just waiting to die for your so called eternal happiness in heaven.
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