50 GREATEST BAD RELIGION SONGS EVER: Part IV

Chicago are you ready for @badreligion ?
— Greg Hetson (@GregHetson) April 5, 2013

Felipe M

Admittedly, we've done a terrible job in updating our music portion of this site.  We even abandoned the Bad Religion project that was supposed to list the Top 50 Songs of all time by the band.  

So in honor of Bad Religion playing tonight in Chicago (with Polar Bear Club and whatever 3rd band they were able to find.  Last I checked it was The Bronx), we will list the next songs on the list without explanations or personal thoughts:

No.	Song	Album	Year	Writer
21	Sanity	No Control	1989	Gurewitz
22	Cyanide	The Dissent of Man	2010	Gurewitz
23	Kerosene	Recipe for Hate	1993	Gurewitz
24	Better Off Dead	Stranger than Fiction	1994	Gurewitz
25	Prodigal Son	New Maps of Hell	2007	Gurewitz
26	Pity	How Could Hell Be Any Worse?	1981	Graffin
27	Live Again-The Fall of Man	The Empire Strikes First	2004	Graffin
28	Hooray for Me	Stranger than Fiction	1994	Gurewitz
29	Only Rain	The Dissent of Man	2010	Gurewitz
30	Yesterday	Back to the Known	1985	Graffin
31	I Want to Conquer the World	No Control	1989	Gurewitz
32	Infected	Stranger than Fiction	1994	Gurewitz
33	New Dark Ages	New Maps of Hell	2007	Gurewitz
34	Heaven is Falling	Generator	1992	Gurewitz
35	Walk Away	Against the Grain	1990	Gurewitz

  
Go look them up!

What I will do is just quickly point out my favorite lyrics of the songs that were listed and try turn them into easy-to-use quotes to show off to your friends and family.  So here we go: 

• "Walk Away": "Listen well to what I say; now there comes a time for a man to walk away."
• "Heaven is Falling": "God I want to be a man, but I don't want to die with a rifle in my hand."
• "New Dark Ages": "Beyond all hope of light...A pall of truth and reason."
• "Infected": "You and me were made in heaven.  I want to take, break, and supplicate you with thorny roses."
• "I Want to Conquer the World": "Hey brother christian, with your high and mighty errand!  Your actions speak so loud, I can't hear a word you're saying."
• "Yesterday": Yesterday: the good old days, the way we used to play, it just got worse and worse, and the future's been rehearsed."
• "Only Rain": Hey scientist, please save us because your counterpart in the magic art is manufacturing judgment day."
• "Hooray for Me": "Can you imagine, for a second, doing anything just because you want to?  Well, that's just what I do so hooray for me!"
• "Live Again--The Fall of Man": "What good is something if you can't have it until you die?"
• "Pity": "I pity the billions of people, masses of aggression, and future centuries to come."
• "Prodigal Son": "When you least expect it he's going to run like the blood-red path of the western sun."
• "Better off Dead": "If you're looking for a patsy, why not try the entire human race?"
• "Kerosene": "Exposure is a pitiful and pointless way of dying, but before it gets me I'll build a funeral pyre."
• "Cyanide": "Well, there's no place left to hide from the loneliness inside and missing you is like kissing cyanide."
• "Sanity": "It doesn't really matter what I'm figuring out.  I'm guaranteed to wind up in a state of doubt."

Will probably disclose the top 20 after I watch tonight's show.  That is to say, if I can make it to tonight's show as I'm severely sick today, but will try anyway.  Hope everybody has a good time.

The rest of the Bad Religion songs are listed here.

To check out the rest of our music page, click here. 

50 GREATEST BAD RELIGION SONGS EVER: Part III

Felipe M. 

Moving along with the list:

#40.  "Cease"-- THE GRAY RACE (1996): First time I heard this song, it was on the live DVD LIVE AT THE PALLADIUM where lead singer Greg Graffin sings a solo version on piano.  The same version could be heard on Graffin's 1997 solo album American Lesion.  The argument could be made that Greg's version might be better than the band's electric version.  

This is yet another song that plays with the theme of inevitable mortality of mankind.  

Quote--"What pretension, everlasting peace--everything must cease."

#39.  "Doin' Time"-- HOW COULD HELL BE ANY WORSE? (1981): Final song of the original release of their first full length album.  Even as young adults, Bad Religion had their ideals intact.  Just like "Cease," this song also mocks the idea of man's notion of a higher purpose in tangible life and questions the idea of eternal life.

The real treat of this early 1980s hardcore song is near the end where the bass and guitar solo mesh perfectly with each other and takes the listener to some gritty, underground that brings you chills.  All of this climaxes with Greg's voice as he screams "Salvation!"

Quote--"Don't tell me what's wrong or right!  You're losing sight.  You're just going to die anyway!"

#38.  "All There Is"--THE EMPIRE STRIKES FIRST (2004): One of the more popular songs on college radio when the album was released, this song brings back good memories.  This song is also played live on LIVE AT THE PALLADIUM and sometimes makes its way on to current live sets.

The song is more question than answers as the song, once again, questions religion and divinity as the end all reason for existence as Graffin is constantly asking "can that be all there is?"  

Quote--"The walking wounded in a pageant of contenders who balance on a rail of pain for just a pail of rain."

#37.  "Suffer"--SUFFER (1988): This song is still played live as fans go crazy when the introduction is played.  

The song is a cry for the power elite of society to look at the suffering they have produced to the rest of "the masses of humanity."  No matter what time period in man's history, this song is appropriate how so many people work for the right of a few to remain part of the dominant population.  

For prime examples on how this song is appropriate to current events, click here.  For a song that explores the same subject matter, listen to Thrice's "Cold Cash and Colder Hearts" which is a first person perspective on how the power elite look at 90% of the Earth's human population.  Thrice's "Don't Tell and We Won't Ask" from the same album, THE ARTIST IN THE AMBULANCE, finishes that album with the same plea to the power elite to open up their eyes and see how their actions to get richer affects the rest of the world in a negative way.  Thrice and many bands just like them further prove the massive influence that Bad Religion has had on the current punk/hardcore scene.

Quote--"This deformed society is part of the design.  It'll never go away, it's in the cards that way..."

#36.  "Dearly Beloved"--NEW MAPS OF HELL (2007): This is a difficult song to pinpoint its meaning as it could be decipher in so many ways.  However, at its broadest and most vague, perhaps the song is about turning your back on conformity and the resulting consequences it bestows on the individual who wants to follow their own path, such as ridicule and isolation. 

Quote--"Dearly Beloved, make no mistake, despite our traits I've seldom seen.  I can't relate to you."

Part IV of the list can be viewed here. 

About Me:

Current Favorite Show: Catching up on BREAKING BAD.  It's been awhile since a drama could move me like this.  Regretfully, I wish I could catch up on THE WIRE.

Currently Listening To: CRACK THE SKYE by Mastodon.  I didn't really like it. Strange since I recently enjoyed listening to Coheed and Cambria.

Currently Watching: Rockies vs Cardinals--Hoping Fernando Salas gets a chance for the save and get me the 10 points I need to win my fantasy game this week.

Currently Finished Reading: THE POSTMAN by David Brin.  Cool story about survival in a post-apocalyptic world, but could be very preachy at times.