Swing Life Away – Rise Against
// February 7th, 2010 // Music
Most of you know I’m a big fan of Rise Against. The lead singer (Tim) comes to my work every so often because I work at a fitness center and he’s the most down-to-Earth guy you could possibly meet. I wanted to analyze some more of his songs. They are so fucking good. Many of their songs have multiple meanings behind them and I will try to analyze two different scenarios from this song. One is about a relationship, the other has a deeper meaning and is more general towards life.
This song is just about owning life. The song is about living and not really worrying about anything but loving life and living it.
“We live on front porches and swing life away, we get by just fine here on minimum wage”
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I think we live on front porches reiterates the fact that its summertime and they’re just taking life as it comes. They are teenage couple so they’re making supporting themselves on minimum wage but they’re okay. Even though they’re young, they are in love and he will do anything for her and wont go anywhere in life without her. He later mentions he wants to “settle down where palm trees grow”…who doesn’t think about living and working where the climate is always hot? In Chicago the winters get pretty cold, everyone around here thinks about moving where its warm year round at least once.
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Tim is also talking about the countless of people in todays society who live paycheck to paycheck and still get by fine. They are used to there lifestyle and are happy to way they are. Sometimes the less you have, the better you feel. You feel less stressful, sometimes living a very simple life isn’t that bad after all. Sometimes we need to accept what we have and be happy with what we got instead of stressing and worrying about the things we don’t have. Life is all about making the best of what you got.
Lets compare scars, ill tell you whose is worse
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This is like “open up with me and i’ll open up to you” sort of scenario. Every relationship goes through this stage. He’s saying lets share each others pasts. They’re both painful but they’ll grow and learn more about each other from it. It’s a way of connecting deeper with another person and being closer to them on a whole new level…
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This is what people naturally do. People like to compare experiences/memories/toys/things to others to see where they fit in society and how they separated and connected with others. Sometimes when you think you had it bad, there is always someone who had it worse…
lets unwrite these pages and replace them with our own words
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This part of the song refers to the status of their relationship. The “love story” has been written so many times before, they want to make it their own.
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I may be wrong, but I feel Tim is trying to say to live your life whatever way you want. Don’t have someone tell you what to do. It reminds me of the bible. That books acts as a “guide” to many people, but if you truly want to live your life the way you want to, then “replace it with your own words”. Each day you live you add more chapters to your “life story.” It’s up to you what goes in it and what gets written…
I’ve got some friends some that I hardly know
we’ve had some times i wouldn’t trade for the world
This is probably the most important meaning of the song. It almost reminds me partying. You meet new people and make friends but you don’t really know them. And relating to the relationship, they have been on adventure where they spent their summer days having long talks which include their future together. Most couples do this too.
Most importantly, Tims says you don´t need money to be happy – friends are much more important. Swing Life Away!