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Your Personal Anthem

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Devils_Advocate

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This song doesn't perfectly match my sense of life, but what better answer to this question could there be than:

Anthem, by Rush.

Live for yourself -- theres no one else

More worth living for

Begging hands and bleeding hearts will

Only cry out for more

Well, I know theyve always told you

Selfishness was wrong

Yet it was for me, not you, i

Came to write this song

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Anthem, by Rush.

Oh, but the first part is much better:

"Know your place in life is where you want to be.

Don't let them tell you that you owe it all to me

Keep on looking forward, no use in looking 'round,

Hold your head above the crowd, they con't bring you down.

Anthem of the heart and anthem of the mind

A funeral dirge for eyes gone blind.

Yes we marvel after those who sought

Wonders in the world they wrought."

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The Adventure, by Angels and Airwaves.

http://www.plyrics.com/lyrics/angelsandair...eadventure.html

Argh, I'm tempted to agree there, but it's always that last bit that ruins the song for me, 'I can't breathe, I can't live, unless you do this with me'. Maybe it's because I know what he means there (bear in mind Tom DeLonge is... not exactly a Christian, but prescribes to the idea of the loving-father, Judeo-Christian God). But that song still gets me everytime. In fact, I think you could call a lot of AVA a theme to my sense of life. :P

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Argh, I'm tempted to agree there, but it's always that last bit that ruins the song for me, 'I can't breathe, I can't live, unless you do this with me'. Maybe it's because I know what he means there (bear in mind Tom DeLonge is... not exactly a Christian, but prescribes to the idea of the loving-father, Judeo-Christian God). But that song still gets me everytime. In fact, I think you could call a lot of AVA a theme to my sense of life. :P

Dude! I thought of mentioning (but forgot) that that part got to me too. I assumed he was talking to a girlfriend or imaginary girlfriend, implying he needs someone else. But then I re-interpreted it in a way that was not second-handed, and that part is now personally meaningful and emotionally fueling.

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My sister asked me this just two weeks ago. The way she put it was: If you could have a song that would play whenever you walked into a room, what would it be? As a joke, I said 「新仁義なき戦い」 by 布袋寅泰, popularized in the US as "Battle Without Honor or Humanity" from Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill Vol. 1 soundtrack. Then I thought of the instrumental version of Santa Esmeralda's rendition of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood," also from Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill Vol. 1 (although the vocal version on the soundtrack CD is not so good, on account of the obnoxious vocals). Then I thought of "Sette Note in Nero" by Vince Tempera, for the score of the 1977 Italian horror film of the same name, again popularized in Kill Bill Vol. 1. Then I realized that I had just watched Kill Bill Vol. 1 a few nights previous and that maybe I just liked a lot of the music in it. So next I thought of "The Promise" from Michael Nyman's score for Jane Campion's masterwork, The Piano, starring Holly Hunter who learned to play Nyman's difficult piano score for herself instead of using a hand double. Sticking with Nyman, I next considered the main theme from Gattaca, "The Morrow." I realized then that I was seriously avoiding vocals, and vocals are, I think, important to calling something an "anthem." I don't listen to a lot of vocal music because the vocalists nowadays sing badly, sing crap, or both. I briefly considered Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out for a Hero" and Paula Cole's "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?" but rejected them as altogether too campy. So it turns out that, of all the things I was willing to consider, the first - 「新仁義なき戦い」 - was probably the best, even though it has no vocals. If I had to have a backup, it would be "The Morrow" from Gattaca because of how much that particular film means to me.

~Q

Edited by Qwertz
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My sister asked me this just two weeks ago. The way she put it was [...]

[...]

[...]

[...]of how much that particular film means to me.

Holy hell! Mine needs explaining, too. :)

"Dreams," by The Cranberries. Absolutely one of the most beautiful songs ever written by a band. As usual, I ignore the lyrics because they aren't all that great, and instead I use the aesthetic (or tone) as the "words" that I associate with myself. I sincerely adore the song.

Wikipedia says that the "modern" anthem is any song with an emotive connotation... real helpful! Really, though, I use my musical tastes, which mostly consider a song or band's overall aesthetic feel, as my continual life anthem. The kinds of music I listen to (that is, the overall aesthetic) changes noticeably about twice a year.

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I don't have a personal anthem because the only person qualified to write one hasn't done so yet - ME :)

haha. I like that answer.

I don't really have a single song that is representative to me. Currently though, I have really related to "Listen" a song from Dream Girls. Beyonce's version is alright, but I found a better version on youtube sung by a male singer from Brazil that I like much more.

Here are some lyrics: http://www.metrolyrics.com/listen-lyrics-b...ce-knowles.html

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I don't have a personal anthem because the only person qualified to write one hasn't done so yet - ME :P

If I bothered to take on such a task, then I'd be in a similar situation. The thing is that such a song is really one of introspection, and in recent years, my attempts at writing have generally been more extrospective.

I'd have to look elsewhere...., but fortunately for me there used to be a band that delivered much of what I wanted in rock music... :lol:

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While I could come at the question from different angles, I think that it's safe to say that whatever rock song I would select would invariably come from DEATH & TAXE$ when Thomas P. Shannon was alive. The group only published 2 full CDs i.e. _Paradigms..._ and _enigma..._ during his lifetime, but the 2nd disc has "Human Fly". That song is as likely close to a personal anthem as I'm to find for several years to come. I think that it's also one of the best songs the group ever came up with.

Either: Rush - Cinderella Man...

_That song_ was Tom's all-time favorite RUSH song. :lol:

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  • 1 month later...

I'm starting to enjoy the more benevolent songs out there these days but I still have sense of life issues arising from childhood experiences of irrationality and social anxiety. So with that in mind my anthem is Nirvana's 'Aneurysm', but stay tuned for an update for when I have truly integrated the benevolent universe premise! :)

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For overall effect, I would choose Take On Me by A-Ha:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-P_TV-gierM

The lyrics are nothing special, but the combination of the song and the video project an excellent sense of life.

On the basis of lyrics, I would go with Thunderball (the James Bond Theme), especially the first verse:

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/t/tom+jones/thu...l_20138376.html

Edited by Tenzing_Shaw
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  • 3 weeks later...
"Dreams," by The Cranberries.

Big Cranberries fan here!!

I'm going to have to think about my anthem for a bit, but as a placeholder I'm going to say "Indestructible" by Disturbed. If you look up 'determination' in the dictionary, it refers you to this song. :)

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