1) Defiance is a punk rock band from Portland, Oregon formed in 1993 from the ashes of Portland’s anarcho bands Deprived, Resist, and The Unamused. Their album “No Future, No Hope” has been sited as a major influence on other ’90s anarcho and street bands such as The Unseen. Since being together Defiance has released 5 E.P.s and 4 full lengths. They finished their latest album in February of 2010 and will release it on Unrest Records.
2) Defiance is a Thrash Metal band from the bay area formed in 1985 by Brad Bowers, Mike Kaufmann, and Matt Vander Ende. They are known as one of the classic second-tier thrash bands to come from the Bay Area thrash metal scene. They played a decidedly technical style of thrash originally evoking bands like Testament, though they would later move on to playing in their own unique, more progressive thrash style. They recorded and released 3 albums for Roadrunner Records before splitting up in 1994. In 2005 the band regrouped and signed on with Candlelight Records. They released their 4th full length studio album entitled "The Prophecy" in October 2009.
3) Defiance was a d-beat rawpunk band from Osaka, Japan. Pre Gloom. Demo and some compilations.
4) Thrash metal/crossover from Caen, France
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Doing What You're Told
Defiance Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Live your life like a soldier on the run
Grow up fast and learn to be a man
Now you're just doing what you can
[Chorus]
And you're only doing what you know
So far its everything you're told
How's it feel to be bought and sold
Life's more to you than meets the eye
You're out to get your slice of life
But you don't stop to blink an eye
Too numb to even reason why
From the start you're taught and told
But in the end you're bought and sold
And everything that's in between
Is wasted time and memories
As time goes by you realize
You've now become what you despise
Too late to change or have a say
Your yesterday's a day away
The song "Doing What You're Told" by Defiance reflects on the struggle of being a young person in society, being pushed to conform to certain expectations, and how it can feel like being bought and sold. The opening verse sets the tone for the song, emphasizing that even after 18 years, life is still a battle, and one must learn to be a man as quickly as possible. The idea of living like a soldier on the run is used to suggest that there is no time to waste and that conformity is necessary for survival.
The chorus highlights the idea of doing what one knows and being told what to do. It poses a rhetorical question, asking how it feels to be bought and sold, a metaphor for feeling like one is not in control of their own life. The line "life's more to you than meets the eye" suggests there is more to life than what one is taught or told, but being too numb to reason why means that everything is taken at face value, without questioning its purpose or intention.
The final verse emphasizes the idea that conformity is taught from the beginning and that in the end, it leads to being bought and sold. The line, "your yesterday's a day away," suggests that there is no going back once the descent into conformity has begun. The song expresses the despair of being trapped in a system of societal expectations, which leads to a realization that one has become what they despise, trapped in a life where yesterday is always gone, and today is already predetermined.
Line by Line Meaning
18 years on and the battles just begun
You've lived 18 years so far and your life has just begun, and it feels like a battle.
Live your life like a soldier on the run
You're living your life like a soldier who's always on the run, always in danger.
Grow up fast and learn to be a man
You have to grow up fast and learn how to be a man, even if you're not ready.
Now you're just doing what you can
You're doing your best, but it's not always enough.
And you're only doing what you know
You're only doing what you've been taught to do.
So far its everything you're told
You've only been doing what you've been told to do, and it's been working so far.
You're only doing as you're told
You're following orders and doing what you're told.
How's it feel to be bought and sold
How does it feel to have your life controlled by others?
Life's more to you than meets the eye
You know that there's more to life than what you can see on the surface.
You're out to get your slice of life
You're trying to get your fair share of what life has to offer.
But you don't stop to blink an eye
You're so focused on getting what you want that you're not even pausing to consider the consequences of your actions.
Too numb to even reason why
You're so numb to everything that's going on around you that you don't even know why you're doing what you're doing.
From the start you're taught and told
You've been taught since the beginning, and you've been told what to do since then.
But in the end you're bought and sold
In the end, you're just another person who's been bought and sold.
And everything that's in between
Everything that happens in between being taught and being bought and sold.
Is wasted time and memories
All that time in between is just going to be wasted, and you'll only have memories left.
As time goes by you realize
As time goes by, you start to realize things that you hadn't noticed before.
You've now become what you despise
You've become the very thing that you always hated.
Too late to change or have a say
It's too late to change anything now, or to have any control over your life.
Your yesterday's a day away
Yesterday is gone, and there's nothing you can do to change it.
Lyrics © OBO APRA/AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
oz punk
Their best song, love it!
JOSE URIZAR
I listened this band at 15 year ago .
I Remember no future no Hope!
Tharkan Zox
I do t know why everybody is so hard on this song, just sounds like some chill ass midtempo punk like the more low-key stiff little fingers or cocksparrer songs-- kinda dig it
Radek Chytil
Perfect!!
Miguel
I think "Rise or fall" album is a good album and this one is a good song, more classic and rnr sound than first albums but is punkrock.
Filling the Void Revues
Awesome video, man. Is this band still around?
alec:)
Yep! I am fucking stoked that i have tickets to see them in their hometown of Portland this month playing with the Casualties and Pinata Protest!
Dylan Walker
@alec:) i was there!!
ViperCity_
This song is fucking sick I really like their old stuff but this is pretty rad
𝓔𝓷𝓭𝓵𝓮𝓼𝓼 𝓦𝓪𝓻
Good stuff