Instructions: To use this chart, you can print, copy, and paste into a document of your own, or
create a chart of your own with the same information.
Complete the following using your selected protest song.
A. Provide the Song Facts
1.
2.
3.
4.
Song title: Get Up Stand Up
Songwriter: Bob Marley and peter tosh
Performed by: Bob Marley
Describe the historical context in three to five sentences.
With a legendary and ever-lengthening list of accomplishments attributable to both his life and
music, Bob Marley advocated for social change while simultaneously allowing listeners to forget
their troubles and dance.
5. Imagine that you are creating a music video for the song. Include two images that would
complement or support the historical context of the song.
6. Copy and paste the lyrics. Be sure to edit or alter any words that are not school
appropriate.
7. 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!
Preacher man, don't tell me,
Heaven is under the earth.
I know you don't know
What life is really worth.
It's not all that glitters is gold;
'Alf 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. Jah!
Get up, stand up! (Jah, Jah!)
Stand up for your rights! (Oh-hoo!)
Get up, stand up! (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! (Lord, Lord!)
Get up, stand up! (Keep on struggling on!)
Don't give up the fight! (Yeah!)
We sick an' tired of-a your ism-skism game Dyin' 'n' goin' 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! (Yeah, yeah, yeah!)
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! (Get up, stand up!)
Stand up for your rights! (Get up, stand up!)
Get up, stand up! ( ... )
Don't give up the fight! (Get up, stand up!)
Get up, stand up! ( ... )
Stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up!
Don't give up the fight! [fadeout]
B. Label and Analyze the Lyrics
1. Identify one allusion in the song. You may need to research any unfamiliar
references in the song lyrics to determine the allusion. Paste or type the lines in
the space below.
The most prominent formal feature of the song Get Up, Stand Up is its chorus; essentially it
advocates struggling to better one’s situation and not accepting one’s fate in this life on the basis
of some afterlife promise. The written verse consists of four lines, all of which begin with, “Get
up, stand up,” and finish with “stand up for your rights,” save for the last line (this however
varies as the song goes on) and additionally all four lines are made up of nine short monosyllabic
feet. The repetition of such a powerful phrase, the staccato like monosyllables, and the
imperative (commanding) tense in which the lines are written and sung, serve to materialize the
immediacy and importance, Marley is attempting to convey with regard to the subject at hand.
The lines effectively evoke ideas of militant chants one would expect to hear at a strike or
revolutionary rally. Where I feel the Wailers differentiate this chorus from a hollow chant sung
by and for automatons, is by using the word “your” when singing about rights. This way it
appears as though the band is singing directly to the audience and to each member individually. I
feel that if they had instead chosen to word the phrase “stand up for our rights,” it would not
possess the same intimate universality that it does.
2. Locate one website that explains the event, phenomenon, or person to which the
line(s) allude. Paste the website address and one sentence explaining the allusion
you have identified.
http://www.bobmarley.com/history/
Bob Marley did allude about what he did for a living and what inspired him to make
music.
Complete the following chart based on your selected song. Identify two total figures
of speech and two sound devices to include in the chart below.
Effect
Actual Lines
Does the example
from the Song create an image, create
Label
Paste the lines of
a particular mood,
What is the figure of speech or
each example in
make listeners feel
sound device?
the space
something, or make
provided.
listeners think
something?
Effect
Actual Lines
Does the example
from the Song create an image, create
Label
Paste the lines of
a particular mood,
What is the figure of speech or
each example in
make listeners feel
sound device?
the space
something, or make
provided.
listeners think
something?
He’s literally telling us to stand
up for our rights and not accept
oppression of any kind. It seems
Figure like in this song the message is
of
aimed particularly against the
Get Up Stand Up
Speech oppression done by Christians, as
#1
he’s telling us later that God is to
be found among us, and not in
heaven, like the conservative
Christians believes.
He’s telling the people not to
Figure
worry because they will go to
of
heaven when they die
Speech
#2
Sound
Device
#1
Still Drums
Sound Electric Guitar
Device
#2
Most people think
great God will
come from
Annotate the sky
Take away
everything, and
make everybody
feel high
But if you know
what life is worth
You would look for
yours on earth
And now you see
the light
Almighty God is a
living man.
It's not all that
glitters is gold
Alf the story has
never been told
It makes them not so
insecure and he’s telling
them that you should
take a stand in your
rights
Marley didn’t believe that
the real paradise is the
death. Feel high’ is a
reference to the
unimaginably great feeling
any given human being
would acquire upon
learning that they’re going
to heaven.
A get away, like a
vacation (Relaxing)
A good mood, exciting
3. What is the tone of the song? How do the figures of speech and sound devices
that you have identified contribute to the tone?
get up stand up uses poetic devices like repetition, rhyme, and syntax. The mood of
"Get Up, Stand Up" is really where its message is conveyed to the listener. The
repetitive nature of the song suggests the rhythms of a protest or a picket line. Some
verses sound angry, while others try to convince the audience of Marley’s position that
it is not worth waiting for heaven, but that it is better to see God on earth and work for
heaven in this life. Both the lyrics and the rhythm of the song strengthen the overall
message of the song as a whole. The song also has one tone
4. What is the mood of the song? How do the figures of speech and sound devices
that you have identified create the mood?
The mood is Strong and tuneful. By listening to his lyrics you understand and feel what
he is trying to tell you. Some figures of speech that Mr. Marley uses in his song are "get
up, stand up" stand up for your rights, and 'don’t give up the fight'
5. In a short paragraph of four to six sentences, discuss the effectiveness of this
protest song. Did or does it influence people to change how they think, feel, or
act?
Get up stand up for your right, he keeps calling them to stand up. To stop sleeping. They
don't know what the worth of a life is. He thinks that people are waiting for a
supernatural source to just take away their problems. He is saying then need to help
themselves instead(which I don't agree with). Man cannot accomplish anything on his
own, nor should he lye dormant and sleeping, seek God and do his will, then he will have
the power to overcome. Who can stop a man when God is on his side. Then the heaven
on earth that the preacher was talking about can really be seen on earth as the kingdom of
God is forcefully advanced.
6. In a brief paragraph of four to six sentences, discuss why it is important for
people to participate in (by supporting, protesting, etc.) current political, social,
and cultural issues.
Civic engagement or civic participation has been defined as "Individual and collective actions designed
to identify and address issues of public concern."Civic engagement has many elements, but in its most
basic sense it is about decision making, or governance over who, how, and by whom a community's
resources will be allocated. Civic engagement is about the right of the people to define the public good,
determine the policies by which they will seek the good, and reform or replace institutions that do not
serve that good. Civic engagement can also be summarized as a means of working together to make a
difference in the civil life of our communities and developing the combination of skills, knowledge,
values, and motivation in order to make that difference. It means promoting a quality of life in a
community, through both political and non-political processes.