This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
Stranded
In a life in which your struggle for acceptance
Is a never-ending chore
Upbraided
For your actions past and present and rewarded for ideas
Of the future's bright open door
The henchman
Is the human analogue of the suffering multitudes
Who like good dogs sit and lick for their reward
So what good advice have I got for you
To insure against your likely metamorphosis into this reprobate?
Don't be a henchman!
Stand on your laurels
Do what no one else does
Praise the good of other men for good man's sake
And when everyone else in the world follows your lead
(although a cold day in hell it will surely be)
That's when the entire world shall live in harmony
In a life in which your struggle for acceptance
Is a never-ending chore
Upbraided
For your actions past and present and rewarded for ideas
Of the future's bright open door
The henchman
Is the human analogue of the suffering multitudes
Who like good dogs sit and lick for their reward
So what good advice have I got for you
To insure against your likely metamorphosis into this reprobate?
Don't be a henchman!
Stand on your laurels
Do what no one else does
Praise the good of other men for good man's sake
And when everyone else in the world follows your lead
(although a cold day in hell it will surely be)
That's when the entire world shall live in harmony
Lyrics submitted by oofus, edited by Mellow_Harsher
Henchman Lyrics as written by Greg Graffin
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
Mental Istid
Ebba Grön
Ebba Grön
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
I think this song is about how most people in the world are just acting as henchman for the elite of the world, and in order to make the world a better place people need to look beyond the boundries society sets and step away from the crowd in order to work towards a better world on a personal level, and when everyone else does this along with you, then the world will live in harmony, but unfortunately, it seems like there will always be people who are unwilling to take this step and they are holding the world back from achieving global harmony.
i sort of agree, a henchman is a guy paid to hurt (like a bully who just attacks for no reason). so the song is about stopping the un-needed fighting, and if you do this others will surely follow. although, as the 2nd to last line says, this is very, very improbable. - Although a cold day in hell it will surely be...
"And when everyone else in the world follows your lead (Although a cold day in hell it will surely be)" is an interesting line. I still don't really get this song, but I agree with madcappunk.
This song seems to me to epitomize Bad Religion's main "message."
Don't be a henchman! Be yourself, don't just fall in line like the rest of humanity does. This song is kind of like Against The Grain, same basic message of thinking for yourself.
Stranded - you're in this on your own
Upbraided - you're in a bad situation with no way out
Henchmen - is a type of person who ignobly succumbs, bending to the will of this situation
Rise above this, stand for what you believe in the face of the world, and lift up mankind. Why? because it's the right thing to do.
This is - in some respects - my favourite Bad Religion song. It is a pithy expression of how best to approach life: don't be a lickspittle who pines for affirmation from others, a "good dog that sits and licks for its reward". Instead, be true to yourself, even if this disrupts your "struggle for acceptance". Ultimately, a life in which you can free yourself from the shackles of groupthink and the need for others' affirmation will lead you to greater achievements and self-satisfaction, and you will be able to "stand on your laurels" and set a positive example for others.
And are you true to yourself? Be honest.
Like others have noted, the idea is to not follow others, make your own way. I was recently reminded of this when reading Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra, when he suggests: "Flee into your solitude! You have lived too closely to the small and the pitiable. Flee from their invisible vengeance! Towards you they have nothing but vengeance. Do not raise an arm against them! They are innumerable and it is not your fate to be a fly-swatter" (On the Flies in the Marketplace)