The Hands That Thieve
2013 | Punk
“I will never defend the men who make amends with any enemy's friends, I will never pretend. — I will never bow down to another man even when everyone's sayin' I've sinned, I will never repent.”
Trivia
- Streetlight Manifesto is a ska-punk band from New Brunswick, New Jersey founded by former members of Catch 22.
- Kalnocky found himself at the end of a $1,000,000 suit from Victory Records over failure to meet contractual obligations.
- Kalnocky cited the Stand By Me soundtrack as his inspiration for writing for the band.
- The songs were historically written on acoustic guitar and arranged digitally with Kalnocky humming the horn parts himself as scratch tracks.
THE HOT TAKES
Luke Tatum
Never pretend. Never bow down. Never repent. This is my kind of punk music! A bit of prog influence, a bit of a ballad...juicy. I can't quite nail down any specific moral lessons from the overall story, but there is a certain element of transformation that the characters undergo. The fact that the king becomes a tramp, plus the righteous refrain gives this one a solid "Liberty" seal of approval.
Sherry Voluntary
Thieves, kings, priests, tramps, and you. Only perspective makes a difference in how people differentiate between one another. All men, though, are equal, all have the same rights that are endowed to every human. No man need bow to another, no man need consent to being ruled, whether by government or religion. We all have the right to walk the world along our different paths, seeking those things that we choose based on our own needs and desires. This is self ownership, the foundation of all libertarian thought.
Nicky P
This song to me stands as a treatise to follow your heart when it tells you something is wrong. Don’t condone bullshit because it’s popular. There‘s no need to build up elaborate ethical systems with heirarchys of individuals with different sets of moral expectations. We have overcomplicated being human by trying to create a specisl section of society that has different morallity. As we look out at the attrocities committed by our government on our behalf is it really that surprising? We sllow them to be sole arbiters of justice on us, why wouldnt thry ectrapolate? Evidence tells them everything they need to know.