The Isley Brothers' 1975 Song - "Fight the Power, Pts. 1 & 2" (with information, lyrics, & comments)

The song was sparked in a 1975 recording session in which guitarist Ernie Isley, inspired by the news, wrote two songs: "Fight the Power" and an anti-poverty ballad titled "Harvest for the World". The group ended up recording both songs on the same day and eventually picked "Fight the Power" as the song to release first. "Harvest" would be featured on the album of the same name and would be released as the first single off that album.

The song was written almost fully by Ernie Isley with additional instrumental background composition by the band's keyboardist Chris Jasper. After playing the track on his guitar to his older brothers, Ronnie, Rudy, and O'Kelly, the vocal trio cut a unison lead vocal track in one take. Ernie was taken aback that Ron had uttered "bullsh&t". When asked why he said the word, Ron simply replied, "because it needed to be said" and "it's what people want to hear."

The song reflected a negative opinion of authority figures, a feeling shared by all the band members, which can explain the intensified vocalizing by Ron, Rudy, and Kelly. Later, the trio added in the background chant, "fight it!" to merge in with the brothers' vocal ad-libbing near the end. Though the track had a unison lead style, onstage during performances, Ron Isley would sing the majority of the song with his older brothers chipping in during some parts...

Release

The song was released in May 1975 and became one of the group's most popular recordings, reaching #1 on the R&B singles chart and crossed over to the pop charts reaching #4 on the Billboard Hot 100.[1] Due to its strong dance flavor, the song was played heavily at dance clubs helping the song to land at #13 on Billboard's dance chart.[2] "Fight the Power" gave the brothers their first song to peak in the top 20 on three different charts.

The success of the song also helped its album, The Heat Is On, reach #1 on the pop chart. The song's lyric, "we gotta fight the powers that be", would be interpolated years later by rap group Public Enemy on their 1989 song of the same name.”…

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LYRICS: FIGHT THE POWER
(The Isley Brothers)

[Verse 1]

Time is truly wastin’, there’s no guarantee, yeah

Smile is in the makin’, we've got to fight the powers that be

Got so many voices, saying all the same, yeah

Killing up all around me, faces full of pain

[Refrain]

I tried to play my music, they say my music’s too loud

I tried talking about it, I got the big runaround

And when I rolled with the punches I got knocked on the ground

By all this bullsh&t* going down, hey

Verse 2]

Time is truly wastin’, there’s no guarantee, yeah

Smile is in the makin’, we got to fight the powers that be

I don’t understand it, people wanna say yeah

Those that got the answers, red tape in the way

I could tend to it easy, let’s just have some fun now, now

Seekin’ my satisfaction, keeps me on the run

[Refrain]

[Verse 3]

Time is truly wastin’, there’s no guarantee, yeah

Smile is in the makin’, we got to fight the powers that be

Fight it baby, yeah, woo, hey, even you and I can fight the power

Fight it, fight the power (repeat to end)


Online Source: https://genius.com/The-isley-brothers-fight-the-power-part-1-and-2-lyrics
-snip-
*This word is fully spelled out in these lyrics.

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SELECTED COMMENTS FROM THAT SOUND FILE'S DISCUSSION THREAD
(with numbers added for referencing purposes only)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QZvoOqUkqw&ab_channel=TheIsleyBrothersVEVO

2016
1. solomonsworld
"Before Crack.  You fought The Power with Soul."

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REPLY
2. Gidget Pompey, 2018
"solomonsworld yeah"

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REPLY
3. Robin Peavy, 2019
"Amen!"

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REPLY
4. Caroline Eubanks, 2019
"you aint neva lied"

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REPLY
5. Dougie Fresh, 2020
"thats a lot deeper then most people truly know"

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REPLY
6. James C. Lockwood, 2020
"The only thing crack did was make make you escape the power, temporarily.   Until  the man brought all the power down on you."

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2017
7. MELVIN T BRIDGEWATER
"This Song Has More Meaning Now Than Ever"

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8. Lisa Hill
"This is REAL MUSIC!!!"

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REPLY
9. mrmusic 248, 2018
"Lisa Hill: REAL MUSIC, played on REAL instruments, with NO AUTO TUNE !!!

In other words, it was the 70's."

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REPLY
10. B. J. Banditt, 2020
"COMPLETELY AGREED, Ms. Hill. As REAL as it gets!!!!!! Please continue 2 FIGHT THE POWER (A.K.A: COVID-19)!!!!!!"

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11. Rob M., 2017
"Such a powerful song that lyrics still ring true today !!!!"

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12. tucknodoogs
"Wow..these guys are the original gangsta rappers...and black lives matter protesters...I remember liking this song as a kid, now that I'm  57 I still like it but I guess I never realized the message in the music."

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REPLY
13. Spaneen Oomlong, 2018
"Gangsta Rappers?? Come on. More like Rock 'n Roll and Funk, especially with the guitar on the other songs on the album."

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14. gemini woman0
"funny, today after seeing all the protests across the country on fb this song came to mind that I heard as a youngster, I'm 55 now"

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15. Frank Marion
"Bad ASS Funk!"

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2018

16. Raul Green
"This bad funk & rock R&B song, make everybody fight the power."

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REPLY
17. B. J. Banditt
"Mr. Green; I SALUTE U!!!!!! Please bear in mind that the Isley Brothers gave Jimi Hendrix his biggest break in his music career; w/o the Isley Brothers, there's no Jimi Hendrix whatsoever. Hence, y the Isley Brothers r Rock & Roll HOFers (& deservedly so). The Isley Brothers r TRUE MUSIC PIONEERS!!!!!"
-snip-
"HOF"= Hall of Fame

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18. joseph overmyer
"Sisters and Brothers DO NOT GIVE UP"

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REPLY
19. Ced Bigby, 2019
"Were not✌Thanks"

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REPLY
20. Vanessa Anderson, 2020
"AMEN"

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21. ken zuck
"Funk at its best. As a kid in 70's - I loved a lot music. This song  and the group - One of the best."

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REPLY
22. B. J. Banditt, 2020
"Ken: u r so SPOT-ON!!!!!! The song (& its title) SPEAKS 4 ITSELF!!!!!"

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23. Mr Maxxx
"a black national anthem to stand up for,back in the day when not only was the music funky,however you got real talk,the isley Brothers got anthems for ya mind,spirit,soul and music that speaks to the African soul,all the racism,black folks being killed by the police still dealing with Jim Crow tendencies.stay woke"

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24. Nicole Sylvester
"Funky beat and the lyrics are are sooooo real for the current times. Time is TRULY WASTING!!!! STANUP AND FIGHT IT!!!! Together we got the power✊🏾👍🏾 Rip, Trevon Martin, Sandra Bland Ezell Ford Eric Garner John Crawford Michael Brown and all others I didn't mention. 1 luv💕 Fight The Powers That Be and all this Bullsh&t going down 👮🏻 feel me. ✌🏾"

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2019
25. Troy Ellis
"Quinky Dink- I shared this FLASHBACK JAM with a coworker; and he surprisingly told me he was incarcerated with Ronnie Isley in a federal prison in the state of Indiana known back then as the " Gladiator " prison . He said Ronnie's cellmate was a known gangmember of an infamous Chicago gang . It's a small world !"

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26. Phil McCarthy
"Lead off track on one of the greatest  albums of all time . Searing funk on side 1 and liquid love ballads on side 2. The Isley's were on top of their game at this time and only the GO FOR YOUR GUNS album from '77 is at the same level. Either way 44 years later this is still as fresh and funky and soulful as it was in '75 ."

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REPLY
27. Lisa Whitfield, 2020
"Amen."

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28. KELINA AYERS
I can recall when this song was so hot off the wax and the tracks,
The dances started with the Hustle. Then they called it "The Bus Stop".
Then they renamed it "The Electric Slide". 
But I forget what dances they are doing now, Wow, but those were "The Good Old Days".
"When life was simple""Life was good" with great fun and excitement
great night clubs, concerts to attend throughout the summer 24/7 ---365 of the
Well it's great to have youtube.com & Pandora to listen to occassionally
& reminisce about the "good times".
Wow why did they have to go.
-snip-
This comment was written in all Caps except for the words "youtube.com".

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29. Basil Shahiyd
"Baddest tune they ever did..

Second to none!!!"

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30. Kenneth Scott
"I was born in 1979 ,and this song has it's own meaning for being Black that society will never understand until they attempt to walk in our shoes thru it all. They wont so manifest this power within! That's what black means excellence through adversity. BLACK LUV 4EVER!"

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31. Christopher Hayes
"Part II when they really started fighting the power if your BLACK POWER FIST ain’t in the air for the whole time while you nodding your head u don’t have a soul"

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2020
32. steven strube
"SERIOUS SOUNDS OF THE 70"s !!!!!!!!!!!"

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33. lessly carthan
"This so funky i had to take another shower after getting out the shower"

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34. A Smith "The lyrics in this song from the 1970's applies to the systemic racist atrocities happening in America at this very moment!  Which shows very little has changed all these years in improving race relations in this country.  In fact, it's gotten worse in my opinion.   This song should be played by major-city deejays everyday!   A shame what was relevant in the 70's, is still relevant today!  Fight the power by withholding that almighty dollar bill.  That would make a heck of an impact!!!!!!

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36. Ray Lopez
"Junior high school late 70s early 70s homegirl’s homeboys doing the soul train line throwing the signs up in the air good times"

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37. Jeffrey Chandler
"Wow, I can intensely remember this deep poignant (political song) summer of 1975. I was fresh out of HS. The message among my peers at that time, to "fight the power".  What a time it was, we did not have the tech like today. The essential and prime ingredient was unity among all people. I certainly hope and pray that the young people representative of today will " fight the power".  The world that they are inheriting is far complex and difficult, compared to what we had to deal with in 1975."

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38. Phyllis Hansen
"the drummer on this record did awesome job

Such a powerful song that lyrics still ring true today !!!!

This bad funk & rock R&B song, make everybody fight the power."

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39. Vanessa Anderson
"2020 STILL FIGHTING THE POWER"

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40. Madison Manning
"Sisters and Brothers DO NOT GIVE UP

you gotta fight the powers that be!

The most right on tune that I can think of to truly express my thoughts about the times we live in"

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41. Kar Lar
"And here we go again. But this music got us through back then"

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42. TollFree999
"The song that inspired Chuck D and Public Enemy!"

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REPLY
43. Sea Pea
"I just learned about it from Chuck D on Vlad TV."

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44. Campbell Young
"Not surprising that the PE interpretation overshadows this track historically, but this is a STROOOOONG tune. Can't believe I haven't heard it til now. Maybe I did? I had a Best Of cassette from the Isleys in the mid 90's, which I've since lost, but I don't remember this tune sticking out.... I'm here cuz Chuck D shouted this tune out in the recent DJ Vlad interview..."

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45. Travel with Tal
"I was Raised with my Fist in the Air and this Song on the Record player!"

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46. James Anderson
"This song is even more relevant now than it was in 1975 "

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