Rise (Public Image Ltd song)

"Rise" is a song by the English post-punk band Public Image Ltd, released as a single on 20 January 1986 by Virgin Records. It was the first single from Album, their fifth studio album.

The song was written by John Lydon and Bill Laswell about apartheid in South Africa, specifically about Nelson Mandela as Lydon stated in a 2013 Glastonbury interview. Lydon also referred to alleged Royal Ulster Constabulary interrogation techniques, such as electric torture, in an MTV interview in 1987. It was one of the group's biggest commercial hits, peaking at #11 on the UK Singles Chart. The song contains the phrase 'may the road rise with you', which is a direct translation of the old Irish blessing "go n-éirí an bóthar leat" (usually translated as "may the road rise up to meet you"). The phrase "anger is an energy" became the title of Lydon's 2014 autobiography.

Recording
Contributors on the song include Steve Vai on guitar, Tony Williams on drums, Bill Laswell on fretless bass, and L. Shankar on violin.

Tom Doyle of Sound on Sound said: "[Sound engineer Jason Cosaro] ...set Williams up at the bottom of The Power Station’s elevator shaft, both close- and distance-miking the kit to create the distinctive drum sound on "Rise" in particular: Shure SM58 on the snare, Sennheiser MD 421s on the toms and Neumann U47 FETs for the ambience." Bill Laswell recalled: “Myself and [guitarist] Nicky [Skopelitis] played in the control room... and everything was a first take. We were using the Fairlight [CMI] computer as a kind of click track, and on the piece that became "Rise", Tony dropped a beat and we went back and dropped in this one beat. Otherwise I thought it was cool to be able to say everything was a first take."

Legacy
"Rise" was featured in the films The Rules of Attraction (2002), The Promotion (2008), Remarkable Power (2008), and Body Brokers (2021). It was also played during credits of the seventh episode of the second season of 13 Reasons Why.

Liam Howlett of the Prodigy included it on his instalment of the Back to Mine mix album series.

Cover versions
The song was covered by:
 * Australian industrial metal band Jerk on their debut album When Pure Is Defiled (2003)
 * Tripping Daisy on the EP Time Capsule (1997)
 * Ade Edmondson's folk band the Bad Shepherds' on the debut studio album Yan, Tyan, Tethera, Methera! (2009)
 * Brazilian rock band Legião Urbana on the Acústico MTV live album and DVD
 * English rock supergroup Love Amongst Ruin as a free download in July 2012
 * Australian controversialist Kirin J. Callinan on his third solo studio album Return to Centre (2019)

Personnel
Public Image Ltd with:
 * John Lydon – lead vocals
 * Steve Vai – guitar
 * Ryuichi Sakamoto – Fairlight CMI
 * Bill Laswell – fretless bass
 * Tony Williams – drums
 * L. Shankar – violin

When it was performed on Top of the Pops (TOTP), Lydon was accompanied by Don Letts of Big Audio Dynamite (BAD), Kevin Armstrong and Hugo Burnham of Gang of Four, amongst others.