«Rise Up»: История песни-гимна свободы и борьбы за авторские права.

Song from Parachute Club

According to Segato, the song was not written with any one individual group in mind, but as a universal anthem of freedom and equality; Fernie described the song's lyrics as having been inspired in part by West Coast First Nations rituals in which young girls would "rise up" at dawn to adopt their adult names as a rite of passage. It remains the band's most famous song, and has been adopted as an activist anthem for causes as diverse as gay rights, feminism, anti racism and the New Democratic Party. As well, the song's reggae and soca influenced rhythms made it the first significant commercial breakthrough for Caribbean music in Canada. The song's first ever live public performance took place at the 1983 Toronto Pride parade. Its video, directed by Robert Fresco, was a nominee for Video of the Year. In 2005, the CBC Radio series 50 Tracks: The Canadian Version, based on nominations by panelists and listeners, semi final elimination votes among songs from the same decade and a final national vote to rank the top 50, selected "Rise Up" as number 44 of the 50 most essential songs in Canadian popular music history. It is also included in Oh What A Feeling: A Vital Collection of Canadian Music (MCA Records, 1996).

In 1998, the song was licensed by EMI Music Canada to McCain Foods for a television commercial for its line of frozen rising crust pizzas. Members of Parachute Club publicly opposed this commercial use of the song and commenced a legal action for breach of copyright against EMI Music Canada and McCain Foods. A spokesperson for EMI Music Canada stated that "the contract allows us to license the song in all commercials and films except for political endorsements, religious messages and X rated motion pictures, so we had no reason to believe that they would object." While the position of EMI Music Canada concerned economic rights, the music publisher had overlooked the concept of "moral rights" recognized as being protected under Canadian copyright law. While EMI Music Canada had been granted the right to license the song, band members had the moral right to prevent its association with a product that brought their reputation into disrepute. In a news release issued at the time of the commencement of the litigation, band members stated that "[a]s a result of its use on the ad  the song, the people who believe in it and the reputation of its creators have suffered damage within the sphere of public credibility and our personal reputations". The action was settled before trial, with the result that band members were able to recover from EMI Music Canada all the band members' music publishing rights.

In his 2003 run for the leadership of the federal New Democratic Party, Jack Layton, a longtime friend of the band and a childhood friend of Bryans, asked Segato for permission to use "Rise Up" in his campaign. "Over the years," said Segato, "many political parties have either used or wanted to use the song 'Rise Up' for their campaign. Most of the time, they don't ask. They just use it until you say no. Well, Jack asked to use our song and I said, Forget it, we'll write you your own anthem." Segato, with Richard Underhill and Lynne Fernie, subsequently penned a new campaign song, "Bringing All the Voices Together", for Layton. While distinct in music and lyrics, it was identified as something of a sequel to "Rise Up"; in addition to broadly thematic similarities, the song's lyrics directly alluded to the original song's announcement that "it's time for celebration". She had also performed the song at Layton's 1988 wedding to Olivia Chow. The film, which stars Rick Roberts as Layton, also reenacts a real life occasion in which Layton led a staff singalong of the song on the NDP's campaign tour bus.