Fight The Good Fight

Album: Allied Forces (1981)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Triumph was the Canadian power trio of singer/guitarist Rik Emmett, bass player Mike Levine, and singer/drummer Gil Moore. "Fight The Good Fight" is a band composition with lyrics by Emmett, who was inspired by his aunt, who was dying of cancer. "What can you tell someone who is facing the last challenge of this life?" he said in a Songfacts interview. "Or - what will you tell yourself? If you're in a rock band called Triumph, what message can you share with the people listening to a song on the radio, or standing on their chairs, out in an arena? Everyone gets to decide what their own 'good' fight will be, but everyone should be encouraged to discover it, and do it."
  • The themes of this song are resilience and persistence. Emmett says it's about "finding a calling when things get bleak."
  • The title is a biblical reference culled from 2 Timothy: 4:7 when St. Paul says, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."

    Paul wrote the letter while he was in a Roman prison for two years at a time when Christians were being persecuted under the reign of Emperor Nero. Knowing he'd most likely die for his faith, he was comforted by the fact that he "fought the good fight." (He was executed not long after, probably around 67 AD.)
  • Triumph was at the peak of their powers around this time - the Allied Forces album was a million-seller in America and also very popular in their native Canada. They didn't adapt well to the MTV era (there was no video for this song) and fell off in the mid-'80s. They fractured in 1989, with Emmett launching a successful solo career.

Comments: 4

  • El from ArizonaAnother gem from our neighbors to the Great White North, Eh?
  • Teddie from FloridaI loved Triumph’s music and Fight the Good Fight is an evergreen song! It is a song for everyone, one generation after another. I recently played it for my grandson and granddaughter. It means even more to me now after reading what inspired the song.
  • Dan Gillespy. from Courtenay Bc.1 good hard rocking underrated song.
  • Patrick Longworth from Okanagan Falls, British Columbia, CanadaThey didn't adapt well, yet were the ones suggesting the use of video to promote the band? I think their label was at fault, not the band. I love this song.
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Bill Withers

Bill WithersSongwriter Interviews

Soul music legend Bill Withers on how life experience and the company you keep leads to classic songs like "Lean On Me."

Curt Kirkwood of Meat Puppets

Curt Kirkwood of Meat PuppetsSongwriter Interviews

The (Meat)puppetmaster takes us through songs like "Lake Of Fire" and "Backwater," and talks about performing with Kurt Cobain on MTV Unplugged.

Song Cities

Song CitiesMusic Quiz

Nirvana, Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen are among those who wrote songs with cities that show up in this quiz.

John Lee Hooker

John Lee HookerSongwriter Interviews

Into the vaults for Bruce Pollock's 1984 conversation with the esteemed bluesman. Hooker talks about transforming a Tony Bennett classic and why you don't have to be sad and lonely to write the blues.

Tom Waits Lyrics Quiz

Tom Waits Lyrics QuizMusic Quiz

Pool balls, magpies and thorns without roses - how well do you know your Tom Waits lyrics?

Chris Rea

Chris ReaSongwriter Interviews

It took him seven years to recover from his American hit "Fool (If You Think It's Over)," but Chris Rea became one of the top singer-songwriters in his native UK.