One theme that appeared many times (at least on the tapes I had) was the plight of the Native American. Lets take a look at some of these songs of the era that introduced listeners to U.S. history in a way that a text book never could. After all, everyone knows that history is much more awesome with double bass, shredding guitar solos, spandex and Aqua-Net.
Iron Maiden - Run to the Hills
Easily the most well known of the songs we'll be looking at today, Iron Maiden's "Run to the Hills" is still a staple of their live show today. Lyrically, it is written from the perspective of both the invading white men as well as the Natives and alternates between the two. It uses this to illustrate the cowardly and inhumane treatment from the invaders. The British metal bohemoths are the masters of the galloping rhythm, which definately helps audibly illustrate the clashing horseback battles between the invaders and native soldiers. The video itself is made to be more humorous than you might expect given the lyrics and subject... But that was probably a wise move as if they were to take a more dramatic approach it could have easily backfired. Plus, they probably had to stick with stock footage in between the performance shots in order to keep the budget down.
Europe - Cherokee
Swedish rockers Europe had some pretty awesome subjects on their 1987 album "The Final Countdown". The opening title track was about rockets and space and shit, plus later they dive into "Ninja" (try to guess what that one is about) and of course "Cherokee". As discussed in my review of Wings of Tomorrow, deep and articulate lyrics are not one of Europe's many strengths. "Cherokee" is no exception, but they do go into a bit more detail than Iron Maiden did. The song talks about the white men invading to search for gold, and then forcing the tribe on the Trail of Tears. Even in a watered down elementary school textbook, even a youngster like me could tell this was obviously one of the most awful and shameful events of American history... I don't think this song quite had the emotional impact of even those textbooks. I still wouldn't call the song itself horrible, but the video.... yeah, that is horrible.
Anthrax - Indians
Now that we've looked at two songs and videos written by European bands, let's see how an American band stands up. Anthrax seemed to be taking on more and more social problems in their songs on Among the Living (in between songs about Stephen King books and comics). It's worth noting that lead singer Joey Belladonna is also of Native descent. Unlike the first two songs we looked at, I don't believe that this one was released as a single. Even if it was, it's not like Anthrax was getting a lot of radio or video play back then... What I do remember is that at the time I listened to it, Among the Living was the heaviest and fastest shit I had ever heard. "Indians" is definately the heaviest of the songs we're looking at today. Rather than just looking at the past, the lyrics are more focused on the treatment of modern Natives with lines such as "Original American / Turned into a second class citizen". While not considered a classic like "Run to the Hills", this song talks about racism and lack of equal treatment in the world of today, rather than just look back at what happened centuries ago.
White Lion - Cherokee
For the last song today we'll look at one from White Lion. The original version was on their little known debut "Fight to Survive" but the acoustic version is cooler. Color me surprised, but somehow Danish singer Mike Tramp came up with some articulate, perhaps even poetic lyrics! While not exactly breaking new thematic ground, Tramp actually uses the images of smoke, lightning, flame, blood and the moon to actually add some emotion to the song. Wow! This song does focus on past injustices rather than the modern day treatment of Natives. But at least it isn't painfully ignorant, and you can tell that Tramp was trying to not just talk about the past but to try to describe the world in a way that a Native might. It comes off as much more effective than just reading a couple paragraphs in history book, making it rhyme and calling it good.
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So what have we learned today? Perhaps, good intentions aside, some metallers of the 80's might have done better to stick to the subjects they knew rather than try to take on one of the most painful subjects in American history. Particularly in the lyrics, they can come of as a bit simplistic or even juvenile. I don't think that they could be considered particularly offensive, in that their intent was certainly not to glorify racism or inequal treatment.
It seems like back in the day everyone wanted to at least have one song that they could point to and say "See, we're about more than just partying and girls!" In the 80's that the Native American's plight was given a lot more attention in the media than it is today. You certainly don't see this many songs written on the subject anymore... most likely because it just isn't given the media attention that it once did. As a whole, with a few exceptions, I think most mainstream artists these days will just keep their mouths shut rather than risk offending anyone or being misinterpreted. Not to say that these songs would have been controversial when they were released... I think these would have been more the modern equivelent of writing a song about an oil spill or animal abuse. Sure, it's an issue that is in the news, people are concerned with, and it may even have political connotations, but you stand very little risk of saying anything that anyone would disagree with.
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