Pocahontas (song)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
"Pocahontas"
Song by Neil Young and Crazy Horse
from the album Rust Never Sleeps
ReleasedJuly 2, 1979 (1979-07-02)
Recorded1976
GenreFolk rock
Length3:22
LabelReprise
Songwriter(s)Neil Young
Producer(s)

"Pocahontas" is a song written by Neil Young that was first released on his 1979 album

Trampled By Turtles, and Ian McNabb
.

History

Young originally recorded a version of "Pocahontas" in the mid-1970s for his planned but unreleased album

Hitchhiker
. The same recording, with additional overdubs, was released on Rust Never Sleeps.

Young may have been inspired to write the song after reading

The Bridge, which Young read in London in 1971.[3] The seventeenth-century Indigenous heroine Matoaka (white name, Pocahontas) is a central character in The Bridge.[3]

Commentators over the years have noted the song's similarity to Carole King's "He's a Bad Boy."[4]

In the 1992 Live in Chicago, PBS Centerstage video, Neil explains that he wrote the song shortly after the 45th Academy Awards ceremony in which Marlon Brando refused his Oscar and had a Native American actress, Sacheen Littlefeather, speak on his behalf, because he was protesting the portrayal of Native Americans in film; hence the references to Marlon Brando and the closing lyric “Marlon Brando, Pocahontas and me.” [citation needed] [see 17:45 mark in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ED-VCe2CbMU]

Lyrics and music

Rolling Stone contributing editor Rob Sheffield finds "Pocahontas" to be "an agonizingly lonely ballad."[5] The themes of "Pocahontas" include passage of time, travel through space and companionship.[6] Rolling Stone critic Paul Nelson claims that "Young sails through time and space like he owns them."[7] The lyrics of "Pocahontas" primarily describe the massacre of an indigenous tribe by European colonizers.[3][8] However, by the end of the song the lyrics have jumped to modern times, with a fictional meeting in the Astrodome between the narrator, Pocahontas (actual name, Matoaka) and indigenous rights activist actor Marlon Brando.[3] Rolling Stone author Andy Greene describes the song as a "surreal journey through time from the 17th century" to modern times.[2]

"Pocahontas" begins with an image that evokes "a cold breeze whistling by":[9]

Aurora borealis

The icy sky at night
Paddles cut the water
In a long and hurried flight

It then describes the massacre.[8][9] According to music critic Johnny Rogan, Young describes the tragedy with restraint.[8] The narrator appears to be in the middle of the situation with the word "us" in the lines "They killed us in our teepee," but then undercuts that appearance with the lines "They might have left some babies/Cryin' on the ground."[8] Rogan discusses the disorientating effect of these lines. While the tragedy is described in the first person, the word "might" also creates a more disinterested tone.[8] The listener is also unsure whether to be relieved that the soldiers might have shown some small degree of mercy to these babies, or whether to feel even greater anger that the defenseless babies were left to probably die slowly out in the open.[8] According to Rogan, Young's "casual" delivery adds to the horror even more.[8]

The time period fast forwards, moving from the settlers massacring the buffalo to a bank on the corner in a single line, and then to the present day where the narrator sits in his room with an indigenous rug and a "pipe to share."[7][8] The following verse then provides a flashback, which Nelson calls "so loony and moving that you don't know whether to laugh or cry," and challenges the listener to try to reduce that verse to a single emotion:[7]

I wish I was a trapper
I would give a thousand

pelts

To sleep with Pocahontas
And find out how she felt
In the mornin' on the fields of green
In the homeland we've never seen.

Nelson and others have commented on the effect of the "bawdy pun" on sleeping with Matoaka to "find out how she felt."

surrealistic twist", in the last verse the narrator sits with Matoaka and Marlon Brando, discussing Hollywood and major modern technological milestones from the mid-1900s such as the Astrodome and the first television .[7][10]

In 1973 Marlon Brando chose not to accept his Oscar award for Best Actor for his role in "The Godfather." He refused to take the stage in protest of Hollywood's often derogatory and racist portrayal of Native Americans in film. Instead, he sent Native American actress Sacheen Littlefeather to attend the ceremony in his place. On stage, she read a statement by Brando condemning the entertainment industry for their mockery of Native Americans.[11]

Young accompanies himself on

Allmusic critic Matthew Greenwald describes the song as having a "strong folk/country melody.[6] According to Greene, the melody borrows from Carole King's 1963 song "He's a Bad Boy."[2]

Critical reception

Rolling Stone critic Nelson describes "Pocahontas" as being "simply amazing, and nobody but Neil Young could have written it."

Beaver County Times compared it unfavorably to Young's earlier song about European conquest of the Indians, "Cortez the Killer," in that the lyrics do not match the "brilliant, melancholy and haunting" quality of the earlier song, nor is Young's guitar playing as evocative.[12] But music critic Robert Christgau counters that due to the "offhand complexity of the lyrics...'Pocahantas' makes 'Cortez the Killer' seem like a tract."[13] Critic Dave Marsh claimed that Young "found an amusing new way to tackle his romanticized fantasies of the Indians."[14] Jim Sullivan of Bangor Daily News calls "Pocahontas" "the most intriguing song" of Rust Never Sleeps.[10] A readers' poll conducted by Rolling Stone named "Pocahontas" to be Young's 6th greatest "deep cut."[2]

Other appearances

Live versions of "Pocahontas" were included on Young's 1993 album Unplugged and 1997 album Year of the Horse.[15] Everclear covered the song on their 2008 album The Vegas Years.[16] Emily Loizeau covered the song on her 2005 album L' Autre Bout Du Monde.[17] Gillian Welch covered the song on The Revelator Collection.[18]

Allmusic critic Thom Jurek called Cash's version "visionary" and a "sage read."[19] Entertainment Weekly critic David Browne described it as a "quasi-psychedelic" take on Young's already surreal song.[20]

Canadian folk-rock group

Borrowed Tunes
, a tribute to Neil Young.

See also

References

  1. ISBN 978-1617130373
    .
  2. ^
    Rolling Stone Magazine
    . Retrieved 2018-10-04.
  3. ^
    ISBN 9780879307417
    .
  4. ^ Greene, Andy (3 June 2015). "Readers' Poll: The 10 Best Neil Young Deep Cuts". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 13 January 2015.
  5. ISBN 978-0743201698
    .
  6. ^
    Allmusic
    . Retrieved 2013-08-17.
  7. ^ a b c d e f Nelson, P. (October 18, 1979). "Rust Never Sleeps". Rolling Stone. pp. 72–76. Retrieved 2012-07-31.
  8. ^
    ISBN 978-0711953994
    .
  9. ^
    ISBN 9780275999025
    .
  10. ^ a b c Sullivan, J. (July 23, 1979). "New Neil Young Album Hits Target". Bangor Daily News. p. 42. Retrieved 2013-08-17.
  11. ^ "Marlon Brando declines Best Actor Oscar".
  12. Beaver County Times
    . p. C-14. Retrieved 2013-08-17.
  13. ^ Christgau, R. "Neil Young". www.robertchristgau.com. Retrieved 2013-09-17.
  14. ISBN 978-0394721071
    .
  15. Allmusic
    . Retrieved 2013-08-17.
  16. Allmusic
    . Retrieved 2013-08-17.
  17. Allmusic
    . Retrieved 2013-08-17.
  18. Allmusic
    . Retrieved 2013-08-17.
  19. ^
    Allmusic
    . Retrieved 2013-08-17.
  20. ^ Browne, D. "Unearthed". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2013-08-17.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pocahontas_(song)&oldid=1144278263"