Official Standing Rock website
UPDATE: Neil Young responds to criticism that the song refers to Native American women as "squaws" after several people informed him online that this term is considered offensive:
"Thanks for bringing the word squaw to my attention. I will change it as soon as I can get back into the studio. I mean no offense. I will replace squaw with 'beautiful'."
UPDATE TO THE UPDATE: Looks like the video has now (temporarily???) vanished from Neil Young's Facebook page and elsewhere...
UPDATE TO THE UPDATE OF THE UPDATE: The video is back now (see above). "Squaw" has been replaced by "beautiful".
Meanwhile, check out this Democracy Now video about the Struggle at Standing Rock or read about it here....
As for "Indian Giver (Share The News)" - Not a bad song. I wish the video would have more footage of the protests and less footage of the headless woman's chest with the PROTECT T-shirt but that's just me.
Was just thinking, hey this is the guy that wrote, recorded, and released "Ohio" in 1970, about two and a half weeks after the May 4 Massacre at Kent State University in Ohio, where four young anti-Vietnam war protesters were killed.
An interesting analysis of the song is here.
Tin soldiers and Nixon coming,
We're finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in Ohio.
Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?
Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?
Tin soldiers and Nixon coming,
We're finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in Ohio.
There is probably no way for us today to appreciate how powerful it was to hear this song on the radio a few weeks after the tragedy. Of course in the days of the folk revivals of the 1950's and 60's, there were several singers who sang "topical" songs, ripped from the headlines, as it were. Many folkies were purists, only wanting to sing or hear traditional songs, but others saw folk music as the perfect form of "agit-prop" - agitation and propaganda.
Bob Dylan mastered the form, producing such classics as "Who Killed Davey Moore?" and "The Death Of Emmett Till", largely based on contemporary news accounts.
Those who have come before have shown us how it's done.
Let the artists of today take this example and produce great songs on important issues that make people think and encourages them to take action!
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