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When they come from the over the mountain
Yeah we'll run we'll run right around them
We've got no guns no we don't have any weapons
Just our corn and the children
The dust runs, the dark clouds, but not us, but not us
While we pay for mistakes with no meaning
All your gifts and all your peace is deceiving
And still I pay dissolves with believing
That peace comes, their peace comes, that peace comes, their peace comes
Now that our bones lay buried below us
Just like stones pressed into the earth
Well we ain't known by no one before us
And we begin with this one little birth
That grows on, that grows on, that grows on, that grows on
Crippled crow, say something for grieving
Where do we go
Once we start leaving?
Well close that wound
Or else keep on bleeding
And change your tune
It's got no meaning
Yeah we'll run we'll run right around them
We've got no guns no we don't have any weapons
Just our corn and the children
The dust runs, the dark clouds, but not us, but not us
While we pay for mistakes with no meaning
All your gifts and all your peace is deceiving
And still I pay dissolves with believing
That peace comes, their peace comes, that peace comes, their peace comes
Now that our bones lay buried below us
Just like stones pressed into the earth
Well we ain't known by no one before us
And we begin with this one little birth
That grows on, that grows on, that grows on, that grows on
Crippled crow, say something for grieving
Where do we go
Once we start leaving?
Well close that wound
Or else keep on bleeding
And change your tune
It's got no meaning
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All your gifts and all your peace is deceiving"
That statement rings very true to me.
I think the song is just kinda saying, Relax, all your sins dont really matter, just be peaceful and we'll all be ok.
1) Devendra sings "cornmeal" not "corn"...in the line "Just our cornmeal and the children."
2) "Still I pay...." should read "Still our pay..." 'Pay' is clearly a noun here, not a verb.
3) "their peace comes..." should read "...that peace comes..." "They" in this song is the white man; "our" "us" "we" is the non-defined Native American Indian tribe depicted in the song.
4) "Well close that wound" would be a command (from the narrator to the Indian community). It makes more sense for him to say "We'll close that wound" which is a sort of description of a plan, much less of a command.
As for the song, it's an eloquent, moving song about the exploitation of Native Americans. The song is from the point of view of a Native American knowing that some white men have arrived at the outskirts of their small settlement, and is a description of what this Indian thinks about this. The listener hears him think out loud. There are a number of direct references to Native Americans: cornmeal, no guns, gifts and peace is deceiving, believing that peace comes, grieving, and the most obvious one of all: Crippled Crow...a Native American Indian name if there ever was one...and not only that, it's clear that these words refer to a person...it's a name of someone. Check out this link for a direct quote from Devendra about what he was reading when writing these songs:
jambase.com/Articles/11897/…
Also you left out the last line in the song. It's kind of important.
Well close that womb
Or else keep on bleeding
And change your tune
It's got no meaning
Crippled crow, say something for grieving
Where do we go
Once we start leaving?
Well close that wound
Or else keep on bleeding
And change your tune
It's got no meaning
I don't think he would say "close that womb." It doesn't really fit with the rest of the song, as there is no mention of childbirth in there.
Secondly, the song is definitely about pacifism, not the history of American Indians. If you listen to the rest of the album, there are all kinds of anti-war statements. I think he's talking more about the present than the past.
So he says "We've got no guns, no we don't have any weapons." The American Indians had guns and had weapons. Sure they were outgunned in the vast majority of the conflicts, but they fought. There were massacres, but there were also battles.
I think the Cripple Crow reference could be to any number of things. Whatever it is, my guess is that it's something specific, not a convoluted metaphor for American Indians.
AHAH! Native Americans. XP
I just love it.
I think the name 'cripple crow' suggest a crow that can't fly. Something that could once do something great, but has since gotten that gift taken away from them.
So, in a sense, the native american people themselves are the cripple crow.
The song, then, is about how the settlers pushed them back over and over. Forcing them into smaller and smaller plots of land. MAking treaties and breaking them (all your gifts and all your peace is deceiving)
(were do we go once we start leaving) is like... what now? Devendra is asking what there is left to do now that their old way of life is essentially completely destroyed. I Agree that its about Peace... but i also thing its hinting at pacifism alone doesn't solve all problems because its openly admitting that it didn't really work.