From the White Man to the Fields of Green

Thinking about Columbus Day yesterday, my thoughts kept returning to what Columbus’ accidental discovery of America in 1492 hath wrought: Thanksgiving, the American Revolution, the Declaration of Independence, the Gettysburg Address, Goldman Sachs, the Empire State Building, The Godfather, Weekend at Bernie’s, Pizza Hut, Ashton Kutcher’s Twitter feed, Red Bull and American Spirit Lights, among other things.

Fortunately, it also brought us Neil Young’s “Pocahontas,” a brilliant, beautiful song that manages to encapsulate the full sweep of the North American saga in only a few minutes.

Neil Young - Pocahontas - Bridge 24.10.2004.dkly`
by Superpatri

After describing the rape of the Native American land and its people, Neil quick-cuts to modern times where he sits in his tiny urban apartment hundreds of years later, the legacy of the Natives a mere footnote:
They massacred the buffalo
Kitty corner from the bank
The taxis run across my feet
And my eyes have turned to blanks
In my little box at the top of the stairs
With my indian rug and a pipe to share

The real-life Pocahontas was a fun-loving Indian girl who in 1607 saved the life of a colonial settler named John Smith, earning the respect and friendship of the white man. She married another Englishman named John Rolfe and died in 1617. In the last verse of his song, Neil imagines what Pocahontas would be up to were she alive in 1970s America:
And maybe Marlon Brando
Will be there by the fire
We'll sit and talk of Hollywood
And the good things there for hire
And the Astrodome and the first tepee
Marlon Brando, Pocahontas and me

Marlon Brando's Oscar® win for " The Godfather"
by WhiteWolf-Cree

Like many of Neil's tunes, "Pocahontas" was kicking around for a few years before it debuted on his masterpiece Rust Never Sleeps in 1979. It has been a staple of his live shows ever since, usually in a haunting solo 12-string version. This year however, Neil been playing a thrilling electric version:


"Pocahontas" is a bona-fide North American classic, and many have taken a crack at the song over the years, including Johnny Cash, who recorded it during his sessions with Rick Rubin near the end of his life.


Perhaps the best of the covers is by Americana darlings Gillian Welch & David Rawlings.