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A conceptual piece which is intended to pay homage to the culture of the native American peoples and was also stimulated by Indian Sunset, my favourite Bernie Talpin song from the 1970s Elton John album "Madman Across the Water" (His best album in my view). Here are some of the lyrics:
Indian Sunset
As I awoke this evening
with the smell of wood smoke clinging
Like a gentle cobweb hanging
upon a painted tepee
Oh I went to see my chieftain
with my warlance and my woman
For he told us that the Yellow Moon
would very soon be leaving
"This I can't believe I said,
I can't believe
our warlord's dead
Oh he would not leave the chosen ones
to the buzzards and the soldiers guns"
"Oh great father of the Iroquois
ever since I was young
I've read the writing of the smoke
and breast fed on the sound of drums
I've learned to hurl the tomahawk
and ride a painted pony wild
To run the gauntlet of the Sioux,
to make a chieftain's daughter mine"
"And now you ask that I should watch
The red man's race be slowly crushed
What kind of words are these to hear
From Yellow Dog whom white man fears"
"I take only what is mine Lord,
my pony, my squaw, and my child
I can't stay to see you die along
with my tribe's pride
I go to search for the Yellow Moon
and the fathers of our sons
Where the red sun
sinks in the hills of gold
and the healing waters run"
"Trampling down the prairie rose
leaving hoof tracks in the sand
Those who wish to follow me
I welcome with my hands
I heard from passing renegades
Geronimo was dead
He'd been laying down his weapons
when they filled him full of lead"
"Now there seems no reason
why I should carry on
In this land that once was my land
I can't find a home
It's lonely and it's cold"
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