Monday 25 November 2013

Alternative Lyrics to Well Known Songs 13 - The Wild Frontier

[Pre-amble: This is one in a series of posts which includes an alternative set of lyrics to a well known song.  Each post will also contain a short introduction to the topic at hand, and a brief explanation of the song itself.  A video of the original song will be included so that the reader can listen to the original song while reciting the alternative lyrics at the same time.]



The Song: The Wild Frontier (based on 'Hundred Mile High City' by Ocean Colour Scene)
This is song about a farm on the frontier of 19th century America which is attacked by Indians.  It's from the perspective of a young teenage boy who's working on his family farm.

A typical sod home of 19th century homesteaders on the Great Plains.  (Source: http://savagesandscoundrels.org/events-landmarks/1841-western-emigration-society-formed/)

It's the kind of event that you won't see in any modern PC Westerns like Dances with Wolves, which portrays Indians in the typical Noble Savage myth, and Europeans as the brutes.  Nevertheless it's an event that may have been typical for families which bordered Indian Territory.  Events which included: Scalpings, kidnappings (of white women into slavery), and killings of innocent civilians.  Remember that tribal wars don't discriminate between 'soldiers' and 'civilians', like civilised warfare does (rather, used to, prior to Winston ‘The Adventurer’ Churchill scrapping 'Cruiser Rules' during WW1 thus allowing British warships to destroy unarmed and innocent merchant ships).  In tribal conflicts everyone is a viable target.  If the world moves more into the world of tribalism (the more violent, inhuman kind where Vikings performed the 'Odin’s Eagle' (haven't found a weblink for it, but it's in a book by historian Michael Wood), Cumans drank from human skulls, Timorians beheaded people etc) then this kind of event will start to happen again: tribes raiding each other for resources and women.


Play the song in the music video above and sing along in your head with the alternative lyrics below.


# The Wild Frontier #
On a farm in the mid-west America.
A sunny day ploughin' the fields.
When pa suddenly came a screamin'
"Look out it's the Indians!"

You're the frontier and they're comin' to scalp you.
On your own and there's no where to run to.
Here on Your farm you will stand and defy them.
Then saddle up and go get some payback.

Pa runs to the back of the barn store.
And grabs the muskets and ammo.
We don't know how we will fair now.
But we know we must kill them.

You're the frontier and they're comin' to scalp you.
On your own and there's no where to run to.
Here on Your farm you will stand and defy them.
Then saddle up and go get some payback.

They charge us and scream with their war cry.
And it scares the hell outta me.
'till I see the resolution in Pa's eyes,
as he fires off his musket.

You're the frontier and they're comin' to scalp you.
On your own and there's no where to run to.
Here on Your farm you will stand and defy them.
Then saddle up and go get some payback.

You're the frontier and they're comin' to scalp you.
On your own and there's no where to run to.
Here on Your farm you will stand and defy them.
Then saddle up and go get some payback.


[End of the Lyrics.]

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