Indian Rug and a Pipe

‘Pocahontas’ was written by Neil Young and recorded on his 1979 tenth album Rust Never Sleeps, but it was never released as a single.  Young recorded this song along with three others with no rehearsal, and according to his producer David Briggs, Neil said, “Guess I’ll turn on the tap” and he picked up his guitar and in 20 minutes ‘Pocahontas’ was done.  One night in 1976 Young, David Briggs, and Dean Stockwell (from the TV series Quantum Leap) drove to Malibu’s Indigo Ranch Studios with a bunch of booze, weed, and cocaine for what would become his 39th studio album Hitchhiker not released till 41 years later.  Neil said that he laid down all the songs in a row, pausing only for weed, beer, or coke while Briggs was in the control room, mixing live on his favorite console.  The record executives were unimpressed, and they considered this session to be nothing more than a collection of demos, not fit for release.

Young was fascinated with Native American culture, but ‘Pocahontas’ has nothing to do with seventeenth-century Virginia, as it is more of a critique of American Progress.  This song a reflection on the human costs involved in the settling of the American West.  It describes an assault on an Indian village (“They killed us in our tepee / And they cut our women down / They might have left some babies / Cryin’ on the ground”).  ‘Pocahontas’ further details the systematic destruction of native culture, an event it juxtaposes against the rise of capitalism.  In the last verse, Young discusses sitting around a campfire with Pocahontas and Marlon Brando talking about Hollywood and I think Neil is saying that the portrayal of Pocahontas in Hollywood movies has twisted her real history.  Brando was a really big name in Hollywood in 1976, when this song was recorded, as he just agreed to play Jor-El the title character’s father in “Superman” for an unprecedented salary of $3.7 million for 13 days of work that amounted to less than 20 minutes onscreen, so I can see why Neil decided to add him into the lyrics.  I have no idea who Bryce is and I gave up trying to figure that out.

Are you ready Bryce
Aurora borealis
The icy sky at night
Paddles cut the water
In a long and hurried flight
From the white man to the fields of green
And the homeland we’ve never seen

They killed us in our tepee
And they cut our women down
They might have left some babies
Cryin’ on the ground
But the fire sticks and the wagons come
And the night falls on the setting sun

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

I wish a was a trapper
I would give thousand pelts
To sleep with Pocahontas
And find out how she felt
In the mornin’ on the fields of green
In the homeland we’ve never seen

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, Pocahontas and me
Pocahontas

Written for Thursday Inspiration #229 Powderfinger where the prompt is river.