We were all taught about the European arrival to the \u201cNew World\u201d in grade school. We were also taught that the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas got along with the European settlers. Iron Maiden\u2019s \u201cRun to the Hills\u201d (1982) is a song that tells a simplified version of what really happened when the colonizers arrived on this land, from the perspectives of both the Anglo-Saxon settlers and the Indigenous Cree. As many works such as movies, shows, books, etc., often portray the Natives as violent \u201csavages\u201d, the roles of violence are reversed in this song. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The lines that are seemingly from the white man\u2019s perspective have a sort of violent tone to them, such as \u201cMurder for freedom the stab in the back\u201d. The opening line, \u201cWhite man came across the sea \/ He brought us pain and misery\u201d is clearly from the Native\u2019s perspective. The second verse, \u201cChasing the r*dskins back to their holes \/ fighting them at their own game\u201d is from the eyes of the white man. The first two verses of the song, from the Native\u2019s perspective, have sort of a solemn and somewhat hopeless tone to them, asking \u201cWill we ever be set free?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As an Indigenous person, it really is gratifying to see Indigenous Peoples portrayed in a non-violent way. Indigenous peoples everywhere are constantly fighting to de-normalize the portrayal of us as violent or \u201csavage\u201d. However, it doesn\u2019t help much that racial slurs are still being constantly used against Natives as if they aren\u2019t slurs in the first place. Although this song is mostly centered around violence, it portrays the colonizers as more violent than the Natives. This is a more accurate description of what really happened when the European settlers came to this land. Much of what we have learned about history has taught that the Natives were extremely violent towards the Europeans. While it is true that Indigenous peoples were violent, it was the only way they had of defending their sacred homeland, was by going into war. The Indigenous peoples were being killed, raped, and taken for slaves at an alarming rate. Every line in \u201cRun to the Hills\u201d that is from the Cree\u2019s point of view represents their feelings well, such as \u201cHe [the white man] killed our tribes \u2026 will we ever be set free?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is also not\u00a0Iron Maiden\u2019s\u00a0first song regarding\u00a0historical events,\u00a0war,\u00a0and\u00a0even ancient mythology.\u00a0It\u2019s not common where\u00a0a band writes many of their songs on topics like these, which I also think is an interesting take for a metal band to have. Iron Maiden\u2019s \u201cFlight of Icarus\u201d (1981) is about the Greek myth of Icarus flying too close to the sun.\u00a0However, in this song, there\u2019s a twist.\u00a0In the song, Icarus\u2019 father tells his son to \u201cfly and\u00a0touch the\u00a0sun\u201d, whereas the opposite happens in the myth.\u00a0Another song of Iron Maiden\u2019s is about the Manhattan Project.\u00a0The title, \u201cBrighter Than a Thousand Suns\u201d\u00a0(2006)\u00a0refers to a comment one of the scientists had made after seeing the A-bomb tested in New Mexico.\u00a0Several more of Iron Maiden\u2019s songs are about war, such as \u201cTwo Minutes to Midnight\u201d (1984), Aces High (1984),\u00a0and\u00a0Tailgunner\u00a0(1990), which is a sequel song to \u201cAces High\u201d. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We were all taught about the European arrival to the \u201cNew World\u201d in grade school. We were also taught that the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas got along with the European settlers. Iron Maiden\u2019s \u201cRun to the Hills\u201d (1982) is a song that tells a simplified version of what really happened when the colonizers arrived on this …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":129,"featured_media":546,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"portfolio_post_id":0,"portfolio_citation":"","portfolio_annotation":"","openlab_post_visibility":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[71,45],"tags":[61,17],"class_list":["post-314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-music","tag-lyrics","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/art-of-the-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/art-of-the-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/art-of-the-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/art-of-the-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/129"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/art-of-the-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/art-of-the-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":745,"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/art-of-the-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions\/745"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/art-of-the-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/art-of-the-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/art-of-the-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/art-of-the-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}