The Custer Stomp

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beaverbiscuit

New member
This is a metal bit that I wrote a while back. Got a lot of good info from Evan S. Connell's book *Son of the Morning Star*, and the title comes from an obscure portion of *The Illuminatus Trilogy* by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson. I'd surely appreciate any input y'all have, even if you think it sucks :p. Thanks, dudes and dudettes!

P.S. Thanks to dragonworks for inspiring me to include my own historically based song.

"The Custer Stomp"

From the East
We ride to Little Bighorn
To crush the Sioux
The Seventh Cav almighty
Come join the war
To liberate Montana
And free the West
From redskins we are fighting

All who follow will surely go down in the books
As we do the Custer Stomp

Crazy Horse
And Sitting Bull will be there
And thousands more
The braves who want to scalp us
But have no fear
The gen'ral knows his business
He'll win the day
With no one there to help us

We're outnumbered but we can't retreat or go home
So let's do the Custer Stomp

(bridge)
Can't advance, can't retreat, we're surrounded, can't surrender
Here we die
General George gave a scream with a gleam in his eye
"Everybody stomp!"

Now we lie
Discarded by the wayside
And all we got
Was just what we deserved, yeah
We paved the way
Beginning of the ending
For red man's rights
His lands are now reserved, yeah

What we started will doom us to hell for all time
Where we'll do the Custer Stomp
 
Heh, heh, heh. :D

Its been a while since I thought about that period of history. What an interesting battle that was. I wonder what Custer was up to. By that time the Indians had learned that the white folks were out for blood and had learned to fight the same way, so its not like Custer thought they were going to do their more normal counting coup and running away. Oh, well.

Thanks for the reminder and the song. Its hard to write a historical song, isn't it? Every time I try it comes out sounding a little forced. You did a better job of it than I ever did.

There are some parts that do sound forced, though. "Seventh Cav", "Scalp us" (perhaps that's just a pet peeve of mine. The white folks actually started the scalping and the Indians didn't realy do it that often), "retreat or go home" (seems like filling space by saying the same thing twice.)

Good stuff. I'd like to hear it if you have it around somewhere.

Take care,
Chris
 
Custer was out to be president.
Thanx for the "Custer Stomp" there beaverbiscuit.
A sense of history is a good thing to have.
 
I appreciate the responses, guys. Can't imagine, dragonworks, what our nation would be like today had Custer gained a position in public office :rolleyes:.

Thanks for the criticism, Chris. The reference to Seventh Cav probably stems from modern references to Air Cav circa Vietnam era and forward. I may need to rethink that one. The line that has "retreat or go home" does not actually exist in that wording anymore; since I was quoting my song from memory while at work, I goofed and included that, but the new line is "give up or go home."

The reference to scalping is intended to be tongue-in-cheek, as is the whole of the song's wording. I would never refer to Indians as redskins (although I *do* still use "Indian" rather than "Native American" because of a significant number who prefer the original name). The point of view is that of some lunkhead who's part of the losing team and has his own prejudices and whatnot. He's more than a little misinformed about this situation, especially if he thinks "the gen'ral" is going to bring his boys home alive :p. Not to compare myself to Randy Newman, but it's sort of an attempt to use the "untrustworthy narrator" he uses so well. It's a risk, I guess, but I think it's worth taking.

Gotta run for the moment, but thanks again for the input!
 
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