Day 6 of Controversial Five Iron Frenzy Songs
Banner Year
Our Newest Album Ever, 1997
The second of #NativeLivesMatter songs in their discography. Flag worship, outright betrayal, and a Custer sighting. A piece of cloth can't hold your faith. RIP Black Kettle.
A banner year 1864, don't want the red man anymore,
Can't have them taking up good land.
Give them a token flag, trade pipes and shake some hands,
Tell them the white stripes stand for peace.
Say if they raise red white and blue,
Blue coats will never shoot at you,
But stripes will loose their sheen,
Black Kettle was their chief, he only wanted peace,
Under the flag... a massacre at Sand Creek.
Wave your flag. Salivate.
Stirring feelings of pride and hate.
A peace of cloth can't hold your faith.
No flag flies, no banner waves,
See the empty pole above his empty grave.
No one knows where he lies,
And no one know just why he had to die.
A banner year 1868, a bitter end a twist of fate.
Maps won't hold this melanoma,
Blurry part of Oklahoma,
Where Custer shot and killed Black Kettle.
Wave your flag. Salivate.
Stirring feelings of pride and hate.
A peace of cloth can't hold your faith.
No flag flies, no banner waves,
See the empty pole above his empty grave.
No one knows where he lies,
And no one know just why he had to die.
A promise is a promise,
A judge of character.
His banner over me is love.
No flag flies, no banner waves,
See the empty pole above his empty grave.
No one knows where he lies,
And no one know just why he had to die. (x2)
This part always jarred me. Wasn't Custer the hero of the story who was slaughtered by savages at Little Big Horn? History books always told me that. Custer was a deeper, darker character in our history? The victors write the history. Sometimes they may eventually tell the truth.
I remember being told on school that red was for the blood of patriots, white for peace, and blue for the oceans we reached on both sides during manifest destiny. Does white really mean peace when we've been at war since 1946? Industrial war complex is big money.
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