Some of you older people may remember the song "One Tin Soldier". It was the sound track to "Billy Jack", a radical, in your face anti-establishment movie. Well, this song was very popular and the lyrics are as follows:
1 Listen children to a story
2 That was written long ago
3 'Bout a kingdom on a mountain
4 And the valley folk below
5 On the mountain was a treasure
6 Buried deep beneath a stone
7 And the valley people swore
8 They'd have it for their very own
CHORUS
Go ahead and hate your neighbor
Go ahead and cheat a friend
Do it in the name of Heaven
You can justify it in the end
There won't be any trumpets blowing
Come the Judgment Day
On the bloody morning after who
One tin soldier rides away
9 So the people of the valley
10 Sent a message up the hill
11 Asking for the buried treasure
12 Tons of gold for which they'd kill
13 Came an answer from the kingdom
14 With our brothers we will share
15 All the secrets of our mountain
16 An' all the riches buried there
17 Now the valley cried in anger
18 "Mount your horses, draw your sword"
19 And they killed the mountain people
20 So they won their just reward
21 Now they stood beside the treasure
22 On the mountain dark and red
23 Turn the stone and which beneath it
24 "Peace on Earth" was all it said
Go ahead and hate your neighbor
Go ahead and cheat a friend, blah, blah.
One Tin Soldier rides away!
There are a few points to be made about these lyrics and are important to discuss. But first, I must digress to my tender age of fourteen years. As I was hearing this song for the first time, I was thinking about line 7 and 8. The valley people are so rude. Now with true heavenly grace lines 13-16 I thought, "Boy isn't that nice that the mountain kingdom is willing to share all it has with the valley people". Line 17-20 shows that the valley people were not willing to share even shit that was not theirs. I was an impressionable child and I was crying for the mountain people, All of those children and old people that were butchered. Tears were running down my face.
Now we have a show we can watch called "Game of Thrones" that reminds me of this song. Line 23 and 24 were even more shocking. "Peace on Earth" was all it said. I was stunned. If I was the sole survivor of the mountain kingdom, I would be pissed. My emotional roller-coaster was a rough ride that continues every time I hear the song. Today our entire country acts like the valley people and they are proud of it. Somehow it is standing up against something and we cannot be treated that way. Someone should slap our parents silly for not slapping us silly every time we acted selfishly and rude.
And finally the Tin Soldier thing. What is a tin soldier. Is the current definition a result of this song? Is there an old English definition of it. I do not know. This has always bothered me. Were armor suites ever made of tin? There was a bronze age but no tin age. I think bronze has tin in it. How does tin feel about copper and bronze getting an age in history? What is an age? And finally, is the tin in the soldier the same as a tin horn dictator which is a bad thing?
2 That was written long ago
3 'Bout a kingdom on a mountain
4 And the valley folk below
5 On the mountain was a treasure
6 Buried deep beneath a stone
7 And the valley people swore
8 They'd have it for their very own
CHORUS
Go ahead and hate your neighbor
Go ahead and cheat a friend
Do it in the name of Heaven
You can justify it in the end
There won't be any trumpets blowing
Come the Judgment Day
On the bloody morning after who
One tin soldier rides away
9 So the people of the valley
10 Sent a message up the hill
11 Asking for the buried treasure
12 Tons of gold for which they'd kill
13 Came an answer from the kingdom
14 With our brothers we will share
15 All the secrets of our mountain
16 An' all the riches buried there
17 Now the valley cried in anger
18 "Mount your horses, draw your sword"
19 And they killed the mountain people
20 So they won their just reward
21 Now they stood beside the treasure
22 On the mountain dark and red
23 Turn the stone and which beneath it
24 "Peace on Earth" was all it said
Go ahead and hate your neighbor
Go ahead and cheat a friend, blah, blah.
One Tin Soldier rides away!
There are a few points to be made about these lyrics and are important to discuss. But first, I must digress to my tender age of fourteen years. As I was hearing this song for the first time, I was thinking about line 7 and 8. The valley people are so rude. Now with true heavenly grace lines 13-16 I thought, "Boy isn't that nice that the mountain kingdom is willing to share all it has with the valley people". Line 17-20 shows that the valley people were not willing to share even shit that was not theirs. I was an impressionable child and I was crying for the mountain people, All of those children and old people that were butchered. Tears were running down my face.
Now we have a show we can watch called "Game of Thrones" that reminds me of this song. Line 23 and 24 were even more shocking. "Peace on Earth" was all it said. I was stunned. If I was the sole survivor of the mountain kingdom, I would be pissed. My emotional roller-coaster was a rough ride that continues every time I hear the song. Today our entire country acts like the valley people and they are proud of it. Somehow it is standing up against something and we cannot be treated that way. Someone should slap our parents silly for not slapping us silly every time we acted selfishly and rude.
And finally the Tin Soldier thing. What is a tin soldier. Is the current definition a result of this song? Is there an old English definition of it. I do not know. This has always bothered me. Were armor suites ever made of tin? There was a bronze age but no tin age. I think bronze has tin in it. How does tin feel about copper and bronze getting an age in history? What is an age? And finally, is the tin in the soldier the same as a tin horn dictator which is a bad thing?
