Tunesday: Cultural Appropriation as Pop Song

I think that for most of us, the first songs we liked were the ones that our parents listened to. Here, I'm going to share two related songs that illustrate the types of music each of my parents liked. For my Dad:

Kaw-Liga

(Rose, Fred / Williams Sr., Hank.) Recorded by Hank Williams Sr.

Kaw-liga was a wooden Indian standing by the door
He fell in love with an Indian maid over in the antique store
Kaw-liga just stood there and never told show
So she couldn't never answer "Yes" or "No"

He always wore his Sunday feathers and held a tomahawk
The maiden wore her beads and braids and hoped some day he'd talk
Kaw-liga, too stubborn to ever show a sign
Because his heart was made of knotty pine

Poor ol' Kaw-liga, he never got a kiss
Poor ol' Kaw-liga, he don't know what he missed
Is it any wonder that his face is red?
Kaw-liga, that poor ol' wooden head

Kaw-liga was a lonely Indian, never went nowhere
His heart was set on the Indian maid with the coal black hair
Kaw-liga just stood there and never told show
So she couldn't never answer "Yes" or "No"

And then one day a wealthy customer bought the Indian maid
And took her, oh, so far away, but ol' Kaw-liga stayed
Kaw-liga just stands there as lonely as can be
And wishes he was still an old pine tree

Poor ol' Kaw-liga, he never got a kiss
Poor ol' Kaw-liga, he don't know what he missed
Is it any wonder that his face is red?
Kaw-liga, that poor ol' wooden head

My Dad loved this old Country style and I remember him always turning Kaw-Liga up when it came on the radio; the two of us belting it out. As my Dad's own father was half Mi'kmaq, and definitely identified as Native to outsiders, I wonder what my Dad thought of the theme of this song, though? Did he wonder at Hank Williams putting in the war drum beat? Was he offended by "is it any wonder that his face was red"? Or was it simply a different time, and as my Dad never embraced anything Native about himself, was this song a way to reinforce his position as a member of the dominant culture? I was surprised when this song was on the soundtrack of Moonrise Kingdom, but of course, Wes Anderson was using it ironically, so I suppose that preempts anyone from calling it a cultural misappropriation. Wink wink, this is really awful stuff, right? We're smart enough to know that... 

And for my Mom:

Running Bear

(J.P. Richardson) Performed by Johnny Preston

On the bank of the river
Stood Running Bear, young Indian brave
On the other side of the river
Stood his lovely Indian maid

Little White Dove was her name
Such a lovely sight to see
But their tribes fought with each other
So their love could never be

Running Bear loved Little White Dove
With a love big as the sky
Running Bear loved Little White Dove
With a love that couldn't die

He couldn't swim the raging river
'Cause the river was too wide
He couldn't reach Little White Dove
Waiting on the other side

In the moonlight, he could see her
Throwing kisses 'cross the waves
Her little heart was beating faster
Waiting there for her Indian brave

Running Bear loved Little White Dove
With a love big as the sky
Running Bear loved Little White Dove
With a love that couldn't die

Running Bear dove in the water
Little White Dove did the same
And they swam out to each other
Through the swirling stream they came

As their hands touched and their lips met
The raging river pulled them down
Now they'll always be together
In their happy hunting ground

Running Bear loved Little White Dove
With a love big as the sky
Running Bear loved Little White Dove
With a love that couldn't die

So the biggest contrast between them was that if my Dad liked old Country, my Mom liked old Rock 'n Roll. Running Bear was a song that she would definitely sing at the top of her lungs and her running joke when we were kids was that she was just slumming with us until the day she "got discovered". My Mom can definitely sing with a huge voice, and as her kid, I believed that she was a great singer and totally believed that she would one day be "discovered". I wasn't upset about that -- I didn't think it would involve her leaving us or anything -- and since my mother was younger and prettier than anyone else's Mom, it seemed totally reasonable to me that she could be a superstar if only the right person caught her voice as it carried on the wind. It was a total mind-freak for me, then, the day she pointed out that she might be a loud singer, but she's not really a good singer, and the whole "getting discovered" thing had been her idea of a joke. That's what's funny about family mythology: kids believe everything their parents tell them and sometimes it takes until we grow up before we recognise where they were wrong (you know, like with the subtle racism and cultural misappropriation inherent in these songs we were taught to love).