Category: Music

On June 2, 2011, while traveling on a tour of U.S. historical sites, Sarah Palin sparked interest in Paul Revere because of her claim that the famous rider warned “the British that they weren’t gonna be takin’ away our arms. . . by ringing those bells.” I suppose how one feels about her statement about Paul Revere — who actually rode to alert the Americans about the approaching British and who did not use bells — may depend on pre-existing feelings about the speaker. So, we will leave the debate about her statement and her continued claims t

hat she was correct to the political commentators and others, including those attempting to rewrite Revere’s Wikipedia entry. But the interest in the historical event is a good side effect of her statement.

Revere’s Famous Ride

Revere made his famous ride near Boston on the evening of April 18, 1775.  The British were on the move to seize military stores in Concord. According to the excellent one-volume history of the U.S., A History of the United States by Alan Nevins and Henry Steele Commager:

“Patriots were on the watch and a lantern in the tower of North Church flashed word to Paul Revere beyond the Charles River, who galloped off to arouse the countryside. The embattled farmers gathered at dawn with their muskets . . . There was a brief skirmish, eight Americans fell dead, and the Revolution was under way. Sam Adams was not far away, and as he heard the rattle of the guns, he exclaimed: ‘What a glorious morning is this!'”

To give Palin some credit, she did recall correctly that the ride was prompted by the British plan to seize weapons. I suspect some of her critics did not recall that part of the story themselves. Further, she is not the first to make historically inaccurate statements about the ride.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s Version

In Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s famous poem, “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere,” he exaggerated Revere’s role by ignoring the other riders. And Longfellow’s poem inaccurately claimed that Revere made it all the way to Concord.  In fact, British soldiers captured him and took away his horse.

But Longfellow’s goal was to tell a tale about a national hero, not to teach history. Hence we have the term, “poetic license.” Still, the famous opening lines of the poem make it easy for one to remember the correct date of the ride:

Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.

Paul Revere and the Raiders

There is another famous “Paul Revere.” He was in Paul Revere and the Raiders, the band that had several hits in the 1960s and 1970s. Paul Revere the rider started out as a silversmith.  And the Raiders’ musician Paul Revere started out as a barber in Boise, Idaho. “Paul Revere” was his real name, although Revere was his middle name and his full name was Paul Revere Dick.

The band’s biggest hit was “Indian Reservation (The Lament Of The Cherokee Reservation Indian),” which was written by songwriter John D. Loudermilk. Mark Lindsay, the lead singer of Paul Revere and the Raiders, was part Native American and wanted to record the song even though it was released a few years earlier by Don Fardon.

During the summer of 1971, aided by Revere’s promotion of the song with a cross-country motorcycle ride, the Raiders version of “Indian Reservation” became the most popular tune in the U.S. and the biggest hit Columbia Records had ever released.

“Indian Reservation” also became the most popular song in my childhood home that summer, as my older sister purchased the 45 record and played it repeatedly. Some Native Americans used the Paul Revere and the Raiders version in their struggle for civil rights.

In addition to the version by Paul Revere and the Raiders, the song would later be covered by UK band 999 and be sampled in a Tim McGraw song.

The Cherokee

Like Longfellow’s poem about Paul Revere, the song by Paul Revere and the Raiders was based on historical events. In the early 1800s, Cherokee Indians lived around Georgia.  But as new pioneers came to the land with its fertile soil, conflicts soon arose. Although the tribes had built houses and settled in the area, the incoming white settlers desired more land.

In 1838, the Federal government ordered that the Cherokee be resettled in the western United States. The Cherokee were sent from Georgia and other states along with other Native Americans, including Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Seminoles.

Many of the Cherokee died as they made the long trip.  They traveled largely on foot and by wagon, facing exposure, hunger, and illness. Because of the sorrow and death caused by the removal, the forced march to what is now Oklahoma became known as the Trail of Tears.

As Paul Revere and the Raiders sang, “Cherokee people, Cherokee tribe/ So proud to live, so proud to die.” In upcoming political campaigns, all of our politicians would do well to remember these parts of American history — and perhaps visit those historical sites too — in addition to taking pride in the the glorious stories like the one about Paul Revere’s ride.

What do you think about Paul Revere, the Raiders, the song, or the media coverage of Sarah Palin’s statement? Leave a comment.

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