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Cortez & Pizarro

from Interstate Medicine by Radio Nowhere

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How To Write This Song
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1) Grow up in western hemisphere
2) Major in history in college
3) When a friend asks if you want to join him on a road trip from San Francisco to Honduras, say "yes"
4) Smile at rural Mexican constabulary, corrupt federales, 12 year-old Guatemalan paramilitaries in black pajamas with AK-47s
5) Return home with images, melodies and song ideas bubbling out of your ears
6) Crank amplifier, hit record button

(NEVER play this song in Spain. I almost got thrown off a 5th story balcony when I tried it)

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lyrics

LYRICS

well a long long long long time ago
before i was born that's all i know
there were two young cruel brave young men

their king said hit the road and come back again
they got the gig 'cause the king thought they had what it took
and the aztecs shivered and incas shook
they saw the white sails and muskets long
thought these are gods/but they were wrong

to the native people's sorrow
here come Cortez and Pizarro
Hernando and Francisco
hacked their way to heaven blow by blow
men of god in Spain they worked for someone else
in Mexico

they burned their ships upon the shore
said we ain't goin' back to Spain no more
in the smoking embers on the sand lay the future of the land

to the native people's sorrow
here come Cortez and Pizarro
Hernando and Francisco
hacked their way to heaven blow by blow
men of god in Spain they worked for someone else
in Mexico

now gifts were gave/hands were shook
but men are men/and man they took

now the thing that brought this on for me
was my cool earring and my new goatee
the mirror shows a 16th century caballero
so i thought i'd get some armor and grab my steed
ride down across the border and over the seas and
apologize from atop my palomino

for the native people's sorrow
for Cortez and Pizarro
Hernando and Francisco
hacked their way to heaven blow by blow
men of god in Spain they worked for someone else
in Mexico

credits

from Interstate Medicine, released January 1, 2002
Written by Michael Baker

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Radio Nowhere Oakland

ABOUT
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Radio Nowhere is a singer/songwriter-led band from Oakland, California, in the United States. A friend told me that we sound like the missing link between Lyle Lovett and Led Zeppelin, and that sums it up pretty well. ... more

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