THE HIT HAMMER: The Raiders' "Indian Reservation (The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian)"

(The Hit Hammer is where I'm reviewing each #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100. Starting from when the chart started in 1958 and eventually working my way to the present. To see my inspiration and more information about this blog, please CLICK HERE)

The Raiders - "Indian Reservation (The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian)"

Hit Number 1: July 24, 1971

Stay at Number 1: 1 Week

John D. Loudermilk, a self-proclaimed prankster and the songwriter of "Indian Reservation", liked to tell a fun story of how he came up with the song. It all started when his car was snowed in during a blizzard, and he had been taken in by a group of Cherokee Indians. He then says that a Cherokee chieftain by the name of "Bloody Bear Tooth" asked him to write a song about his people's plight on the Trail of Tears. The story gets even crazier when Loudermilk says that he was awarded "the first medal of the Cherokee Nation." It wasn't for writing the song, it was for his "blood," of course. The reason for that being his great-grandparents were listed on the Dawes Roles, which would have made him a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. However, the whole story is false, but it remained as a funny story he would tell everyone on how he came up with "Indian Reservation". The real reason doesn't seem to be online, or Loudermilk never clarified, but it was probably some kind of political statement. Loudermilk was a Caucasian with no Native American, let alone Cherokee, ties.

"Indian Reservation" had been recorded a few times before Paul Revere & the Raiders got a hold of it. The first known version came in 1959 when Marvin Rainwater recorded it, but the first hit version came in 1968 when Don Fardon recorded it. Fardon's version went to #20 on the Hot 100. (His version is a 6) But the most successful version, and the most widely known version, was in 1971 when the Raiders recorded it and took it to #1. While Fardon's version is a lot more laid back than the Raiders' version, it fails to drive up the suspense of the song. It's an "out there" kind of song, but Fardon's version keeps everything in. The Raiders, while they didn't change the song that much, their version still has some very notable changes.

First let's look at the similarities. There's still a driving bass line that defines both versions, and there's also some bottled up rage in the vocals during the verses. But while Fardon's version continues to keep his feelings hidden in the chorus, the Raiders' version does not. Raiders' lead vocalist Mark Lindsay erupts during the chorus: "Cherokee people! Cherokee tri-ibe! So proud to live! So proud to DIE!" It should also be noted that Fardon was a British singer with no Native American ties, while Lindsay's ancestors were part Indian. Lindsay likely felt a little bit of the sadness, but mostly the anger of how the average Indian felt when they were forced to change their lifestyles and move away from everything they've ever known.

"Indian Reservation" is a focus on the Cherokee tribe specifically, who were forced to move away from their home in Georgia to a reservation in Oklahoma. They had to deal with the rapid changing of their lifestyle, the relocation of their home and also were forced to learn the English language. The song isn't sad, it's more of a subtle slam on everyone that forced them to change. It's a settling volcano of a song, patiently waiting, getting more heated until it finally erupts. This version does the best at putting into perspective just how horrible the Indians' lives were made. However, despite all the rage and anger the narrator gives off, he still holds out some hope that some day, the Cherokee lifestyle will resume again. Some songs have lines that hit you the hardest; those are lines that make you think differently about something you might have never thought about in the first place. The final line that goes: "Maybe someday when they've learned, Cherokee nation will return!" is a slap in the face. A shot to the arm. Whatever you want to call it. That's the line that does it for me. We've met an Indian who is pissed off at everything that has happened around him, but knows that this can only go on for so long until "they" have learned.

It's also just a cool song, instrumentally. I love that bass line, and I also love the screeching keyboard sound that the song has at the beginning before feeding into the bass line. Somehow, that's such a graceful transition. And the fiery chorus only helps the song even more, despite it not being much. The instrumentation, the vocal moods of Lindsay and all the rest of the song's production is about as well as it possibly could have been done. It matches the message of the song perfectly.

As for the Raiders, they never hit #1 again, and "Indian Reservation" actually marked the end of any more top 20 hits for them. Despite that, they stayed together for a few more years before Lindsay left in 1975, which became the ultimate demise for Raiders' records. They still come together for reunions every now and then. If you could only have one #1 hit though, this was not a bad one to have at all.

GRADE: 8/10