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CORTEZ THE KILLER Lyrics

Artist: Neil Young
Album: Live Rust

He came dancing across the water
With his galleons and guns
Looking for the new world
In that palace in the sun.

On the shore lay Montezuma
With his coca leaves and pearls
In his halls he often wondered
With the secrets of the worlds.

And his subjects gathered 'round him
Like the leaves around a tree
In their clothes of many colors
For the angry gods to see.

And the women all were beautiful
And the men stood straight and strong
They offered life in sacrifice
So that others could go on.

Hate was just a legend
And war was never known
The people worked together
And they lifted many stones.

They carried them to the flatlands
And they died along the way
But they built up with their bare hands
What we still can't do today.

And I know she's living there
And she loves me to this day
I still can't remember when
Or how I lost my way.

He came dancing across the water
Cortez, Cortez
What a killer.

Comments/Interpretations

by Carlos on 12/21/2011 7:13pm
Another of my Top Ten "killer" songs of all time. Fantastic emotive guitar by Neil, in one of the great songs that emerged as rock discovered Romanticism and its interest in exotic and distant civilizations, peoples and cultures--think "Kashmir", "Theme for an Imaginary Western", "Xanadu", "Those Were the Days".