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The Bold Marauders - Singing Songs of Blood to Resist War
Remembering Richard Fariña, born on this day in 1937 in Brooklyn, New York. Here he is with his wife Mimi Fariña performing "Bold Marauder" on Pete Seeger's Rainbow Quest television show in 1966.
“The Bold Marauder” is the creation of American folk singer-songwriter Richard Farina, he and his wife Mimi Farina (sister of the legendary Joan Baez) were among some of the most talented but under-acknowledged musicians of the 1960s folk revival movement.
Now the song the “The Bold Marauder” is generally said to be about the Crusades, the period of time when Catholic European nations banded together to overtake lands in the predominantly Muslim Levant….but in the context of the Vietnam War the song demands a closer examination.
As Americans we are generally encouraged to forget that there is still an ongoing American/NATO military occupation of Afghanistan that’s not too different in nature from the occupational tactics used by the Americans during the Vietnam War, nor is the mentality behind it too different from the Europeans during the Crusades. We’ve been taught that our soldiers are noble and the only real references to the war are generally limited to “supporting our troops” and marveling at the savagery of our “enemies” while turning our heads gracefully away from the violence committed in the name of our freedom… We’ve been conditioned to accept this violence we create and spread so well that not even the slightest feeling can emerge. And everything is normal.
That’s why Farina’s words here are magic, restoring to us a vision we long pretended was impossible for us to possess, he gives us back the power to view ourselves as we are in the eyes of “the others,” in the eyes of the occupied.
Now the song the “The Bold Marauder” is generally said to be about the Crusades, the period of time when Catholic European nations banded together to overtake lands in the predominantly Muslim Levant….but in the context of the Vietnam War the song demands a closer examination.
As Americans we are generally encouraged to forget that there is still an ongoing American/NATO military occupation of Afghanistan that’s not too different in nature from the occupational tactics used by the Americans during the Vietnam War, nor is the mentality behind it too different from the Europeans during the Crusades. We’ve been taught that our soldiers are noble and the only real references to the war are generally limited to “supporting our troops” and marveling at the savagery of our “enemies” while turning our heads gracefully away from the violence committed in the name of our freedom… We’ve been conditioned to accept this violence we create and spread so well that not even the slightest feeling can emerge. And everything is normal.
That’s why Farina’s words here are magic, restoring to us a vision we long pretended was impossible for us to possess, he gives us back the power to view ourselves as we are in the eyes of “the others,” in the eyes of the occupied.
https://thedomainofthestrange.wordpress.com/2013/02/28/richard-and-mimi-farina-the-bold-marauders-singing-songs-of-blood-to-resist-war/
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