Art Napoleon

Lyrics

Bannock Love
Music and Lyrics by Art Napoleon © 2005

Key of C

Well it only takes about an hour
You only need 3 cups of flour
A couple chicken eggs
And some magic powder

The sky above, a chunk of love
You make me so prouder
I love my baby and I love my bannock dough

You can throw it in the oven
You can fry it in a pan
You can wrap it round a stick and roast a bannock man
My sugar pie, I am learning about her

The sky above, kitchen table love
You can yell it louder
I love my baby I’m gonna roll her in the dough

You can eat it with baloney, you can eat with spam
You can smear with your uncle’s homemade jam
It tastes so good… you can eat it with chowder

The sky above, some whole wheat love
You make me so prouder

I need my baby like I knead my bannock dough

I love my baby and I love my bannock dough

Mmm..mmmm…good!

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Good Red Road
Music and lyrics by Art Napoleon © 2006 Socan

Everybody’s got a certain ghost or two
And some may wonder what to do
To heal the bloody scars of yesterday
Mistakes they made along the way

If I could fly these prison walls
I just don’t know what waits for me
If I could shake these Turtle Mountain memories
That keep me chained but keep me free

Chorus:
Feel the spirits all around
This old world is upside down
I want to feel my feet on sacred ground
I want to walk the good red road
Lift my heart and free my soul
I want to walk the good red road with you

(instrumental)

Time’s too short to try to make a run or make a fight
I hear the screaming in the night
So much innocence has died along the way
A warrior is not too proud to pray

Feel the spirits all around
This old world is upside down
I want to feel my feet on sacred ground
I want to walk the good red road
Lift my heart and free my soul
I want to walk the good red road with you

Chant extro- Honey girl don’t you cry, don’t you cry for me
Honey girl don’t you cry for me
They can take my body but my spirit still flies free
Honey girl don’t you cry for me

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Mystics
Music and Lyrics by Art Napoleon © 2005

Well an old friend of mine got married one day
But it wasn’t in the most usual way
She was a mail order bride, come C.O.D.
From one of those countries way overseas
He said, you only live once and then you leave this world
You gotta leave your mark if it’s only a scratch
You can make your point and have your say
But soon as you you’re done, you get out of the way
I never made me no money, never raised me no kids
Never stuck with one woman, no I never did

Chorus:
I may be a frail man, I may be an old man
I might be insane, but I won’t die a cold man
I’m not such a wise man, I told many lies man
But I’ll always be level with you
Cause there ain’t much room in the world you see
For dysfunctional mystics like you and me

I never was much with words I suppose
I done what I did and the good spirits know
That I kicked in some doors and busted some heads
But I offered my food and I made my own bed
I never made any fuss and I never complained
As I sun-danced in circles and slept in the rain
And the Great Buffalo Mountain took most of the pain
When the colonial battles, they rattled my brain

Chorus
(….sin riddled mystics like you and me )

Well an old friend of my mine got buried today
But it wasn’t in the most usual way
He got shot to the sky, where there’s plenty of room
To dance on the rainbows and sing to the moon

Chorus

(…bullet proof mystics like you and me)

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A calico beneath me and the grass up to my knees
Riding through the Black Bear Hills a death-song on the breeze

Red coat riders on our trail and soon they rode us down
With their fire-sticks a cracking Nihiyaw blood spilled on the ground

The Elders pray for enemies and children yet unborn
For all that moves up on the earth they mourn mourn mourn

CHORUS

Look out little brother there’s a red tailed hawk above
Don’t worry about the children or the woman that you love
We won’t sign no treaty we’re no reservation band
We are dancing for the buffalo we are fighting for this land
Hey hey ya

They left Chief Poundmaker behind the iron wall
The sweetgrass fields are burning and I heard the owl call

This new way of living could be our way to die
Please don’t forget to feed the earth when you hear a mother cry

Just take a place upon the ground and hold it like it’s yours
The foreigners will come and they’ll want more more more

CHORUS

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