Creek Mary's Blood

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“Creek Mary's Blood”
Song by Nightwish
Album	Once
Released	2004
Recorded	2004
Genre	Symphonic metal
Length	8:31
Label	Roadrunner Records (USA)
Producer	Tuomas Holopainen; TeeCee Kinnunen
Once track listing
Planet Hell (4) “Creek Mary's Blood” (5) The Siren (6)

"Creek Mary's Blood" is the fifth song on the album Once, released in 2004 by the Finnish symphonic power metal quintet Nightwish.

The song also appears on the Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan single as an instrumental orchestral edit, and on the End of an Era DVD, released in 2006, as part of a live performance.

Contents 1 History 2 Music 3 Trivia 4 References 5 External links

[edit] History

The song was named after and inspired by a novel of the same name by the American novelist and historian Dee Brown.

The song is about the extermination of Native Americans by European settlers and United States expansion during the 18th to 20th centuries. At the same time, the song is also about the status of Native Americans in modern times and their perspective of their past, present, and future.

[edit] Music

Creek Mary's Blood features guest musician John Two-Hawks, a Native American from the Lakota tribe on vocals and the Native American flute.

The song begins with "Mitakuye oyasin lel ohinni e yelo" which means, in Lakota, "All of my people are all still here" (sung by Two-Hawks). This is followed with "Soon I will be here no more" in English (sung by lead vocalist Tarja Turunen). These thoughts are echoed in the spoken poem in Lakota at the end of the song. The poem was written by songwriter Tuomas Holopainen, then translated into Lakota and spoken by Two-Hawks.

[edit] Trivia

• Holopainen found Two-Hawks over the Internet, and asked him to come to Finland to record the song. In Holopainen's own words: "This particular song fulfilled one of my biggest dreams, and that was to work with a Native American Indian musician. I've always been very fascinated about Indian culture and music and history, so to have this really great musician John Two-Hawks playing in one of my songs was really a dream come true."^[1]

• In a private naming ceremony, Two-Hawks and his wife bestowed Holopainen with a Lakota name Sunkmanitutanka Nagi meaning "(Great) Shadow Wolf".

• Holopainen was also given his own cedar flute, while Two-Hawks went home with a kantele, a traditional Finnish instrument.

• On May 28, 2008, John Two-Hawks preformed this song with Nightwish at their show at Pop's Nightclub in Sauget, Illinois.

• It is Tuomas's second favourite Nightwish song, after The Poet and the Pendulum.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official Lyrics

v • d • e Nightwish Tuomas Holopainen | Marco Hietala | Emppu Vuorinen | Jukka Nevalainen | Anette Olzon Tarja Turunen | Sami Vänskä Studio albums & EPs Angels Fall First | Oceanborn | Wishmaster | Over the Hills and Far Away | Century Child | Once | Dark Passion Play Live albums From Wishes to Eternity | End of an Era Demos “Nightwish” | “Angels Fall First (demo)” Compilations Wishmastour 2000 | Tales from the Elvenpath | Bestwishes | Highest Hopes Videos and DVDs From Wishes to Eternity | End of Innocence | End of an Era Documentaries From Wishes to Eternity | End of Innocence | The Making of Nemo | The Making of "Wish I Had an Angel" | A Day Before Tomorrow  | Shooting Some Amaranths  | In Between the Eyes  | The Making of the Islander Singles “The Carpenter” | “Sacrament of Wilderness” | “Passion and the Opera” | “Walking in the Air” | “Sleeping Sun (Four Ballads of the Eclipse)” · “The Kinslayer” | “Deep Silent Complete” | “Ever Dream” | “Bless the Child” | “Nemo” | “Wish I Had an Angel” | “Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan” | “The Siren” | “Sleeping Sun” | “Eva” | “Amaranth” | “Erämaan Viimeinen” | “Bye Bye Beautiful” | "The Islander" Related acts Tarot | Tarja Turunen | Brother Firetribe | Sethian | For My Pain... | Northern Kings | Kotiteollisuus | Timo Rautiainen | Alyson Avenue | Altaria | Barilari | Sinergy Related articles Members | Discography