Karaoke and Impact.

I started following this guy on Twitter. His name is Juan and he does karaoke covers of various rock and metal songs. If that's your thing, I highly recommend checking his stuff out.

One of the songs he covers is Iron Maiden's Run to the Hills. It's a back and forth perspective of their interpretation of Native and government interactions al la conquest and war. Also, one of my favorite songs. :)

Now I mention all of this for a reason (aside from sharing the awesome-ness of a singer); there is a part in a verse that always got me thinking about impact. One of the lines of the song has the original version, as well as a radio edit. The third verse talks about how the soldiers think that "the only good injuns are tame." I've heard the version where the last word of that line is "dead," rather than "tame." I don't know which is the original and which is the edit, but the changing in either case fascinates me.

Which word has more impact? Which version illustrates the point of the work best? Yeah, dead could be argued to be the ultimate in impact. After all, there's nothing with quite as much omph as death. But, in the confines of the piece, is it really the worst thing? To me, at least, it isn't. The usage of tame gives me the idea of domestication and loss of freedom. Taken into consideration with the story the song sings, a much more powerful sentiment than death.

Of course, that may just be my background talking.

I wonder if the songwriter meant to evoke this thought process? Hell, maybe they were only looking for a decent rhyme. I'd like to think that the construction of the verse a little more complicated than that.