And they built up with their bare hands/
What we still can’t do today.

Put aside the historical accuracy debate for a minute, Neil Young’s “Cortez the Killer” is just a kick-ass song. The riffs and solos and all the guitar work are legendary. Any guitar aficionado has to love this song.

The gist of the message has been expressed in different ways before. The Aztecs were a great civilization that was doing just fine before the Europeans came along and spread their diseases and religion and slavery. Sure, Aztecs did do human sacrificing to appease the gods. Not every religion is perfect. Young’s point is that it was better before we got there. For a great piece of historical fiction about this time period check out Aztec by Gary Jennings.

There is not a large selection of jam band songs on this list, because I find most of them indulgent. “Cortez the Killer” is perfect. If every jam had this many motifs, I could go along with it. While the lyrics might seem out there, they are not. They are in the tradition of Joni Mitchell’s Big Yellow Taxi. We should leave nature alone; it is better without us. This song is in that tradition.

Cortez The Killer Lyrics

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 wandered
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.

And they carried them to the flatlands,
But they died along the way.
And 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.

written by Neil Young