The Spirit Of The Hawk

Album: Farm Out (2000)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • With tribal rhythms and a sincere lyric that hits on spiritual themes, "The Spirit Of The Hawk" was a change of direction for Rednex, whose previous single, "The Way I Mate," is a very repetitive techno number about fornication.

    Rednex is a Swedish production team that based their look and sound on their first hit, "Cotton Eye Joe," in 1994. "The Spirit Of The Hawk," though, was written by a German: Axel Breitung, and was produced by the British team F.A.F. (David Cameron-Pryde, Mark Compton and Mark Stagg), who also played all the instruments. It was a wild departure for the band, but it worked; the song charted in many European territories and was a huge hit in Germany.
  • Rednex typically pokes fun at Americans by portraying themselves as uneducated backwoods hillbillies, but this song is a tribute to Native American culture. As such, Rednex doesn't appear in the video, which was shot in Arizona and directed by Patric Ullaeus. In the video, a native girl leaps from a cliff and transforms into a hawk.
  • The bridge of this song is a spoken section ("My people, some of them have run away to the hills...") where Geoff Oldham recites part of a famous speech attributed to Chief Joseph, leader of the Nez Perce tribe in the American northwest, when he surrendered to the United States Army after a battle in 1877.
  • "The Spirit Of The Hawk" was used as the title song to the German version of the game show Fort Boyard.
  • Unusually for Rednex, there is no male singer on this track. The singing is done by Mia Löfgren, who left the band soon after the album was released.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Bryan Adams

Bryan AdamsSongwriter Interviews

What's the deal with "Summer of '69"? Bryan explains what the song is really about, and shares more of his songwriting insights.

Jonathan Cain of Journey

Jonathan Cain of JourneySongwriter Interviews

Cain talks about the divine inspirations for "Don't Stop Believin'" and "Faithfully."

Creedence Clearwater Revival

Creedence Clearwater RevivalFact or Fiction

Is "Have You Ever Seen the Rain" about Vietnam? Was John Fogerty really born on a Bayou? It's the CCR edition of Fact or Fiction.

The Police

The PoliceFact or Fiction

Do their first three albums have French titles? Is "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da" really meaningless? See if you can tell in this Fact or Fiction.

Little Big Town

Little Big TownSongwriter Interviews

"When seeds that you sow grow by the wicked moon/Be sure your sins will find you out/Your past will hunt you down and turn to tell on you."

James Williamson of Iggy & the Stooges

James Williamson of Iggy & the StoogesSongwriter Interviews

The Stooges guitarist (and producer of the Kill City album) talks about those early recordings and what really happened with David Bowie.