Oh My Brave Hearts

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Oh My Brave Hearts by Chris de Burgh , reviewed by Bryce Anderson
Album: This Way Up

"Oh My Brave Hearts" is a song with double meaning to me. At face value, I believe the song is a musical version of the movie "Braveheart" starring Mel Gibson; about the struggles of the Gaelic people to keep the land on which they had lived for centuries; but was now being taken away from them. The people are not organized, or powerful, enough to overcome their oppressors. The reference to the old hearts is one of the heritage that has been built by their fore-fathers. They gather together to devise a plan:

Oh My Brave Hearts, we must leave this land tomorrow, We can't live here anymore.
And in the quiet hours, we talk before the dawn.
And the old hearts, they are calling from the shadows, Telling us we must not go, oh but we cannot fight
The power of the gun, to take away our land, They take it from our sons, swear it on my hand,

The chorus is a powerful statement that crescendos on the words "We Will Return" - thus stating that revenge shall indeed be theirs, and the heritage will continue. The guitar in the background is beautiful to hear, and provides an excellent contrast with the anger of the lyrics:

We will return, to run here like the wolf,
And see the hunter's moon, and watch our river flow, It's not gone forever;

As the meeting/song continues, alternate living quarters are discussed, which definitely conflict with what they have grown accustomed to. I envision humble shacks with perhaps mud walls and no electricity; quite possibly a commune of farmers. At any rate, they will make do by living outside of their familiar surroundings, and entering the city, which they probably detest:

Oh my bold hearts, we will go down to the city,
We will live by city light, but in the darkest hour, Keep this fire alive;
We will grow strong, we will bring our wealth together, Never showing what we have,
And when the time is come, we'll reach out for the gun,
Taking back our land, take it for our sons,
Swear it on my hand,

Once again, the verses are an excellent build-up to the crescendo that the chorus provides. Only this time, the added dimension of the openness of their land is added, contrasting it to the limitations of the city.

We will return to run here like the wolf,
And see the hunter's moon, and watch our river flow, We will return to touch the open sky,
And see the eagle fly, and feel the morning rain, It's not gone forever,

Up until this point, the song has played three minutes and forty seconds. In my opinion, the song should end here. However, the chorus's are echoed throughout the remainder of the song; accompanied by a 'choppy' guitar. This continues for about another three minutes:

We will return,
Oh my brave hearts,
We gonna come back, we gonna come back, We will return,
Oh my brave hearts,
We will return.

I, personally, would like to hear the second chorus repeated one more time, with it's full crescendos and guitar; and fading out. It would make the song quite a bit shorter, but I think more powerful.

I stated at the first that this song has double meaning for me. I hale from Montana (The "Big Sky Country") - and this song brings to mind vivid details of the problems that the Native Americans must have felt with the colonization of North America. This song can very much be applied to them.

Overall, this song is probably one of Chris deBurgh's top twenty. It would rank in the top ten if its conclusion came at the 3:40 mark. Still; an excellent song with a lot of history behind it. I'd rank it number three on the "This Way Up" album.