Conquistador

A conquistador was a Spanish soldier back in the 1500s when they came to the New World. The word itself means conqueror and that is exactly what they did.

I don't plan on getting into treatment of native peoples or anything else, just that they conquered what is now Mexico and South America.

I was about a 5th grader when Boyd Baker moved to my town. Until I moved away at the end of my 7th grade year, we were pretty inseparable.

Boyd had an older sister named Francis that was the talk of the town. She was several years older than us and every high school boy wanted to date her, probably including my oldest brother. She was on a completely different level than the trashy boys from down the street so my brother had zero chance.

Now, she was pretty incredible looking from my memory, but she treated me like a was the south end of a north bound horse.

One insult I remember vividly was just being in their house hanging out with my friend and she came in, and upon seeing me said, "I thought I smelled something."

Ouch.

I'll never forget the day she came in all excited because she had bought a new record. It was an album of Procol Harum with their new hit song 'Conquistador'.

The year was about 1971 or 1972, but it's still one of my favorite songs to this day.

Every song of this time period has been accused of being a metaphor of this or that. Conquistador is no different.

Supposedly, this was an anti-war song with the war in Vietnam still going strong. Vietnam was the subject of the day and possibly the fear of every young man in this country back then. I had no doubt that I would end up there and I will blog about that some day. But, fortunately for me, it ended before I came of age.

I'm not really sure what purpose the writer of this song had in mind. Maybe he was a history buff and just thought he might plug the words into a really catchy tune.

I don't know and I am not convinced it had a larger meaning.

Conquistadors were usually looking for fame and fortune. They were looking to conquer new places. Some of them were successful and some died in the process.

Some returned to Spain as a hero.

Folks probably haven't changed all that much.

People today are still looking for fame, fortune and conquering new places. Some are successful, but a lot more fail.

Still we continue trying to conquer new worlds.

Just remember as you are going out there to conquer new worlds to be nice to the little boy down the street. He may grow up and write a blog about you. :)