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March 21, 2007
Retrohump Day - Buffy Sainte-Marie
Given that Monday marked our fourth goddamn year in Iraq, it only made good sense to devote this week's retrohump to folk activist Buffy Sainte-Marie.
Born on a Cree reservation in Canada's Qu'Appelle Valley, she was later orphaned, adopted by her parents' white friends, and raised in the U.S., where as a bright, young thing, she taught herself to play piano and guitar.
Fast-forward to 1962, by which time Buffy was in her early twenties, playing gigs in concert halls and folk festivals and hanging around the blooming Greenwich Village folk scene, along with Canadian cohorts Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell and Neil Young.
Her spankin' good early songs were (in the predictable American fashion) reappropriated by lesser-talented but whiter-skinned men and women, including Barbara Streisand, Sonny and Cher, Chet Atkins, Roberta Flack, Janis Joplin, Neil Diamond and, yes, the 'King' of all song-stealing, Elvis.
In 1963, while recovering from a throat infection, Buffy developed an addiction to codeine (very rockstar), an experience that she drew on to write the song "Cod'ine" (very popstar).
The very same year, the U.S. government began withdrawing our war-busted troops from 'Nam, saying, roughly, "The political situation in South Vietnam remains deeply serious. While U.S. action there has not yet significantly affected the military effort...it might do so...you know, in the future." Ah, it all sounds so vaguely familiar, eh?
The returning veterans inspired Buffy's protest song "Universal Solider," which was released on her debut album It's My Way! Although the song earned her Billboard Magazine's title of Best New Artist, it became a hit, not for her, but later for Donovan (the poor man's British Bob Dylan).
The rest of the Buffy Sainte-Marie story is an even further flop, filled with religious conversion (she became a member of the Baha'i Faith), ill-fated forres into the land of Buchla synthesizer ("People were more in love with the Pocahontas-with-a-guitar image," Buffy has explained), a five-year stint on Sesame Street, and a "Best Song" Academy Award for "Up Where We Belong," which appeared in the Debra Winger classic An Officer and a Gentleman. (Let it be known that the film's producer Don Simpson tried to cut Buffy's tune saying, "The song is no good. It isn't a hit.")
Perhaps to blame for Buffy's lack of popular success is the suggestion that she was blacklisted in the 1970s, along with other Native Americans who belonged to the Red Power Movement. "I found out ten years later, in the 1980s, that Lyndon B. Johnson had been writing letters on White House stationery praising radio stations for suppressing my music," Buffy's said.
Also in the 1970s, her records began doing the old poof-and-disappear. Although distributors claimed the LPs had been shipped, there never seemed to be any in-stock or available for her fans to purchase.
In her words, Buffy was, "put out of business in the United States." Today, she's put back in business by Merry Swankster.
Buffy Sainte-Marie - "Cindy"
Okay, so Pete Seeger is sort of hogging the spotlight here, with his baseball metaphors and gratuitous banjo close-ups. But perhaps it's just because he's artistically threatened by the bruised power of Buffy's brusque voice... Also, nothing commands attention like a woman with a massive, fucking tree branch in her mouth.
Buffy Sainte-Marie - And The Mystery of the Mouth Bow
It's official. The first band to bring back the mouth bow earns my MS Pick. (And the first band to attach a gourd to the end wins my vote for 2007 Album of the Year.)
Buffy Sainte-Marie - "Little Wheel Spin and Spin"
God, I can't decide what makes this clip so haunting. Is it because the same themes (hate, greed and senseless war) still apply? Is it because there still aren't any Native American artists on the radio dial? Or is it all due to the simple fact that we still think "Vampire Slayer" whenever someone says the name "Buffy?"
// Buffy Sainte-Marie - Official site.
// Buffy Sainte-Marie - It's My Way! - Buy.
// Buffy Sainte-Marie- Little Wheel Spin and Spin - Buy.
Posted by Koren Zailckas at March 21, 2007 02:05 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
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Comments
i always look forward to retrohump day. always learn something new from something old. this was an especially good one. edumacational.
Posted by: ms lurker at March 21, 2007 06:38 PM
Vote MS Lurker! Vote. On the 90s Album Insanity. Man, am I annoying myself?
Posted by: Keith at March 21, 2007 06:40 PM
Jeez, Keith.
Anyway, my mom loves Buffy Sainte Marie. Koren, have you heard Galaxie 500's cover of her song, "Moonshot"? It's rad. It was in an old post, I think, and will pop up if you search it.
I can send it to you, of course, but that seems cruel to the lurking contingent...
Posted by: Jeff K at March 21, 2007 08:19 PM
Oh yeah! I have heard it! It's beautiful. I found the link too for our much-loved lurkers:
http://www.merryswankster.com/archives/2006/08/monday_under_co_1.html
Thanks Jeff...
Posted by: Koren Zailckas at March 21, 2007 08:42 PM
Great post Koren
Posted by: Yonah at March 21, 2007 09:11 PM
But Buffy was named for Saint-Marie! That's what I tell my friends anyway. Surprisingly easy to convince them too, considering that Illuminations has a song called "The Vampire" and a song called "Angel."
Posted by: d at March 22, 2007 12:03 PM
Cool piece, indeed--just a small correction: Donovan was the poor man's Scottish Bob Dylan.
Posted by: skysby at March 22, 2007 03:09 PM
Indeed, you're right on that one. Sorry... My copy editor had the day off.
Posted by: Koren Zailckas at March 22, 2007 03:23 PM
Just read the original without the attitude - at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffy_Sainte-Marie
Posted by: Steven Kolins at June 25, 2007 10:20 PM
It does bear a shocking resemblance to the wiki piece...Sheesh, what's the point?
Posted by: skysby at June 27, 2007 09:35 AM
I dunno, the point of the retro feature is sort of the videos, no?
Posted by: Jeff at June 27, 2007 09:49 AM
Sure, that's the point of the feature, but the question is whether retrofitting a wikipedia article to seem like an original piece of writing is a good thing or not. Why not just post the videos, add a paragraph of your own, and add a link to the wiki article? That would be a lot more straightforward.
Posted by: skysby at June 27, 2007 09:58 AM
Retrofitting facts or citing facts...I see little difference. This feature, and this blog, is not designed to be a dump and link website like others are. It is set up to provide the info all on the page you are reading as a one stop shop...with attitude thank you very much.
Posted by: Sebastian at June 27, 2007 02:00 PM
The difference between retrofitting and citing is that in retrofitting, the lines are intentionally blurred so it's not clear what part of the text has been essentially appropriated wholesale, while in citing, you let people know what sources you're drawing from.
Posted by: skysby at June 27, 2007 02:44 PM
