Buffy Sainte-Marie – I first heard Buffy in Sixth form, probably 66 or 67. She was part of the folk movement and I liked her voice, part Indian – she seemed, and of course was, totally authentic. Becoming a huge fan of her work in the seventies I had all her early albums on vinyl, and really should get them again in CD, naïve though they were in some respects. My real enthusiasm for her started with 1971’s ‘Ballerina’ and I worked my way back to 1968’s I’m Gonna Be A Country Girl Again, which as the title suggests is a full-on country album – and I love it. Raunchy arrangements and great melodies and, oh – that voice. She obviously loves the genre and gives it all she has got – I particularly love a couple of quieter songs ‘Tall trees In Georgia’ and ‘Take My Hand For A While’ with sumptuous melodies and a melt your heart voice. But the up-tempo songs are pretty good too; the title song and ‘Soulful Shade Of Blue’. She still does a couple of numbers with mouthbow, a unique trick of hers – but especial thanks for one of her early Indian political songs, an updated arrangement of ‘Now That The Buffalo’s Gone’ her lament for on-going Indian deceit by the U.S. Government. The following years album was a complete change of sound. All the sounds on the album have been synthesised form Buffy’s voice and guitar. In fact, as far as I can find, one of the first uses of synthesised sound, and incidentally one of the most exciting. Sad that in the 80s synthesisers simply tried to replicate acoustic instruments. Anyway, the album Illuminations will always be in my top 100 albums and I play it regularly. Not everyone’s cup of tea maybe and on first listen it can sound harsh, but somehow the songs and her voice worm their way into your consciousness and you end up worshipping the record. It starts with Buffy singing an unrecorded poem of Leonard Cohens’. It is actually an excerpt from his book Beautiful Losers, which incidentally features sex scenes with an American Indian (co-incidence or a likely story – but Buffy maybe had an affair with Leonard; almost everyone else did) A couple of up-tempo, almost hard rocking numbers; ‘Better To Find Out For Yourself’ and ‘Keeper Of The Fire’. There are semi-religious songs; ‘Mary’ and ‘Adam’ and a couple of gentle ballads; best of which is the hauntingly beautiful ‘Guess Who I Saw In Paris’. The album ends with another chilling but exquisite vocal ‘Poppies’. As soon as the album ends, I just want to put it back on again. She followed this with maybe her best-selling album She Used To Wanna Be A Ballerina (1971). It had quite a big hit, which she sung on Top Of The Pops – ‘Soldier Blue’ – which was the title track of a film about atrocities against Native Americans and was a minor sensation. But the album was a quite full-on rock album; with great production and a good choice of songs, with a handful of covers – ‘Bells’ by Leonard Cohen’ and ‘Helpless’ by Neil Young, where I think she sings the song better than the original. But there are a handful of great songs from her own pen – ‘Moratorium’ (an anti-war song), ‘The Surfer’ and best of all a really sad and heartfelt song ‘Now You’ve Been Gone For A Long Time’ (best line – I wonder why you padlocked up my heart if you never meant to return). A brilliant album….and yet…like so many others, she failed to follow this up with anything as good for a very long time. 1971 saw a half decent album Moonshot. I quite liked it but felt she was moving just a bit too close to the middle of the road, her voice was splendid as usual, but the songs mostly lacked that brilliance of her three former albums. Best are 2 songs reflecting her Indian heritage ‘He’s An Indian Cowboy In The Rodeo’ and ‘Native North American Child’ – but most of the other songs don’t really reach great heights. Then followed 3 albums which I felt were pretty mediocre; I only bought them much later as a set of 3 albums on 2 discs. Quiet Places, Buffy and Changing Woman – did little to enhance her reputation, a couple of half-decent covers – Joni’s ‘For Free’ and ‘Eventually’ – a couple of half decent songs ‘Hong Kong Star Boy’ and ‘Eagle Man, Changing Woman’ are okay – but most of the rest just passes me by. But….she had one last album in the Seventies – 1976’s Sweet America, which more than made up for the previous trio. Almost every song sounds great, her voice never better and the songs just sparkle. From opener ‘Sweet America’ to closer ‘Ain’t No Time For The Worrying Blues’ she sounds positively happy…but best of all are a couple of songs where she uses traditional Indian chants in her songs; ‘QueAppelle Valley’ and ‘Honey Can You Hang Around’ are simply superb. A welcome return to form….but then Buffy retired from the music business and took up a residency as a presenter in Sesame Street. I never watched the programme, but apparently, she was a great success. However, after her own children were grown she returned to recording – and how. Co-incidence and Likely Stories suddenly appeared in 1992, sixteen years after her last record. And Buffy was now fully committed to her Indian heritage and her political views still as bright as they ever were. She re-works a couple of her old songs but the new ones are pretty fierce too….especially ‘The Big Ones Get Away’ and ‘Disinformation’…but best are two quieter songs ‘Fallen Angels’ and ‘Goodnight’. A pretty confident return to form. 1996 saw a re-recording of many of her earlier songs – a sort of greatest hits. She included a song she never released but which she had written for a film ‘Up Where We Belong’, and Buffy’s version is much quieter and reflective than the Jennifer Warnes and Joe Cocker extravaganza (which had been a big hit). I am not sure that these versions bring anything new to the songs and the whole album smacks of a hint of desperation. Another new album came out in 2000 – Running For The Drum. Not bad but the few new songs were supplemented by yet more re-recordings of older songs; still the new ones are pretty cool – best are ‘Too much is Never Enough’ and ‘Still this Love Goes On’. One last original album came out a few years later Power In The Blood – and here the producer has tried to really update her sound for the 21st century – I am not sure it works. The title track is very modern sounding but the words are lost. Some good songs though – ‘orion’ and ‘Love Charms’. So far that is it – but I do have 2 greatest hits; Soldier Blue – The Vanguard Years – is a lot of her earlier albums, which are the best, even the pure folk early ones. Fave songs – Co’dine and a couple of covers ‘Helpless’ and ‘For Free’. Hardly essential but a nice selection. I also found The Best of Buffy – Vol 2 a while back. No surprises, but nice to hear songs like ’97 men In This Here Town’ and ‘Reynardine’.
