It's My Way

Buffy Sainte-Marie | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (December 3, 1993)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Vanguard Records
• ASIN: B000000EHP
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #152,198 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Her First Album is a classic, October 21, 2000

By 

D. Rachlin "wunland" (Stow, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: It's My Way (Audio CD)

Buffy Sainte-Marie is the continent's leader in Native American music. This was her first album, on which she introduced her unique style to the vinyl record buying public back in the 60's. As a long time fan of hers, I could not give this cd five stars because it hardly matches the power and sophistication of her more recent work. Nevertheless, it contains some amazing pieces: Now that the Buffalo's Gone, (Okay, fine, they're really bison, but who cares?), is a brilliant song about the early white intervention and genocide of a way of life on the Plains. It is a metaphor for cultural destruction, and continues to be relevant. Her recent update of this song changes a few words here and there, but this original version is extraordinary. The Universal Soldier was composed on route from CA to Toronto, apparently, after BSM saw wounded Viet Nam soldiers returning in an airport. It's a war song that keeps on going. Nothing seems to change in this world, and this song should be on the airwaves daily. Mayoo Sto Hoon is Hindi, not Native American Indian. I never understood why she put this on the album, but it has a haunting melody. Buy this...buy all of her albums. Your life will improve.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Child Ballad and some powerful familiers, April 14, 2006

By 

Harper "Laur" - See all my reviews

This review is from: It's My Way (Audio CD)

Dislexia warning: I can't Spel. This album is worth it alone for the lovely "child" ballad" Lady Jean. It is simply called the incest song here which probably turnes people off, but it has great power, pathos and beauty. It is a traditional and has nothing to do with todays unfortunate problem with child rape, but centers around an adult. For those who do not know, the Child Ballads are a collection of English and Scottish ballads, not lullabys or nursery rhyms-a brittish version of Allen Lomax. This is one of the only recordings I know or found listed and is sung with a clearer, soaring voice than she often uses with prefect emphesis and timing.(althought not as clear and soft as her version of "Must I Go Bound'-Not yet availablo on CD to my knowledge -hint, hint Amazon...), The album also includes the often cutened up "Universal soldier" which she wrote. This is a must for anti-war song collectors or simply anyone watching the news these days. (Listen to it with the Joan Baez version of "with god on our side" and Judy collins singing "The Patrot Game" (the song writer bob dylan was using as a templet for "with god on our side") if you can. The personally inspired and often cuttingly ironic "Cod'in" tells of the futility of using illusion to make the pains of life dissapear. (I must add, however that the line "bettet your pain than be cought on codine" is a culter wide misunderstanding about the difference between medical use and recreational or psycholgical addiction-and that reaserch suggests some few people who can't get clean even with great effort may have Endorphin imbalences or difficiancies,and that chronic pain paitents rarely get 'addicted'. This research has a hard time going forth because of our cultural feeling that pain reliefe is a weaknesss, and docters severly undertreat pain to the point of sadism) Though codine is no longer used on the street because of the availbility of vicodin (a worse trap) taken for what it is, Cod'in is one of the most powerfull and effective songs of it's kind. "Cripple Creek" sung in a very traditinal american mountain folk style is not my personal favorite, but it's authenticity and style compaired to the very different style of "Lady Jean/The Incest Song" shows "folk", too long catoragised as 'that silly 60's stuff(not so silly often) or 'those wierd irish stupid new age things-to be much more with a much greater range. The song is reminiscent in some ways of unadulterated, harsh cajun and may please many. Don't let her seemingly tuneless peices you may have heard fool you-I believe it is taken from her Native background which has a diferent scale than the western in many Native cultres, picked up in some seldom heard post european American folk, and is a sighn of her vresitility as a singer/songwriter. a very good album over all, especially for firs time listeners -Laurianna Whiteweaver

5.0 out of 5 stars A Cornerstone of Contemporary Music, June 7, 2011

By 

C. S. Junker "soul_survivor" (Burien, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: It's My Way (Audio CD)

I must have been 11 years old when I first heard this remarkable album, but even before that, I had heard people at my summer camp singing "Cod'ine" (and wondered what in the hack *that* was..). And of course I'd heard Donovan singing his cheerier version of "Universal Soldier."

While this music might sound dated to some, it holds up for me after 46 years. Buffy's powerful guitar playing, unique and haunting voice, and wide range of adult topics made a tremendous impact on me. This was a time when my friends and I were beginning to question everything our parents had taught us, and the Native American viewpoint fit perfectly into that. But of course Buffy didn't limit herself to that.

I was fortunate enough to see her live when I was 12, at a very small and intimate performance. Those were magical times in my life and Buffy's first album always brings them back to me.

I have to put in a word of praise for the superb bass work of Russ Savakus, whose understated presence makes a number of these pieces come fully to life. Savakus worked the same magic with Dylan's "Desolation Row."