Genre: folk-rock
Rating: 4 stars ****
Title: It's My Way!
Company: Vanguard
Catalog: VRS-9142
Year: 1964
Country/State: Saskatchewan, Canada
Grade (cover/record): VG / VG
Comments: minor edge and corner wear; mono pressing
Available: 1
GEMM catalog ID: 5050
Price: $9.00
Having bought it at a yard sale, this album sat in my 'to-listen-to' pile for a couple of years. Anyhow, one morning I was watching a Sesame Street episode with my three year old. For some reason I noticed that Buffy Sainte-Marie was on the show. (I guess she was a semi-regular ay one point in time). Well that exposure was enough to get my curiosity up so I pulled out 1964's "It's My Way".
Wow !!! Let me start by saying this album isn't going to be for everyone. Sainte-Marie's voice (one of he strangest vibratos I've ever heard), was certainly an acquired taste. If that didn't turn you off then there's a good chance her political, social and personnel agendas would strike a chord of controversy. For a 23 year old Sainte-Marie sure managed to pack a ton of outrage into 40 minutes. The fact she wrote all 13 tracks at such a tender age is even more impressive. As one of the few native Americans recording in the mid-1960s (okay she was actually born a Cree in Saskatchewan, Canada but adopted and raised by a white family), there was some justification to her broad stroke condemnation of the genocidal actions native Indians suffered ('Now That The Buffalo's Gone'). 'Course that was just her opening shot. The rest of the first side saw Sainte-Marie taking on Christianity ('Ananias'), exposing tens of thousands of unsuspecting folks to their first brush with Hindi ('Mayoo Sto Hoon' - most folks just assumed it was Cree, or some other native American dialect), turning in one of the first and most impressive anti-drug tracts ever recorded ('Cod'ine'), and delivering one of the 1960s most effective anti-war songs (Universal Solider'). Side two wasn't quite as strident, but packed plenty of controversy, including family breakdowns ('Babe In Arms'), 'The Incest Song' (wonder how many times that got played on top-40 radio ... It's funny that until I heard this album I really didn't grasp the concept of a 'difficult' album. This one's tough to get through, but imminently worthwhile.
"It's My
Way" track listing:
(side 1)
1.) Now That The Buffalo's Gone (Buffy Sainte-Marie) -
2.) The Old Man's Lament (Buffy Sainte-Marie) -
3.) Ananias (Buffy Sainte-Marie) -
4.) Mayoo Sto Hoon (Buffy Sainte-Marie) -
5.) Cod'ine (Buffy Sainte-Marie) -
6.) Cripple Creek (traditional - Buffy Sainte-Marie) -
7.) The Universal Soldier (Buffy Sainte-Marie) -
(side
2)
1.) Babe In Arms (Buffy
Sainte-Marie) -
2.) He Lived Alone In Town (Buffy Sainte-Marie) -
3.) You're Gonna Need Somebody On Your Bond (Buffy Sainte-Marie) -
4.) The Incest Song (Buffy Sainte-Marie) -
5.) Eyes Of Amber (Buffy Sainte-Marie) -
6.) It's My Way (Buffy Sainte-Marie) -