POWER IN THE BLOOD

It’s My Way
© Words & Music by Buffy Sainte-Marie

Kids – enjoy the adventure of being your own star.
It’s My Way was the title song of my first album – fifty years ago. It got me named Billboard’s Best New Artist in 1964 – the year the Beatles came to America. The song still works and the message of finding your own uniqueness and being your own mutation is still relevant. In this world of drones and robots and corporate jobs, people don’t get much encouragement to be the something new that only each one of us can be.

I’m cutting my own way thru my own day
and all I dare say is it’s my own
I got my own seeds I got my own weeds
I got my own harvest that I’ve sown
Now I can tell you things I’ve done
and I can sing you songs I’ve sung
But there’s one thing I can’t give
for I and I alone can live
the years I’ve known and the life I’ve grown
I got a way I’m going and it’s my way

I’ve got my own stakes in my own game
I got my own name and it’s my way
I got my own wrong I’ve got my own right
I’ve got my own fight and it’s my way
I’ve got my own peace I’ve got my own wrath
I’ve got my own path that only I can go
I’ve got my own sword in my own hand
I’ve got my own plan that only I can know

Don’t be crying don’t be sighing
Your day will come your day alone
Years you’ll know and a life you’ll grow
Got a way to go and it’s all on your own

I’ve got my own world I’ve got my own strife
I’ve got my own life and it’s my way
I’ve got my own kith I’ve got my own kin
I’ve got my own sin and it’s my way
I’ve got my own prayers I’ve got my own fears
I’ve got my own tears and it’s my way
I’ve got my own joy I’ve got my own load
I’ve got my own road and it’s my way

The years I’ve known and the life I’ve grown
Got a way I’m going and it’s my way
Don’t be crying don’t be sighing
Your day will come your day alone

Put down the story of what I’ve known
You’re bound for a glory all of your own
Put down the story of what I say
You’re bound for glory all on your own one day.

Power In The Blood
© Words & Music Alabama 3. Modified words Buffy Sainte-Marie.

Kids – enjoy the adventure of being your own star.
The wisdoms inherent in our own DNA are our real power, and we won’t be goaded into war by feudal system racketeers who can outgun us. I wrote new words to the Alabama3 classic, and they lent me samples from their original recording. I re-wrote some of the words, turned it into an anti-war song. Strange: we seem so different musically and personally, but we’re mutual fans and I love the cross-pollination in the song.

GMO GMO has got to go
Power in the blood Power in the blood

No time for spin-doctors’ medicine
Corporation government selling me some cover-up
Weaponizing pesticides; poison in my groceries
Nothing but another drug, a license they can buy and sell

I don’t mind dying
Well I don’t mind dying
I don’t mind dying
But when that call it comes I will say no no no to war

No time for backhanded compliments
From television anchor men desperate for an incident
Real estate assassins exploiting our predicament
Everything depends upon it being in their interests

No I don’t mind dying
I don’t mind dying
I don’t mind dying
When that call it comes, I will say no no no to war

There is power in the blood, justice in the soul
When that call it comes, I will say no no no to war
Power in the blood, justice in the soul
When that call it comes I will say no no no to war

There’s military interest, GMOs in paradise
bio-weapons high up on the call sheet
Young soldiers driving tanks
but old thieves they drive the banks
and you never see a uniform on Wall Street

There is power in the blood

I don’t mind dying
I don’t mind the dying
I don’t mind dying
When that call it comes I will say no no no to war

We Are Circling
© Versus Buffy Sainte-Marie. Chorus Traditional.

Growing and changing is the key to survival and happiness. I wrote new verses to this old hippy campfire song. It encapsulates my own philosophy of Life: that we’re all ripening, all the time everywhere, and that’s good.

Chorus

We are circling
Circling together
We are singing
singing our heart song
This is family, this is unity
This is celebration, this is sacred

We are spiraling
Spiraling together
Onward, inward
Creature to creation
Holy mystery
Mother Earth – Child Birth
This is Mother Nature
This is sacred

Repeat Chorus

We are spinning ahh
Spinning all together
We are singing
Over the rainbow
This is harmony
This is community
This is celebration
This is sacred

Repeat Chorus

We are ripening
Ripening together
Babies, elders, bozos and angels
This is how we grow
This is how we get to know
This is family
This is sacred

Repeat Chorus

Not The Lovin Kind
© Words & Music Buffy Sainte-Marie.

You’re incapable of love, and I’m not going to worry about it. Singing hard like this is only possible with a great band, and we took the feel from my original recording with Norbert Putnam and his Area Code 615 players, and Glen Spreen’s horn arrangement. The song still only has two chords!

Gonna get me a sewing machine
Sew you a shirt of black
Do Not Love across the front
And all across the back
To remind me that you’re not the lovin kind
To remind me that you’re not the lovin kind

Gonna get me a ribbon Honey, Honey
Day glow red
Tie it around my finger Baby
Or maybe around my bed
To remind me that you’re not the lovin kind
To remind me that you’re not the lovin kind

I think I’ve learned your secret
To keep from getting burned
Love for you is a matter of no deposit and no return
Yeah Uh-I know you’re not the lovin kind
Oh-h you’re so heavy on my mind

Rocks in my pillow
You’re putting rocks & blocks & boulders
I gotta get me a Do Not Love sign Honey
And hang it around your shoulders
To remind me that you’re not the lovin kind
To remind me you’re so heavy on my mind

Love Charms (Mojo Bijoux)
© Words & Music Buffy Sainte-Marie.

I’m so in love I’m resorting to magic – even in airports – to keep you close to me.

I’m thinking up love charms cause I can’t say a word
I’ve just got to stand and stare so far as you’re concerned
Every time I let you go it’s just an illusion
Looking like I don’t care and trying not to show
The way I feel

I’m thinking up love charms
Love charms
Thinking up love charms
What else can I do

I got planes in my head, they’re flying off everywhere
but where I want to go, wherever you are
I got to got to got to keep my head
while I’m making these changes
Making every connection between the lines
Making believe come true.

I’m thinking up love charms
Love charms
Thinking up love charms
Mojo bijoux

I’m thinking up love charms
Hup da da da da
Mojo bijoux

I got to got to got to keep my head
while I’m making these changes
Making every connection between the lines
Making believe come true.

I’m thinking up love charms
Love charms
Thinking up love charms
What else can I do

I’m thinking up love charms
I want you so bad
Love charms
I want you so good
Love charms
Mojo bijoux

Ke Sakihitin Awasis (I Love You Baby)
© Words & Music Buffy Sainte-Marie.

A lullaby and a love song for Native America. Title is in the Cree language and it means “I love you, Baby.” I dedicate it to all the generations of Indigenous people who keep Native America alive in our hearts, in our cultures, and in our actions towards our most sacred mother, Nature.

He’s not like a stranger he’s more like a vision you’d seen
The kind of a face that you’d see on the edge of a dream
he was beaded and feathered from his head to his moccasined feet
and now you’re singing

Ke sakihetin awasis

He reminds you of a legend that you had known as a child
He knew it too it was about Earth and about Sun and about Sky
Oh it was about Wolf and Coyote and Eagle and Kitchimanitou**
and Wakontanka***

Ke sakihetin awasis

On some reservation your purification’s begun
It’s the fifth generation the young and the old are as one
Singing come back to the Sweetgrass
come back to the Pipe and the Drum
and be your future.

Ke sakihetin awasis
*Ke sakihitin awasis means I love you Baby in Cree.
**Kitchimanitou means Great Spirit in Cree
***Wakontanka means Great Spirit in Lakota

Farm in the Middle of Nowhere
© Words & Music Buffy Sainte-Marie.

True love in the boonies. I found this song in my head when I was just fooling around with my guitar.

I live on a farm in the middle of nowhere
In the country you could say
The one I love he loves me
He lovee lovee loves me
Oooo It’s a beautiful day
where I come from

Top of the world
Nowhere town
I fell in love and then I settled down
and the one I love he loves me
He lovee lovee loves me
Oooo Sunshine shining
in my heart

Dream dream look at the night
Sweet ol brown eyes holding me tight
and the one I love he loves me
He lovee lovee loves me
Hoo hoo End of the rainbow
In my back yard

Dream dream look at the night
Sweet ol brown eyes holding me tight
and the one I love he loves me
He lovee lovee loves me
Hoo hoo, Kesipwayow, Aloha oe

We can grow beans
We can grow corn
We can grow smiles in the happy morning
And the one he loves he loves me
He lovee lovee loves me
Lay me down in green pastures
Oh my soul

I live on a farm in the middle of nowhere
Country you could say
The one I love he loves me
He lovee lovee loves me
End of the rainbow
where I come from.
Farm in the middle of nowhere
It’s where I come from.

Generation
© Words & Music Buffy Sainte-Marie.

The pros and cons of Indigenous wonders are beyond what the merchants are trying to sell and the bankers are trying to steal. I wrote this when NASA was sending the guy to the moon and I was trying to get to the Rosebud Sioux reservation. My Dad said to me, “Daughter, they ought to leave that moon alone,” and I never forgot it, and it showed up in this song amidst a cast of characters that also includes Idle No More, Mother Earth and even those darn bankers.

Kids were sent from heaven inside to lead you to the future
Wrap their eyes in blindfolds and still they’ll find their way
Blind their lives with pills and lies and still they find their vision
And soon they leave you to your yesterday

And they sing bye bye scars of history
And bye bye bankers’ trust
Aquarius is shining and the Son is one of us
And me I don’t wanna go to the moon
I’m gonna leave that moon alone
I just want to dance with the Rosebud Sioux this summer
Yes, yes

The media is saturated but the Sweetgrass still grows tall
And Jesse John Blackbear talks to God in Cleveland, O-hi-yo
And Washington is joking but the Navajos are not
And Mother Earth keeps on giving while we’re ripening.

I talked to seven congressmen, their ears were filled with gold
That their grandfathers had stolen out of the Black Hills
And round and round the dance goes on
and the children are Idle No More
And they will dream the dream my Mother sends to them.

And they’ll sing bye bye scars of history
And bye bye bankers’ trust
Aquarius is shining and the Sun is one of us
And me I don’t wanna go to the moon
I’m gonna leave that moon alone
I just want to dance with the Rosebud Sioux this summer
Yes, yes, yes
Wait for me you brown-eyed man

Sing Our Own Song
© Words & Music UB40 (1986). Modified words Buffy Sainte-Marie (2014). Sample Northern Cree Singers.

We’re done with colonial control and we rejoice in our own cultures. I modified the words of UB40’s original great anti-apartheid song.The powwow sample is from the astounding traditional drum group Northern Cree; ki chi migwetch, my Brothers.

The great flood of tears that we’ve cried
For our brothers and sisters who’ve died
Over five hundred years has washed away our fears
And strengthened our pride, now we turn back the tide

We will no longer hear your command
We will slide your control from our lands
Re-direct the flame of our anger and pain
And pity the shame
For what you do in God’s name.

We will stand for the right to be free
We will grow our own society
And we will sing, we will sing
We will sing our own song

When the ancient drum rhythms ring
The voice of our forefathers sings
The will to live will beat on, we will no longer be pawns
to greed and to war
We will be Idle No More

We will stand for the right to be free
We will build our own society
And we will sing, we will sing
We will sing our own song

When the ancient drum rhythms ring
The voice of our grandmothers sings
Native America run, we will no longer succumb
to oil and ore, we will be Idle No More

We will stand for the right to be free
We will build our own society
And we will sing, we will sing
We will sing our own song

We will teach about the right to be free
We will build our own society
And we will sing, we will sing
We will sing our own song

Dance dance for the right to be free
We will build our own society
And we will sing, we will sing
We will sing our own song

And occupy for the right to be free
We will rebuild a just society
And we will sing, we will sing
We will sing our own song

Amandla a-way-thu

Orion
© Words Buffy Sainte-Marie. Music Jack Nitzsche.

No matter how far apart we are, we can look up and see the same stars. This is Jack Nitzsche’s beautiful love theme from the movie Revenge, and my words.

Wish. Star. Too far away to ever know
But if I had just one wish I’d wish for now.

Time goes by. Every day I look for you.
You are gone but in my heart I see you still.

What I know can’t be so but here you are
And of all my dreams come true the best is now.

Do you see those three in the sky that shine so bright?
When I’m far away I know they’ll light your night.

The Uranium War
© Words & Music Buffy Sainte-Marie.

A true story from within the American Indian movement. This is a prequel to my other song “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee,” and I dedicate it to the family of the late Anna Mae Aquash whom I mention in both songs. A real tragedy.

Ay ha ay ha yo Ho

There was a Cree and a Sioux and a Navajo an Arapaho and a Hopi hiyo
We were stranded, snowbound, eh–ho I don’t know
Sleeping on the floor like the best of friends
Living on tea and odds and ends ah
Were we lucky? Well it all depends

There was Cordell and me and Norman Brown sittin around away from town
And me I’m listening — Hey hey Big Mountain guys
Watch the sunrise in your eyes; taking care of the Elders’ pride
Hey hey Mother Earth; Hey hey Father Sky

And me I watched it grow: corporate greed and a lust for gold and
coal and oil and hey now uranium
Keep the Indians under your thumb; pray like hell when your bad times come
Hey rip em up Strip em up Get em with a gun

She was a friend of mine Annie Mae in the snows of the wintertime
We were running cross the fields of Indian land
Ducking bullets from the guns of the pale men Ay hey ay hey ahh

Patriot Woman, hunted in the land
What did you say about uranium?

She come to see me one day I was living in a little place in L.A.
She was running from the feel of the jailor’s touch
Singing Heyo ha ya I think I know too much about uranium

Ay ha ay ha yo

And me I watched it grow: corporate greed and a lust for gold
and coal and oil and hey now uranium
Keep the Indians under your thumb; pray like hell when your bad times come
Hey rip em up Strip em up Get em with a gun

Carry It On
© Words & Music Buffy Sainte-Marie.

Humans are vulnerable, governments come and go, and Nature is sacred, so take care of your link with Life and thrive. This is my favorite song. Not sure how I got so lucky as to find it in my head, but it stabilizes me and inspires me no matter what else is going on. I really believe it.

Hold your head up
Lift the top of your mind
Put your eyes on the Earth
Lift your heart to your own home planet
What do you see?
What is your attitude
Are you here to improve or damn it
Look right now and you will see
we’re only here by the skin of our teeth as it is
so take heart and take care of your link with Life and

Oh carry it on – We’re saying
Oh carry it on – Keep playing
Oh carry it on – And praying

It ain’t money that makes the world go round
That’s only temporary confusion
It ain’t governments that make the people strong
It’s the opposite illusion
Look right now and you will see
they’re only here by the skin of our teeth as it is
so take heart and take care of your link with Life

Oh carry it on – Keep saying
Oh carry it on – And playing
Oh carry it on – And praying

Look right now and you will see
we’re only here by the skin of our teeth as it is
so take heart and take care of your link with

Life is beautiful
if you got the sense to take care of your source of perfection
Mother Nature She’s the daughter of God and the source of all protection

Look right now
and you will see she’s only here by the skin of her teeth as it is
so take heart and take care of your link with Life

Oh carry it on – Keep saying
Oh carry it on – And playing
Oh carry it on – Keep on praying