songwriter, musician, composer, visual artist, educator, pacifist, and social activist. Throughout her career in all of these areas, her work has focused on issues of indigenous peoples of the Americas. Her singing and writing repertoire also includes subjects of love, war, religion, and mysticism.
In 1997, she founded the Cradleboard Teaching Project, an educational curriculum devoted to better understanding Native Americans. She has won recognition and many awards and honours for both her music and her work in education and social activism.
Buffy Sainte-Marie was born in 1941 on the Piapot Plains Cree First Nation Reserve in the Qu'Appelle Valley, Saskatchewan, Canada. She was later adopted, growing up in Massachusetts, with parents Albert and Winifred Sainte-Marie. She attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, earning degrees in teaching and Oriental philosophy and graduating in the top ten of her class. She went on to earn a Ph.D in Fine Art from the University of Massachusetts.
In 1964, on a return trip to the Piapot Cree reserve in Canada for a powwow she was welcomed and (in a Cree Nation context) adopted by the youngest son of Chief Piapot, Emile Piapot and his wife, who added to Sainte-Marie's cultural value of, and place in, native culture.
In 1968, she married surfing teacher Dewain Bugbee of Hawaii; they divorced in 1971. She married Sheldon Wolfchild from Minnesota in 1975; they have a son, Dakota "Cody" Starblanket Wolfchild. That union also ended in divorce. She married her co-writer for "Up Where We Belong," Jack Nitzsche, on March 19, 1982. He died from a heart attack on August 25, 2000. As of 2007, she lives in Hawaii.
Although not a Bahá'í herself, she became an active friend of the Bahá'í Faith by the mid-1970s when she is said to have appeared in the 1973 Third National Bahá'í Youth Conference at the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and has continued to appear at concerts, conferences and conventions of that religion since then. In 1992, she appeared in the musical event prelude to the Bahá'í World Congress, a double concert "Live Unity: The Sound of the World" in 1992 with video broadcast and documentary. In the video documentary of the event Sainte-Marie is seen on the Dini Petty Show explaining the Bahá'í teaching of progressive revelation. She also appears in the 1985 video "Mona With The Children" by Douglas John Cameron. However, while she supports a universal sense of religion, she does not subscribe to any particular religion.
Sainte-Marie claimed in a 2008 interview at the National Museum of the American Indian that she had been blacklisted by American radio stations and that she, along with Native Americans and other native people in the Red Power movements, were put out of business in the 1970s.
In a 1999 interview at Diné College with a staff writer with the Indian Country Today, Sainte-Marie said "I found out 10 years later, in the 1980s, that President Lyndon B. Johnson had been writing letters on White House stationery praising radio stations for suppressing my music" and "In the 1970s, not only was the protest movement put out of business, but the Native American movement was attacked."
As a result of this blacklisting led by (among others) Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, and Nashville disc jockey Ralph Emery (following the release of I'm Gonna Be a Country Girl Again), Sainte-Marie said "I was put out of business in the United States".
Helpless
Buffy Sainte-Marie Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
With dream comfort memory to spare
And in my mind I still need a place to go
All my changes were there
Blue, blue windows behind the stars
Yellow moon on the rise
Big birds flying across the sky
Leave us
Helpless, helpless, helpless
Baby can you hear me now?
The chains are locked and tied across the door
Baby, sing with me somehow
Blue, blue windows behind the stars
Yellow moon on the rise
Big birds flying across the sky
Throwing shadows on our eyes
Leave us
Helpless, helpless, helpless
In Helpless, Buffy Sainte-Marie sings about a town in north Ontario that holds powerful memories for her, and where she longs to go back to even if it may not be possible. The place that she refers to is a source of comfort for her, providing her with dream comfort memories. This line suggests that the town holds a significance beyond just a physical place, it holds a strong emotional appeal for her. The song encapsulates the idea that we all have a place where we feel safe and comfortable, a place where we can go back to even if it is only in our minds.
The chorus of the song, which repeats the word helpless, emphasizes the emotional and mental state of the singer. This is particularly relevant in the context of the blue and yellow imagery in the lyrics. The blue window behind the stars, the yellow moon on the rise, and the big birds flying across the sky represent a world of possibilities, of new experiences that are just out of reach. The big birds are also throwing shadows on our eyes, perhaps suggesting that while there is something beautiful and free up there, it is something that we cannot truly reach. The singer is left feeling helpless and trapped, with the chains locked and tied across the door.
Overall, Helpless is a song that captures the feeling of helplessness and the longing for something that is just out of reach. It explores themes of the importance of holding onto memories and the desire to relive the past.
Line by Line Meaning
There is a town in north Ontario
This is where the story begins, with a specific location in mind: North Ontario.
With dream comfort memory to spare
The town is full of comforting memories and dreams.
And in my mind I still need a place to go
Despite the memories, the singer is still looking for a place to call home.
All my changes were there
The town represents a place where the artist went through many changes and transitions in their life.
Blue, blue windows behind the stars
The windows behind the stars are blue, suggesting a feeling of longing or melancholy.
Yellow moon on the rise
The moon is rising and casting a warm, inviting light over everything.
Big birds flying across the sky
The birds are a symbol of freedom and escape, something the singer longs for.
Throwing shadows on our eyes
The birds are casting shadows over the artist's eyes, making it hard for them to see or move forward.
Leave us
The artist is calling for an end to whatever is causing the suffering.
Helpless, helpless, helpless
The artist is feeling completely overwhelmed and lost, with no way out of their current situation.
Baby can you hear me now?
The singer is calling out for someone to hear their cry for help.
The chains are locked and tied across the door
Something is blocking the artist from getting out or finding a way forward.
Baby, sing with me somehow
The singer is not looking for a solution, but for solidarity and comfort from another person in their struggle.
Leave us
The singer's call for an end to their pain and suffering is repeated here as a plea.
Helpless, helpless, helpless
The singer's feeling of helplessness is reinforced, with a sense that there is no escape or way forward.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Peermusic Publishing
Written by: Neil Young
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@sunEdazeahead
There is a town in north Ontario
With dream comfort memory to spare
And in my mind I still need a place to go
All my changes were there
Blue, blue windows behind the stars
Yellow moon on the rise
Big birds flying across the sky
Throwing shadows on our eyes
Leave us
Helpless, helpless, helpless
Baby can you hear me now?
The chains are locked and tied across the door
Baby, sing with me somehow
Blue, blue windows behind the stars
Yellow moon on the rise
Big birds flying across the sky
Throwing shadows on our eyes
Leave us
Helpless, helpless, helpless
@thookman08
There is a town in north ontario
With dream comfort memory to spare
And in my mind I still need a place to go
All my changes were there
Blue, blue windows behind the stars
Yellow moon on the rise
Big birds flying across the sky
Throwing shadows on our eyes
Leave us
Helpless, helpless, helpless
Baby can you hear me now?
The chains are locked and tied across the door
Baby, sing with me somehow
Blue, blue windows behind the stars
Yellow moon on the rise
Big birds flying across the sky
Throwing shadows on our eyes
Leave us
Helpless, helpless, helpless
@Aztekian
Heard this in Hotel Artemis and instantly fell in love with it.
@beckyc2720
Amazing!!!!
@TheJimmer63
Me Too
@aquarian1282
I love it. But it makes me cry thinking of my youngest son who died 26 yrs. ago.
@kellygadd3936
Me too.
@annewilkinson4110
me too. Is she still alive? Beautiful version of a beautiful song.
@chassnowden6496
My mother played this back in the day. Still miss you mom
@cindyhutchins6517
Me tooo I hope my boys remember!! ❤ your mom must been a great woman!!!
@johnhardesty3167
I would’ve never known this gal if it wasn’t for Hotel Artemis!
@Spiceweasel473
just wow!!
1 year further today iḿ watching hotel artemis, and i'm hearing the song.