Buffy Sainte-Marie, OC (born Beverly Sainte-Marie, February 20, 1941) is a … Read Full Bio ↴Buffy Sainte-Marie, OC (born Beverly Sainte-Marie, February 20, 1941) is a Canadian female vocalist
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".

Sweet Memories
Buffy Sainte-Marie Lyrics

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My world is like a river
It's a dark as it is deep
Night after night the past slips in
Gathers all my sleep

My days are just an endless stream
Of emptiness to me
Filled only by the fleeting moments of his memory

Sweet memories
Sweet memories
Um

He slipped into the silence
Of my dreams last night
Wandering from room to room
He's turnin' on each light

His laughter spills like water, water
From the river to the sea
I'm swept away from sadness
Clingin' to his memory

Sweet memory

Sweet memory
Oh

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of Buffy Sainte-Marie's song "Sweet Memories" convey the hauntingly nostalgic experience of remembering a past love. The first verse is an extended metaphor comparing the emotions to a river, with the past slipping into the singer's sleep like water. The second verse paints a picture of the lover wandering through the singer's dreams, turning on each light, and laughing like water spilling into the sea. Throughout the song, the singer is left with a sense of emptiness, filled only by the fleeting memories of the past relationship.

The lyrics create a vividly emotional experience that resonates with listeners, capturing the universal feeling of longing for someone who is no longer present. The river metaphor is particularly effective, highlighting the way that memories can be both deep and dark, carrying the singer into the past and away from the present. The image of the lover turning on each light in the dream suggests a haunting presence that the singer cannot escape, while the laughter like water symbolizes the way that memories can bring both sadness and joy. Overall, "Sweet Memories" is a powerful portrayal of the way that past relationships can continue to affect us long after they are over.

Line by Line Meaning

My world is like a river
My life is like a river, constantly flowing and changing.

It's as dark as it is deep
My life can be overwhelming and complex, with deep, dark parts that are difficult to navigate.

Night after night the past slips in
Every night, memories of the past come flooding back into my mind.

Gathers all my sleep
These memories keep me up at night, preventing me from getting restful sleep.

My days are just an endless stream
My days are monotonous and lack meaning, feeling like they repeat over and over.

Of emptiness to me
I feel empty and unfulfilled, like something is missing from my life.

Filled only by the fleeting moments of his memory
The only thing that brings me brief moments of joy or comfort is remembering him.

He slipped into the silence
He appeared in my thoughts and dreams, without warning.

Of my dreams last night
I dreamt of him last night, and he haunted my thoughts throughout my waking day.

Wandering from room to room
In my dream, he seemed lost and uncertain, like he was searching for something.

He's turning on each light
As he wanders through my dream house, he is methodically turning on lights, perhaps searching for something lost in the darkness.

His laughter spills like water, water
He is happy, carefree, and his laughter fills my mind like water rushing downstream.

From the river to the sea
His laughter is so joyous and infectious that it spreads throughout my mind and emotions like water spreading from a river to the sea.

I'm swept away from sadness
For a brief moment, I'm lifted from my sadness and feel at peace.

Clingin' to his memory
In the end, all I have are memories of him, and I cling to them with all my heart and soul.

Sweet memory
These memories are bittersweet because they bring me happiness, but also pain and longing.

Sweet memory
Even though these memories hurt, I cherish them because they remind me of the love and joy we shared.

Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Mickey Newbury

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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