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".
Until It's Time For You To Go
Buffy Sainte-Marie Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
You're not an angel
You're a woman
I'm not a king
I'm a man
Take my hand
We'll make a space
In the lives that we planned
Until it's time for you to go
Yes, we're diff'rent worlds apart
We're not the same
We laughed and played
At the start like in a game
You could have stayed
Outside my heart
But in you came
And here you'll stay
Until it's time for you to go
Don't ask why
Don't ask how
Don't ask forever
Love me now
This love of mine
Had no beginning
It has no end
I was an oak,
Now I'm a willow
Now I can bend
And tho' I'll never
In my life see you again
I still stay
Until it's time for you to go
In Buffy Sainte-Marie's song "Until It's Time for You to Go," she sings about a love that is not meant to last forever. The lyrics are about two people who are very different from each other, but who have found a connection that they cannot ignore. The first verse speaks to the fact that the woman is not perfect, but the man accepts her anyway. On the flip side, the man acknowledges that he is not all-powerful or perfect, but instead just a man. The line "Take my hand, we'll make a space in the lives that we planned, and here we'll stay until it's time for you to go" is a powerful image of two people coming together despite their differences and making something happen.
The second verse acknowledges that the two people are from different worlds and are not the same. At first, they played and laughed like it was a game, but they soon realized that the connection was deeper than that. The woman could have stayed "outside his heart," but she chose to take a chance on love. The chorus repeats the idea that they will stay together until it's time for her to go. The third verse speaks to the fact that their love exists outside of time; it had no beginning and will have no end. The metaphor of the oak and the willow is used to show that the man has changed and is now flexible enough to bend. Even though they may never see each other again, they will always have this love that they shared.
Line by Line Meaning
You're not a dream
You're not something I only imagine or wish for, you're real.
You're not an angel
You're not someone who is perfect or flawless, you're human.
You're a woman
You are a female individual with your own thoughts, feelings, and experiences.
I'm not a king,
I am not someone with supreme power or authority, I am a regular person.
I'm a man,
I am a male individual with my own flaws, strengths, and weaknesses.
Take my hand
Let's connect physically and emotionally.
We'll make a space
We will create a place for ourselves in each other's lives.
In the lives that we planned
In the future we envisioned for ourselves.
And here we'll stay
We will remain together.
Until it's time for you to go
Until circumstances require us to part ways.
Yes, we're diff'rent worlds apart
We come from different backgrounds and experiences.
We're not the same
We have differences that make us unique individuals.
We laughed and played
We enjoyed each other's company and had fun together.
At the start like in a game
In the beginning, it was all light-hearted.
You could have stayed
You had the option of not coming into my life.
Outside my heart
Never becoming emotionally involved with me.
But in you came
You chose to enter into a relationship with me.
And here you'll stay
You will remain by my side.
Don't ask why,
Don't question the validity of our relationship.
Don't ask how
Don't inquire about the mechanics of our love.
Don't ask forever,
Don't concern yourself with how long our love will last.
Love me now
Embrace our love as it is in the present moment.
This love of mine
My feelings of love.
Had no beginning
My love for you has always existed.
It has no end
My love for you will never cease.
I was an oak,
I used to be rigid and unyielding.
Now I'm a willow
Now I am flexible and adaptable.
Now I can bend
I can change and grow.
And tho' I'll never
Even though we may never again be together.
In my life see you again
In this lifetime, we may never cross paths again.
I still stay
I will always hold a place for you in my heart.
Until it's time for you to go
Until the time comes when we must part ways.
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Written by: Buffy Sainte-Marie
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Brad rawsner
@Amanda McDonald
LMFAO
Oh, in your limited brain, I guess ELLA FITZGERALD isn't great because according to you, an internet troll, she didn't write her songs?
LMFAO
Newsflash dear.
ELLA Fitzgerald is one of the greatest artists in music history. And she wasn't a songwriter.
Got it dear?
Elvis's soul depth and diversity are in a league of their own.
For every million songwriters, there's just one ELVIS.
just one frank
Just one ELLA.
But your low IQ prevents you from understanding that reality.
Brad rawsner
@Amanda McDonald
lol.
You thought that by saying that elvis wasn't a songwriter, you would be winning this debate?
LMFAO
Guess what dear?
Writing lyrics ISN'T the criteria for greatness.
Is that fact above your limited intelligence?
LOL.
Ever hear of Ella Fitzgerald?
Frank Sinatra?
Ray charles?
etc...etc.....etc....
These are some of the greatest artists in music history dear.
Not songwriters.
Songwriters are a dime a dozen.
For every million songwriters, there's just one Ella Fitzgerald.
One Elvis presley.
One frank Sinatra.
LMFAO
I wonder what you were thinking about when you tried to insult these great artists who weren't writers.
Can you even think?
Nancy Schaub
I have loved her voice since I was introduced to her in teens. This song still gives me goosebumps and I am now 71. Magnificent. I wish I could see her perform live.
Highball
76 with goosebumps
Brad rawsner
@Nat Wolf
You sound very poorly educated.
Elvis's interpretation is light years better than hers.
He conveyed an angst with his warm resonant tone.
Elvis's studio recording has an authenticity that her recording lacks.
But again, your low IQ prevents you from getting that.
Nat Wolf
@Brad rawsner I respect your opinion but I have to disagree. This is the way the song was meant to be preform.
Elvis is brilliant, yes, but his version just feels like a cover.
In the time I spent to write this reply i replayed the song and...it's perfect. It's a perfect song. This is it at its best.
Judy Nathan
Ditto, Nancy, even the same ages.. teens to 70's. Can't listen to anyone else sing it.
Brad rawsner
It's nice.
But elvis presley owns it.
Sure she wrote it.
But elvis's soul depth and diversity takes it to a higher level altogether
A Pa
There is no one else on the planet like Buffy. I first heard this haunting melody in the early sixties, i think on her 2nd album, and I have loved it ever since. Somehow she reaches places in your heart you did not know were there and this particular song, in it's many versions, certainly accomplishes that magic. To say it is deep does not begin to explain it's attraction. Too bad the world does not champion or appreciate enough one of the true giants of soulful singing. One of the most authentic voices ever recorded.
Nat Wolf
Much like Leonard Cohen, she's a god tier songwriter.
Sophia Keller
I learned this song while I was still taking guitar lessons... age 14... it was one of my favorites then (51years ago).. still stands the test of time
Fullsun Fanboy
my dad passed away recently, and his longtime friend and his friends wife,both musicians he used to gig with, played this song on guitar and accordion today at the cemetery when his urn was being buried. Very moving song, i had never heard it before but it will certaintly have a place in my heart from today onwards