Isn't It Funny?

Isn't it funny how we interpret things differently, not just like/dislike something but hear or see things differently.

I read a good and thoughtful review of Buffy Sainte-Marie's 'Sweet America' on another blog and, in some ways, I so agree with it, but my overall picture of it is entirely different. The blogger sees it as a 'bittersweet goodbye to her adoptive homeland ...she gave us this album of reluctant heartbreak'. I hear none of that in the album.

There's no disputing the lyrics but I hear pride and challenge, a joyousness that refuses to be subdued. I also hear a mature woman singing to her child and, in another mood, a sensuous mood, seducing a lover.

Perhaps it's the context in which I heard it in mid-70s Newcastle with me in teenage rebel mode? I loved playing it loudly in my bedroom even after punk arrived to take over my record purchasing, and it went with me to college and again when I moved to London. It only went into my Dad's attic when the record player was dumped, I was on the move and didn't want to lug around records I couldn't listen to.

I've loved 'Sweet America' since I first got it and it's still special to me, possibly because it's one of my first Buffy records and the last of her albums I got digitised so I can hear it in the 21st Century. The thrill of hearing the proud powwow calls on some of the songs after years of silence was great indeed.

Pray up your medicine song!