Buffy Sainte-Marie - Moonshot (1972) | Zero G Sounds + 'Longing and Belonging' the cultural fascism facing today’s Ethnic Americans

Buffy Sainte-Marie - Moonshot (1972)

Zero G says: For her seventh album, 1971's "She Used to Wanna Be a Ballerina", Buffy Sainte-Marie and her producer, Jack Nitzsche, worked in five recording studios in New York, Los Angeles, and London, and came up with a varied collection ranging from her characteristic folk protest to rock featuring Neil Young and Crazy Horse as a backup band. 

For her eighth album, 1972's "Moon Shot", she stuck to one city, Nashville, working with producer/arranger/bassist Norbert Putnam and some of the same studio musicians who appeared on Young's then-recently released country-rock LP "Harvest". But as the advance single of Mickey Newbury and Townes Van Zandt's "Mister Can't You See" (which was well on its way to becoming Sainte-Marie's first Top 40 hit when the LP appeared) indicated, "Moon Shot" is, for the most part, a collection of pop/rock arrangements. 

Sainte-Marie has not abandoned her primary political concern, the interests of Indians, but when she brings it up on this album, she has softened the message. "He's an Indian Cowboy in the Rodeo" is an upbeat love song that happens to involve Indians. "Native North American Child" is a celebration of Indian culture. And "Moonshot" is a playful reflection on the supposed wonders of Western science and technology that suggests "primitive" peoples actually may be far more advanced. Elsewhere, Sainte-Marie comes up with some appealing pop love songs, such as "You Know How to Turn On Those Lights" and the string-filled ballad "I Wanna Hold Your Hand Forever," worthy additions to the catalog of the songwriter who previously wrote "Until It's Time for You to Go." Sainte-Marie sings them in a gentle voice without the stridency and vibrato she sometimes uses, and Putnam and fellow arrangers Glen Spreen and Bill Pursell create lush settings for them. This is not the Buffy Sainte-Marie of her early political period, but the album demonstrates her versatility, and it works as an appealing pop effort.     

Tracklist:                                                        

A1	Not The Lovin' Kind
A2	You Know How To Turn On Those Lights
A3	I Wanna Hold Your Hand Forever
A4	He's An Indian Cowboy In The Rodeo
A5	Lay It Down
A6	Moonshot
B1	Native North American Child
B2	My Baby Left Me
B3	Sweet Memories
B4	Jeremiah
B5	Mister Can't You See

Now we have had this before . (sometime back as far as 2015 I think) and I wondered why Zero G had posted it again but Buffy has always fascinated me and there has been much fuss about her ethnicity in recent years and Canada taking back awards for her contributions to culture which largely I have found petty and in essence racist. From a birth certificate from Massachusetts dated in the late 2020s (2022?) which in itself is of interest in that it points to malice and preemptive argument explored more fully here: https://beforewewerewhite.com/2024/03/20/longing-and-belonging/

I think the over riding thing that struck me is the response from the indigenous peoples who adopted her. The Mic Mac so called and the tribe who have adopted her as their own and duly rightly (sic) recognise her great contributions to their shared (sic) ethnicity and not least it is their statements about who they CHOOSE to acknowledge as their own that so encourages me. That the folks trying to expose her under this kind of false flag bullshit are white and right wing comes as no surprise to this reader and I side with the Mic Mac in that if she is good enough for them then heck she is good enough for me!