UNIVERSAL SOLDIER “Universal Soldier” is a song written and recorded by Canadian singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie. The song was originally released on Sainte-Marie’s debut album It’s My Way! in 1964. “Universal Soldier” was not a popular hit at the time of its release, but it did garner attention within the contemporary folk music community. Sainte-Marie said of the song: “I wrote ‘Universal Soldier’ in the basement of The Purple Onion coffee house in Toronto in the early sixties. It’s about individual responsibility for war and how the old feudal thinking kills us all.” (More from Wikipedia)
Like many of Bob Dylan’s protest songs, another song on It’s My Way!, “Universal Soldier” has a different target from what one might expect. Rather than railing at politicians and tyrants, Buffy Sainte-Marie points out that ultimately, the common soldiers are the ones doing the fighting: “He’s the Universal Soldier and he really is to blame”. “Universal Soldier” was an early hit for Donovan. (August 2013) |
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