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S36 Ep6: Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On | Clip

When Buffy Sainte-Marie wrote the “first feminist anthem”

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“I always wanna be offering people stuff that they won’t get somewhere else,” says Sainte-Marie of the song “Until It’s Time For You To Go,” written from a woman’s perspective allowing her lover to leave. Writer Andrea Warner calls the song “the actual first feminist anthem.”

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(gentle guitar music) - 'Until It's Time for You to Go' is, I don't know, it just popped into my head.

You know, I had a crush on somebody for sure.

♪ You're not a dream ♪ ♪ You're not an angel ♪ ♪ You're a man ♪ ♪ And I'm not a queen ♪ ♪ I'm a woman ♪ ♪ 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 ♪ What I wanted to offer when I was first starting out to this day is I always wanna be offering people stuff that they won't get somewhere else.

♪ We laughed and played ♪ ♪ At the start like in a game ♪ And this song was saying, this is so wonderful and you know, we'll make it happen until it's time for you to go.

And it doesn't say why you have to go, but it allows, it allows your loved one to leave the room.

(chuckles) ♪ Don't ask forever ♪ ♪ Love me now ♪ - I think it is the actual first feminist anthem.

It's sung from the perspective of a woman who is basically like, 'We will love each other right now and we're not asking for forever.'

♪ And no, I'll never ♪ That's not the kind of messaging we were hearing from women's perspectives in pop music.

♪ And still I'll stay until it's time for you to go ♪ - The way she performs it and the mood that is expressed, there's just an honesty in it.

♪ See you again ♪ ♪ Still I'll stay until it's time for you to go ♪

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