I’m going to let Buffy Sainte-Marie speak on the topic of telephone – because this song is what came to my mind first when I read Sunday Scribblings‘ invitation …
Moonshot
Off into outer space you go my friends
we wish you bon voyage
and when you get there we will welcome you again
and still you’ll wonder at it all
See all the wonders that you leave behind
the wonders humble people own
I know a boy from a tribe so primitive
he can call me up without no telephone
See all the wonders that you leave behind
enshrined in some great hourglass
The noble tongues, the noble languages
entombed in some great English class
Off into outer space you go my friends
We wish you bon voyage
and when you get there we will welcome you again
and still you’ll wonder at it all
An anthropologist he wrote a book
he called it “myths of heaven”
He’s disappeared, his wife is all distraught
An angel came and got him
His hair was light, his eyes were love, his words were true,
his eyes were lapis lazuli
He spoke in a language oh so primitive
that he made sense to me
Off into outer space you go my friends
we wish you bon voyage
and when you get there we will welcome you again
and still you’ll wonder at it all
– Buffy Sainte-Marie
Buffy Sainte-Marie reportedly wrote this song after talking to Christian scholars who had no idea that indigenous people had been in contact with God before the Europeans came.
This song is from the album Moonshot of 1972. If I remember correctly, Mister, can’t you see (written by Mickey Newbury and Townes Van Zandt), another track from the same album, played on the radio, was the first thing I ever heard of this wonderful singer. I listened to her a lot all through the 1970s and still have most of her albums.
– Niebla
niebla | fog 
Thanks for sharing that. I’m afraid “Soldier Blue” is the only song of Buffy’s that I recall, but I loved her voice.
I’ve come back because I went off to look on Youtube for some more of her songs, and discovered that Universal Soldier, which I’d always associated with Donovan, the Scottish singer-songwriter, was written by Buffy Sainte-Marie. Thanks for reminding me of her, and pointing me towards a lot of avenues into the past.
i remember buffy …. it’s been awhile since i’ve listened to her… she was rather outside the circle doncha think in her own sorta way.. i think i may have heard this before… especially like ..and when you get there we will welcome you again and still you’ll wonder at it all..
haven’t thought of her in a while so thank you. a gifted woman with a beautiful voice. i heard her in Boston years ago.