Anatomy of a Song: Universal Soldier Quiz

Answer: Five feet two and six feet four

"He's five feet two and he's six feet four"

The song, in Buffy Sainte-Mairie's own words, is "about individual responsibility for war and how the old feudal thinking kills us all." The discrepancy in heights shows us how the Universal soldier could be anyone.

Answer: Missiles and spears

"He fights with missiles and with spears"

Buffy Sainte-Marie was born on the Piapot Cree Indian reserve in Canada and was the first Native American artist in the US charts when 'I'm Gonna Be A Country Girl Again' reached number 98 in 1971. She wrote' Universal Soldier' as a protest about America's involvement in Vietnam in 1963, at a time when the US government was denying involvement.

Answer: A thousand years

"He's all of 31 and he's only 17
He's been a soldier for a thousand years"

Buffy Sainte-Marie did not have a hit with this song, but the Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan took it to number 5 in the UK and number 53 on the Billboard charts.

Answer: Muslim

"He's a Catholic, a Hindu, an atheist, a Jain,
a Buddhist and a Baptist and a Jew"

It may seem strange in the world as it is today, that Islam is not mentioned. Jainism is rather an odd choice, as it is a non-violent religion from India.

Answer: Yes

"and he knows he shouldn't kill
and he knows he always will
kill you for me my friend and me for you"

Aptly, the song has been covered internationally. In 1965, a Finnish folk singer called Hector (real name Heikki Harma) recorded it in Finnish, as 'Palkkasoturi' ('The Mercenary). It has also been covered in Dutch by Boudewijn de Groot ('De eeuwige soldaat') and by Juliane Werding in German ('Der Ewige Soldat').

Answer: Afghanistan

"And he's fighting for Canada,
he's fighting for France,
he's fighting for the USA,
and he's fighting for the Russians
and he's fighting for Japan,
and he thinks we'll put an end to war this way"

After the death of her parents when she was a few months old, Buffy Sainte-Marie was adopted by relatives Albert and Winifred Sainte-Marie and grew up in Maine.

Answer: Democracy and communism

"And he's fighting for Democracy
and fighting for the Reds
He says it's for the peace of all"

As mentioned earlier, this was written to protest the USA's involvement in Vietnam, which was to prevent South Vietnam falling to communism.

Answer: The writing on the wall

"He's the one who must decide
who's to live and who's to die
and he never sees the writing on the wall"

'The writing on the wall', which has come to mean a presentiment of doom, comes from the Book of Daniel in the Bible, where it foretold the end of the Babylonian Empire.

Answer: Hitler and Caesar

"But without him how would Hitler have
condemned him at Dachau?
Without him Caesar would have stood alone"

In 1998 Buffy Sainte-Marie received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation in Canada, and was also made an Officer of the Order of Canada and in 2002 she was awarded the Queen's Jubilee Medal.

Answer: Yes

"He's the one who gives his body
as a weapon to a war
and without him all this killing can't go on

He's the universal soldier and he
really is to blame
His orders come from far away no more
They come from him, and you, and me
and brothers can't you see
this is not the way we put an end to war."

Buffy Sainte-Marie was born Beverley Sainte-Marie, Buffy is a nickname. The lyrics of 'Universal Soldier' were written on the cot of a Vietnam-bound troopship. The cot is now in the National Museum of American History, and the 'Smithsonian' magazine embarassingly failed to recognise it, describing it as a 'mysterious poem', until nearly 300 readers wrote in to identify it.