Janis Ian

When I emigrated, one of our group had the LP "Between the lines" by Janis Ian. In those days I was quite the magpie regarding music (as if I'm not, now) and so I taped the record. Over the years I came to love most of the songs on the album, and some time in the 1990s I bought the cd.

"At seventeen" was a very good song then, and even now, I greatly appreciate its lyrics. Janis writes in her autobiography: I was alone in the apartment, absentmindedly playing a little samba part on the guitar while I read an article about debutantes. The woman who’d written it was talking about her coming-out party, how excited she’d been before it, how flat she’d felt in the aftermath. The opening line was “I learned the truth at eighteen.” Interesting line, I thought. Might be a song in there somewhere. I hunted around for a melody to go with my samba lick, and tried the line. Nope, it didn’t scan. I needed another syllable. I learned the truth at seventeen, I sang to myself.... I stared at the paper. How could I write about high school girls, or prom night and homecoming queens? I hadn’t had any of those experiences. I thought about that for a while. There were plenty of other school things I had experienced. I knew what it was like to never be asked out on a date. I knew the sinking feeling when everyone else in class came in to find a valentine on their desk, and yours was empty. And I sure as heck knew what it was to feel clumsy and ugly. I could write this song, I was sure of it.

But to be honest, I love the opening two songs (including "At seventeen") and I love the last two songs, especially the closing song ("Lover's lullaby") but not so much the songs inbetween. The music theorist inside of me has to point out that the first two verses of "Lover's lullaby" are in 4/4 time but the rest is in 3/4.

At some stage I had on cassette a few more songs ("Jesse", "Stars") along with another album that included "Hopper painting" (that's the only name that I remember; maybe I only had this one song). Scouring YouTube didn't bring up many other songs, if at all. About a month ago, I went on a Janis Ian kick and discovered most, if not all, of her discography; certainly all of the pre-1990 records. I listened to most but didn't connect with them, especially her first albums (with her breakthrough hit, "Society's child").

On the other hand, a record that might be called "Janis Ian II" captured me: this is the album that contained the aforementioned "Hopper painting", as well as several more songs that seemed extremely familiar. I find now that I am preferring this record to "Between the lines", although of course there has to be one song that I don't particularly like ("Hotels and one night stands"). Janis herself doesn't care for this album, writing It was painful, hearing songs that had seemed vibrant when I’d demo’d them reduced to flat, uninteresting recordings. Joe [the producer] was from Los Angeles, and my album ended up reflecting the current L.A. sound, over-smooth and dulled around the edges. I hated it. When I heard the mastered record Janis Ian II, I wanted to throw it out and start over again.

I beg to disagree. I very much like the piano based songs.

Below appears Janis as she looks today (or, at least recently).