It is a joy to listen to singer-songwriter Janis Ian. She is a remarkable poet/ lyricist similar to folk music legends Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchel, and James Taylor. Ian’s songs are sincere, provocative, touching, bittersweet, moving, dynamic, complex, and heartfelt. She dives deep into the dark corridors of our psyche. She is one of those rare singer-songwriters able to make us experience the depth of thought and emotion that touch our heart.
As a teenager she took the music industry by storm with her unique sounding albums which are a mix of folk, pop, lounge, jazz, and blues. She has two Grammys with 10 nominations and numerous Platinum and Number 1 Billboard hits. She is one of the most commercially successful singers of the 1960s and 1970s. Many singers have recorded covers of her songs, including Joan Baez, Celine Dion, Roberta Flack, Cher, Nina Simone, Barbara Cook, Shirley Bassey, Dusty Springfield, Sheena Easton, to just name a few.
Janis Ian is a singer, songwriter, musician, science fiction author, columnist, and actor. She was born in Farmingdale, New Jersey and was raised on a farm. She entered the American folk music scene in the mid-1960s. Her 1965 song Society’s Child, controversial at the time about interracial love, was her first hit and has been entered into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Her 1975 hit At Seventeen, also controversial at the time about lesbian love, won a Grammy and was induced into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Two of her songs have been in movie soundtracks – the song You Are Love in “Virus” and the song Fly Too High in “Foxes”. She acted on the HBO TV show Getting On.
From Me to You
I’m leaving by night, I’m leaving alone
Leaving it lie, when you waken I’ll be gone
I would not beg for me as I would not beg for you
Though I’d like to be the one to see you through
Every step you have taken disappears with the tide
You’re torn up and shaken with changing your mind
You haven’t got the grace to say you’ll finally decide
And you haven’t got the strength to stay to fight
Those people who surround you
Only want to see you weak enough to crawl
They’ll lie for you, decide for you
And buy up all your rights and all your wrongs
And they’ll try to stop your singing
In the middle of your song
For they do not want you free
And they will not make you strong
But only drag you down in the hole they’re coming from
They say you are foolish in wanting the sun
They call you selfish in learning to run
They’ll tell you that the darkness is a blessing in disguise
You never have to notice if you’re sighted or you’re blind
And they’ll do their best to keep you from the light
You’re more than beginning, you’re learning to fly
Feels like you’re falling, but it passes in time
I hate to see a friend go down in flames without a song
So I’m waiting by the doorway, but I will not linger long
And I’m leaving by night, I’m leaving alone
I’m living a lie. When you waken I’ll be gone
I would not beg for me as I could not beg for you
But I’d like to be the one to see you through
From Me to You by Janis Ian
Will You Dance?
Someone is waiting, over by the window
Just beyond the stairwell someone’s crying
Drowning in the words of the prophets
That are written for the dead and the dying
Someone’s lying, no one’s buying
Someone is dying, panic in the streets
Can’t get no relief, someone escaping
Waiting on a line for the holy revolution
Parading illusion someone’s using, most amusing
Will you dance? Will you dance?
Smell of caviar and roses
Teach your children all the poses
How familiar are we all
Will you dance? Will you dance?
Light fantastic in the morning
How romantic to be whoring
Boring though it may be
Who’ll survive if you and I should fall?
Someone is bleeding crimson in the night
Strangers in the light, a sudden meeting
Greeting one by one every life runs flashing
Before those dashing eyes
Will you dance? Will you dance?
Take a chance on romance
And a big surprise
Will you dance? Will you dance?
Take a chance on romance
And a big surprise
Will You Dance? by Janis Ian
Watercolors
I remember photographs
Watercolors of the past
He turned and said,
“You ask much of me”
Then when we made our peace
We lay between the sheets
He turned and said,
“I set you free”
Go on, be a hero,
Be a photograph
Make your own myths,
Christ, I hope they last
Longer than mine
Wider than the sky
We measure time by
Go on, be a hero,
I set you free
Your stagehand lovers
Have conquered me
They’ll send you carnations
While smiling faces look on and applaud
Go on, go on, go away from me
I said, “Do you wish me dead?”
Lip service to books you’ve read
Articles on how to bed a bird in flight
You called it love
I called it greed
You say, “You take what you want”
I said, “You get what you need”
Go on, be a hero, be a man
Make your own destiny if you can
Go find a fence
Locate a shell
And hide yourself, go on, go to hell
Go away from me
I need no charity
He said, Come unto me
I am beauty I am the light
Come unto me
Hold the darkness and stay the night
I am wonder I am the heart’s delight
Tomorrow we’ll fight
Come on, come on
Come on, come near to me
Come be my fantasy
We’ll talk it over again some time
I’ll send some flowers to change my mind
But for tonight, turn out the light
Hold me, come on, come on,
And set me free
Lend me your charity
Watercolors by Janis Ian
Jesse
Jesse come home
There’s a hole in the bed
Where we slept
Now it’s growing cold
Hey Jesse, your face
In the place where we lay
By the hearth, all apart
It hangs on my heart
And I’m leaving the light on the stairs
No I’m not scared – I wait for you
Hey Jesse, I’m lonely, come home
Jesse, the floors and the boards
Recalling your step
And I remember, too
All the pictures are fading
And shaded in grey
But I still set a place
On the table at noon
And I’m leaving the light on the stairs
No I’m not scared – I wait for you
Hey Jesse, I’m lonely, come home
Jesse, the spread on the bed
Is like when you left
I’ve kept it up for you
And all the blues and the greens
Have been recently cleaned
And it’s seemingly new
Hey Jes, me and you
We’ll swallow the light on the stairs
We’ll do up my hair
And sleep unaware
Hey Jesse, I’m lonely, come home
Jesse sung by Janis Ian
Janis Ian, Judy Collins, Leonard Cohen
Between the Lines
That somehow slipped away
In books and magazines on how to be and what to see
While you are being
Before and after photographs
Teach how to pass from reaching to believing
We live beyond our means on other people’s dreams
And that’s succeeding
Between the lines of photographs I’ve seen the past
It isn’t pleasing
So strike another match
We’ll have another cup of wine
And dance until the evening’s dead
Of too much song and time
There’s never much to talk about
Or read between the lines
Of what we dream about
When we’re apart
And no one’s looking on
To say you’re mine
It was a good year then, it was a good year then
We all remember
The time you threw the looking glass and seemed a fool
Or very clever
Don’t spoil it all, I can’t recall a time
When you were struck without an answer
We’ll live a quiet peaceful time between the lines
And go together
And I’m striking up the band to play our last hurrah
We’ll dance until we’ve killed another evening off
Don’t think of anyone but me
I’ll have no lovers on the side
Tonight is all we’ve ever dreamed about
For once let’s get it right
We’ll go down flying in the end
Through another bottle in between the lines
I’ll go down like a ship of state
Let’s be gracious now
Between the lines
Between the Lines by Janis Ian
Janis Ian with Bruce Springsteen, and Billy Joel
In The Winter
The days are okay
I watch the TV in the afternoons
If I get lonely,
The sound of other voices,
Other rooms are near to me
I’m not afraid
The operator,
She tells the time,
It’s good for a laugh
There’s always radio,
And for a dime I can
Talk to God – Dial-a-Prayer
Are you there?
Do you care?
Are you there?
And in the winter,
Extra blankets for the cold
Fix the heater, getting old
I am wiser now, you know
And still as big a fool concerning you
I met your friend
She’s very nice, what can I say?
It was an accident
I never dreamed we’d meet again this way
You’re looking well
I’m not afraid
You have a lovely home
Just like a picture.
No, I live alone
I found it easier
You must remember how
I never liked the party life
Up all night
Lovely wife
You have a lovely wife
And in the winter
Extra blankets for the cold
Fix the heater, getting old
You are with her now, I know
I’ll live alone forever
Not together now
In the Winter by Janis Ian
