• I learned the truth at seventeen,
    That love was meant for beauty queens
  • There's never much to say between
    The moments of our games and repartee
  • Put your ear to the ground,
    there's a buzz
    about a new type of song
  • 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
  • Nothing's sadder than the man who thinks he's free
    when he is chained to the prison of his hatred,
    and a dream gone up in flames
  • I would tell her how I've yearned
    to be worthy of the grail.
    All these years and all I've learned
    is just how brilliantly I fail
  • There are voices on the wind.
    Stolen whispers, sacred moans.
    You can hear them through your skin,
    and the singing of the bones
  • Here we all are, waiting for God,
    or someone who looks just like Him
  • We live beyond our means
    on other peoples' dreams,
    and that's succeeding
  • We were speaking of values and violence.
    Breaking silence
  • And if I never reach Orion,
    and if I never fly that far -
    still there's no harm in trying
    to go walking on a star
  • And if Jesus was a black man,
    or as white as Sambo's grin,
    it's his words that we'd remember,
    not the color of his skin
  • Old lace and picture frames
    rattle their ancient chains.
    Midnight will surprise moonlight at the door
  • I want to make you love me,
    and I want to make you smile,
    and I want to be your family,
    for just a little while
  • I believe in tomorrow,
    but I remember yesterday
  • How could I have loved you for so long?
    I know I enjoyed you,
    but how could I have liked you?
  • Old cliches, they grow like vines,
    to clutch the heart of the one you leave behind
  • It's the road that makes the rhythm.
    It's the chalk marks on her soul.
  • She was younger than forever.
    She was older than goodbye.
  • It's not who you love,
    but whether you can.
  • Vocatus atque non vocatus, deus aderit.
    Sursum, Domini, sursum Domini.
    Ora pro nobis, in ora pro nobis pacem, Kyrie.
    In ora Kyrie eleison. Kyrie.
  • She can taste it on your breath,
    cutting through the cigarette.
    She can smell it on your sweat
  • The city casts no shadow now.
    At midnight,
    all the whores come out and dance with darkness,
    and the night rains pour.
  • How does it feel to pull out the nails,
    and find you still can walk?
  • Yesterday's preacher,
    today's bikini beacher
  • Now all over this big wide world,
    I play like a girl -
    from the California lights to the Serengetti nights,
    I play like a girl
  • Close the light. Still the flames.
    Candles light the empty frames.
    A photograph can never be
    the song you are to me.
  • Some overdose, and some wrap like a rose
    'round the slick perfumed nose of high noon.
    Burning their lips as they stoop low
    to kiss some rich man's excuse for the moon.
  • First time I saw Paris in your eyes,
    you told me how you loved me,
    under blue Picasso skies.
  • No one sends roses to crazy old ladies
    who lie in dark dusty rooms,
    the size of a small foreign car.
    Sometimes I wonder
    where all the good people are.
  • Some sell their bodies for dimes,
    while others marry for the houses,
    and the jewelry.
    It's a real thin line,
    what you charge for your time.
  • Hide me in the wisdom of your thighs.
    Ride me like a wave.
  • And is she beautiful?
    She must be pretty, or worse,
    to ride the high seas.
  • The gates of the city are closed until dawn,
    when the ghosts of midnight have come and gone,
    and the hearts of the weary carry on
  • Why can't my wings soar like yours?
    Why can't my span spread as wide?
    Maybe I've got too much left to hide
  • I am waiting for my life to be
    one long unbroken symphony.
    Will it come too late to shelter me?
    I long to be eternity.
    Come on, come on, eternity!
  • I lay the baby out each dawn,
    inbetween the tender corn,
    with sunrise for her bonnet,
    and flies her only blanket.
  • Somewhere out there are millions just like me -
    homesick for Eden,
    heartsick at the memory.
  • You mistake the moment for the song.
    The drama for the play.
    The actor for the role.
    The neon light for day.
  • The old ones like to claw and clutch.
    Be careful not to offer much.
    They understand the fist and crutch.
  • Here I am dancing at last.
    Holding my own,
    even when the band plays fast -
    tonight's the night!
  • How we used to like the old-time movies.
    The silent picture show,
    where you make up your life
    at the end of the night,
    as your reel to reels unfold
  • Her new name was tattooed to her wrist.
    It was longer than the old one... tattoo.
  • God said I wish you'd known me,
    when I still believed you'd be true.
    Now for the rest of your days,
    when you call our my name,
    I'll be "Mr. God" to you.
  • Every man's an island in the desert of his soul.
    Take to the sky,
    there's nowhere else to go.
  • I went to drink some water,
    but the faucet heads were gone.
    They weren't sterling silver,
    but I loved to turn them on.
  • Enough about me - let's talk about you.
    What do you think of me?
  • Janis Ian - Photo by Peter Cunningham
  • Janis Ian - Photo by Peter Cunningham
  • Janis Ian playing percussion for 'Stars' - Photo by Peter Cunningham
  • Janis Ian on stage
  • Janis Ian - Photo by Peter Cunningham
  • Janis Ian with Kathy Mattea & Deanna Carter cutting 'Emmanual'
  • Janis Ian with Eric Bibb & Leon Bibb
  • Janis Ian with Eric Bibb
  • Janis Ian with Utah Philips & Eric Bibb
  • Young Janis Ian with Leonard Bernstein
Hot News

  • Christmas In August Sale

    Our first-ever "Christmas in August" sale closed this morning. In the two weeks of the sale, we fulfilled 213 orders, almost all of them for multiple items. It took 13,713 page views to do it, but we raised $9,000 for the Pearl Foundation.

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  • September Tour Dates Postponed

    Due to her recent hand surgery Janis must unfortunately postpone the tour dates scheduled for September. We are doing our best to reschedule all the postponed dates as soon as possible. Stay tuned and as soon as we have news and rescheduled dates we'll post them here on the website.

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  • Tour Date Changes!

    Due to unforeseen circumstances, the San Diego show originally scheduled for September 3rd, has been rescheduled for November 4th. Janis will not be playing the Bluebird on Saturday, August 28th either - but Craig and Tony will, with special guests filling in! Thanks for your understanding...

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Janis Ian
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Best Of Janis Ian - The Autobiography Collection CD

Completely remastered with the cooperation of Sony and Universal, you can find "Society's Child," "At 17," "Stars," and a host of others in the same double disc set - for the first time! This is a beautiful piece of work, both sonically and graphically. And the book makes so much more sense with it...

With Janis' blessing and cooperation, Sony Legacy are releasing these same two discs as The Essential Janis Ian. The Sony CD has completely different artwork, but that's the only difference. We don't want you to be surprised!

BUY NOW

DISC ONE

HAIR OF SPUN GOLD
GOD & THE FBI
SILLY HABITS
SOCIETY'S CHILD
HAVEN'T I GOT EYES
JESSE
STARS
THANKYOUS
THIS TRAIN STILL RUNS
AT SEVENTEEN
(album version)
LOVE IS BLIND
FLY TOO HIGH
ARMS AROUND MY LIFE
HIS HANDS
WHEN ANGELS CRY

DISK TWO

MY TENNESSEE HILLS
(duet with Dolly Parton)
EVERY LOVE
SOME PEOPLE'S LIVES
STOLEN FIRE
DAYS LIKE THESE
TATTOO
THROUGH THE YEARS
I HEAR YOU SING AGAIN
JOY
MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Bonus Tracks

HAIR OF SPUN GOLD
(Original tape of a 13-year-old Janis singing her first song.)
I LONG FOR YOU
GINNY THE FLYING GIRL
JOHNNY I HARDLY KNEW YE
TODAY YOU'RE MINE
AT SEVENTEEN (SINGLE VERSION)

Best Of Janis Ian CDSociety's Child BookLive From Grand Center DVDSociety's Child BookFolk Is The New Black CD
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