1977

Party Lights

Janis Ian

Party lights
Is there anybody here tonight?
Doesn't anybody have a light?
I invite your party life
Party lights. Champagne and caviar
Cocaine and Shalimar
Don't push too far -- your party lights

People tell me that I'm fading fast
I can't last the whole night through
Everybody, now, it's closing time
I can't find my way to you

Don't lose your head
Remember all those things Your mama said
But every vampire here appears well-fed
You look half-dead. they like you, kid
Party games
Somebody pinned a needle in me and I went insane
Walking on the edge of the line in the driving rain
I felt no pain. It's a hell of a game

People tell me there's an end to this
but one last kiss turns into two
Everybody, can't leave now
I don't know how to make it through

Heady wine.
You're moving too slow for me
Can't keep time
Watching the silent movie for a sign
In my prime.
Heady wine.
You move too slow - I'm drowning
Don't let go. I'm drowning
and I can't say no.
Keep it low.
It's a hell of a show

People tell me that I'm fading fast
I can't last the whole night through
Everybody, now it's closing time
I can't find my way to you

© Mine Music Ltd./EMI Music Publishing Japan Ltd.
All rights reserved; international copyright secured.

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I Want To Make You Love Me

Janis Ian

Friendly stranger, look what you do to me
Smiling faces
and I melt inside
Singing praises of your company
I want to lay me down
Stay all through the night

You are too good to be
wholly and totally mine
You are too good to be
slipping away like wine
And I'm waiting, praying
Skating on the edge of the line
Let me down easy
Let me down easy

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 get frightened by the thunder
and the lightning roars
like a bullet in the pouring rain
I get heightened by your wondering arms
Lay me down
Do it all over again

You are too good to be
wholly and totally mine
You are slipping away
and I'm making you stay
and I'm waiting for the sun to decline
I go rolling down the incline
Holding on a lifeline
Stopping on the edge of a dime
Let me down easy
Let me down easy

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

Repeat chorus and fade

© Taosongs Two. All rights reserved; international copyright secured.

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Sunset Of Your Life

Janis Ian

She is too old to care
Why not just leave her there?
We'll see her once a week
If we have time, we'll speak
This is the sunset of your life

The old ones like to claw and clutch
Be careful not to offer much
They understand the fist and crutch
Their skin like leather to the touch
This is the sunset of your life

The empty smile, the frozen face
The drooling child humiliates
If I were you, I think I'd die,
here in the sunset of my life

The long and lonely night
has just begun
This withered witch cannot be you
There will be no sun

© Mine Music Ltd./EMI Music Publishing Japan Ltd.
All rights reserved; international copyright secured.

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Take To The Sky

Janis Ian

Blue sky morning, red sky night
Sailor take warning when the eagle takes flight
If I had wings, I would delight and fly away

Black cloud riding on the cotton fields back home
Every man's an island in the desert of his soul
Take to the sky. There's nowhere else to go
and fly away

I can remember all the days of my life
Cold dark September
when the eagle took flight
I had to stay, I had to stay
I cried a river to the empty sky
Someone deliver me by and by
I'll fly away, I'll fly away

It don't take nothing to be lonely
It comes too easy to be holy
It does nothing for the soul
but tear holes in tomorrow
Somebody somebody said I don't want to be
nobody said I don't want to see
nobody said I don't want to need
nobody said nothing at all
Sitting and waiting for the axe to fall

Sun come raining, lighten up the day
I ain't complaining, I got nothing to say
I'll fly away, I'll fly away
If I had the courage to be flying blind
I'd fly too high to buy my way home

Somebody wants somebody
to be lonely and nobody
Settling only for love
How much time can you borrow?
Making it easy to lie, faking it on the sly
Shaking and stammering
Taking it up to the sky
Hammering nails in tomorrow

Sun come raining, lighten up the sky
I ain't complaining, I get no reply
I'll fly away, I'll fly away
When I get the courage to be flying blind
I'll fly too high to buy my way home

© Mine Music Ltd./EMI Music Publishing Japan Ltd.
All rights reserved; international copyright secured.

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Candlelight

Janis Ian

* Also recorded by Barbara Cook

Don't let the sun go down on me
I do not want to be alone tonight
We'll be right, you'll see

Night is a shadow on the soul
and if you want to set me wholly free,
stay by me tonight

‘cause I've been afraid of love,
knowing I need you to stay
I've been ashamed of love,
knowing you're leaving me
day after day,
I'm begging you, pleading

I like you best
when night runs a shadow on the soul
No more empty hands to hold

Don't let the evening sun go down
I haven't found a way to trade the night
Sheer delight
Burning bright, candlelight

Lay me own - astound me
Not a sound - surround me
Skies unbound, I'm unwound
Lay me down

I've been afraid to love
but this is no time to hesitate
I've been ashamed to love
but lay me down, I just can't wait

I like you best
when night is a pleasure you can give
Lay me down, now I know how to
Lay me down, now I know how to
Lay me down
Now I know how to live

© Taosongs Two. All rights reserved; international copyright secured.

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Let Me Be Lonely

Janis Ian

Ooo, let me be lonely
I'd rather be by myself
than with you acting holy
I want to be with the one I want to be
or else i want to be free
Ooo, let me be lonely

Saving up for a rainy day or
donate to charity? Iimpossible
Think you'll make history?
Improbable
Give your love to me

Ooo, let me be wanted
I've a right to tonight to delight
When you got it you flaunt it
And if you're not what you seem to be, then
how come you're coming on strong?
Ooo, lemme be wanted

All you do with your time is tease me
Couldn't you find the time to please me?
With your kind it looks so easy,
shoving the blues away

Ooo, let me be lonely
I'd rather be by myself, acting holy
I want to be with the one
Ooo, let me be lonely

All you do with your time…
Couldn't you find the time?
With your kind it's done!
Uh-huh

© Mine Music Ltd./EMI Music Publishing Japan Ltd.
All rights reserved; international copyright secured.

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Slow Dance Romance

Janis Ian

Slow dance, romance
Put your arms around me
You make me feel so old
Take me to the drive-in movie
Won't you move me, now?
before I get too cold
Popcorn serenader,
won't you take her down easy
You make her feel like gold
Midnight crusader,
when you take her easily,
make her feel like gold

Boom town, hoe-down
Run across the track, don't look back
Just lay low
Party pants running romance interference
Got to make appearance
sooner or later, I'm told
Slow dance promenader
Want to make her feel easy,
make her feel like gold
Midnight crusader,
when you take it easy,
you make it feel like gold

What a line. Was a long time
Wasn't moonshine, wasn't whiskey,
wasn't even party glow
Got no looks, wasn't half-hooked
Must've been some kind of book they took
that showed ‘em where to go
Midnight persuader,
got to break this town down slow
Moonlight serenader,
when you make it easy,
you make it feel like gold

© Mine Music Ltd./EMI Music Publishing Japan Ltd.
All rights reserved; international copyright secured.

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Will You Dance?

Janis Ian

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?

© Mine Music Ltd./EMI Music Publishing Japan Ltd.
All rights reserved; international copyright secured.

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I'll Cry Tonight

Janis Ian

I'll cry tonight
Night is the enemy
Poisons the memory
Martyrs it secretly
Midnight comes too fast
It comes too silently
The moon has no mercy now
and I don't know how
to live anymore

One day the rains will come
and wash away the tears
Sunlight will fade the years
Midnight comes too fast
and I don't want
the night to last

Shadows on the glass
Faces in window panes
Old lace and picture frames
rattle their ancient chains
Midnight will surprise
moonlight at the door
The night has a thousand eyes
and I don't know why
to live anymore

They told me how you loved me
when I finally go the bravery
to look beyond these prison walls
and shadows hanging over me
I cannot find a way to be
a lover for your life, although
they tell me it comes easily

But I somehow cannot let
the seasons pass
without demanding that they last
And though I know forever well
I also know my private hell
Silent voices in the night
They are crying -- sacrifice

One day the rains will come
And wash away the tears
Sunlight will fade the years
Midnight comes too fast
And I don't want
The night to last

© Mine Music Ltd./EMI Music Publishing Japan Ltd.
All rights reserved; international copyright secured.

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Miracle Row

Janis Ian

Marie lives on Miracle Row
She tells fortunes, you know
for a dollar a throw
Every pimp and every gigolo
has made love in the afternoon
to the lady by the windowsill

Five healthy children and a home of your own
Back on Miracle Row, they all follow the show
Soap operas in the afternoon

And the old ladies swear at the sun like a sauna
on the tenement stair all the boys play the conga
There's a chill in the air
and yes, they're gonna break out of here

T.V. In the summer heat
Talk show hard to beat
'til she hits the street
Ripping pavement underneath her heels
with the poetry of motion in chains
and the lady by the window pane

Five healthy children and a home of your own
Back on Miracle Row, they all follow the show
Love interest in the afternoon

And the old men swoon, and the sun gets hotter
Someone mumbles a tune, and the young men spot her
running up to the room
And yes, they've gotta get out of here soon

Five healthy children and a home of your own
Back on Miracle Row, they all count on the show
Soap opera in the afternoon

The old ladies swear at the boys playing conga
on the tenement stair, and the sun is like a sauna
There's a chill in the air
and yes, they're gonna break out of here

© Taosongs Two. All rights reserved; international copyright secured.

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Maria

Janis Ian

Oh, Maria
Your eyes are like a demon lover's child
and lips of velvet issue invitation
every time you smile
You sucked me in, I must admit
that I was waiting for a sign
Won't you leave me on the corner
by the light,
because I'm stepping out tonight

Oh, Maria
I envy any man who knows your name
Though once I knew you well
I'm not ashamed to be the one
who drags you down
Your life is like a movie
Like a story pasted up on subway walls
Won't you leave me something sacred
when you fall?
unless there's nothing left at all

Your lips are like a faded Spanish rose
and every moment strikes a pose
on every technicolor close
And other women show their teeth,
and schoolboy husbands beg relief,
and empty lovers search the street

Maria
Convince me in the night you know the way
Though every lover brings another
screaming to the light of day
Won't you leave me by the lamp post
In the haze of your perfume,
night fades away
Won't you leave me by the lamp post
In the haze of your perfume,
night fades away

© Taosongs Two. All rights reserved; international copyright secured.

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