Great time to discover Janis

[Mimi]

Hi all,
it's been only about a year that I discovered Janis and her music (still can't believe that I had to become 38 before that happened...) and today while I was viewing the forums I suddenly found that in a way it was a good time for this great discovery: It was the year FINB was released, it was a year with lots of shows in Europe and I was so lucky to see Janis twice in the Netherlands in October, and there is this wonderful message board that has become part of my daily life and thoughts.

A thing I enjoy very much is to read what other Rudies think about certain albums and songs. It's a way to a new, different and deeper understanding each time.

I know that many of you have been Rudies for decades now and I wondered how you felt during the periods when it became very quiet around Janis, when nobody knew if she would come back one day... and there was no MB to contact Janis easily, to stay in touch.

And how did you feel when Janis finally came back with "Breaking Silence"? I know what I would have done... I would have cried, that's sure.

So, let me know how it was like!

Mimi :)

P.S.: Thank you all, my fellow Rudies, thank you Janis, thank you for being there and sharing so much. It's just great.

[aabram]

Mimi. I'm the same, only just being "shown the way" little over a year ago and it was great because I didn't have to travel very far to get to see her in Concert. I still go down that way to look for CDs in the Record Shak, and I have got to know the guy quite well now. He's going to try and get me afew of the ones I haven't got :)

Annabel

[Anna from Dublin]

Oh yes, the 80s were very bleak Janis Ian years - I remember them well. There was a brief respite because I got to see her live in 1986 at the Bottom Line in New York and got to hear some of the new material she was writing then with Rhonda Kye Fleming. I taped the 2 shows with my little cassette recorder and survived on that for quite a while. 1986 was also the year Uncle Wonderful was released, but that album never pushed my buttons.

However, it was another long wait to 1992 and Breaking Silence. I was living in England by then and I took a trip to the Netherlands to get the CD. I couldn't wait for it to come to the UK. I remember listening to it in the store and not knowing what to make of it at first. I quikly learned to love it and appreciate it. I now think it is one of Janis' best works.

Janis also played the Dominion Theatre London in 1991 which was a wonderful night. She also played Dublin around the same time and it was weird to think of her playing Dublin (after so long a time especially) and for me not to be there - but that was before cheap flights. I'm still glad I was at the London gig - that was where I first heard Cosmopolitan Girl and I got to meet my first "Janis Ian friend" in the line outside the stage door. Stuart was the one to tell me about "Remember" - it was the only album I didn't have and hadn't even known it existed. He sent me a cassette recording of it which again bridged the gap for a while. I finally got my own copy of this live album at the 1998 online JI auction.

[Mimi]

... just wondering ... can't be true that no one of the long time Rudies remembers...

Mimi

And thanks for sharing, Anna!

[Eva]

Let's just bump this one up then :D

Mimi, it's always a good time to discover Janis.

My story is much as yours so I can't really answer your question.

Eva

[Judy]

Well, Mimi, while I surely missed Janis herself during those "bleak" years, I knew she was still out there kicking about because other people were recording her songs...new songs. (Literally the first thing I do when I get a new album is to open the liner and see who wrote the music.) And I just kind of figured that if she were still writing then she wasn't going to fade away and would hopefully find her way back to the front. The release of "Breaking Silence" was a very good day. Not only did she come back, she came back with a collection of interesting sounds...actual sounds - think of how you feel when you hear "Through The Years", then "Breaking Silence"... I'm doing a lousy job trying to explain and I'm sorry for that.
Anyway, you really got me to thinking, Mimi - maybe I'll try again when I can find words.
Judy

[Darlene]

Well for me it was back when I was still in my teens and "At Seventeen" came out. That song blew me away so I bought an eight-track tape of "Between The Lines" I listened to it over and over and over again and like all good eight-tract tapes it wore out and broke and then it melted in the sun so their was no hope of fixing it. I looked for another but I could find none. It was during my fundamentalist religious period. I wasn't allow to listen to such secular music.
I kind of wondered why I don't remember "Society's Child" and I think it was because I was so stoned during that period of my life. I can hardly remember being alive.
So I lost Janis for a life time and I was looking for pictures of my favorite singers for the My Space page that my daughter was fixing for me. I could not believe it there she was in all her glory and beautiful white hair. She had been working all these years. MY favorite singer was not gone, she was writing songs and preforming. I don't know how I could have missed her but I did.
But I have found her and a bonus of a lot of good friends. I am so glad that I was looking for her picture.
Peace, Darlene

[Roady]

I remember Society's Child and Seventeen. Must have heard it on the radio. I really only remember the 45 records from the late 50's. Then we used to go to stores where you could play records in rooms to see if you liked them before buying. But I didn't have records-I don't know if it was money or what. The music we heard was at dancing lessons, then at town hall and school dances. In college it was at parties and concerts. Then in my 20's & 30's we heard bands at clubs. Great band of Transvestites and Guys in Drag at the Peppermint Lounge in Salisbury Beach, MA. Max Mob I believe they were called. Anyone heard of them?

But I really didn't listen to music, except classical from the 80's until recently, so in a way I was lucky not to have found Janis and then had to miss her. That's why I was so afraid she wasn't going to have a show next year. But now that it's on the schedule I can breath easier.

[Mimi]

So in a way I was lucky not to have found Janis and then had to miss her.

Almost the same for me, Roady. As I know today I knew quite a lot of Janis' songs sung by others before I finally found my way last year.

Mimi

[aabram]

So after the events of the the last month or so, and a huge addition of rarities to my collection, the interviews that Mimi has discovered and all the old pics, I'm starting to peice together the things I've missed (and wish I hadn't missed all this). Hearing At Seventeen on the Radio when it came out helped me when Catherine was sitting Higher History 2 years ago as I had found a friend who was a real fan. Catherine and Julia listened to more of the early Janis on Sunday and appreciated the finds as I did, and being able to answer questions on Society's Child is something not everyone can do :D