Mary6906
08-14-2008, 07:47 AM
'Society's Child' looks back on 4+ decades in show biz
By BRIAN BINGAMAN, Staff Writer , Lansdale Reporter Online
http://www.thereporteronline.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20016600&BRD=2275&PAG=461&dept_id=466399&rfi=6
At first, it seems mind-boggling that singer Janis Ian has a 345-page autobiography.
Granted, she recorded the groundbreaking "Society's Child (Baby I've Been Thinking)," which many radio stations wouldn't touch in the heat of the civil rights movement, and the Grammy-winning "At Seventeen," the heartbreaking lament of mean adolescent treatment of "ugly duckling girls like me."
But 345 pages?
As it turns out, "Society's Child: My Autobiography," published by Tarcher/Penguin, is difficult to put down once you open it up.
Ian, who grew up Janis Fink until appropriating her brother's middle name upon becoming a recording artist at age 14, unambiguously lets you know what side of the fence she's on in the introduction:
"On one side of the chasm was the America my parents lived in. There, the country was still congratulating itself on winning the war after the War to End All Wars. Men wore suits and ties to work, or laborer's uniforms. Females did the housework, males did the heavy lifting. Blacks knew their place, whites knew theirs, and there wasn't much room in between.
"On the other side of the crack was the America I grew up in ..."
This is followed by a harrowing account of being viciously harassed in the middle of a performance of "Society's Child," and overcoming it with the audience's help and a very supportive concert promoter.
Pretty heavy stuff considering she was probably 15 at the time.
An upbringing that was suspiciously liberal for the early Cold War years guaranteed a childhood under surveillance by the FBI.
From there, it's a whirlwind through almost 50 years with trials and tribulations of celebrity at a young age; being molested by her dentist as a pre-teen; friendships with Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Billy Joel (there's a priceless backstage photo of Ian with Bruce Springsteen, Joel and DJ Ed Sciaky at the Academy of Music in the mid-'70s); being victimized in relationships with both men and women; performing on the first episode of "Saturday Night Live"; singing the first Egg McMuffin jingle; battles with cancer and the IRS; and being part of the visionary minority in the recording industry that embraced the mp3 format.
These stories, and a whole lot more, are told within a gripping narrative that proves Ian has a mastery of the language that goes way deeper than songwriting, or her other pastime of science fiction writing, could allow.
It even has a happy ending, or at least indicates she's at peace with her highly turbulent past.
The timing is uncanny that the book is out in time for the Philadelphia Folk Festival, where she will be performing. Within the pages, there's a photo of her with one of her heroes, Odetta, at the '72 Folk Fest. The festival must be close to her heart because she makes a few references to performing there.
According to www.folkfest.org, Ian will conduct a workshop on the autobiography from 11 a.m. to noon Saturday on the Craft Stage.
If you'd rather drive to West Chester instead, there's a signing at 7 p.m. Friday at the Chester County Book and Music Company in the West Goshen Center, 875 Paoli Pike.
But wait, that's not all ...
Because a good portion of "Society's Child" is dedicated to Ian's songcraft — the chapters all bear titles of her songs — you're going to close the book (if you have the willpower to do so) wanting to hear more of her songs than the ones you know.
That's where the also-recently-released, two-disc "Best of Janis Ian: The Autobiography Collection" comes in.
Could this have been pared down to a single disc? Probably, but this is the sonic complement to Ian's print memoirs, so it's sort of fitting that the album is as epic as the book.
What's striking about the compilation, which includes a few rerecorded versions and live recordings, is that Ian still has that same wispy, little girl's voice that she had at 14.
There are some real hidden gems here, like the first song she ever wrote, "Hair Spun of Gold," a classic folk melody that takes a shocking turn, especially for 1965, into teen pregnancy; "Jesse," which was a minor hit for Roberta Flack; "Ginny the Flying Girl" from a 1981 "Sesame Street" album; the aching "Some People's Lives"; and "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye," a drastically different variation of the Civil War patriotic anthem "Johnny Comes Marching Home."
You can count on Ian for a fair amount of lyrical zingers, like this one from "Haven't I Got Eyes":
"Lose all our souls for money
and we lose our souls to love ...
And everybody I know just wants more
You could fill Death Valley
and not satisfy."
On the other hand, there's "Fly Too High" which was recorded in the late '70s, and it shows. Blame that on a period that was a lousy one for pop music and a horrible one for folk music.
Note the not so subtle cross marketing of the book in the CD packaging.
Overall, "Best of Janis Ian" is a good representation of her catalog.
By BRIAN BINGAMAN, Staff Writer , Lansdale Reporter Online
http://www.thereporteronline.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20016600&BRD=2275&PAG=461&dept_id=466399&rfi=6
At first, it seems mind-boggling that singer Janis Ian has a 345-page autobiography.
Granted, she recorded the groundbreaking "Society's Child (Baby I've Been Thinking)," which many radio stations wouldn't touch in the heat of the civil rights movement, and the Grammy-winning "At Seventeen," the heartbreaking lament of mean adolescent treatment of "ugly duckling girls like me."
But 345 pages?
As it turns out, "Society's Child: My Autobiography," published by Tarcher/Penguin, is difficult to put down once you open it up.
Ian, who grew up Janis Fink until appropriating her brother's middle name upon becoming a recording artist at age 14, unambiguously lets you know what side of the fence she's on in the introduction:
"On one side of the chasm was the America my parents lived in. There, the country was still congratulating itself on winning the war after the War to End All Wars. Men wore suits and ties to work, or laborer's uniforms. Females did the housework, males did the heavy lifting. Blacks knew their place, whites knew theirs, and there wasn't much room in between.
"On the other side of the crack was the America I grew up in ..."
This is followed by a harrowing account of being viciously harassed in the middle of a performance of "Society's Child," and overcoming it with the audience's help and a very supportive concert promoter.
Pretty heavy stuff considering she was probably 15 at the time.
An upbringing that was suspiciously liberal for the early Cold War years guaranteed a childhood under surveillance by the FBI.
From there, it's a whirlwind through almost 50 years with trials and tribulations of celebrity at a young age; being molested by her dentist as a pre-teen; friendships with Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Billy Joel (there's a priceless backstage photo of Ian with Bruce Springsteen, Joel and DJ Ed Sciaky at the Academy of Music in the mid-'70s); being victimized in relationships with both men and women; performing on the first episode of "Saturday Night Live"; singing the first Egg McMuffin jingle; battles with cancer and the IRS; and being part of the visionary minority in the recording industry that embraced the mp3 format.
These stories, and a whole lot more, are told within a gripping narrative that proves Ian has a mastery of the language that goes way deeper than songwriting, or her other pastime of science fiction writing, could allow.
It even has a happy ending, or at least indicates she's at peace with her highly turbulent past.
The timing is uncanny that the book is out in time for the Philadelphia Folk Festival, where she will be performing. Within the pages, there's a photo of her with one of her heroes, Odetta, at the '72 Folk Fest. The festival must be close to her heart because she makes a few references to performing there.
According to www.folkfest.org, Ian will conduct a workshop on the autobiography from 11 a.m. to noon Saturday on the Craft Stage.
If you'd rather drive to West Chester instead, there's a signing at 7 p.m. Friday at the Chester County Book and Music Company in the West Goshen Center, 875 Paoli Pike.
But wait, that's not all ...
Because a good portion of "Society's Child" is dedicated to Ian's songcraft — the chapters all bear titles of her songs — you're going to close the book (if you have the willpower to do so) wanting to hear more of her songs than the ones you know.
That's where the also-recently-released, two-disc "Best of Janis Ian: The Autobiography Collection" comes in.
Could this have been pared down to a single disc? Probably, but this is the sonic complement to Ian's print memoirs, so it's sort of fitting that the album is as epic as the book.
What's striking about the compilation, which includes a few rerecorded versions and live recordings, is that Ian still has that same wispy, little girl's voice that she had at 14.
There are some real hidden gems here, like the first song she ever wrote, "Hair Spun of Gold," a classic folk melody that takes a shocking turn, especially for 1965, into teen pregnancy; "Jesse," which was a minor hit for Roberta Flack; "Ginny the Flying Girl" from a 1981 "Sesame Street" album; the aching "Some People's Lives"; and "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye," a drastically different variation of the Civil War patriotic anthem "Johnny Comes Marching Home."
You can count on Ian for a fair amount of lyrical zingers, like this one from "Haven't I Got Eyes":
"Lose all our souls for money
and we lose our souls to love ...
And everybody I know just wants more
You could fill Death Valley
and not satisfy."
On the other hand, there's "Fly Too High" which was recorded in the late '70s, and it shows. Blame that on a period that was a lousy one for pop music and a horrible one for folk music.
Note the not so subtle cross marketing of the book in the CD packaging.
Overall, "Best of Janis Ian" is a good representation of her catalog.