• 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?

• Celebrating The Swannanoa Gathering!

  Janis is currently attending the The Swannanoa Gathering in Asheville, NC.

  In honor of The Gathering's 26 years, we're providing her song "Swannanoa" as a free download, along with lyrics, lyrics with chords and sheet music!

  Visit the Free Downloads page to download this song and many others.

  Find lyrics and lyrics with chords in the Listening Room.

  Free sheet music is in the store.

  You can also listen to the song on Soundcloud.

  [more]

• On Sale!: Bright Lights & Promises: Redefining Janis Ian by Sarah Partridge

  We're so enamored with this new CD we've put it on sale in the store! A brilliant take on Janis' work, seen through the lens of a highly regarded jazz vocalist and her stunning band.

  [more]

• Latest Huffington Post article!

  Titled "Whole Foods vs. Trader Joe's", you can read Janis' newest article here. 

   

   

  [more]

more hot news

• Swannanoa
• 1776
• Getting On
• A Thousand Years
• I'm Still Standing
• Society's Child (live)
• Marching On Glasgow
• Guess You Had To Be There
• The Tiny Mouse
• Welcome Home (The Nebulas Song)
• Joy Is Like The Rain
• Architect Of All Creation

more free downloads

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All tour dates updated on April 28, 2017

• Sunday, July 30th through Saturday, August 5th - Asheville, NC

  Swannanoa Gathering

  Asheville, NC

  Phone: 828-298-3434

  Visit the venue's website

  More information coming soon.

• Friday, September 15th - Saturday, September 16th - Urbana-Champaign, IL

  Ellnora Guitar Festival - Krannert Center

  Urbana-Champaign, IL

  Visit the venue's website

  Details TBA.

  Tickets on sale Saturday, July 8th.

more tour dates