INSIDE STORY
From Janis: Once I lost the ability to perform as a vocalist, Jeff and I began talking about long-delayed projects we still wanted to do. Realizing that my archives contain hundreds of work tapes, live shows, demos, rough mixes and the like, we began putting together a series of potential “albums” that would feature the original versions of songs that later made it to albums. We also wanted to include some songs that were originally slated for those albums but never made it. A “worktape” is just that – a tape of a recent work, sometimes recorded for copyright purposes, sometimes so I could listen back and find out what was bothering me (that extra section in “Lover’s Lullabye” for instance), sometimes for the arranger and producer to hear. All of these are from the very first time I sang them into a microphone. Minimal “fixing” was done in order to preserve the integrity of the originals. Enjoy!
* These recordings were culled from “best available”, which included DATs, minidiscs, old cassettes, reel-to-reel, and other formats. Our goal was to present them as close to the original sound as possible; you may hear small glitches in some, including one drop-out. Any further attempts to manipulate the audio and remove more hiss, or clean up external sounds, resulted in a loss of fidelity Janis was not willing to entertain. Thank you for understanding!
CREDITS
Produced by Jeff Evans and Janis Ian
Photography by Peter Cunningham
Cover design by Jeff Evans
Mastered by Eric Conn for Independent Mastering, Nashville, TN.
Pianos: Janis Ian
Guitars: Janis Ian, Sal Di Troia, Jeff Layton
Drums, percussion: Barry Lazarowitz
Upright bass: Richard Davis
Electric bass: Stu Woods, Steve “Fontz” Gelfand
Second vocalist: Claire Bay
Master ℗ Rude Girl Records, Inc. All rights reserved; international copyright secured. Used by permission.
Much thanks to Esther Friedman, Eriko Nitta, and Kathleen Brogan for their assistance with this project.
SONG BY SONG
1. APPLAUSE, APPLAUSE
When I was twenty, I moved from Philadelphia to Los Angeles, because it was as far from my old life as I could get without crossing an ocean. I was young, I was hungry, and I was flat broke, grabbing whatever jobs I could get to cover rent and food. Back then, in order to copyright a song, you had to have a transcription showing the melody, lyrics and chords. I could get paid for that basic work, but I could also get paid to create piano/vocal arrangements for songbooks and sheet music sales.
I knew how to read music and had a pretty good hand, so I invested in a Rapidograph pen with a variety of nibs, a bottle of India ink, a sheaf of onion paper, and off I went. I earned between a dollar and three dollars a page, depending on how complicated it was. In some cases, I even had to identify various instruments and create a modified “score”, to be taken to a real arranger, who’d incorporate their ideas into a final score and record it that way.
Back when I recorded Who Really Cares, Charlie Callelo had been nice enough to show me how a score page was laid out, and I’d kept my notes. Investing in a book called something like Your First Arrangement, and an album called Instruments of the Orchestra, I set about scoring first West Side Story, and then Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. I had no idea you could actually buy those scores; I thought every conductor went through the process I was putting myself through, re-creating what they heard on the albums by ear, and notating it.
After I’d re-scored both of those labor-intensive pieces, I set about creating my own first score. I could hear what I wanted from the orchestra for “Applause, Applause” in my head. It was just a question of getting it down on paper. So I did, scoring for forty-four pieces, which I’d read was the standard size for a small orchestra.
If you listen to this recording, then compare it to the final recording on my Stars album, you’ll hear the genesis of my ideas on this recording.
2. THE MAN YOU ARE IN ME
I’ve always loved this song. By the time I put down the worktape, I’d been playing it at hoots and guitar pulls for a while, so it sounds pretty like the final on Stars (minus the full band of course!).
3. JESSE
“Jesse” was the song everybody loved, and nobody wanted to represent. We’d been submitting it to publishers and record companies for almost two years. Inevitably, they would ask to keep the demo because they or their spouses loved it so much, but they wouldn’t sign me. Eventually, Burt Haber from Frank Loesser’s publishing company fell in love it, and he and Milt Kramer, with Frank’s blessing, signed me to a short term deal, then set about trying to get a name artist to record it. Eventually, Roberta Flack recorded it, did a gorgeous job, and made it a hit. That gave me credibility as a songwriter and began the next phase of my career.
4. THANKYOUS
Truth be told, I wrote this for my parents, especially my mother. I’d given them such a hard time during my teens. As though having a hit record that caused constant threats from angry right-wingers wasn’t enough, they’d gone through a very messy divorce and behaved abominably – which meant I set about to behave even more abominably. “Society’s Child” really took a toll on all of us, and there were a couple of years where my folks and I barely spoke. When we did, my end usually wasn’t very nice.
As I matured, I realized that they’d done the best they could. Of course! They loved me; if they’d been able to do better, they would have. This song was an acknowledgment of my debt to them and my gratitude for the wonderful job they ultimately did raising me.
5. PAGE NINE
When it came time to put these tracks together, Jeff and I had to constantly ask ourselves “How much clean up do we want and what are we willing to sacrifice to it?” A lot of these tracks were only preserved on cassette; tape was routinely re-used because it was so costly. “Page Nine” had a huge amount of hiss, and a big dropout right in the first verse. Leave the drop out? Try to find the same chord and edit it in? Create laser beam sounds to mask it?
We compromised regularly over the hiss. Remove too little and the track became unlistenable after first hearing. Remove too much, the whole thing sounded like mud. And when it came to the dropout, we just did the best we could, with the assistance of our brilliant mastering engineer Eric Conn.
6. WITHOUT YOU
Omigosh, this was such fun to hear! My earliest version of the song, with me singing both vocals because my second vocalist, Claire Bay, had an impossible time singing harmonies. (If you listen to my live work back then, you’ll hear her singing a lot of the leads, because she just couldn’t manage the harmony.) I must have already been doing a bunch of touring, because this is with my live band. Probably an early album demo for Stars, when we were deciding which songs to record.
7. I LOVE YOU BEST
Brooks Arthur and I, sometimes along with our arranger and session leader Ron Frangipane, would meet at Brooks’ house and listen to worktapes and demos on his two-track Revox tape recorder. (Great machine. Wish I still had mine!) We kept a chart of which songs we favored for the album (Stars) – it was important to be careful, because even though I was only twenty-two, this would be a “comeback” album. If this one didn’t get critical praise, I wouldn’t get to make another one and my career would be over.
Some things were immediately crystal clear: “Stars” and “Jesse” had to go on the album. “Applause, Applause” would be worthy, and completely different from what anyone else was doing. But the record needed more up-tempo songs, and this was one of the possibilities.
I can’t remember why we decided against it; Brooks was the final arbiter most of the time, but if I felt strongly about something it was always moved to the top. None of us thought this was a great song and the melody wasn’t strong enough to carry the lyric, so we let it go.
So much for our hit-making ears! The song went on to be recorded by a Chinese singer, with Chinese lyric, and hit the top of the charts there. The same thing happened in Australia. I still don’t think I’d have had a hit with it, so just as well.
8. THE COME ON
It’s always interesting to hear just how much of a final arrangement is already part of the first worktape. It’s indicated in the guitar parts, in the chords, in the song structure itself. My theory of arranging has always been “Do what the song tells you to do”, and the minimal arranging of this piece on Between the Lines attests to that.
9. FROM ME TO YOU
From the time I began singing this in public, it was a fan favorite. To this day, it’s one of my most played cuts. On the album, it’s faster, with a great sense of urgency – Richard Davis’ bass part and Byron Berline’s fiddle sawing add to the feeling of constant movement. Here, with just me and a guitar, it’s laid down the way it was originally written; slower, with a sense of hindsight.
10. ONE-ARMED JOHNNY
This was another song that didn’t make the album, though we considered it for both Stars and Between the Lines. On Stars, “Dance With Me” made a bold anti-war statement and this felt redundant next to it. On Between the Lines, it stuck out like a sore thumb every time we tried to fit it in.
11. LOVER’S LULLABY
I always laugh when people say, “Wow, your worktape sounds a lot like the album.” Of course it does! Same writer, same singer, same pianist. The only thing that might change is the rest of the backdrop. There’s a modulation into the second verse that didn’t happen on the final recording, and a third verse I junked in favor of the final version’s up-tempo second half. There’s a clinker piano chord too, and I assume it was left in because time was expensive, tape was expensive, and doing a second take on a worktape that was primarily for copyright and listen-back purposes just wouldn’t make sense.
12. IN THE WINTER
Wowee, this first version has a much more dramatic beginning than the final album version. The whole piece feels very rushed to my ear, the vocal a bit pedantic, like I’m trying to get through the piano part and vocal without messing it up.
“Winter” was always on the first-choice list for Between the Lines, along with “At Seventeen” and “From Me to You”, but it wasn’t originally intended to be with orchestra. At some point, Brooks told me he was going to cut the song with Dusty Springfield for her next project, with a large string section. Not having a competitive bone in my body, I immediately decided to write my own score and record it with an orchestra too. (Yes, that’s how things happen. A little bit of competition goes a long way.) I based the orchestration entirely around the piano part, and as you can hear, it was pretty completely developed even when I laid it down for the first time.
13. BELLE OF THE BLUES
By the time we got around to recording Aftertones, a lot of things had fallen apart. Brooks lost 914 Sound Studio; we were only able to cut a few tracks there before we had to move. I was on tour all the time, trying to live up to the ‘70s record company ethic of “Write for three months, record for three months, tour for six months”. Of course, once “Seventeen” was a hit, that “tour for six months” went out the window. Instead, it was more like “Write when you can, record when you can, tour all the time.”
Having grown up on Billie Holiday and torch singers, as well as their stories about being on the road, it was only natural that I begin writing in that style. For me, this worktape is better than the final recording. There’s a passion to it that got lost somewhere in translation. And I have to confess, part of me loves solo vocal/piano these days. You can create an entire orchestra with a piano!
14. BOY, I REALLY TIED ONE ON
There was constant pressure from the record company to write something up tempo; the CBS A&R department seemed convinced if I just recorded enough up-tempo songs, I’d have a ton of hits. But it was hard for me to write their version of what an “up-tempo” song was! My heart didn’t live there, and neither did my voice. It wasn’t until I was much older that I figured out a few workarounds to that dilemma. Still, to keep them happy, I had to come up with something that was faster and brighter than a “From Me To You”. Just a rough demo with my touring band, the entire final arrangement is pretty much here.
15. ROSES
I loved writing this song, loved the way it felt on my voice, the breaks for my soprano, the subject matter. You can hear how I felt about it in this worktape. The guitar is slightly behind the beat as it skips alone, the vocal is very relaxed, and the vocal sound is pure Brooks Arthur – a good plate echo, a Neumann U-87, and off we went.
16. AFTERTONES
One of the perils of a hit record is that a large portion of the bigger audience is only there to hear the hit. Especially in the ‘50s, ‘60s, ‘70s, when people would often buy only the single rather than the album, lots of my audience was there to hear “At Seventeen”. If I’d done it early in the show, most of them would have left right after! (No, really.) As it was, I spent a lot of the show trying to ignore people who were talking, laughing, yelling “Sing ‘At Seventeen’!!” It made me think a lot about what the essence of music was, how much their noise really interfered with what I was doing and how much was just me. From there, I discovered Leonard Bernstein’s Norton Lectures at Harvard, and was entranced with the whole idea of overtones, undertones, and ultimately, aftertones. You can hear an effect on that last verse where a voice in the distance is accompanying the main vocal.
17. DON’T CRY, OLD MAN
Again, clearly a recording Brooks engineered, because there’s that signature plate echo he had at 914 Sound Studio, and the vocal sound itself is pretty perfect. I wrote this song for my father, part accusation, part apology, and I desperately wanted Ron Frangipane to arrange the orchestral parts for my album. I felt (rightly) that he could bring elements of dissonance to it, the same dissonance I felt with my father, a working musician like myself but coming from a diametrically opposing position on most things musical. Ron wasn’t sure he wanted to get involved; we’d had a hard time toward the end of Between the Lines, and he was tired of the drama that seemed to surround Brooks and me during that period. (To be fair, not all of it was of our own making and there were a lot of things going on that I didn’t know about, or I’d have behaved differently. Still, it all came right in the end.) I told Ron I wanted elements of Lutoslawski, and Stravinsky, whom he’d studied with, and his own incredible work, and I promised to indicate it all in the piano part and vocal when I laid it down.
If you A/B this with the record version, you may be able to hear what I meant.
LYRICS
1. APPLAUSE, APPLAUSE
Applause, applause
Give the singer a chance
Treat her right, be polite
Maybe she will dance
Applause, applause
Give the singer a break
How much can you give?
How much can you take?
Give the singer a chance
Give the singer a chance
Anything to buy your soul
and maybe she will dance
Applause, applause
She’ll stand upon her head
Applause, applause
She’ll take you to her bed
and share with you the memories
of dreams she can’t forget
Applause, applause – let’s give the prize
to the little lady with the stars in her eyes
I’ll sell my soul for a song
Pay the price and carry on
and share with you the memories
of dreams I can’t forget
Of lovers I have met
Applause, applause – let’s give the prize
to the little lady with the stars in her eyes
Applause, applause
Give the singer a chance
Treat her right, be polite
Maybe she will dance
Applause, applause
Give that singer a break
How much can you give?
How much can you take?
Give the singer a chance
I wanna give the singer a chance
Anything to buy your soul
and maybe she will dance
Maybe she will dance
Maybe she will…
2. THE MAN YOU ARE IN ME
I love the light
I love the changing season
I love without much thought to reason
I’d give it all if I could make you see
I love the man that you were meant to be
I love the man you are in me
I love the man who waits beside you
I love the man who hides behind you
I love the shadow
though it disappears
I love its afterglow
reflected through the tears
I love the shadow in my tears
Mmm, I love the dreams you can’t remember
Mmm, lost in the early waking hours
I love the season of forever
I’ll live without the light of laughter
I’ll live without an ever after
I’d give it all if I could make you see
I love the man that you were meant to be
I love the man you are in me
3. JESSE
Jesse come home
There’s a hole in the bed
where we slept
Now it’s growing cold
Hey Jesse, your face
in the place where we lay
by the hearth, all apart
It hangs on my heart
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
Jesse, the floors and the boards,
recalling your step
And I remember, too
All the pictures are fading
and shaded in grey,
but I still set a place
on the table at noon
And I’m leaving a light on the stairs
No I’m not scared – I wait for you
Hey Jesse, I’m lonely, come home
Jesse, the spread on the bed
is like when you left
I’ve kept it up for you
All the blues and the greens
have been recently cleaned,
and they’re seemingly new
Hey Jes, me and you
We’ll swallow the light on the stairs
We’ll do up my hair
We’ll sleep unaware
Hey Jesse, I’m lonely, come home
4. THANKYOUS
Papa gave me music
Mama gave me soul.
Brother gave me reaching out to hold
Teacher gave me license
Learning set me free
Schooling gave me nothing
Music showed me how to be
Papa gave me want-to-be
Brother gave me empathy
Mama gave me woman, but that isn’t all I need
I have lived in houses.
I have lived in homes.
Eaten off of tables made of wood or stone
Through the trials and tribulations,
I’ve never known
how to say I love you
and let my feelings show
So thank you for the music
Thank you for the song
Bless you for the freedom
in knowing right from wrong
Thank you for the laughter,
The heartaches and the tears
It’s a blessing to grow
It’s a goodness to be here
You give me want-to-be
You give me sympathy
You give me woman
Thank you for loving me,
and letting it show
It’s a pleasure to be here
So bless us, every one
5. PAGE NINE
Would you really come and live with me?
We can watch TV when the nights are cold and it’s hard to sleep
When I’m hungry, when I’m cold?
When I’m angry, when I’m old?
Honey, I don’t know
Would you really come and take my cares away?
Set me down in an easy chair and stay a while?
Child, it’s a righteous thing you do
to make somebody just this happy
like you done me to
I can see the years go down
You and me, we’ll paint the town
Lord, if my mama and my papa could see me now
I’m great at building castles in the air
and living there for days. You’d be amazed
I live in dreams and when I can
I go to sleep and there I am
and there you are
When I’m hungry for the taste
of loving you and your embrace, it’s hard to wait
‘cause I’ve been waiting here so long a time
But if you think it’s right,
honey, i don’t mind
We got all the years ahead
Time for everything we said
Lord, if my mama and my papa could see me now
I’d be happy living in a shack, all the plumbing in the back
but you might not, you know
Maybe we better have a home
I’d be glad on a farm with a million dogs, or a cave with bats
but you wouldn’t like that
We better have a home
Will you really come and live with me?
I’d be so proud In loving you, I’m loving me
I make it funny and I make you laugh
‘cause it makes it easy getting past the being scared
I can see the years go down
You and me, we’ll paint the town
Lord, if my mama and my papa could see me now
Oh, Lord, if my mom and my papa could see me now
6. WITHOUT YOU
I miss you, jealous lover
Won’t you come on over
to my side of town?
I need you
like the city needs
the sound of human voices
I want you
like the winter wants the springtime
Without you
the world stands alone
Without you
the past lingers on
Tomorrow
becoming today
Without you,
it’s all the same
without you
Outside my window,
gentle lover,
the birds are singing songs of love
I need you
They are calling for
the sound of laughing children
I want you
They are singing for your pleasure
Lover, without you,
the world stands alone
Without you,
the past lingers on
Tomorrow
becoming today
Without you,
it’s all the same
I see you –
a world without end
Then I need you
all over again
Without you
the sun doesn’t shine
Tomorrow is blind
without you
7. I LOVE YOU BEST
I love you best when it’s just like this
Make it easy, nobody has to try
Lovers we two, and it’s all because of you
Loving comes so naturally tonight
And I think I’d like to stay
beyond the season’s change
Never no more tomorrow
‘cause I think I like it best
when it feels just like this
And I’ll stay the same until tomorrow
All the time we borrowed, every stolen hour
Every thievery delight
And though we never said forever then
I’ll say it now
I never thought to see tomorrow in your eyes
And I think I’d like to stay
beyond the season’s change
Never no more tomorrow
‘cause I think I like it best
When it feels just like this
And I’ll stay the same until tomorrow
You take the high road
Honey, I can take the rest
Take on the seasons and the tides
Give me a reason not to love you best
and I’ll be leaving tonight
though I just can’t say goodbye
‘Cause it grows and it grows, from my head down to my toes
and I’m loving you the most when you are mine
It’s a reason to believe in everything you’ve done to me
I’m living high and loving naturally tonight
And I think I’d like to stay
beyond the season’s change
Never no more tomorrow
‘cause I think I like it best
when it feels just like this
And I’ll stay the same until tomorrow
8. THE COME ON
I haven’t been loved by a man in quite a while
You know it ain’t easy making me smile
Friends have their lovers
Men on a string
There must be something terribly wrong with me
Sometimes I feel like I haven’t learned anything
How do you do?
Would you like to be friends?
No, I just want a bed for the night
Someone to tell me they care
You can fake it, that’s all right
In the morning I won’t be here
It’s a sacrificial altar
and I’m laying down my head
and I’m telling you up front —
I haven’t much to give
Is that how it’s done,
or shall I sing and dance?
Give me a chance
How do you do?
Do you want to be friends?
Yes, that might be very nice
Maybe we’ll fall in love
Every body has its price
Mine is yours for free
if you’ll be in love with me
I haven’t been loved by a man in quite a while
You know it ain’t easy making me smile
Friends have their lovers
Men on a string
There must be something terribly wrong with me…
9. FROM ME TO YOU
I’m leaving by night, I’m leaving alone
Leaving it lie, when you waken I’ll be gone
I would not beg for me as I would not beg for you
though I’d like to be the one to see you through
Every step you have taken disappears with the tide
You’re torn up and shaken with changing your mind
You haven’t got the grace to say you’ll finally decide
and you haven’t got the strength to stay to fight
Those people who surround you
only want to see you weak enough to crawl
They’ll lie for you, decide for you
and buy up all your rights and all your wrongs
And they’ll try to stop your singing in the middle of your song
for they do not want you free, and they will not make you strong
but only drag you down in the hole they’re coming from
They say you are foolish for wanting the sun
They call you selfish for learning to run
They’ll tell you that the darkness is a blessing in disguise
You never have to notice if you’re sighted or you’re blind
and they’ll do their best to keep you from the light
You’re more than beginning, you’re learning to fly
Feels like you’re falling, but it passes in time
and I hate to see a friend go down in flames without a song
so I’m waiting by the doorway – I will not linger long
I’m leaving by night, I’m leaving alone
Leaving you lie. When you waken I’ll be gone
I would not beg for me as I will not beg for you
but I’d like to be the one to see you through
10. ONE-ARMED JOHNNY
There’s nobody in the back room
‘cepting one-armed Johnny Wills
and his gal come up from Oklahoma way
She just got in this morning
but he didn’t meet the train
‘cause he’d left something behind
and I guess it’s hard to drive
with a wooden arm you buy on the GI Bill
Making love was easy when the lights were out
He don’t have to try to please her now
Ain’t somebody crying like a baby back in there
Close your eyes and ears
There’s nothing for you hear
‘cept a one-armed Johnny bringing up the rear
Bad dreams. Mornings. Coffee milk or tea?
Wonder what’s the good in being home
What have you got for me?
I’m back from overseas
Checking out the Sunday paper
Monday feeling like a beggar
Looking like the Great American Dream
Making love is easy when the lights are out
He don’t have to try to please her now
Ain’t somebody crying like a baby back in there
Close your eyes and ears
There’s nothing for you hear
‘cept a one-armed Johnny bringing up the rear
Love burns quick with passion from the movie show
Tears burn the eyelids when they’re closed
and wood burns quick, with kerosene
Now, there’s nothing left
but ashes to be swept
That’s it for the Great American Dream
Making love is easy when the lights are out
He don’t have to try to please her now
Ain’t somebody crying like a baby back in there
Close your eyes and ears
There’s nothing living here
‘cept a one-armed Johnny bringing up the rear
11. LOVER’S LULLABY
Lay down and slumber
Mama’s boy is torn asunder
All the fields have gone grey
All the leaves are gone brown
Let me tell you a story
Lay down, I know you’re weary
While the star’s in the sky
While the moon’s on the rise
Lay down and don’t you wake ‘til morning
Close your eyes and helpless through the night
Lay down and dream of love and glory
This is a lover’s lullaby
Once was a magician
Fair he was, and handsome
and he brought to the table
all the fool’s gold and wine
He promised us three favors
Said he was the Savior
We drank all his glory
and we borrowed all his time
Lay down and don’t you wake ‘til morning
Close your eyes and helpless through the night
Lay down and dream of love and glory
This is a lover’s lulla–
‘bye, my love – sleep tight my love
and softly fade away
The moon was made of old green cheese
to keep the night at bay
Softly now, close your eyes
Lightly will you fade
The moon was made for wakeful boys
to keep the night away
Lay down and don’t wake ‘til morning
Close your eyes all through the night
Lay down and dream of your glory
This is a lullabye
Lay down and don’t wake ‘til morning
Close your eyes all through the night
Lay down and dream of your glory
This is a lullabye
This is a lullabye
12. IN THE WINTER
The days are okay
I watch the TV in the afternoons
If I get lonely,
the sound of other voices,
other rooms are near to me
I’m not afraid
The operator,
She tells the time,
It’s good for a laugh
There’s always radio,
and for a dime I can
talk to God – Dial-a-Prayer
Are you there?
Do you care?
Are you there?
And in the winter,
extra blankets for the cold
Fix the heater, getting old
I am wiser now, you know
and still as big a fool concerning you
I met your friend
She’s very nice, what can I say?
It was an accident
I never dreamed we’d meet again this way
You’re looking well
I’m not afraid
You have a lovely home
Just like a picture.
No, I live alone
I found it easier
You must remember how
I never liked the party life
Up all night
Lovely wife
You have a lovely wife
And in the winter
Extra blankets for the cold
Fix the heater, getting old
You are with her now, I know
I’ll live alone forever
Not together now
13. BELLE OF THE BLUES
I’m the belle of the blues, and it’s easy to see
If I win or I lose, it’s all one to me
I was born on a shelf
in the rare books library
I reside by myself
with my books and my TV
I’m an old age pension for the fossilized routine
Anybody for nostalgia? put a record on and see
Here’s a memory of olden days
And a heartbreak grown cold
All that glitters isn’t gold
You get no love for free
You live and you die
And I’ll probably throw it away
But in the end it’s mine,
and nobody has a right to say
“Go down lightly
“Go down silently”
I’ll go down screaming
“Give it back – it belongs to me”
I’m the belle of the blues – I’m used to mingling
with the crème de la crème of higher society
I promise them roses,
and an eight-by-ten of me
but when the party’s over,
they’re all to glad to leave
Their children sing of sorrow – it’s the same old routine
They’ve begged and they’ve borrowed someone else’s misery
It’s an easy act to follow…
at least, an easy one for me
Give me my tomorrows.
You can have my memories
Souvenirs
from an old-fashioned school
plays coquette on the pillow
like an old-fashioned fool
Go down lightly
Go down silently
You go down lonely
You go down like me
14. BOY, I REALLY TIED ONE ON
Boy, I really tied one on
I spent the night away from home
I know you’re not to blame
if I can’t recall your name
and I’m sorry if it causes you pain
Boy, I really lost my head
I woke up in a double bed
Allow me the pleasure of taking your measure
though I’m sure you ain’t nobody’s treasure
(And I know it isn’t ladylike
to do what I’ve done tonight)
Wake up, I’ve got news for you
Nobody’s knocking at your door
Nobody’s gonna pull you through
Nobody needs you any more
Nobody’s knocking at your door
Boy, I went around the bend
Thought I’d made a life-long friend
Imagine my surprise when i looked into your eyes
and I saw the kind of friends you meant
I think I’m gonna take the cure
I’m going on the wagon for sure
I may feel a fool for a Sunday or two
but it’s better than a Sunday with you
(And I know it isn’t ladylike
to do what I’ve done tonight)
Wake up, I’ve got news for you
Nobody’s knocking at your door
Nobody’s gonna pull you through
Nobody needs you any more, nyah nyah
Nobody’s knocking at your door
Wake up, I’ve got news for you
Nobody’s knocking at your door
15. ROSES
She never had too much of money
Friendly strangers were all she knew
Nobody ever came to call but you
I would not say she isn’t happy
though the eyes of a fool will make her blue
Nobody’s ever seen the tears, it’s true
I guess nobody wanted to
We’ll have a celebration
Ice cream and candy cakes
She’s very young to go so far away
And then there’ll be the papers
in black and white, to say we’re through
Nobody ever loved me quite like you
I guess nobody wanted to
And there’ll be roses
in the springtime still
I guess there will
I wish her roses and song
And she’ll be older
as the years go by
and how they fly
Will she be lonely
without me along?
She doesn’t make friends easily
She’s only known a few
The incidental stranger passing through
On Sundays and holidays
I’ll take her far away
We never tried to save the love we knew
I guess nobody wanted to
16. AFTERTONES
Sometimes it’s all too much to say aloud
The sound’s a shroud
The meanings crowd
Sometimes the words are painful to the ear
They disappear
and nothing’s clear
‘til all that’s left to see are aftertones
I take them home
We live alone
but I remember chains of melody
It pleases me
this song’s for free
Within the memories of our life gone by
afraid to die
we learn to lie
and measure out the time in coffee spoons
In fading suns
and dying moons
‘til all that’s left to see are aftertones
I take them home
We live alone
but I remember chains of melody
It pleases me
this song’s for free
And ooo, I like the sound
of harmony from time to time
I really do believe
in some kind of tomorrow
when it speaks to me
17. DON’T CRY, OLD MAN
WINTER’S COLD, SUMMER’S HOT
LOVE IS OLD, DREAMS ARE NOT
TIMES ARE HARD AND SO AM I
TIRED HEART, TOO TIRED TO CRY
DREAMS ARE ALL I HAVE TO GIVE
WHEN WE DIE OUR DREAMS STILL LIVE
OLD MAN, I’M THIRSTY STILL
ONE DAY I’LL DRINK MY FILL
OH, I’VE BEEN AWAY TOO LONG
I’VE BEEN AWAY TOO LONG
I DON’T REMEMBER HOW IT’S DONE
CAN I CALL ON YOU FOR HELP
DO I HAVE TO HELP MYSELF
ARE YOU GLAD WITH WHAT YOU’VE GOT
ARE YOU BURNING, ARE YOU HOT
WHEN WE’RE OLD, LIKE AS NOT
WE WILL BURN UNTIL WE ROT
DON’T WEEP OLD MAN, DON’T CRY
I KNEW YOU WHEN
I WAS SO MUCH COLDER THEN
FATHERS ALWAYS BUILD THE DREAMS
CHILDREN TEAR APART THE SEAMS
OLD MAN, I’M THIRSTING STILL
ONE DAY I’LL DRINK MY FILL
OLD MAN, PLEASE DON’T DIE
BEFORE OUR THIRST IS SATISFIED
All songs by Janis Ian
The Man You Are In Me, Jesse, Thankyous, and Without You © Taosongs Two. All rights reserved; international copyright secured. Used by permission.
All other songs © Mine Music Ltd. administered by Sony Publishing. All rights reserved; international copyright secured. Used by permission.