Customer Reviews

Between the Lines

5 star:		(45)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This album defined a generation's angst - for me, it rarely left the turntable for nearly a year in the mid-70s. At Seventeen remains a succinct and moving testimony to the pain of being "outside" of the "in" kids, but it is only one of several perfect tracks. From Me To You moves briskly along, and casts a melancholy spell telling a lover's departure, until it literally explodes with grief and anger; In The Winter is one of the saddest and most gorgeous songs ever written about lost chances in love. Yes, the tone of this album is dark, sad and soulful, but what a perfect record to play when you need to "go there" - just you, a glass (or bottle) of wine, and a photo album...chances are, after the tears roll down your face, you will feel infinitely better.

I only discovered Janis Ian one year ago, when I heard "At Seventeen" on the radio. I was moved by Janis' intense feeling and her easiness to reach the audience. I searched for that song and simply discovered one of the best artists from the 70's. How come Janis Ian is so little know here in Europe?

Anyway, her singing is delightful as she demonstrates that her quiet and beautiful voice is capable of going over the top with vocals that steals your attention.

The lyrics are very mature (not your basic love song here!) and it shows a lot about her taste for bittersweet themes. The album is wonderfully produced - like one of those who simply has everything in the right place.

I will for sure know more about her.

I was 17 in 1975 when I first heard "At Seventeen." It moved me like no other song. An African-American from L.A., I had a hard time getting my friends to agree. Intrigued, I explored the vinyl. What I heard IS the best introspective and honest songwriting and arranging ever. "In The Winter" is an exposed nerve tingling bright blue and red in an icy breeze. "I met your wife, she's very nice, what can I say," the artist's voice trailing off at the end in self-conscious revelation. "Watercolors" is artistic inspiration. The song and album closing with an adroit cello solo that breaks your heart yet inspires at the same time. And then there's the American classic "At Seventeen." I used the lyrics to demonstrate poetic nuances to my the 12 year old daughter. Today she is seventeen and every week listens to an old tape I made of Janis' CBS work. Janis Ian is the American Van Gogh.

Well before all the "nerds as heroes" movies and TV shows of recent years, there was Janis Ian's 1975 Top Twenty hit "At Seventeen" --the popularity of which proved once and for all that somewhere between 95% and 97% of us felt like nerds and rejects at that tender age. I was as big a fan of the song as anyone, although I was already in grad school when it came out and supposedly should have been well past all the teen angst. There was just something about the directness of (some of) the lyrics that hit home. You forget how bold it was then (and still is now) to come right out and claim your place among the "ugly girls."

But thinking back to the time of the song's release, I also remember wondering: hey, wait a minute, wasn't Janis Ian actually already a recording star by age 17? Was she really living the life of someone "whose name was never called when choosing sides for basketball"? Wasn't she already past all that and hobnobbing with the likes of Leonard Bernstein et al?

OK, maybe those typical teen traumas were more in keeping with Janis' experience at 14 or 15. "At seventeen" sounds better metrically, I suppose. And of course, as any show biz kid can probably tell you, early fame is not any guarantee against youthful insecurity: at best, that success just channels it in new and likely bizarre directions.

What was interesting about that particular song, as well as several of the others on this release, is the characteristic mix of the direct and the ambiguous. The basketball reference, "the Valentines that never came," and the assertion that "love was meant for beauty queens" are all pretty self-evident. But just who was that "brown eyed girl in hand-me-downs?" And just what is the significance of her demand to "pity please the ones who serve/ they only get what they deserve"? Who are the ones who serve? And just what do they deserve? And do you really want to know, or does the very ambiguity of some of the lines make the song all the more compelling?

There are several other songs on the album ("When the Party's Over" "The Come-On" and "In the Winter," for example) that portray a similar vulnerability from an adult perspective. Yes, as others have noted, there is a slightly melancholy feel to the album as a whole but there's enough wit and musical variety exhibited to keep it from slipping into the realm of the truly depressive. (The one exception, perhaps, being the sublimely bleak "Tea and Sympathy, but even that has a certain mordant wit about it.)

The album has aged remarkably well. True Brooks Arthur's slightly jazz lite arrangements(and "klezmer lite" arrangement on the title tune) seem kind of "70s-experimental" nowadays. One could argue for a leaner, meaner arrangement overall. But that's quibbling. Some may even find the numerous double tracked vocals a little dubious...but I would not be one of them. Janis Ian is one of those singers who harmonizes with herself so well that you only wish the experience could be duplicated in live performance.

Speaking of live performances, over the past decade or so, I've seen Janis Ian play several times and in a variety of settings. She's an engaging performer, a fine (and truly underrated) singer, and her songwriting skills continue to sharpen. Having come out as a lesbian over the past decade or so, her music seems to have taken on a sense of increased directness and honesty. That's not to imply that her 70s music was dishonest. BETWEEN THE LINES, despite the implications of its title song, is as straightforward a representation of a complex young artist as you're likely to find. Either now or 30 years ago.

Between The Lines is a timeless work of art from one of America's most gifted songwriters. No writer has ever articulated--no writer could--loneliness, unrequited love, or profound, secret feelings the way Ian does. The songs on this album strike deep, melancholic chords in the soul, yet their effect is to soothe and reassure in an almost mystical way. You come away from listening to this album with a feeling of personal, almost divine, revelation. That these songs were crafted by someone in her early twenties is even more remarkable. The kind of reflection and depth found in Ian's writing has all but vanished from the palette of today's young songwriters. Musically, Ian's fondness for descending bass lines and altered minor and seventh chords underscores a certain emotional complexity in her writing; melody and lyrics are brilliantly interwoven and instruments are skillfully used and scored for their subliminal emotional effects. Ian's voice, by turns a rage or a whisper, is both damning and forgiving. These songs of solemn self-realization and social comment have an almost classical immutability to them and will likely live on for generations. This is music and greatness and therapy all in one. If I could, I'd take this album with me to the great beyond. --JE

Somebody gave me this LP for my 17th birthday (1983, thus LP) and I've been hooked on Ian's work ever since. I've travelled everywhere with this album, even took it to Africa and made some Janis converts over there. It's blue, it's melancoly, but listening to it again and again and descending into a funk is a secret pleasure. Over the years, my favorites change, probably Bright Lights and Promises or Watercolors. If you've been ugly, if you've been dumped, if you've been misunderstood, this music will speak to you. If you're one of the charmed, beautiful people, don't bother, Janis's not for you. Go buy some Britany Spears.

I am so thankful that after listening to this album in the 70's I can at last shower it with accolades. I must say that at my age of 44 (long way from at 17), this recording still is as original as it was when it was released. I always say this, 70's singer songwriters haven't gotten their due. (There needs to be a singer songwriter web site). One listen to Watercolors off of this album, and you'll have to agree, there's nothing out there quite like it. I'll never forget going to see Janis Ian, at the Civic Center in Atlanta Georgia (I think it was the civic center, anyway) back in the 70's. A friend of mine joked, "It ain't going to be nobody there but a few ugly girls." But I enjoyed that concert so much. There were about three other black people there beside me. (I mention this to let you know that Janis Ian's music does cross color lines) I recently let another black dude who likes poetry-stuff, borrow this album. The next day he told me how much he had enjoyed it. (In fact, he kept it). Yes, Between the Lines, is enjoyed by people of all backgrounds, and culturals. Thank you Janis.

This CD is just as powerful now as it was for me when I first heard it and saw her in concert in 1975. Natalie Merchant, Jewel and Natalie Imbruglia only pick up where Janis Ian left off."Between the Lines" and "At 17" move you as no one else can. These ballads stir the soul as only memories can and they are just as powerful now as they were when this album first came out. That it is on CD just evokes more emotion now with the better sound quality in the music and power in the voice. No one else sings like Ian does and this CD proves it if you take time to listen to the words "and" the emotions and let the songs take you to to that melancholy place we all go to sometimes. It is a must have for anyone that loves ballads!

I found this album when I was 27 and had just separated from the first man I ever loved and had been with for 8 years. It's true, the songs are mostly melancholy, but somehow they comfort and give you strength. I've never been able to say why the lyrics affect me that way, as most of her lyrics in subsequent albums do as well; she must be an angel. I played this album over & over and over, then the tape, now the CD. It is one of the few that I still enjoy and find new things in every time I play it. The lady is a genius, literally and musically.

I'm not too proud to admit that I bought this LP in vinyl when it first was released. Along with another Janis - Joplin - this was amongst the finest of music that I grew up with, and its bittersweet melodies are only more poignant if you know the full story behind Janis Ian's struggle to make records throughout her career. If you enjoy this album as much as I do, you should check out Janis Ian's homepage on the net and find out more about the shaft she's gotten from the record companies and buy albums directly from her - she gets more profit out of it.