17 years on …
17 years ago, I bought the cassette version. 17 years later, I have added the CD version to my collection. How appropriate that the best known song from the album is a song called “At Seventeen” . And the year the album won Grammies for its engineers ( “Best Engineered Recording - Non-Classical” ) and its singer ( “Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female” ), I was 17.
The album?
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A vinyl version would complete the collection. I saw a mint copy at the concert back in February. Not for sale, but in the collection of what I would call a hardcore JI fan. He’d brought it along to be autographed by her. He also had mint copies of Breaking Silence (not one, but two copies!) as well as one of Billie’s Bones, for which he also brought along the CD version. Makes one wonder what else he had back home.
While “At Seventeen” is probably the most well-known song from the album, my own personal favourite is “In the Winter” . The other songs have also stood the test of time. In fact, the whole album has stood the test of time, sounding as good now as it did when I first heard it 17 years ago.
From the liner notes of the CD version, Janis wrote:
“In its time, “Between the Lines” was considered one of “the” albums for audiophiles; entire sound systems were developed around it. The players, pulled from jazz, classical, rock & roll, and folk backgrounds, transcended their classifications and training in order to play as one. And I myself probably sang better than I had at any time previous. It was an extraordinary to be a part of, and one that makes me proud to this very day.”
One song from Between the Lines I have not heard for many years - partly because I hardly play the cassette, not wanting to spoil the tape, and partly because I never found it in any of the downloads from the Net - is the one that leads off the entire album, a song called “When the Party’s Over” . I finally heard it again at the concert in February, it was one of six songs she sang from the BTL album. Unfortunately, I can’t share it with you online, because, while she has granted me permission to share her songs here, she does not own the rights to the songs on this particular album.
What I can do is share the lyrics here, and let you see for yourself the power of her songwriting talents.
| When The Party’s Over (Janis Ian) Would you like to learn to sing
Would you like to learn to tango
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