Her autobiography. I don't usually read them, but she's one of the few acts I've seen live, and I know she's had an interesting life.
She was born Janis Fink on a farm to hard-working parents. Her father was a piano teacher. They moved from city to city because her parents' socialist tendencies stopped him getting tenure as a teacher. The FBI kept in touch. She grew up in mixed communities. She learnt to read very early, got scholarships. Her IQ was notably high. At 9 she realised her liked women (Joan Baez) and had a religious experience. She was molested for years by a male dentist.
They were living in New York now. She went to folk clubs. At 13 she recorded a single with Elektra. She felt she was an outsider and went around with outcasts and drag queens. She was attending a performing arts school but didn't go every day. She recorded her first album "Janis Ian" at 15. Her "Society's Child" single had been banned on many radio stations for its interracial themes. She received death threats. She appeared on Leonard Berstein's TV show. At 16 she was nominated for a Grammy. The Byrds opened for her. Her folk friends began to disown her. She was friends with Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix, had her own flat. She was earning ten times her parents' combined income. They divorced. Ian was forced into making a quick second album. She knew it wasn't as good as the first. Still they wanted more songs, especially a chart-topping single. She had a little breakdown - a drink was spiked. After a secret break she kept touring. She met Peter, a caring man who she fancied and who treated her as if she wasn't a star. She found out that her father's with a girl nearly her own age. Kennedy and King were dead - "Every hero I'd had was dead."
At 17 she was living with Peter and running a business. Double pneumonia floored her. She identified with Rimbaud. She took a career break, moved to Philadelphia, had daily therapy, took a Seconal overdose, self harmed, ran away. Hendrix' death affected her. Gerry the therapist took her in. His son showed her how to express emotions physically. She started opening up to Gerry - he's a life-saver.
At 20 (1971), after broken contracts, a 2 year career gap, etc, gigs were hard to find. She started studying song-writing. Listening to Don McLean's "Vincent", thinking it's "the finest song I'd ever heard", she wrote the chorus of "Stars", expressing what she'd learned in therapy. No record company would touch her. Carol, who'd been her friend for years, helped her.
She fell in love with Beth, who left her male partner. Janis told her family she's gay (thinking that public disclosure would have destroyed her career). She's struggling for money. "Jesse" and "Stars" had yet to be recorded. CBS had rejected them. Then CBS produced the "Stars" album. Good reviews, but no single (though Roberta Flack and Charles Aznavour wanted to record "Jesse"). "I knew I wrote sad songs; that was what I seemed to do best." She thought the best track on her next album, "Between the Lines", was "Watercolours" but thought "At Seventeen" was a better single.
It's 1975, and she's big again. Dylan said to her "Stars ... great song. Great song" and made an inarticulate proposition, which she declined. Her hero Ella Fitzgerald said "I think Janis Ian is the best young singer in America today". When she's 25 she got a deal with CBS - $250,000 per album and 7 albums in 7 years. She'd just done 50 shows in 9 weeks, losing money. 24 people worked for her full time. She's big in Japan. Beth, who she'd been with for 5 years, went off with her drummer. Janis hooked up with Beth's ex who she's known for years, Tino, and married him. He was 20 years her senior with nearly a Ph.D in literature. They both wanted children. He took valium and hit her. She sacked Jean, her confidente for years, because of her drinking.
She writes "At Seventeen" had been a hit in the US, but not anywhere else. ... Now "Fly Too High" was No. 1 all over Europe ... American [] stations refused to play "Fly Too High"" - all of which surprises me. The UN blacklisted her for playing in South Africa. She realised she'd been touring ten years straight and needed to get a life. She'd had few female role models, and found Stella, an acting coach. She took dancing classes. She got out of her record contract when she was 31. Even after Tino pointed a gun at her and threatened to kill her, she begged him to give their marriage another chance. Then she ran away and got a messy divorce at 37. She didn't know why she'd been so long with him. Emotional insecurity maybe - had anyone really loved her? Even Beth and Tino had suggested threesomes.
Her mother had MS. Janis saw a new therapist, Cassie (married) who slept with her, but the sex wasn't good. She flew to Nashville to learn the craft of songwriting. She started touring and nearly died of septicemia. She found out that Sam, her accountant, had been fiddling the books - she owed over a million dollars in tax. She had to live on the breadline until she paid off the debt. She met songwriter Kye, a single mother. They talked about having a sperm-donated child together. Then Kye was unfaithful. Janis, 37, moved to Nashville. After a few years she returned to the New York clubs. She got Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. While slowly recovering she met Pat, a woman about 3 years older than her, in the law profession.
When Janis is 41 she thought she had enough songs for a comeback. USA wasn't interested so she self-published. She toured for 9 months. Her mother died. Janis had a cancer scare at 47, 9 years after meeting Pat. She set up the Pearl Foundation (named after her mother) to help women get degrees. In 2002 she wrote a popular article in favour of free music downloads, and another suggesting a viable business model. She decided to become an independent.
When I was young, I used to sit by my bedroom window and stare up at the stars waiting for "my people" to come and take me home. Science-fiction writers had informed my life for as far back as I could remember. The ABCs - Asimov, Bradbury, and Clark [sic] - had taught me as much about human relationships as my own life had. So she started writing fiction.
After 20 years of being with Pat ("in Tennessee you could be fired for being gay") they got married in Canada.
An eventful life - indeed I could have done with more reflection and analysis. I was hoping to read about "Watercolors" - currently my favourite song of hers.
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