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Rock/pop

Janis Ian: Between the Lines

Between the Lines
Janis Ian: Between the Lines
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Janis Ian first appeared on the music scene as a preternaturally mature thirteen-year-old singing “Society’s Child,” a tale of an inter-racial romance that was swiftly banned on radio stations due to its perceived incendiary content. During the 1970s Ian gained iconic status for “At Seventeen,” a teen coming- of-age story told from the perspective of the high-school “ugly duckling” outsider, and its album Between The Lines struck gold and Grammy accolades in 1975.

It’s an extraordinary achievement. Ian not only wrote the music and lyrics, she arranged and scored many of the tracks. The songs are moody and reflective, casting light and shadows on themes of desire, hard knocks, and reconciliation. Highlights besides the title track include the longing and lingering mistrust of “The Come On” and the epilog of a breakup of “In the Winter.” Between the Lines has been tenderly remastered for LP and gold CD by Kevin Gray. The 180-gram vinyl reissue is very good; there’s some predictable lower-treble zip on vocals but the analog recording is recognizably of the era and not plagued by the hyperbolic processing yet to come. A quiet treasure of an LP. 

By Neil Gader

My love of music largely predates my enthusiasm for audio. I grew up Los Angeles in a house where music was constantly playing on the stereo (Altecs, if you’re interested). It ranged from my mom listening to hit Broadway musicals to my sister’s early Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Beatles, and Stones LPs, and dad’s constant companions, Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett. With the British Invasion, I immediately picked up a guitar and took piano lessons and have been playing ever since. Following graduation from UCLA I became a writing member of the Lehman Engel’s BMI Musical Theater Workshops in New York–working in advertising to pay the bills. I’ve co-written bunches of songs, some published, some recorded. In 1995 I co-produced an award-winning short fiction movie that did well on the international film-festival circuit. I was introduced to Harry Pearson in the early 70s by a mutual friend. At that time Harry was still working full-time for Long Island’s Newsday even as he was writing Issue 1 of TAS during his off hours. We struck up a decades-long friendship that ultimately turned into a writing gig that has proved both stimulating and rewarding. In terms of music reproduction, I find myself listening more than ever for the “little” things. Low-level resolving power, dynamic gradients, shadings, timbral color and contrasts. Listening to a lot of vocals and solo piano has always helped me recalibrate and nail down what I’m hearing. Tonal neutrality and presence are important to me but small deviations are not disqualifying. But I am quite sensitive to treble over-reach, and find dry, hyper-detailed systems intriguing but inauthentic compared with the concert-going experience. For me, true musicality conveys the cozy warmth of a room with a fireplace not the icy cold of an igloo. Currently I split my time between Santa Fe, New Mexico and Studio City, California with my wife Judi Dickerson, an acting, voice, and dialect coach, along with border collies Ivy and Alfie.

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