I heard something on WHYY-FM (Philadelphia) last Sunday that positively gave me goose bumps. On the 2nd hour of the show American Routes, they played the demo-tape version of Janis Ian's song, "Society's Child". Janis Ian arrived in New York at the age of 14, and one year later, in 1966, she recorded "Society's Child" on the home tape recorder of Sis Cunningham and Gordon Friesen, publishers of Broadside.
It is a phenomenal recording for anyone, let alone a 15-year-old. You can listen to it here: click, choose the June 24th show, and then click on "Listen to Hour 2". Or you can go directly to the show as an mp3 file here. In both of these links, "Society's Child" begins at 16:20 into the show, so don't expect to hear it right away.
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5 comments:
Thank for sharing. The demo is really raw and electric; not as polished as the recorded version.
The direct MP3 link did work; it landed on a different performer.
Wow... long time since I've heard that. Thanks for posting it!
Janis Ian
15!? I guess it's too much to hope for a similar tape of 'At Seventeen' sung when she was 15. :-)
And thanks for the link in general to American Routes. Looks like many interesting hours of sampling ahead.
Here's a stereo version:
Janis Ian - Society's Child (Sync/DCS)
Now that I've listened to with headphones, it's not as good as I had hoped. The left and right versions of her voice are sometimes out of sync. Still, for those of us who are stereo addicted, it's not bad. Maybe someone else with clean it up. I'll keep you updated.
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