After reading a story online about Janis Ian the other day, I
\nalmost feel sorry about writing this review. Once considered a
\nstandard-bearer for the folk movement, as well as a
\nsinger-songwriter who wasn’t afraid of taking on taboo subjects,
\nIan has fallen out of the limelight in recent years due to illness
\nand apathy on the part of the music world. (She does have a new
\nalbum scheduled to come out on Windham Hill soon.) After everything
\nshe’s been through, one almost feels like standing on a chair and
\nscreaming, “Go, Janis, Go!”<\/p>\n
Thing is, I read this story after listening to
\nThe Bottom Line Encore Collection – Janis Ian<\/i>, presently the
\nonly live album of Ian’s out on the market. Mostly taken from a
\n1980 show she did at the fabled club, Ian shows some moments of
\nbrilliance – but if you expected this to be a folk love-in, you’re
\ngoing to be sorely disappointed.<\/p>\n
The two songs that Ian is best known for, “Society’s Child” and
\n“At Seventeen,” are both featured here – in fact, “At Seventeen” is
\non twice, once from the 1980 show, and once from an acoustic
\nperformance sometime after. (Unfortunately, I don’t have the press
\nrelease in front of me that gives the year, the liner notes say
\nnothing, and there’s almost no hint on the label’s Web site that
\nthis disc even exists.) Two versions of one song may seem like a
\nbit of overkill – especially when they’re played within three
\ntracks of each other. However, the acoustic-only version adds a bit
\nmore pathos to the song, and helps to bring out its startling
\nimages better. Ian’s voice is richer with a little more age, also
\nadding credence to the message the song conveys.<\/p>\n
“Society’s Child” – a song about interracial relationships –
\nmight not seem to be that big of a deal today, but in the mid-’60s,
\nthis was a taboo subject, and the song sparked intense criticism of
\nIan. (It’s interesting to note that conductor Leonard Bernstein
\ncame to Ian’s assistance, praising the songwriting genius he
\nheard.) Even today, it’s an incredibly powerful song to listen to,
\nand one that was definitely ahead of its time.<\/p>\n
\nThe Bottom Line Encore Collection – Janis Ian<\/i> stumbles
\nsimply because the energy level of this particular show is not the
\ngreatest. With songs like “Jesse” and “The Other Side Of The
\nMirror,” it sometimes feels like this disc is just plodding along.
\n(Maybe part of the problem was that I first listened to this disc
\nat 5 a.m. after pulling an all-nighter. But I’ve listened to it
\nseveral times since then, and it hasn’t improved.) Some of the
\ntracks like “Fly Too High” show that time has not been kind to
\nthese songs.<\/p>\n
Sure, there are moments on the album that make you wonder why
\nIan hasn’t been considered one of the living divas – hell, Carole
\nKing was honored last year in the (God help us) now-annual VH-1
\nlove-in. Tracks like “Stars” show the power that Ian’s music had in
\n1980, and still does today. But these moments aren’t as common as
\nthey should be on
\nThe Bottom Line Encore Collection – Janis Ian<\/i> – and that’s
\nwhat makes this album disappointing. It could have been a great
\nlive album to showcase Ian’s musical heritage. Instead, it’s just
\nan average, sleepy disc. Pity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27530,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7361],"rating":[5619],"class_list":["post-38904","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-janis-ian","rating-rating-c"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38904"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}