Nice song...had me going back, brought up a lot of thing's in me.Janis sound's like she's still 20 !

Such an appropriate lyric... I hyperventilate when I try to watch any "national" news broadcast.

Buddy and I wrote this some years ago, but it sure does apply now.... From the album "Breaking Silence".

GUESS YOU HAD TO BE THERE
(Janis Ian/Buddy Mondlock)

Back in nineteen sixty three, we walked a fine line
We were taking to the streets, skating on a thin dime
We were searching after truth and beauty
Now they turn it into late night movies
How can I explain that it’s not the same

	Guess you had to be there to be where
	love belonged to everyone
	Flowers in the long hair, we stood there
	singing “We shall overcome”
	Knowing the eyes of the world were on us
	Knowing the whole world cared
	Guess you had to be there

In the summer of our youth. we came together
and we knew that our truth would live forever
We were gonna make the whole world honest
when a bullet got the bravest of us
Somehow nothing else was sacred
and we all stood naked

	Guess you had to be there to be where
	love belonged to everyone
	Flowers in the long hair, we stood there
	singing “We shall overcome”
	Knowing the eyes of the world were on us
	Knowing the whole world cared
	Guess you had to be there

Now we listen to the news, and it seems all hope is gone
Everybody feeling used, and there’s nowhere left to run
Sometimes it feels like the memory
is all that’s left of our used-to-be
but what can never be denied
is the way we changed inside

	Guess you had to be there to be where
	Love belonged to everyone
	Flowers in the long hair, we stood there
	singing “We shall overcome”
	Knowing the eyes of the world were on us
	Knowing the whole world cared
	Guess you had to be there

Breaking Silence

Guess You Had to Be There (Ian-Mondlock)

American songwriter, singer, musician, author and multiple Grammy-winning writer of "At 17", "Jesse" and "Society's Child".

For more, please visit janisian.com, or go by clicking the homepage link.

Guess You Had to Be There (Ian-Mondlock)

Janis Ian

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