Janis Ian

great

Steeleye Span chats to Francie Boylan on The Lazy Afternoon

Steeleye Span performs  "Cam Ye O'er Frae France?" a song about the (failed)Jacobite Scottish Catholic rebellion against the Protestant throne and the war's loser, Bonnie Prince Charlie. Broadcast live in concert from the Main Point in Bryn Mawr PA and produced for WMMR by Dennis Wilen. December 1972.

Steeleye Span Live: Cam Ye O'er Frae France?

Here's a collection of singles from Janis Ian including: "Black & White" (from Hunger), "Murdering Stravinsky" (from God & The FBI), "Hunger" (from Hunger), "Ginny the Flying Girl" (from Best of Janis Ian), and "Silly Habits" (from Working Without a Net).

Silly Habits

Steeleye Span, live at the Main Point in Bryn Mawr, PA, in December 1972: Gaudete.  Produced for WMMR by Dennis Wilen.

Wikipedia:

The electric folk group Steeleye Span had a hit in 1973 (No. 14, UK singles chart) with an a cappella recording of the song. Guitarist Bob Johnson had heard the song when he attended a folk-carol service with his father-in-law in Cambridge, and brought it to the attention of the rest of the band. (Unlike the album version which fades up slowly and fades down slowly, the single was at the same volume for the entire length of the song.)

This single is one of only three top 50 British hits to be sung fully in Latin (the others were both recordings of "Pie Jesu" from Andrew Lloyd Webber's Requiem; firstly by Sarah Brightman and Paul Miles-Kingston in 1986, secondly as a minor hit by the 12-year-old Charlotte Church in 1998). In 1975 Mike Oldfield had a top 10 hit with "In Dulci Jubilo" but this Latin song was performed as an instrumental. "Oh What a Circus" from the 1976 musical Evita, and a hit single performed by David Essex, includes a choral chant in Latin, based on the Catholic anthem "Salve Regina".

"Gaudete" is also one of only a handful of a cappella performances to become hit singles. (Other notable examples are "Only You," sung by the Flying Pickets, "After the Gold Rush," sung by Prelude and "Caravan of Love," sung by the Housemartins.) When "Gaudete" was performed on Top of the Pops, the resident dance troupe walked onto the set in medieval-style robes, holding candles, followed by the members of Steeleye Span.

Steeleye Span Live: Gaudete

Single

No War

Barra's Journal

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.