Continuing my help in what Rebecca Littman called for today of the Whos That Girl? theme of women in music, takes me to one of my favorite songs of the 1960s and one that nearly didnt get to be heard, but is in many ways one of the most important songs of the 20th century if even into the 21st century -- certainly the acceptance of this songs message, eventually, may have even helped get President Obama elected and re-elected, legitimately. But back in 1965, before she was to become the darling of the Folk-Pop scene, the woman born in 1951 as Janis Eddy Fink was writing a tune at the age of 13 years old that would also be one of the most politically controversial tunes of the 1960s. You see back when she was 13 years old, the girl that we would later all know as Janis Ian wrote a tune about an interracial love affair, Societys Child (Baby Ive Been Thinking) involving a white girl and her black boyfriend and how the community felt about it (which was it was no good, couldnt work and was close to be evil) and then the eventual break-up of the pair as the girl realizes, unfortunately, that maybe in the future, ... things may change, but for now this is how things must remain... A 14 year old, Janis Ian, later that year recorded the song with the help of songwriter and producer Shadow Morton and it was released as a 45 rpm single in early 1966 but went absolutely no where as radio stations throughout the country refused to play it due to its controversial, at the time, nature (compare this to the nearly instant success of a #1 song just 7 years later from The Stories Brother Louie that cast the interracial romance in reverse with a white guy and a black woman.) If not for the intercession of the late great Leonard Bernstein, this worthwhile song would not have been heard, if even later, more often. You see Bernstein in later part of 1966, saw Ian perform this song in concert and immediately knew that the song needed to be promoted, to at least moderate success and needed to be heard by more, and that he helped to do. It took a while, all the way to June 17th, 1967, but Janis Ian and Societys Child (Baby Ive Been Thinking) entered Billboard Magazines Top 40 where it would stall at #14 later that summer of love. Unfortunately it stalled at that number due to the fact that many of the southeastern U.S. radio stations refused to play it due to its controversial content, unfortunately proving that Ians lyrics were correct about how preachers of equality, were deaf and dumb (and blind) and just didnt get it. But to me this is still one of the greatest songs, and a very important one in U.S. history; here is Janis Ian, at only 17 years old, performing that song, Societys Child (Baby Ive Been Thinking) on the Smothers Brothers show: youtube/watch?v=yW_rYLoIR08
Posted on: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 17:23:19 +0000
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