Janis Ian: Setting the record straight

Issue 

Setting the record straight

REVIEW BY BILL NEVINS

God and the FBI
Janis Ian
Windham Hill

State executions, antisemitism, racial segregation, book burnings, war, government surveillance and the terrorising of civilians, firings, black-listings, suicides, a growing fear of worse to come.

Germany in the 1940s? Yes, but these symptoms just as accurately fit the United States of the following decade. Indeed, the Cold War of the 1950s has been called "the Third Reich's rearguard action" and a fascist USA seemed a very real prospect in those days.

You wouldn't know that from listening to '50s nostalgia exercises like Billy Joel's or Don McLean's musical "epics", which don't advance real history much beyond Grease and Sha Na Na. But Janis Ian is out to set the historical record straight with the title song of her new CD, "God and the FBI".

Set to a bouncy riff which echoes both Joel and McLean, but without their coyly obscure references, her lyrics lay it on the line: "Hide me, hide you, better hide the baby too/we demand an interview, how long have you been a Jew?/we can make you testify, freedom is no alibi."

Famous for "Society's Child" way back when, Ian has been around and knows of what she sings. That includes the nightmare America of her childhood, and the heartbreak of her sisters and brothers today, adrift in a world where love is scarce, as in "She Must Be Beautiful" and "Days Like These". And she comes out swinging and proud in "Play Like a Girl" and "Murdering Stravinsky".

Witty, sharp song-writing, clear vocals, fine danceable backup. This is a long overdue, mature and edgy pop recording. Hope we hear a lot more from her soon.

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