Janis Ian ~ Fly Too High 1979 Disco Purrfection Version

Описание: Happy Birthday Janis Ian (April 7th)! The last person I ever expected to "go disco" was Janis, but she did so in style that was understated and elegant for "Fly Too High" a Giorgio Moroder collaboration that perfectly complimented her sophisticated vocals.

Ian was born Janis Eddy Fink on April 7, 1951 in New York City and raised in New Jersey. She adopted her stage name as Janis Ian, the Ian being the middle name of her brother. She began her appreciation of music by listening to Joan Baez and Odetta then started piano lessons by the age of two. Following that accomplishment, she also added the organ, harmonica, French Horn and guitar to her repertoire.

"Hair Spun Of Gold" was the first song she wrote when she was 12. Two years later at the age of 14, she wrote and recorded "Society's Child (Baby I've Been Thinking)" and the single was released three times during 1965-1967 but only became a hit once conductor Leonard Bernstein featured her performance of the song on his CBS TV special.

Displaying a maturity way beyond her years in the lyrics, she tells the story of a white woman who loves a black man and the social pressures the couple faced together and apart that caused the relationship to end. Because the subject matter was "controversial", several radio stations refused to add it to their playlists. It did help the single stay on the charts longer as one city dropped the tune, another one picked it up and carry on a few more weeks on the charts.

The song was a career defining one and Ian did not have another pop hit until 1975 with the deeply felt "At Seventeen". I was 15 when it came out and I could relate to the emotion of the song about being 17 through the lyrics, her vocal performance and the music track even though I had not experienced it personally. Bittersweet is actually what I thought, beautifully bittersweet. It was another career defining record and the one most people would remember as she won a Grammy for it.

Janis met Bill Cosby at a Smothers Brothers show where she was to perform and since she was a minor, had a touring chaperone. After her performance of "Society's Child" she was tired and rested her head on her chaperones lap to sleep for a bit. Cosby saw this, assumed the worst and began a whispering campaign to blacklist the talented young woman. He felt that the action was an overt admission of lesbianism and he made it his business to warn other tv shows that Ian was not "suitable family entertainment" and "shouldn't be on television" because of her "sexuality".

The original recording session for "Society's Child" was bankrolled by Atlantic Records, but they gave the master tapes back to Ian with a polite but firm refusal to release it once it was completed. Jerry Wexler, the chief honcho at Atlantic has since apologized to her. The song would not die and then Verve Forecast (the pre eminent jazz label) picked it up and distributed it.

In 1979, she collaborated with Giorgio Moroder for a song to appear on the soundtrack of the 1980 movie "Foxes" with Jodie Foster and Cherie Currie. The soundtrack was smokin! The disco version of "On The Radio" by Donna Summer was on it as well as Cher's "Bad Love" in addition to Janis' contribution "Fly Too High". It is the most sublime Giorgio Moroder production ever, the clarity and sound separation are incredibly precise. I knew it was Janis the first time I heard it in the club and ran out bought the picture 12" sleeve of "Fly Too High" that I was very lucky to find. Also the soundtrack of "Foxes" has never been released digitally, which is a shame since the music is Giorgio produced and for the two instrumental versions on the album, "On The Radio" and "Fly Too High" that slow the tempo down to a crawl and bring out the best elements of the songs.