Society's Child

Album: Janis Ian (1966)
Charted: 14
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Songfacts®:

  • Janis Ian was 13 when she began working on "Society's Child," 14 when she finished. She started it while waiting outside the office of her guidance counselor, who was kind enough to call Janis in for consults every time she had a science class. After that, she wrote most of it on the school bus.
  • This song is about an interracial romance. Ian was living in an all-black neighborhood in East Orange, New Jersey, where she was one of five white kids in the school. In a Songfacts interview, Ian explained: "I saw it from both ends. I was seeing it from the end of all the civil rights stuff on the television and radio, of white parents being incensed when their daughters would date black men, and I saw it around me when black parents were worried about their sons or daughters dating white girls or boys. I don't think I knew where I was going when I started it, but when I hit the second line, 'face is clean and shining black as night,' it was obvious where the song was going."
  • The girl in the song caves to pressure and gives up on the romance. Ian told Songfacts: "I don't think I made a conscious decision to have the girl cop out in the end, it just seemed like that would be the logical thing at my age, because how can you buck school and society and your parents, and make yourself an outcast forever."
  • Janis didn't write this about a particular person. "My parents were the complete opposite of the parents in the song," she said. "They wouldn't have cared if I married a Martian, as long as I was happy... I felt bad for my Dad because everyone assumed he was a racist."
  • This was about the 10th song Janis Ian wrote. Her first was a song called "Hair Of Spun Gold," which was published in Broadside when she turned 13. Broadside was an underground magazine that published folk songs by artists like Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger before they hit the mainstream. They invited her to sing it at one of their periodic shows they put on in Greenwich Village, where it got a huge reaction. Broadside kept asking Janis back, and "Society's Child" became one of the songs that became part of these performances.
  • Shadow Morton is a songwriter and producer who worked with The Shangri-Las before discovering Ian. This is how she describes their first meeting: "The way we got it cut was I was hanging around with the Reverend Gary Davis trying to learn guitar from him. His wife took a liking to me and told the owner of The Gaslight Cafe, Clarence Hood, that she needed me to open for the Reverend Gary. I did and this guy came running back stage and said 'kid, I'm going to make you a star,' which was such a cliché because I was into being a folk singer, I didn't need to be a star. Plus, at 14, you don't need to earn a living. I met him after school the next day and he took me up to Shadow Morton's office. Shadow was in one of his periodic funks, thinking he was going to leave the music business. He was sitting there with his cowboy boots on the desk, sunglasses and hat pulled over his head reading the New York Times, and he said 'yeah, go ahead.' So I sang him some songs, and realized he wasn't listening. Apparently, although I don't remember it, I pulled out a cigarette lighter and lit his newspaper on fire and left. A few minutes later he realized his newspaper was burning, put it out in the trash can, and thought 'what am I walking away from here.' He caught up with me in the elevator, pulled me back and actually listened. For some reason he decided this was the one we would cut, and a week later we were in the studio cutting it."
  • Ian told Songfacts: "I was pleased with the chorus because I had just learned to play an F-sharp minor chord. I had no idea it was unusual to have the chorus slowed down, but it became a real problem when we went to cut it."
  • At the time, many folk musicians looked down on pop radio, but Ian thought it was cool because they were playing Bob Dylan's "Like A Rolling Stone," even though many of her fellow musicians thought he sold out.
  • Ian recorded this with six studio musicians. At a time when 3-4 songs were often cut in a three-hour session, they worked for two-and-a-half hours on this song without making much progress. The breakthrough came when the upright bass player, a jazz musician named George Duvivier, had everyone stop and really listen to the lyrics and get an idea what the song was about. They nailed it on the next take.

    At the time, many studio musicians were just trying to crank out hit records, and rarely thought much about the lyrics and what the song was about. Having a jazz player in the session made a huge difference because he was willing to work with the vocalist.
  • Shadow Morton took this to 22 record companies before Verve/Folkways, a spin-off of MGM Records, took it as a tax loss. They signed artists like Janis, Richie Havens, and Laura Nyro expecting them to lose money. They did believe in the song and pushed hard to promote it. The song got some great reviews and isolated airplay in places like Flint, Michigan and parts of New York City. It gained some momentum as part of the protest movement, and also benefited from the rise of FM radio, which was willing to take a chance on songs like this.
  • This song is very lyric-driven, a form Bob Dylan popularized. "Lyrics in pop music were not a big issue until Dylan, and he was thought of as kind of a fluke," Ian said.
  • The big break for this song came when Leonard Bernstein's producer saw Janis perform it at The Gaslight, and got her on his upcoming television special. The show had a huge audience - it was on Sunday night at 8, in a time when most people got only 3 or 4 stations and there was very little music on TV. Bernstein loved it and criticized radio stations for not playing it. The next day Janis' record company started promoting it in trade magazines and many radio stations picked it up. It was never a #1 hit because radio stations in many areas took a while before they added it, but this slow progression kept the song popular for a long time.
  • For most of the '90s, Janis dropped this from her set list because no one wanted to hear it, but then a lot of people who grew up listening to it started coming to her shows and asking for it. Many of these people were Vietnam veterans who heard the song because it was widely played on Radio Free Europe and on US military bases.
  • The original title was "Baby, I've Been Thinking." It was Shadow Morton's idea to change the title.
  • This was inducted into the Grammy Hall Of Fame in 2001.
  • In 2008, Janis Ian released her autobiography, which she titled Society's Child. She told About.com: "I just took the first three months of 2007 and went through all my old journals, went through a lot of old letters I had friends send back to me, a bunch of old press clippings. I kind of made a map of my life. I attached a time to when the songs were written, when the records were made, when songs were hits. And then once I decided to do a prologue and open it with the 'Society's Child' chapter, it all pretty much fell into place." >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Bertrand - Paris, France
  • According to the 2010 United States Census, Janis Ian's home city of East Orange has a population of just 64,270, yet it has spawned a host of other successful artists including Dionne Warwick, Whitney Houston, Queen Latifah, Gordon MacRae, Young & Company, and Naughty By Nature, as well as Curtis Hudson and Lisa Stevens, the writers of Madonna's first hit, "Holiday."

Comments: 24

  • Michael from Palm Springs, CaliforniaI was 12 years old when Society's Child was released and I was just starting to listen to Top 40 radio, in my case WEAM in Washington. This is truly one of the most beautiful songs EVER written if not THE most beautiful. The music is simple and not overloaded like today. There's a echoing haunting feeling. And the words hit you like lasers. Everybody should hear it.
  • Bill J. From Austin from Austin, TexasI heard this song on the radio back in the Sixties, and even without the backstory — that she began writing it at 13 and cut it at 15, that she was raised by activists and spent her childhood under surveillance by the FBI, et cetera — I knew I was hearing something groundbreaking and important.

    I’ve been a fan of hers ever since. Her later albums — ‘Breaking Silence’ and ‘God and the FBI’ in particular — are among the favorite of all my recordings, and I have hundreds to choose from, so high praise, indeed.

    I finally got to see Janis Ian perform in the Student Union on the University of Texas campus in Austin, and she is as good in person as she ever was in the studio. A great memory!
  • Robert Malone from Virginia Beach, Virginia This song brings my beautiful African-American wife to tears whenever she hears it.
  • Shelley from St. AugVery sixties girl group sounding to me IMO.
  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn July 16th 1967, sixteen year old Janis Ian performed at the famed Newport Folk Festival in Newport, Rhode Island...
    At the time her "Society's Child (Baby I've Been Thinking)" was in its second of two weeks at #14 on Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart and that was also its peak position on the chart...
    {See next post below}.
  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn April 26th 1967, Janis Ian performed "Society's Child" on the CBS News TV documentary 'Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution'...
    A little less than a month later on May 21st, 1967 "Society's Child" would enter Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart at position #81; seven weeks later on July 9th, 1967 it would peak at #14 {for 2 weeks} and spent 12 weeks on the Top 100...
    The song was released in September 1966 but only after her appearance on the TV documentary did it gain popularity and enter the national Billboard chart...
    She had two more records make the Top 100 chart; "At Seventeen" {#3 in 1975} and "Under the Covers" {#71 in 1981}...
    Ms. Ian, born Janis Eddy Fink, celebrated her 64th birthday earlier this month on April 7th {2015}.
  • Martin from Fresno, CaI like the organ sound at the end too.A song that stays with you forever.
  • Esskayess from Dallas, TxTed, if you're going to hide behind the race card, at least have your facts straight (and the bug out of your ear). I, too, don't give a rip what color a man or woman is. Too bad that far too many of those who claim to be Dr. King's followers are the first ones to scream about the color of one's skin instead of the content of their character.
  • Esskayess from Dallas, TxDon't kid yourself, Ted. The vast majority opposing his attempted takeover of medicine don't give a **** what color he is. He could be black, white, yellow, red or green with purple polka-dots and it would make no difference. As MLK said, the CONTENT OF HIS CHARACTER and not the color of his skin.

    Little progress will be made in racial relations until both sides stop brandishing the race card every time the hit an obstacle and learn how to be colorblind. Stop assuming the worst in people.
  • Chris from Independence, MoTed, the guy that showed up with a rifle that was shown on CNN and other moronic media, was a black man, NOT a white man.
  • Ted from Phoenix, AzThis is a very powerful song lyrically speaking and one of my favorites. As we now live in a time where we have the first African-american U.S. President and some whites who oppose him on his health care reform proposals showing up at his speeches brandishing guns, I'm afraid that not much has changed vis-a-vis the attitudes between the races. Thank you, Janis, for telling it like it really was and is. And you were only 13 at the time! Wow!
  • Guy from Woodinville, WaThe fact that she ends up going along with society'e racism despite her open mind speaks volumes!! She is--as each of us are--society's child.
  • Valerie from Eureka, CaThis is one of the most powerful songs ever written. It shows a very typical attitude that somehow is hanging in the shadows today. I lived 3 miserable years in Florida when I was a kid..in the mid to late 50's. I was told not to talk to black people because it's not nice...hmmm, I wonder if the people who told me that are racists?
  • Reed from New Ulm, MnI like the two seperate tempos, one for the verses and the other slower one for the chorus------makes it all that much more thought provoking and interesting to listen to.
    Great song.
  • Jeff from Long Island, NyArtie Butler was responsible for the very nice harpsichord and organ work, including the famous organ coda (the producer, Shadow Morton, asked him to come up with something catchy for the end, and he made it up on the spot). He used a slightly extended version five years later as the coda to "Indian Reservation" by The Raiders.
  • Cooper from Dc, MdActually she was on NPR and said she wrote in after on public bus she saw two people one black and one white holding hands and kissing an everyone was starring at them in disgust - even herself at first. She started to think about it and went home and wrote the song.
  • Alan from Venice, CaI was 12yo. When Society's Child hit the air and on the beach in the Venice/L.A. area, where I was from, It was #1 and to this day still is with me. - Alan, Honolulu, Hawai'i
  • Denise from Upland, CaThis song is unbeliveable for a 13 year old to write this and put it down the way she did. This is my most favorite Janis Ian song, and I wish the ending would have been different like she said but in those times it just wouldn't have flyed. I truly love it!
    Denise, California
  • Donna from Banning, CaThis is absolutely one of the best songs ever recorded in our times. Banned from many LA stations, I still love everything about it. It should be re-released for the masses. =^^=
  • Ekristheh from Halath, United StatesIf you want to know what Janis is doing today and how she feels about music downloading, go to janisian.com and read "The Internet Debacle".
  • Howard from St. Louis Park, MnA number of radio stations banned the song due to its racial content.
  • Stefanie Magura from Rock Hill, ScI've never heard the song, but I just read the lurics and for a 13-year-old that's some deep stuff. It was an especially controversial issue in the 60's.
  • Stefanie Magura from Rock Hill, ScShe wrote that when she was a teenager? Wow!!!
  • Rick from San Juan, United StatesThe organ ending in "Society's Child" was very peculiar and innovative, perhaps the final statement for its highly controversial theme.
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