Janis Ian - When I Was A Child Lyrics

I'm here because of Janis Ian.

If you're going to come on my page and argue that Greta Thunberg is "only sixteen" and a "tool of the left" and should "stay home and have a childhood", best to keep in mind that I wrote "Society's Child" at 14, recorded it at fifteen, and had a national hit record with it at 16. Which, at 16, left me called "nigger lover", had people spitting at me in the street, trying to trip me as I walked on stage, sending me death threats, and in general exposed to much of the worst humanity had to offer.
I was no "tool of the left". I was a songwriter talking about what I saw as wrong in the world. I was doing my job as an artist. She is doing her job as a citizen.
So don't come on this page and argue that as an excuse for Trump's bullying, or I will throw you right off.
AND. Don't try the "Oh, but y'all were laughing when HIS son got bullied." NO one on this page, including myself, thought Trump's younger son should have been even mentioned; children have no choice in the matter. Just like no one should have mentioned the Clinton's daughter, or the Obamas' daughters.
Don't use those excuses for his behavior. I won't tolerate it. -Janis Ian on Facebook

What a powerful beautiful heartbreaking song...

Hey Lisle gore Janis. I have crush on both.

Great song. I heard this song brand new. So I'm totally surprised humans are getting hipped to this I gotta laugh hard and mighty

She got other great song d

Good song

viva, thank you for uploading this great song to the rest, as a commenter; even though it is not required, please everyone tell us what brought you here

This song still tugs at my heart since I'm a white man happily married to a beautiful African-American woman.

Such a brilliant song for a such a young girl to write. Amazing. I've always loved it. And it's funny, it was released on my birthday.

Yes I worked with her producer on another project and we talked on what he had to go through together her song recorded...I always loved this song....

Sadly, this situation is still mostly true today, only that the disapproval is expressed mostly non verbally... - Tony Arioli

Guys like this is not present in the music scene anymore.

This song sums up the turbulent times that were the 60's. Race riots, racism, nonacceptance of others....Almost exactly what is happening today within Trump's America. Scary.............

I loved this 50 years ago and still do, She wrote a very powerful song for it's time and it's message is still clear. I'm glad I was raised by colorblind parents, life is much easier when you're not prejudiced.

The summer of 67 was a very magical time for me. 14 years old,and the airwaves were filled with beautiful music! This was one of them.

I heard this growing up which means my radio station was one that didn't ban the song (New England area). Such a bold young girl she was, and talented, and beautiful!

This wonderful and melancholy tune is absolutely priceless and the sweet sound stuck in my heart from the first time I heard it. It was on the top radio playlist. Janus Ian I think I love you, nope, I know it!

Janis has beautiful vocals.

Hate to burst all your bubbles....but she was singing about a Lesbian relationship she had! She is Gay! She talked about it publicly decades ago!

"Come to my door, baby
Face is clean and shining black as night
My mother went to answer
You know that you looked so fine
Now, I could understand your tears and your shame
She called you 'Boy' instead of your name
When she wouldn't let you inside
When she turned and said, "But honey, he's not our kind""


whatever she is, the meaning of the song was pretty clear.

SO WHAT????

At the end she says, 'I don't want to see you any more" - chilling! She has been thoroughly brainwashed.

When this song came out I didn't know what it was about, I just thought it was a great song. It wasn't until a few years later that I found out the true meaning.

Always loved this song, read her book, and did you guy's know that the pervert Bill Crosby saw her with her head in her managers lap, a woman, and he deemed Janis Gay and told everyone she was a bad influence on today's youth? all in her book, the nerve of the guy...

Can we not pretend she made this song on her own. This is like today's BLM movement. Bought and paid for by certain pols ala George Soros.

Back in 67 I was 7 years old this song was so spooky to me the Oregon on my block in Culver City 1967 I was the only Mexican on the Block in to black people across the street now it's so different in that area

Would you believe this? Briton singer Jeanette (Dimech) did her own cover of this song in 1973.

"Society's Child", or "Baby I've Been Thinking", was a song written, composed, and recorded in 1965 by Janis Ian.

Why can't we all just get along?

The worst racist comment of those decades - Why don't you stick to your own kind?

She's a commie!!

JACK ANTHONY what a moron. It would serve you well to say nothing. Rather than shame, and embarrass yourself.

The 60s pop ballad style of the music captivated me, and then some time later I really listened to it, and I found more than just a singer, I found a trailblazing female star who I came to admire. "'Between The Lines" ( 'At 17' LP) cemented me in place as a fan, and later on thanks to Janis I was introduced to 'The Spoken word" genre of music. Why such a fan? It's not just the music, it's her '"Modesty, Honesty, Bravery", that and a humble stage presence that draws me to her.

gonna raise my head up high #metoo

I just discovered Janis Ian! I have loved this song since it was new but I didn't know she sang it, same with Seventeen.

Wow, reading the comments I now know where all the silver-pony tailed hippies are. Having LSD flashbacks and just so damn proud their coal burning whore granddaughters are being raped and beaten to death by their trendy fashion accessories. All in a futile attempt to promote that old worn out "diversity is our strength" myth. smdh

my 21 year old niece is a marine been stationed in Okinawa for two years. met another marine there. they've been dating for 15 months. she brought him home. his name is Cody. He's been described horribly by family members. a young skinny blacker bill cosby. his nose is too wide, his hair. his darker skin. and the worst...he'll beat the shit outta her when they get back to the states. OMG....it's 2019. why is this b.s. still going on?? i just don't get it.

Um, maybe go ask Nicole Brown Simpson for her opinion . . . . . . . oh, that's right.

Remember Loving vs. State of Virginia? They won! And today we see so many mixed race couples on TV and elsewhere. It must make the current racists' heads explode! I Love it.

I Love this song but worry about playing it on a Juke Box because someone maybe upset by it. But really great song

This song cause great controversy, she had death threats, someone lit a fire at her concert, someone tried to trip her on her way to the stage, in Atlanta they burned down a radio station.

Beautiful!

love the song I went thru it in 1969 at 12

I was ten when this song hit our radios in 1965 - but I admit I didn't get the words until later. It was the ethereal music and key change at "I can't see you anymore" that thrilled my naive ears - still does. But at ten, I honestly thought the boyfriend had disappeared. Funny thing is - I had an Asian girlfriend at the time.

Janis Ian came out as a lesbian long ago.

I'm totally head over heals in love with a man who is black but gone from this earth. NOTHING would've stopped me in any age. Nothing, if I could've been with him.

Jean Keats my black fiancee and I are deeply in love and inseparable. My cousin and her daughter call her a "horse of a different color" and "way too young for me". But true love knows no boundaries or obstacles. We are getting married this summer.

Much Love To Janis

For her to be able to see thats how it was and maybe someday it will change love it

So deep for a 14 year old, especially in those days!

Grow up -that is life all around.

AHEM:
"The teachers all laugh,
THEIR smirking stares..." not "THE smirking stares"

if remembering the actual story to this song of her's '' she first recorded it around 1965.. by 1967.. it was release'' it toped at #1 over several cities .. she wrote it base on the civil rights movement ..what it would be like between white's & blacks dating and their parents siding against that notion of interracial mixing ... it is good classic ..

cruz silva hello Cruz I'm a 16 when this song came out I was a junior in high school. the high school I went to had about 15 black people the rest were Hispanic and Anglo most of the Hispanics was old Spanish blood so they were caucasians and the black kids live in a separate part of town and I hate to use the word but everyone called it Niger town I'm ashamed of that word I wasn't raised that way. I moved in with my aunt to go to Tempe High School it's a suburb of Phoenix the high school I was supposed to go to What's called East High School. I was going through my hippie stage I went to East High School for one semester I didn't fit in most of them are upper-middle-class boring all they cared about was girls cars Sports Etc. My cousin was going to Tempe High School he was a junior at the time he convinced me to go to his high school because it's so there was a lot of hippies in there some of them bands I love the Beatles And The Rolling Stones. He had already asked my Aunt Mary who is my mother sister. My Aunt Mary was like my second mother she was a widow lived on the small ranch Etc. She said she will speak to my dad and she did and my dad said if you really want to do that and I'm fine I had a wonderful father very kind loving one of the best for us. I thought everyone had parents like mine I learned the truth at seventeen just kidding Janice Ian second song. My sophomore year I started going to Tempe High and I fit right in I made friends quickly my cousin had a car and I would ride with him to high school and then wait for him I do my homework in the car alright take the bus home. When I took the bus they were like 6 black kids and it and they always sat in the back I'd be friend at some of them the last name was Daniels. They were mixed Hispanic and black but they consider themselves black. There was another family last name Mosley and they were black very proud. Very nice family I like them. When I was a junior my dad bought me a used Volkswagen and you said if you can make the payments I'll pay for your insurance that's the kind of father he was. As the years went by my Aunt Mary and I became closer my cousin Roy was two years younger than me and my cousin Christine was 6 years younger than me. we will talk about all sorts of things my aunt had to work late she was a seamstress at a high-end clothing store upscale Scottsdale. she had to work to supplement her income they paid her under the table in cash the store was called Dell Toronto's she saw Lizabeth Taylor there late afternoon on your way back from Puerto Vallarta I know this is a long story but I have to tell you this. the black kids in my school were shuned by almost everyone. My two best friends Ralph and Randy befriended them and the other white kids look down on us and called us Niger lovers. This did not stop us we were very militant protested against the Vietnam War at the University Pro Martin Luther King Etc equality Joan Baez Ralph and I saw her in concert at a concert hall by the University. you understand where I'm going with this. Joan Baez represented equality that beautiful voice she protested Against Racism she marched with Martin Luther King two Washington DC and sang in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Ralph and I felt very strongly about equality. Anyway things haven't changed all that much racism especially in the United States is so ugly it still continues. my wife and I will be 68 and December we met him we were 22 got married at 23 at similar views about racism just like my parents. My mom and dad Todd is from an early age they were all equal and God's eyes because God is Not partial get my drift? my dad said according to the Bible it says that God is Not partial. Jesus I never want to hear any of you say anything in regards to being a minority speaking about them in a negative way were there black Jew Asian Mexican Etc. my parents were mostly Western European. I am 6 generation American and that's call sadness LOL. My wife and I raise their daughter never to be racist she embraced all Races. she look like me and my mom long beautiful auburn hair skin like porcelain so unaware of her beauty. She had black friends Latino friends friends of mix races Etc. my grandmother said wants to me her parents were from Spain and she said can you imagine of all the flowers we're White how boring that would be. She said God is it got a variety he created mankind in His image there's only three races black Caucasian Mongolian and in God's eyes we're all equal she was a midwife just like her mother married in 1906 and the territory of Arizona in Tucson she was 17 my grandfather was 27. They befriended the Indians and helped them deliver children her last delivery was my little brother Ronald 1963. she died in 1969 had a massive stroke she could only hear us she couldn't speak or walk or even see. when we spoke to her tears will roll down her cheeks she have beautiful green eyes. I just wanted to share that with you because God is Not partial it's a man that makes the world so ugly in regards to racism especially in this country the United States ironic they chose that name United isn't it. I hope other people read this that maybe minority or Caucasian because we're all the same what are you don't explore other cultures Etc you're really missing a lot that's how I was raised and so was my wife and all my aunts and uncles. Christian scriptures I want to share with you. Revelation 21--1--4. Psalms 37--10---30 there's so much more in God's word the Bible the Creator of mankind I hope you understand what I'm trying to tell you or anyone else who might read this. it reminds me of an old Joan Baez song with God on your side Ralph and I would change the lyrics what's up with God on your side you cannot possibly fail. Thank you my friend for listening Agape for now that means an ancient Greek Universal love the New Testament was written in ancient Greek translated into over 250 languages Etc there's a reason for that Explorer there's a better World waiting. Jehovah the God of the Bible will rectify the situation we're in the last days of the system of things take care of my friend Arnold Bourbon Amaral please excuse my typos I use the microphone when I make a comment due to an autoimmune disease not a big deal I'm fine thank you peace out

She wrote this at such a young age.

Janis had an amazingly haunting voice. This song still invokes feelings in me that I cannot explain except to say, I was sixteen years old then.......the sixties were an amazing time.

"Her parents, Victor, a music teacher, and Pearl were Jewish-born liberals who ran a summer camp in upstate New York." Well, they must have been liberals because the Jewish people dont like to see their children marry outside their faith, and that explains why a Jewish girl got away with this.

"remember those who lose the game lose the love they sought to gain; payment due exceeds accounts received, AT SEVENTEEN": JANIS equals "AMY WINEHOUSE"< JANIS IAN" & "SADE" in vocal intensity, creativity & talent

1

Wow. This is one strong song. Made me cry in less than half a minute.

MY SONG OF LOVE

Preachers of equality if they believe it then why won't let us be

INCREDIBLE someone so young could craft such a poignant song.

Amazing........ Written and composed when she was 13 years old; recorded the song at 14. Pretty damn good considering it was the mid '60's and full of racial tension and the civil rights movement in full swing. Just have to admire her courage and writing abilities at such an early age. This song captures such emotion; what an awesome song it is.....

I was 9-10 years old when this song came out. It seems like I remember this being played at nite a lot more than the day. It was a long time before I knew it was about a biracial couple. This was really something to hear a song like this back then. Quite controversial.. wonderful song.

My mom spoke of this song when I was young to teach me to be better and progressive than the fools of the past..to be better. I'm most grateful and I treasure this song..forever.

Many moons ago in a very strange timenin my life I heard this song..I never knew it existed till now..

Google.com

A voice of an angel

26 August 2017....and look where are now! Controversy abounds, hatred breeds and not much has changed in 50+ years...Go Figure!

When the whole planet is brown I will miss the diversity that used to be.....and the worst part? the world will STILL be an unholy mess

I'm posting my personal top 100 of all time on Facebook for my friends. This song comes in at #80. So with my sophisticated adult thick crust, I thought I would post it as one of those songs I liked in my teens but outgrew, because it's too sentimental, too simple, too... whatever. Then I listened to the song, and got a big lump in my throat. It's still moving, fifty years later!

Wow, she was 13 when she wrote this. Fantastic song Janis.

Some piece of work. Hitting hard at a controversial subject with painful honesty. That's a brave 16 year old. That's a brave any year old. Besides that, the song is beautifully structured with great lyrics, terrific singing and enough emotional impact to tear your heart out. This is the sound of genius.

Holy shit. Trying to think of my older sister bringing home a young black man to my Italian American family in Queens NY in the 60's. Despite what I may think in the year 2017 I can tell you it wouldn't have gone over real well

This song grabbed my sympathies for black guys when I first heard it. Forty years later as I began having more female black coworkers and friends, their confessions came out that they were not happy about white women showing they aren't racist, evidenced by dating and marrying black men. Maybe they would feel differently if white guys showed more of an interest in them. I have a hunch there will always be a certain tension, overall, between the groups of black guys and white guys ~ the groups being those who strongly identify as black or white.

Her father was my music teacher back in grade school. Wonderful instructor.

7blacksheep you are soooo right

Aw, thank you. Just let my thoughts on the matter out. n.n

herd she wrote and produced this in her early teens thats awesome. love this song.

This song was banned from the radio in the Mid West town I grew up in. The only time I heard was on weekly countdown shows.

I just celebrated my 54th birthday, This has been my favorite song for half of my life or more.... Janis, I love you!

February 2017. Hearing this for the first time. Perfect way to start Black History Month.
Took away the fire hoses and dogs, only to swap them with TV, mics, and keyboards.
Half a decade later, and ignorant bigots have still not given up, but changed methods.
This song needs to make a comeback, now more than ever. In U.S., where it started. ♥

@KennedyEbony: Wow are you clueless and regressive. Those like you who see racism where there is none anymore are NOW the only essential racists left. You're just a female version of Eric Holder.

Be gone, blind woman. Take your evil hatred elsewhere....

In 1967 when this song hit the airwaves I was driving from Morehead State University to Louisville to visit friends. As I listened to the song I couldn't believe the powerful message and the fact that it was played in Kentucky in '67. We have come a long way in this great nation, regardless of what some folks claim.

awwww so sad :(

GREAT SONG!. Love it.

There it is AHHHHH the organ.

This better have the crazy organ riff at the end.

I didn't know what to expect after reading that, but I literally went "Whoa" XD

Minor pentatonic. It is nice.

to mentally extrapolate the present into the future that has allowed the White race to build and maintain its civilization,

Combover Little hands.thats freaking great!

Look whose coming to dinner, Grade A Song.... Radio Bosses - say no no no no no no to songs like these... epic

I used to think she was a one hit wonder. boy, was I wrong

she had another hit with At Seventeen

(Too good to go) Away little girl it's my favorite

I am old, but had enlightened Southern parents. So I could date anyone, and my wife and I passed that on to our daughters, and our youngest dated a guy blacker than ebony, and another one proud of being Guatemalan. But now we are reverting, because of Combover Littlehands and his minions. Heaven help us. We are a human race. We need to accept that, and indeed, celebrate it. Before we destroy all of us in tribalistic hatred. Janis got it long ago. I cherish her.

There needs to be more people like you and your kind family.
What you said was completely moving, now more than ever.
Wherever you are, I hope you continue to support each other.

good for you

You explain yourself too much.

thanks.

Love this song!

Lord, what a beautiful haunting song and voice, especially when she delicately reaches the high note Janis, and you can still do this in 2016...it sends shivers up and down my spine since I recall vividly as an avid 60s record collector and trained singer too (opera at University) ... your mother was wrong yet we still go through this problem and yet your mother did have an issue that is partly correct NOT BASED ON SKINNNN colour but, language barriers and cultural differences. It is risky to form relationships outside of one's own culture IF value systems differ. THAT is the critical issue Common Values you both love so much that no-one can take this from a man and woman's Yoke.

she had guts to recorded this song in the 60s very controversial 4 the 60s

She was 13 when she had the notion, and 14 when completing it.
Pretty damn impressive for a kid. Proves that activism has no age.

I call it craptivism now.  People are outraged for stupidities.  It is the era of victimhood.  I'm gay, 56 and I am not oppressed in 2019.  So many people do not want to let go of their victim status, which in many cases is non existent.

yes and she went through hell for it, death threats and all, then Bill Crosby saw her in a dressing room at the smothers Brothers, with her head in her mangers lap, and he told everyone she was gay, and not worthy of stardom, that pervert, really messed up her life, it's all in her book, this song really touched me as a young woman also..

in 1975 I was 18 & working on the Alaska Pipeline - washing pots & pans (in a super size shower stall) for 10 hours a day - I used to sing this song as I scrubbed all the mess hall kitchen gear. I didn't even think it was strange when a couple of the black men who worked in the kitchen would come and chat me up. I just thought it was a brilliant song about how we live in our contradictions

Some things still haven't changed after all these years.. My mother in law told one of my sister in laws that same line you can't see him anymore..So she Married him.. lol

You go, girl! XD

Working on the same thing. 😉😉

Great song, true artistry, enormous angst. I don't recall this when it came out in '67 really, but probably because they squashed the thing of interracial love. I instantly knew the melody though from I suppose later artists doing it. Can't mistake the 'I can't see you anymore baby" melody line.

I understand and realize this song wasn't meant for me, but it still touches me since I'm gay, and my parents are non approving Christians.

As are Janis Ian and her wife Patricia Snyder.

Hang in there, kind of pretentious of me, but.

All the best! Sorry to hear about your parents.

read the Bible.

I'm in a mixed race/religion relationship and this song makes me cry.

A rich wanna-be-hippy White girl was dating a Black young man in high school.
She pretty much admitted that it was just yto defy her parents.
She got pregnant, and they talked about getting married, but never did.
This was in a small town in rural, Southern. Iowa.

+KingTutte what I said. That was a girl I went to school with.

The point is- what is your point? Apropos of nothing I'm afraid.

She has more guts than any 10 female vocalists today...Still makes me sad 50 years later...nice work, Janis...

I went with a sister...in highschool...this was our song....sad right??? So TRUE....

Also, heaqrtbreaking & gorgeous, I also recall hearing this song --in Denver, on 950AM, KIMN, & it was " Hal Baby Moore", who intro'd the song by saying : " this is controversial, but we will play it anyway". --- How the years have gone on by. --------Wolfsky9, 69 y/o

Issued 3 times,on both the Verve/Folkways and Verve/Forecast Labels,in 1967 and 1968,the first pressing were not sold in the Southern states because of the subject,and stations there refused to play the record! Later,after Leonard Bernstein had Her on His TV show,did the 45 become a hit..BTW,Initial copies had the Surtitle "Baby,I've Been Thinking" on the label.

Michael Boyce I have the original pressing

+Geri Gillespie
. Hang on to that 45 ! You are so lucky to have that.

I have one too!

Jan Ian was 14 years old when she wrote "Baby, I've Been Thinking." Recorded as "Society's Child" in 1965. Released in 1966, some radio stations refused to play the song. It doesn't reach the Billboard Top 40 until June 17, 1967.

KXOK 630 ON the A. M. Dial was one of them.(back in the 60's).. Right here in good ol'e St. Louis , Mo. ... I love My State.... But it has always been A backwards acting State... Still is.... Ga. , In the Deep South is more Progressive than Mo. I vote , yet this attitude of Racist Thinking is yet evidently The Rule here.... We must change the way We Think , through improved Education... It is "OUR ONLY HOPE FOR THE FUTURE!!! Think About It!!!!

I remember reading about some DJ in the South who was beaten after airing this record... - Tony Arioli

if it sounds like the Shangri-Las, that should be no surprise. Their producer Shadow Morton also recorded this classic by Janis Ian in 1965. Took awhile, but Leonard Bernstein had her sing it on a TV special in 1967.

I remember her TV performance back in 1967 after Leonard Bernstein introduced her ground breaking song to us.

To me, she sounds quite a bit like Petula Clark with this song. I wonder if that’s because of the harmonies with this cut. And...the more I listen to the song, the more I feel this is Janis Ian’s best song.

That line: "She called you BOY instead of your name" pierces me right through the heart every time. I can feel the tears of insult and anger welling up.

To think that I was with her when she wrote and sang the song.

+Juliaflo Can you tell us more about that?

I posted a comment 2 years ago. rkgk1517, it did take a lot of guts back then and now. All We have to remember is, WE ALL MATTER!