Long Ago & Far Away

I've been taking a trip down memory line.

Long ago and far away.

But sometimes it feels like yesterday.

This song takes me back to my teenage bedroom with the blue, white and green daisy wallpaper, and the brown wood shutters that I stained myself with my father's encouragement.

I use to listen to it on my record player while lying on my bed, on my back, staring up at the ceiling.

I had taken my bed off its frame and put it flat on the floor, following in my four older, hippie sibling's footsteps.

No matter where teenagers were in their lives back then, listening to Seventeen helped to dull the pain of being one perhaps.

Janis Ian received 461 valentines the year it came out.


In my teenage bedroom, her album Between The Lines rivaled number of times played with Carole King's album Tapestry. There were so many songs on that album that I loved. Most notably Lover's Lullaby and When the Party's Over.


"In books and magazines of how to be
and what to see while you are being
Before and after photographs
teach how to pass from reaching to believing
We live beyond our means on other peoples' dreams
and that's succeeding."

Out of the mouth of a babe.
Between the Lines
Janis Ian, age 22.