Janis Ian
Janis Ian
Janis Ian
Janis Ian
Janis Ian
Janis Ian
Janis Ian
Janis Ian
Janis Ian
Janis Ian
Janis Ian
“Society’s Child” is a once-controversial song about the then-forbidden subject of interracial romance. It was her debut single and first of two top 40 hits in the US.
Ian wrote it when she was 14 years old after seeing people on a bus glaring at an interracial couple holding hands:
I started thin...
[Verse 1]
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"
[Chorus]
She says I can't see you anymore, baby
Can't see you anymore
[Verse 2]
Walk me down to school, baby, everybody's acting deaf and blind
Until they turn and say, "Why don't you stick to your own kind?"
My teachers all laugh, their smirking stares
Cutting deep down in our affairs
Preachers of equality
Think they believe it, then why won't they just let us be?
[Chorus]
They say I can't see you anymore, baby
Can't see you anymore
[Verse 3]
One of these days I'm gonna stop my listening, gonna raise my head up high
One of these days I'm gonna raise my glistening wings and fly
But that day will have to wait for a while
Baby, I'm only society's child
When we're older things may change
But for now this is the way they must remain
[Chorus]
I say I can't see you anymore, baby
Can't see you anymore
No, I don't wanna see you anymore, baby
Society’s Child was written by Janis Ian.
Society’s Child was produced by George “Shadow” Morton.
In 2008, Janis Ian told NPR she wrote this song after seeing people glare at an interracial couple who were holding hands on a bus:
I started thinking about how hard that was going to be, and wondering whether their parents even knew that they were dating. And if their parents didn’t know, whether...
No, Janis wrote it when she was 14 years old after seeing people on a bus glaring at an interracial couple holding hands:
I started thinking about how hard that was going to be, and wondering whether their parents even knew that they were dating. And if their parents didn’t know, whether anyone on...