The teen age author of a perfect song

"‘I wanted to try cocaine, but Jimi was against it’: Janis Ian on her tough, starlit life in music   Hendrix and Janis Joplin warned her off drugs, she sang for James Brown and Salvador Dalí offered to paint her. Janis Ian’s confessional folk-pop is still sensational – so why is she retiring from recording?" Sarfraz Manzoor

Her opening is breathtaking: 

"I learned the truth at seventeen

That love was meant for beauty queens

And high school girls with clear skinned smiles

Who married young and then retired..."

What if John Prine stayed on for the security of the U.S. Postal Service?

 "John Prine: The debut album that introduced a songwriting master

Music journalist Erin Osmon chronicles the creation of Prine's debut album"

Steve Gotcher

To answer the question posed: we would know what we had missed. It's good John Prine knew.

This is a re-post.

A Shane MacGowan update

"Shane MacGowan: I can’t concentrate on music when I can’t even walk across the room" Mark Yarm