album challenge day 6: janey street

Back to my days as a music editor for a college newspaper. In came this record. Heroes, Angels & Friends, by Janey Street. My contact at Arista noted helpfully that Janey was from Queens. Which, I guess, mattered to me since this was Queens College. I wasn't very hopeful, but reluctantly gave it a listen.

I loved it! The record kind of made me think of Bruce Springsteen. Janey lacked Bruce's raw edge, but there was a lot of the same ethos -- these stories of working class folk struggling and dreaming of escape. And there was an infectious energy. And, yes, and edge of sexuality that I found appealing. To this day, it's one of my favorite records.

One of my favorite events as a music fan was when Janey did a house concert on Long Island in 2012. It was bittersweet because I was kind of hoping to hear those songs from HA&F. But Janey had moved on in the nearly 30 years since that album came out. She played more recent material, which kind of makes sense. But this new stuff didn't really interest me. Not that it was bad. It just wasn't of a style I was interested in hearing. Still, I got to see Janey Street in concert, up close and personal.

As far as I can tell, the only song on HA&F that got made into an official video was "Under The Clock," which was actually my least-favorite song on the album. But, since that's the one with a real video, that's the one I'm sharing above. I much prefer the more energetic "Say Hello to Ronnie" or "Me and My Friends."

Sadly, Arista has never seen fit to rerelease it on CD, and you can't buy a CD version. You can, however, join Janey's fan club and get a copy as one of your membership perqs.