Songwriter: Janis Ian

Producer: Jimmy Webb

I was never one for saying what I really feel
Except tonight I'm bringing everything I know that's real

Stars they come and go
They come fast
They come slow
They go like the last light of the sun
All in a blaze
And all you see is glory
Hey, but it gets lonely here
When there's no one here to share
You can shake it all away if you will hear my story
Some people ask for fame like athlete's in a game
We break our collarbones and come up swinging
Some of us are downed some of us a crowned
And some are lost and never found but most have seen it all
They live there lives in sad cafe's and music halls
They always come up singing
Some make it when they're young before the world has done its dirty job
Later on someone will say you've had your day
And now you must make way
But they will never know the pain of living
With a name you'd never own
Or the many years forgetting
What you know too well
That the ones who get the crown
Have been let down
Yet try to make amends
Without defending
Perhaps pretending
You never saw the eyes
Of grown men of twenty-five
That follow as you walk
And ask for autographs
Or kiss you on the cheek
But you never can believe
They really love you
Some make it when they're old
Perhaps they have a soul
They're not afraid to bear
Or perhaps there's nothing there

Stars they come and go
They come fast
They come slow
They go like the last light of the sun
All in a blaze
And all you see is glory

But most have seen it all
They live there lives
In sad cafe's and music halls
They always come up singing
Singing
Singing
Singing

Cher

Cher is an American singer, songwriter, actress, model, fashion designer, television host, comedian, dancer, businesswoman, philanthropist, author, film producer, director, and record producer.

Cher gained popularity in 1965 as one-half of the folk rock husband–wife duo Sonny & Cher after their first hit, “I Got You Babe”. She began her solo career simultaneously, releasing in 1966 her first million-seller song, “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)”. After the duo had lost its young audience owing to their monogamous, anti-drug lifestyle during the period of the sexual revolution and the rise of the drug culture, she returned to stardom in the 1970s as a television personality with her shows The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, watched by over 30 million viewers weekly during its three-year run, and Cher. She became a fashion trendsetter by wearing elaborate outfits on her television shows. While working on television, she established herself as a solo artist with the number-one singles “Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves”, “Half-Breed”, and “Dark Lady”. After her divorce from Sonny Bono in 1975, Cher’s much-publicized personal life led to a decline in her career, although she launched a minor comeback in 1979 with the disco-oriented album Take Me Home and earned $300,000 a week for her 1980–1982 residency show in Las Vegas.

In the early 1980s, Cher made her Broadway debut, and then starred in the film Silkwood. Her performance earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1983. In the ensuing years, she starred in films such as Mask, The Witches of Eastwick, and Moonstruck. She made her directorial debut in the 1996 film If These Walls Could Talk. At the same time, she established herself as a rock singer by releasing platinum albums such as Heart of Stone (1989) and top-ten singles such as “I Found Someone” and “If I Could Turn Back Time”. She reached a new commercial peak in 1998 with the song “Believe”, which features the pioneering use of Auto-Tune, also known as the “Cher effect”. Her 2002–2005 Living The Farewell Tour ended up as the highest-grossing music tour by a female artist then. In 2008, she signed a $60 million per-year deal to headline the Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas for three years. After seven years of absence, she returned to film in the 2010 musical Burlesque. Cher’s first studio album in 12 years, Closer to the Truth, became her highest-charting solo album in the U.S. to date.