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TGIF Rock-n-Roll Oldies: Janis Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company- 1967
Reaganite Republican ^
| March 25, 2011
| Reaganite Republican
Posted on 03/25/2011 12:25:05 PM PDT by Reaganite Republican
Big Brother and the Holding Company came together in 1960's San Francisco, springing from the same historic Bay-area scene that produced the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and others.
While the band was formed before Joplin came along, they became famous shortly after absorbing her as lead singer. The chemistry worked, and soon they released what many consider to be a truly epic rock-n-roll record, the US #1 Cheap Thrills...
Janis Joplin (1.19.43 - 10.4.70) herself was of course an American singer, songwriter and arranger. After dying far too young, Joplin lives on in in our collective memory as a star-crossed member of the "27 club". She first rose to prominence in the late 1960s first as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company, then briefly as as a solo artist before her untimely passing.
As a teen, Janis Joplin was known as an eccentric around her native Port Arthur, Texas, where her father was a white-shirted engineer at Texaco. Her mom once remarked "She was unhappy and unsatisfied without (receiving a lot of attention). The normal rapport wasn't adequate."
Her friends were other local misfits who introduced her to the music of blues artists such as Leadbelly and Robert Johnson. Joplin joined the church choir to hone her skills locally while listening to blues singers such as Big Mama Thornton. Primarily an aspiring painter while still in school, among her high school classmates was future Dallas Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson.
Fusing a style of part blues-rebel, part beatnick proto-hippie, Janis Joplin adopted the sound and moves of female blues divas of the 30s and 40s. Her very first song recorded on tape -done at the home of a friend in 1962- was "What Good Can Drinkin' Do".
Joplin soon left the Lone Star State for the SF Bay area in '63, moving into North Beach and later Haight-Ashbury. The next year Joplin and future Jefferson Airplane guitarist Jorma Kaukonen recorded a number of blues standards, further accompanied by Margareta Kaukonen on typewriter, employed as a percussion instrument (!).
Unfortunately a narrative which was to eventually claim her life -heavy drinking and drug use- came to be a major factor already at this time, with Joplin abusing 'speed' and then later on to heroin. She also experimented with LSD and other psychoactive drugs, and her affection for Southern Comfort was legendary.
But you have to wonder if those who consider Lady Gaga to be really something special have ever heard a truly powerful female performer the likes of Tina Turner or Janis Joplin- and power is the word.
With Joplin, this is what really catches the imagination... how this shy, odd duck who seemed so very uncomfortable expressing herself in most other ways could get on stage and just shred it like she did in her prime- incredible. One famous clip from Alamont had Grace Jones sitting in the front row with jaw dropped at the spectacle of Janis Joplin's live performance... an intense, talented, and emotional person was inside, always yearning to burst-on-out... and on stage, it did.
Note this live cut's opening seconds below, where you can hear that meek, faint voice in the background informing the rhythm guitarist that he's "been hitting the wrong chord all night"... right before she fires up the pipes and rolls right into it:
Big Brother and the Holding Company: Down on Me - 1967
[video/more]
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TOPICS: History; Music/Entertainment; Society
KEYWORDS: oldies; rock; sixties
To: Reaganite Republican
2
posted on
03/25/2011 12:25:55 PM PDT
by
library user
(Just because you're homeless doesn't mean you're lazy.)
To: Reaganite Republican
She was one of a kind. Never before and never again. The lights that burn the brightest always seem to burn out fast.
3
posted on
03/25/2011 12:33:01 PM PDT
by
Georgia Girl 2
(The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
To: Reaganite Republican
I saw her live at the old Sick’s stadium in Seattle, late 1960’s - one heck of a show - I was a teenager at the time, before the mountains were formed.
4
posted on
03/25/2011 12:34:40 PM PDT
by
dainbramaged
( I was really too honest a man to be a politician and live-Socrates)
To: library user
Doggone Texans infecting the west coast.
Seriously, alot of the caterwalling aside, she had an incredibly powerful voice.
5
posted on
03/25/2011 12:34:40 PM PDT
by
skeeter
To: library user
Why can’t this dude find something good from the 1960s? I could think of a zillion groups who were not dirty junkies.
6
posted on
03/25/2011 12:36:02 PM PDT
by
Frantzie
(HD TV - Total Brain-washing now in High Def. 3-D Coming soon)
To: Reaganite Republican
R-pub, “Cheap Thrills” was the very first album I ever went out and bought with my own money. I was 14.
Thanks for posting this stuff on Fridays!
To: Reaganite Republican
I think I remember reading the former Miami Hurricane/Dallas cowboys/Miami Dolphins head coach Jimmy Johnson attended school with Joplin (in Beaumont, TX).
8
posted on
03/25/2011 12:45:40 PM PDT
by
Trajan88
(www.bullittclub.com)
To: Reaganite Republican
She and Pigpen from the Grateful Dead had a relationship. Can you imagine how homely their offspring would have been.
9
posted on
03/25/2011 12:47:56 PM PDT
by
Finatic
(2012, the year of Allen West. Please Sir, save our country.)
To: Finatic
Didn’t she play for the other team?
10
posted on
03/25/2011 12:48:26 PM PDT
by
dfwgator
To: dfwgator
IIRC, Janis was a switch-hitter.
11
posted on
03/25/2011 12:52:55 PM PDT
by
ZirconEncrustedTweezers
(Irritating a libtard is fun, and requires very little imagination.)
To: ZirconEncrustedTweezers
IIRC, Janis was a switch-hitter.Legend has it that when she performed at the Monterey Pop Fest in '67 she was discovered by record execs in the crowd. The companies fought over her. She selected I think CBS records, on a visit to NY offices, but insisted on having sex with the company rep, either then and there or soon after as a condition.
12
posted on
03/25/2011 1:02:00 PM PDT
by
cicero2k
To: cicero2k
I have heard that story. BB&THC were signed to CBS Records, and as I recall the rep in question was Clive Davis.
13
posted on
03/25/2011 1:19:08 PM PDT
by
ZirconEncrustedTweezers
(Irritating a libtard is fun, and requires very little imagination.)
To: dainbramaged
LOL- seriously, you’re blessed
To: Frantzie
I do oldies every Friday, but frankly there’s been a lot of junkies that popped up on my list- hmmm
I mean, is there some way I could ignore Clapton...?
And hey... even Kieth Richards kicked it eventually lol
To: dfwgator
Evidently she was a switch hitter.
16
posted on
03/25/2011 1:24:31 PM PDT
by
Finatic
(2012, the year of Allen West. Please Sir, save our country.)
To: ZirconEncrustedTweezers
It was indeed Davis, and who didn’t he sign, really
I think his first smash discovery was Donovan... he has an ear for it
But Milli Vannilli too... ouch lol
To: rhoda_penmark
Had Cheap Thrills on reel to reel and was excited when she was gonna play Fayetteville in `70,she canceled because she was too stoned or drunk or both
Still have the ticket
That gal put away some booze for a short while
18
posted on
03/25/2011 2:00:49 PM PDT
by
Harold Shea
(RVN `70 - `71)
To: Reaganite Republican
19
posted on
03/25/2011 2:12:29 PM PDT
by
Tribune7
(The Democrat Party is not a political organization but a religious cult.)
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