As a result, I can't tell you how embarrassing it is for me to run across mortifying, inconsistent little nuggets in my life like this one: I've always (since at least '68) been queer for a dead commie doper, a diseased heroin addict and speed freak who was even further "left" politically than that treasonous cunt Fonda.
Janis Joplin is probably the most damaged human who ever got on stage, and practically every performance was raw -- no, more than that -- bleeding raw.
Damn, she was good.
About a 6 minute clip -- worth every second...go ahead and click it while you read on...
Wow. Fucking heartbreaker. Less than four months after this concert the H and the meth and the Southern Comfort finally killed her at 27 -- her voice and body were sputtering toward the end of a hard-binging, hard-living, scorched-earth life and she looked half again her real age; she was falling apart and the flame was beginning to flicker even while this was being filmed -- and she STILL put this up on stage. Not surprising, I guess. She never really was much of one for half-measures.
Imagine the current crop of "rock" bimbos trying THAT one even at the top of their game, never mind a HARD piece like "Ball And Chain (Live at Woodstock)," or this salt-in-a-wound live version of "Piece of My Heart" in which she overcomes bad lighting, crappy sound, an amateur film-maker shooting in the dark [not to mention both her AND the band being so stoned they could barely function] and still manages to blow through to the front of the band.
Even more "Bet [Fill In Your Favorite Bimbo] Can't Do This":
Maybe
Movin' On
Me and Bobby McGee
Summertime
(Yo, Dawn: Watch, listen, learn -- you figure out how to do this, Pussywhip will make a bazillion...where do ya' think Courtney et al learned all their stuff?)
In Our Next Episode: Selected readings from Chairman Mao's Little Red Book.
It was forty years ago today...
ReplyDeletePeople tell me they think Janis sucks. I just scoff. They obviously never HEARD Janis...
trust me, I know. janis is awesome. :)
ReplyDeleteI have a couple of animated gifs I want you to change a little for me. Since you never answer my email (or send me flowers, for that matter, you cheating fuck) I thought I'd try this.
ReplyDeleteHow much will it cost me?
The two women with voices so powerful that could literally knock you over were Janis and Grace Slick. Janis bought the farm as a mere child, and Grace turned into a passive, cheesy old lady. When I hear either (well, old, hot, drunk Grace), I weep.
ReplyDeleteDecades have passed and I still want to fuck Janis.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea she was only 27 when she died. Wow. I still remember that day.
ReplyDeleteP.S. You're not an asshole. Reactionary yes, but not an asshole.
P.S.S. You owe me a fucking email.
I like Courtney Hole but she couldn't pee in Janis' underpants. Anyway, hard-core, free-market, right-wing, laizzes-faire, Ayn Rand-style, radical-conservatism is well and good for knowing when and when not to start wars but unless you're into that Art Deco Howard Roark bullshit, true art needs a little bit more hard-core rough sex and drugs than ol' Ayn and her kitty cats were really into. So there's no shame at all in dropping the faith for Janis Joplin.
ReplyDeleteThere, you inspired me to get all kissy kissy about my personal fave lesbo-rock-goddess Joan Jett.
ReplyDeletePeej, how do you get the e-mails to ... ? Never mind.
ReplyDelete"laizzes-faire"
ReplyDeleteI just noticed that. Is the Lezzies Fair over? I wanted to see the box lunch side show.