Janis Joplin: The Colour in Rock & Roll

Sometime in October last year, I made this blogpost 

> http://laralils.blogspot.com/2009/10/who-were-they.html

Another thing I left incomplete! . . .

(So, I covered F.LWright, but I never got down to the other two, for whatever reasons. I’m going to cover Janis Joplin today.

I’m trying to remember why I covered F.L.W. before Joplin? Especially since impersonating her at a party and NOT being recognised by ANYone (even after telling them that I was Janis!) was what prompted me to do these articles!

I’m guessing researching Wright fit in with college work as well at the time, so I probably felt like I wasn't wasting time. Although, this really isn't wasting time!… Anywhooo..

Here it goes.

This is:

Janis Joplin: The colour in rock and roll!

"If you can get them once, man, get them standing up when they should be sitting down, sweaty when they should be decorous, smile when they should be applauding politely-and I think you sort of switch on their brain, man, so that makes them say: 'Wait a minute, maybe I can do anything.' Whoooooo! It's life. That's what rock and roll is for, turn that switch on, and man, it can all be."

-Janis Joplin

What I wrote in the intro to this, I wrote about 6 hours ago. That's when I wanted to start writing.

For some reason, I couldn't find the right words to start. So I spent a lot of time re-living my first time 'Janis experience', that I lived a long time ago. So, after watching many videos, listening to almost the whole discography- again, reading and re-reading things I've read in the past, I think I finally have a place to begin.

I always knew there once was a singer called Janis Joplin who was incredible. But that's all I knew. I'd heard the name randomly in some movies, where a character would make a 'Joplin' reference, and even though I didn't quite understand what they meant, I'd pass it off as insignificant and then forget. I can't remember when it was exactly, that I REALLY wanted to find out more about her... But, I remember which song it started with.

Piece of my heart. One of my favourite songs of all time. 

The more I listened and the deeper I went into discovering Janis, the more I fell in love with the music and the raw, realness that was her. I started to understand the complexities that comprised this individual that literally took the world by storm. She was definitely someone who wore her heart on her sleeve. Remarkable and bold. But when you look at the story, it may have been one that changed the face of music, but it's definitely one that is also really sad. I honestly don't think she died when it was her time. At 27, I feel like it was her vices and adrenaline that just got the better of her. 

From what I've read, she was actually an extremely articulate, intellectual and shy girl, to whom family mattered a great deal. But she was insecure in many ways, about how she looked and whether she was loved. Over time, music took precedence over everything in her life. She knew she had to get away from home, which was in Texas, if she wanted to make it in the industry. And that is what she did.

"Being an intellectual creates a lot of questions and no answers. 

You can fill your life up with ideas and still go home lonely. 

All you really have that really matters are feelings. 

That's what music is to me." 

- Janis Joplin

I'm having some trouble putting into words what I understand of her and her life. She is just THAT big and multi-coloured! All I know, is that she was driven by raw emotion. And it translates through her songs and singing. She had no formula for life. 
She just was. 
Whether what she did or said was socially acceptable or not, it was her and it was always there for everyone to see. Nothing hidden. All real. She made such brilliant music and sang with such a big voice in the little time that she was around but at a price that was so incredibly large!  The point of this post isn't so much to be another go-to for details on Janis Joplin, but more to record what she means to me. Hopefully, it inspires someone, somewhere to listen to her music, see the rose for what she really was. ("The rose" is a song from the movie, of the same name, about a rock and roll tragedy, revolving around a drug-addicted rock-star, modeled around Janis. A beautiful song that is so full of hope. If you read the lyrics, you'll find that it's a brilliant tribute to Janis. In a way, choosing to focus on the positive impact her life and music had as opposed to being, as she's been described before, a train-wreck for which the price was her's to pay, after all.)

"I'm a victim of my own insides. There was a time when I wanted to know everything. I read a lot. I guess you'd say I was pretty intellectual. It's odd, I can't remember when it changed. It used to make me very unhappy, all that feeling. I just didn't know what to do with it. But now I've learned how to make feeling work for me. I'm full of emotion and I want a release, and if you're on stage and if it's really working and you've got the audience with you, it's a oneness you feel. I'm into me, plus they're into me, and everything comes together. You're full of it. I don't know, I just want to feel as much as I can, it's what 'soul' is all about."

-Janis Joplin

Janis Joplin and Tina Turner

 Influenced by the likes of Bessie Smith, Leadbelly, Odetta, Tina Turner and Aretha Franklin you can trace the soul in her music. Soul from the soul, for it. I came across this interview of Janis with Dick Cavett. You see the kind of person she was, struggling with her relationships looking for closure to a past she felt was unjust to her. In a way, triumphant because of what she'd achieved and seemingly having a good time despite being lonely, living off her music and audiences. She didn't really find love till the very end and then it was too late... Songs like 'Get it while you can', 'A woman left lonely', 'Maybe', 'Little girl blue' and more, I'm sure, would testify to that.

'Get it while you can' being one of my favourites.

I know this post isn't very well thought out, and I'm jumping in between random things that are crossing my mind about Janis, but I feel like it's probably more Janis-like, that way than any other.

"I don't understand how come you're gone, man. I don't understand why half the world is still crying, man, when the other half of the world is still crying too, man, and it can't get it together. I mean, if you got a cat for one day, man - I mean, if you, say, say, maybe you want a cat for 365 days, right - You ain't got him for 365 days, you got him for one day, man. Well I tell you that one day, man, better be your life. Because, you know, you can say, oh man, you can cry about the other 364, man, but you're gonna lose that one day, man, and that's all you've got. You gotta call that love, man. That's what it is, man. If you got it today you don't want it tomorrow, man, 'cause you don't need it, 'cause as a matter of fact, as we discovered on the train, tomorrow never happens, man. It's all the same ****ing day, man.

You can destroy your now by worrying about tomorrow."

- Janis Joplin

So, this is Janis Joplin. You can love her or hate her, but if her story has crossed your path, you sure as hell can't ignore her. For me, in some ways I admire her, I identify with her and I also feel a little sorry for her. But, none of that matters, I'm sure her story and music would speak differently to you. 

This is the best tribute to Janis, that I've come across. It gives me chills.)

"This whole thing that's happened to me, you see, this whole success thing, er, it hasn't yet really compromised the position that I took a long time ago in Texas, that was to be true to myself, to be the person that I f ... that was on inside of me and not play games. You see, actually what I'm trying to do mostly, if I, in the whole world, is to not bullshit myself, and not bullshit anybody else. To be righteous to myself, I mean to be real, you know what I mean ? And so far, you know I'm, I'm just tryin' to ... I'm doin' that, I am, you know. I'm not wearin' cardboard eyelashes, and, and, you know, and girdles, and playin' in Las Vegas. By still bein' Janis, I just happens to be on a slightly different level or somethin' now. And ... you know I suppose it's because I've never been premeditated enough in show-business that I was worried about putting on a, a face, you know what I mean ? So I can sit here and tell you the truth. You know? Although that's slightly inhibiting, (nodding towards camera) really, it doesn't, it doesn't force a game on me, because I refuse to let it force a game on me. So I can sit here and be just as honest as I would be in a bar, although I'd be a lot happier in a bar!"

- Janis Joplin