Remembering J Joplin's 70th B'day

[martin manning]

A while back I posted up a link to Janis Joplin singing "Get It While You Can" on Dick Cavett, and then Lefty posted a link to her doing "Ball and Chain," just to put an exclamation point on it. Yesterday there was a nice piece on NPR for 70th anniversary of JJ's birth. You can find it on NPR's site or on iTunes as a podcast. Lefty's link prompted me to search out its source, which was the D.A. Pennebaker film on the '67 Monterey Pop festival. I have a copy of that now and it is a fantastic archive of that period and the event. The out-takes are as good and as many minutes as the actual film, and there is a collection of B&W photos in there too. I was too young, but growing up in a college town it was all around me.

BTW, that Ball and Chain vid has now been pulled from You Tube for copyright violation. I'll just point out that if it wasn't there in the first place, I never would have discovered and then bought a copy of the DVD...

[LeftyStrat]

BTW, that Ball and Chain vid has now been pulled from You Tube for copyright violation. I'll just point out that if it wasn't there in the first place, I never would have discovered and then bought a copy of the DVD.

Shows the shortsightedness of the copyright industries.

I agree with you, that DVD is worth its weight in gold. Hendrix, Otis Redding, Joplin, The Who, Ravi Shankar, and more, all put in legendary performances.

It's hard to imagine how incredible that period in time was. I was only eight, but my Dad was program director at a rock radio station, and my mother was a piano teacher (and only 24, she had me pretty young), so I was fortunate enough to be tuned in to all the amazing music of the time.

[JoeCon]

Martin

I have the DVD box set and the outtakes are awesome!
I never knew that the Association could really play live.
And the Byrds and Springfield, Quicksilver...damn good start for those bands!

See ya!

[martin manning]

I was amazed at the amount of material in the out-takes too. More of Simon and Garfunkel, Jefferson Airplane, The Who, Buffalo Springfield, Mamas and Papas... From the filmed discussion between Pennebaker and Lou Adler it seems John Phillips (Mamas and Papas) did much of the work organizing the festival (and is credited as co-producer).

The other fascinating thing is the people in attendance- mostly well-dressed kids with nearly-mainstream haircuts and clothes, among some somewhat rougher-looking hippie types and a few Hells Angels. Several shots of police mingling with the crowd. I forget which band it was, but the front man took the opportunity to insist that the Kennedy assassination was a conspiracy that was being covered up. This is less than a year before the ML King assassination, and two years from the moon landing. Crazy times!

[10thTx]

I saw Janis perform at the New Orleans Pop Festival summer of '69. She came on at 12:30 midnight. IIRC, it was just her and a piano player without all the Holding Company. Quite a singer.

With respect, 10thtx

[boots]

IMHO, Janis was the greatest female vocalist of all time. And probably the best of either gender, for that matter.

If you're jonesing for some raw female vocals, though, there are a few ladies out there who can really scream. Grace Potter, Beth Hart, and of course, Melissa Etheridge. Love 'em or hate 'em, they can really peel the paint off your face when they get stoked up.

[JoeCon]

Code: Select all

Martin

That was David Crosby playing with the Byrds and Springfield at the show.

[LeftyStrat]

Two of my favorite audience shots:

- Mama Cass, watching Janis, her jaw literally drops.
- The look of profound bewilderment on a girls face when Hendrix lights his guitar on fire and smashes it.

And I just can never get tired of watching Hendrix do "Like a Rolling Stone."

Talk about multitasking. He's chewing gum, talking to the audience, making jokes, singing, replying to comments from the audience "Yes, I missed a verse", and playing amazing guitar (and adjusting the volume on an upside-down guitar with the volume knob missing). And he makes it seem effortless.

http://vimeo.com/19982030

[LeftyStrat]

Copyright hoarders can't deny us our culture and collective history. Janis' performance back on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6aru5T9R9o

[LeftyStrat]

Not sure what show this was, but more great Janis:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0jSYSzGE-0

[Chad]

Not sure what show this was, but more great Janis:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0jSYSzGE-0

Damn!! What a singer. DAMN!!! She is so sweet in her own way. That voice oh my that beautiful voice. Did I forget to say Damn!!! She is so cool.

[Phil_S]

Not sure what show this was, but more great Janis:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0jSYSzGE-0

Nice for a lunch break, Lefty. I think this second performance must be from after the Big Brother era. The difference in the two bands is stark. Cry Baby show real pro level backing. By contrast, I don't know how she pulled it off with Ball & Chain -- they could barely keep the beat. Both epoch performances -- that was Janis.

[martin manning]

This Cavett show video I posted previously is also good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju9yFA1S7K8 She was all or nothing, and look closely at the end- out of breath from pouring everything she had into it, yet she's nervously wringing the mic with her hands, and the look on her face says she's wondering if it was enough...

[Teleguy61]

That's a good one Martin.
All these clips of Janis and Jimi highlight their generosity as performers.
They gave EVERYTHING of themselves on every show.
Wow, so different from modern performers, who frequently seem to measure each little piece of effort and emotion they put out.
Those were wild times.

[vibratoking]

Janis was a great singer. Too bad the Holding Company was not a great backing band - at least Sam Andrews. His intonation was always off and really took away from the quality of the performance IMO. I think she deserved better.