The Janis Joplin Appreciation thread

[Vincent Vega]

A thread to discuss, celebrate, praise, and consider an artist who I feel was one of the most truly soulful of the '60s, an incredibly talented singer and songstress and a truly tragic figure with a sad story.....

Anyone else love Janis? Favorite songs? Do you think she could've retained her relevancy into the 70s and 80s if she'd lived?

I want Lenny in this thread.

[Redhead74]

Dazey's the Janis fan. I hadn't really listened to JJ until Dazey put me onto her. She's amazing and incredibly unique. I love that. I love unique people and beings. I listen to Me and Bobby McGee quite frequently. One Good Man and Down On Me are great too I think.

[Dazey]

One Good Man Down On Me is great too.

[Redhead74]

One Good Man Down On Me is great too.

:awesomeface:

Dazey's on fire!

[Dazey]

:awesomeface:

Dazey's on fire!

Fucking gonorrhoea!

On topic. Janis was fucking amazing. Pure talent and a voice that literally bends you over and violates you!

[Redhead74]

On topic. Janis was fucking amazing. Pure talent and a voice that literally bends you over and violates you!

Ooooh, great description!

That's exactly what she does.

[Johnny Drama]

I'd put Pearl on equal footing with Tapestry as the best album ever released by a female artist. Big fan nyah.

[Chinaski]

This always knocks me out

Edited January 31, 2013 by Chinaski

[dalsh327]

This always knocks me out

Edited February 27, 2015 by dalsh327

[T.wa.T]

This always knocks me out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HesegFuY3pk

Its awesome watching a master at work. Great footage.

[MB.]

I am a huge Janis fan. She is one of the few female singers/voices I like. She was awesome!!!!!

She can make me cry with her voice and did that many times. I really seem to like her that her that 'one week every month'

Not one song I dislike. Her voice make me really feel the song, even often out of tune or maybe because of that.

I love the Farewell song, Ball 'n' Chain, a woman left lonely, kozmic blues, but I like all and it depends on my mood.

[dalsh327]

This was an interesting choice to do on a TV show, this is one of the "obscure and underrated" songs.

This has to go down as oddest duets ever.

Edited February 27, 2015 by dalsh327

[MB.]

I love little girl blue!!!! Forgot to mention that!

That duet is really cool!

[Gordon Comstock]

I really like a big handful of her songs, but haven't really dug deep into her catalogue yet. Kozmic Blues, Piece of my Heart, Summertime and Mercedes Benz are probably my favorite songs of hers.

[MB.]

I agree her voice is not the greatest, often out of tune, but there is something with it. Her voice makes me feel the song or she can sing a song in a way, you can feel it or at least I can. But it's all subjective, guess you like her or you don't.

[Chinaski]

I honestly thought this was a little bit awful.

I don't dislike Janis Joplin. She is OK. Her voice has character. I think she is probably the most overrated figure in music from the '60s, however. When you compare her to someone like Joni Mitchell or Laura Nyro she's just a one trick pony. If she had lived she would have a reputation similar to that of Joe Cocker.

No offense meant, just my opinion.

I totally get that. Especially the Joe Cocker comparison. I used to live with a girl who was a fantastic singer who was properly trained and all that who didn't get why I would rave about Joplin at all. Granted it's all about the character of her voice, it's just not a thing I feel from many other singers. It's like warm smoke in a cold room. I've never really gotten into Joni Mitchell either.

[dalsh327]

I honestly thought this was a little bit awful.

I don't dislike Janis Joplin. She is OK. Her voice has character. I think she is probably the most overrated figure in music from the '60s, however. When you compare her to someone like Joni Mitchell or Laura Nyro she's just a one trick pony. If she had lived she would have a reputation similar to that of Joe Cocker.

No offense meant, just my opinion.

I totally get that. Especially the Joe Cocker comparison. I used to live with a girl who was a fantastic singer who was properly trained and all that who didn't get why I would rave about Joplin at all. Granted it's all about the character of her voice, it's just not a thing I feel from many other singers. It's like warm smoke in a cold room. I've never really gotten into Joni Mitchell either.

Joni's later stuff I'm not big on, but going from the folkie stuff to when she worked with Jaco and Pat Metheny was pretty phenomenal.

The Cocker comparison, or Tina Turner comparison, I can see that, but overrated? She had 4 albums.

[moreblack]

You can't fake that kind of passion. Infact, many trained singers can never reach it.

[MB.]

You can't fake that kind of passion. Infact, many trained singers can never reach it.

Exactly!

Againstallodds

I don't think she is overrated at all, infact her albums are indeed underrated. It's a shame they only play a few of her songs on the radio, cause every song on her albums are worth listening to. I know every song of her and listen to those really often. Come to think of it, I think she is actually the one, I listen to the most. She is really raw and honest in her way of singing. She doesn't hide anything, give it all even as it means out of tune. I think, she does stand up, without a doubt.

[Randy Lahey]

The thing I dig about her is that you can hear how fucked up she is in her voice.

[Redhead74]

You can't fake that kind of passion. Infact, many trained singers can never reach it.

Exactly!

Againstallodds

I don't think she is overrated at all, infact her albums are indeed underrated. It's a shame they only play a few of her songs on the radio, cause every song on her albums are worth listening to. I know every song of her and listen to those really often. Come to think of it, I think she is actually the one, I listen to the most. She is really raw and honest in her way of singing. She doesn't hide anything, give it all even as it means out of tune. I think, she does stand up, without a doubt.

Yep agreed MBRose. What the radio plays is no gauge at all for how talented someone is. In fact their opinion is pretty much irrelevant because they're just making money so commercialism is key to their motives. To me, it's like the Oscars isn't a gauge of whether a movie was the best or not. It's too political to truly judge on the quality and integrity of the film.

Her voice is very unique and very powerful. Another comparison is the opera singer Maria Callas. Her voice was not the best opera voice and at times it could be downright ugly, but the force, power and passion she sang with was undeniable. She gave people goosebumps and brought many to tears. That's far more valuable than pitch perfect note for note recitation.

[MB.]

Her voice is very unique and very powerful. Another comparison is the opera singer Maria Callas. Her voice was not the best opera voice and at times it could be downright ugly, but the force, power and passion she sang with was undeniable. She gave people goosebumps and brought many to tears. That's far more valuable than pitch perfect note for note recitation.

That is so funny! I wanted to add the Callas example, but didn't (too lazy). Now I see you did!

Great example though, in her days you had this other magnificent singer, Tebaldi, her voice was more warm and frankly better. For some music a better fit, but when it comes to the more dramatic (italian) aria's, like Bellini's, Puccini's, Verdi's, Callas was really better. Not cause her voice, but cause Callas made you feel the suffering, the passion. It made her legendary and Callas made me cry as well, many many times.

Not many singers/musician are gifted with that. But Janis and Callas were. It's that special ingredient, musicians all want to possess, but not many have.

[dalsh327]

ROBERT PLANT: I listened to the music. I did have a good -- a kind of fairy godmother for a while in the United States in the form of Janis Joplin. Because we played a lot of those festivals back then with the Doors and the Jefferson Airplane, those fantastic times when the youth culture actually had -- it thought it had a responsibility to help to change society and remove corruption, if you can believe that. And that whole movement, I was so infatuated by the idea of Americana taking a very sharp turn to the left, and in the middle of it all, there was this wonderful, vulnerable little bird, Janice Joplin, who used to look after me, and say, hey, you know, drink this, you`ve got to keep quiet in between the shows, do this, do that.

CHARLIE ROSE: She had that kind of influence?

ROBERT PLANT: She was really quite amazing, yeah, because she didn`t do that for herself.

CHARLIE ROSE: She was a -- exactly, I was going to say, I mean.

ROBERT PLANT: No, but for me, she said, no, no, come on, cool it, you know.

CHARLIE ROSE: Why was it? Did she have this thing for you, or what?

ROBERT PLANT: Well, if there was a thing, I can`t remember it, but that would be quite per se, I suppose. But no, she was just kind, and she knew I was quite naive. And I was so in love with the whole idea of this great movement of energy and artistry and hope. And she was -- you know, for all intents and purposes, you would have said that she was the queen of the whole movement.

_________________________________________________________________________

You could say that being yelled at by Janis Joplin was one of the great honors of my life. Early in my career, Lindsay Buckingham and I were in a band called Fritz. There were two gigs we played in San Francisco that changed everything for me: One was opening up for Jimi Hendrix, who was completely magical. The other was the time that we opened up for Janis at the San Jose Fairgrounds, around 1970.

It was a hot summer day, and things didn't start off well because the entire show was running late. That meant our set was running over. We were onstage and going over pretty well, when I turned and saw a furious Janis Joplin on the side of the stage, yelling at us. She was screaming something like, "What the fuck are you assholes doing? Get the hell off of my stage." Actually, she might have even been a little cruder than that - it was hard to hear.

But then Janis got up on that stage with her band, and this woman who was screaming at me only moments before suddenly became my new hero. Janis Joplin was not what anyone would call a great beauty, but she became beautiful because she made such a powerful and deep emotional connection with the audience. I didn't mind the feathers and the bell-bottom pants either. Janis didn't dress like anyone else, and she definitely didn't sing like anyone else.

Janis put herself out there completely, and her voice was not only strong and soulful, it was painfully and beautifully real. She sang in the great tradition of the rhythm & blues singers that were her heroes, but she brought her own dangerous, sexy rock & roll edge to every single song. She really gave you a piece of her heart. And that inspired me to find my own voice and my own style.

Stevie Nicks on Janis Joplin

Edited February 3, 2013 by dalsh327

[Snake-Pit]

Legend.

Edited February 19, 2015 by Snake-Pit

[Len Cnut]

I heard she got into a barney with Jim Morrison in this club and he clumped her and began dragging her around the dancefloor by her hair. Not really a fan if I'm honest, good voice, unique but generally speaking i don't really find her blowing my socks off or anything.

A ginger hippie, says it all really eh?