Janis Joplin, the one and only

last.fm

Man, I’d rather have ten years of superhypermost than live to be seventy sitting in some goddam chair watching TV.

Interview with Ray Connoly, April 1969

Well, Janis Joplin would have been seventy last Saturday, January 19; and to commemorate the occasion, TIME LightBox posted a set of rare pictures by Elliot Landy, which, as Holly George-Warren rightly points out in the accompanying text, offer a documentation of the singer's many facets. 

For me, Janis was first and foremost an outsider – back in her hometown her class mates threw stones at her and called her 'nigger-lover' – and yet she gained admiration and respect internationally; she was a singer whose expressiveness, ability and intellect could make even the strongest word of praise sound as mere understatement; a woman artist who relied on artistry rather than conventional accounts of femininity – and neither did she fit in the latter, nor did she want to; and last but not least, she was a landmark countercultural icon, whose status remains unmatchable to this day.

"There's a fire inside of every one of us," she sang in Kozmic Blues, one of her classics and a great favourite of mine; and I suppose one cannot but wonder what contemporary music would sound like if her fire hadn't been put out so early and so tragically. One thing's for sure though; if Janis had been able to celebrate her 70th birthday three days ago, she most certainly wouldn't have done it sitting in some goddam chair watching TV.

Time keeps movin' on
Friends they turn away
I keep movin' on
But I never found out why
I keep pushing so hard the dream
I keep tryin' to make it right
Through another lonely day

Dawn has come at last
Twenty-five years, honey just in one night, oh yeah
Well, I'm twenty-five years older now
So I know we can't be right
And I'm no better baby
And I can't help you no more
Than I did when just a girl

But it don't make no difference babe, no, no
And I know that I could always try
It don't make no difference babe, yeah
I better hold it now
I better need it, yeah
I better use it till the day I die, whoa I

Don't expect any answers dear
For I know that they don't come with age, no, no
Well, ain't never gonna love you any better babe
And I'm never gonna love you right
So you'd better take it now, right now

Oh, it don't make no difference babe 
And I know that I could always try
There's a fire inside of every one of us
You'd better need it now
I get to hold it, yeah
I better use it till the day I die

Don't make no difference babe, no, no, no
And it never ever will
I wanna talk about a little bit of loving ya
I get to hold it babe
I'm gonna need it now
I'm gonna use it

Don't make no difference babe 
Ah hon I hate to be the one
I said you're gonna live your life
And you're gonna love your life
Or babe, someday you're gonna have to cry
Yes indeed, yes indeed, yes indeed
Ah baby, yes indeed

I said you, you're always gonna hurt me
I said you're always gonna let me down
I said everywhere, every day, every day 
And every way, every way
Ah honey won't you hold on to what's gonna move
I said it's gonna disappear when you turn your back
I said you know it ain't gonna be there
When you wanna reach out and grab on

Oh but keep truckin' on

 pastblues.com