Janis Joplin Cutting “Piece of My Heart”

Photographer Daniel Kramer captures Janis Joplin cutting her 1968 hit “Piece of My Heart” in New York. “Janis wanted a bottle of Southern Comfort, so I accompanied her to a local wine store, then she did a few takes,” he recalls. “It was an empty studio, there was no stage or audience, no one to work to — yet she was just incredible.”

Image and text: THE VIRTUAL MUSEUM FOR EVERYTHING ROOTS AND BLUES

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Janis Joplin & Grace Slick – Legendary Voices

Janis Lyn Joplin
Was an American singer and songwriter from Port Arthur, Texas. As a youth Joplin was ridiculed by her fellow students due to her unconventional appearance and personal beliefs. She later sang about her experience at school through her song "Ego Rock." Early in her life, Joplin cultivated a rebellious and unconventional lifestyle, becoming a beatnik poet. She began her singing career as a folk and blues singer in San Francisco, playing clubs and bars with her guitar and auto-harp.

Joplin first rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of the psychedelic-acid rock band Big Brother and the Holding Company, and later as a solo artist with her more soulful and bluesy backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band. She was one of the more popular acts at the Monterey Pop Festival and later became one of the major attractions to the Woodstock festival.

Joplin’s death in October 1970 at the age of 27 stunned her fans and shocked the music world, especially when coupled with the death just sixteen days earlier of another rock icon, Jimi Hendrix. Music historian Tom Moon wrote that Joplin had "a devastatingly original voice." Music columnist Jon Pareles of the New York Times wrote that Joplin as an artist was "overpowering and deeply vulnerable." Author Megan Terry claimed that Joplin was the female version of Elvis Presley in her ability to captivate an audience.

Grace Slick
Born Grace Barnett Wing; October 30, 1939 and is an American singer, songwriter, and former model, best known as one of the lead singers of the rock groups The Great Society, Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, and Starship, as well as for her work as a solo artist, for nearly three decades, from the mid-1960s to the mid-1990s. Slick was an important figure in the 1960s psychedelic rock movement, and is known for her witty lyrics and powerful contralto vocals.

Alongside her close contemporary Janis Joplin, Slick was an important figure in the development of rock music in the late 1960s and was one of the first female rock stars. Her distinctive vocal style and striking stage presence exerted a definite influence on other female performers, including Stevie Nicks and Patti Smith.

Slick’s longevity in the music business helped her to earn a rather unusual distinction: the oldest female vocalist on a Billboard Hot 100 chart topping single. "We Built This City" reached #1 on November 16, 1985, shortly after her 46th birthday. The previous record was age 44 for Tina Turner, with 1984’s #1 smash, "What’s Love Got To Do With It". Turner (who is, coincidentally, within a month of Slick’s age) turned 45 two months after the song topped the charts. Slick broke her own record in April 1987 at age 47 when "Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now" topped the U.S. charts. Her record stood for 12 years but was ultimately broken by Cher, who was 53 in 1999 when "Believe" hit #1

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Some artists and some songs find a place in your heart and never leave. They lift your spirit whenever you hear them, make everything around you disappear, build a place for just you and their sound . These two artists and these two songs do this for me – Ted

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Janis Joplin And Her Famous Porche

Every male blogger with a bit of self-respect posts a picture of a babe on a car every now and then. Here’s my version on the theme. Janis Joplin on her famous hand painted Porche.

Not exactly what you’d call a babe in the usual understanding of the word, but that Southern Comfort drinking, laud mouthed, swearing babe sang like no white woman had done before her and she cleared a place for girls in rock and paved the way for every one that followed – We miss you Janis.

Picture found at “Farbror Sid”

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Sixties Flashback: Monterey Pop Festival 1967

!!! Links to 80 minutes of video from the festival at the bottom of the article !!! 

The Monterey International Pop Music Festival was a three-day concert event held June 16 to June 18, 1967 at the Monterey County Fairgrounds in Monterey, California. Monterey was the first widely promoted and heavily attended rock festival, attracting an estimated 55,000 total attendees with up to 90,000 people present at the event’s peak at midnight on Sunday. However, these estimates seem fanciful in light of the actual capacity of the venue in which the concerts took place:[improper synthesis?] the Fairground’s website states that "The larger arena comfortably seats 5,850." It was notable as hosting the first major American appearances by Jimi Hendrix and The Who, as well as the first major public performances of Janis Joplin. It was also the first major performance by Otis Redding in front of a predominantly white audience.The Monterey Pop Festival embodied the themes of California as a focal point for the counterculture and is generally regarded as one of the beginnings of the "Summer of Love" in 1967. It also became the template for future music festivals, notably the Woodstock Festival two years later.

The festival was planned in just seven weeks by promoter Lou Adler, John Phillips of The Mamas & the Papas, producer Alan Pariser, and publicist Derek Taylor. The festival board included members of The Beatles and The Beach Boys. The Monterey location had been known as the site for the long-running Monterey Jazz Festival and Monterey Folk Festival; the promoters saw the Monterey Pop festival as a way to validate rock music as an art form in the way jazz and folk were regarded.

The artists performed for free, with all revenue donated to charity, with the exception of Ravi Shankar, who was paid $3,000 for his afternoon-long performance on the sitar. Country Joe and the Fish were paid $5,000 not by the festival itself, but from revenue generated from the D.A. Pennebaker documentary.

The festival was later hailed as a triumph of organization and cooperation, setting a standard that few subsequent festivals have ever matched.

• Lou Adler later reflected:
  …the  idea for Monterey was to provide the best of everything — sound equipment, sleeping and eating accommodations, transportation — services that had never been provided for the artist before Monterey…
  We set up an on-site first aid clinic, because we knew there would be a need for medical supervision and that we would encounter drug-related problems. We didn’t want people who got themselves into trouble and needed medical attention to go untreated. Nor did we want their problems to ruin or in any way disturb other people or disrupt the music…
  Our security worked with the Monterey police. The local law enforcement authorities never expected to like the people they came in contact with as much as they did. They never expected the spirit of ‘Music, Love and Flowers’ to take over to the point where they’d allow themselves to be festooned with flowers.

Almost every aspect of The Monterey International Pop Festival was a first: although the audience was predominantly white, Monterey’s bill was truly multi-cultural and crossed all musical boundaries, mixing folk, blues, jazz, soul, R&B, rock, psychedelia, pop and classical genres, boasting a line-up that put established stars like The Mamas and the Papas, Simon & Garfunkel and The Byrds alongside groundbreaking new acts from the UK, the USA, South Africa and India.
 
Some of the artists and bands

Jefferson Airplane

With two huge singles behind them, the Airplane was one of the major attractions of the festival. They performed fairly early but made a lasting impression.

The Who
Although already a big act in the UK, and gaining some attention in the US, Monterey was the concert that propelled The Who into the American mainstream. The band’s famed performance was decided by a coin toss, since guitarists Pete Townshend and Jimi Hendrix each refused to go on after the other.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Hendrix ended his Monterey performance with an unpredictable version of "Wild Thing", which he capped by kneeling over his guitar, pouring lighter fluid over it, setting it aflame, and then smashing it. This produced unforeseen sounds and these actions contributed to his rising popularity in the USA.

Janis Joplin

Monterey Pop was also one of the earliest major public performances for Janis Joplin, who appeared as a member of Big Brother and The Holding Company. Joplin was seen swigging from a bottle of Southern Comfort as she gave a provocative rendition of the song "Ball ‘n’ Chain". Columbia Records signed Big Brother and The Holding Company on the basis of their performance at Monterey. "I became a supporter of feminism watching Janis Joplin at the Monterey Festival", says John McCleary, author of The Hippie Dictionary. "A lot of people had similar experiences watching female role models with that kind of power, unafraid to express themselves sexually while demanding their rights

Otis Redding
Monterey was the first time that soul star Otis Redding performed in front of a large and predominantly white audience in his home country. Redding, backed in his performance by Booker T. & The MG’s, was included on the bill through the efforts of promoter Jerry Wexler, who saw the festival as an opportunity to advance Redding’s career. " So this is the love crowd" was Redding’s famous quote to the audience. Redding’s show included his single "Respect" (which had become an even bigger hit for Aretha Franklin just weeks earlier). Although the festival finally gave Redding mainstream attention, it would be one of his last major performances. He died 6 months later in a plane crash at the age of 26.

Ravi Shankar
Ravi Shankar was another artist who was introduced to America at the Monterey festival. Eighteen minutes of Dhun (Dadra and Fast Teental) an excerpt from Shankar’s four-hour performance at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, concluded the Monterey Pop film, introducing the artist to a new generation of music fans.

The Mamas & the Papas
The Mamas & the Papas performed the closing act of the festival as member John Phillips helped organize the festival. They also introduced several of the acts including Scott McKenzie. They played some of their biggest hits including Monday, Monday and California Dreamin’.

Link to 80 minutes of video from the festival

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