![]() ![]() “It’s hard not to imagine her doing ‘Help Me Make It Through the Night,’” George-Warren said. She sang “Me and Bobby McGee” as well as another Kristofferson composition, “Sunday Morning Coming Down.” George-Warren mentioned a bootleg she had of Joplin singing at Threadgill’s in Austin in July 1970. She took seeming disparate scraps and stitched them into her own coat of many colors. ![]() But by that point in her career, she was a more confident interpreter doing what artists do. Joplin opted to scuff up the verses more than Mimms. The chorus remained the same, a high, soaring expression of anguish. “Cry Baby” was a more traditional sounding R&B song when released in 1963 by Garnet Mimms and the Enchanters. “But I had no idea a singer could do what she did with that song. The blues were imprinted on her psyche as an outcast at Lamar State College in Beaumont, an aspiring artist who was obsessed with Bessie Smith and Houston native and blues great Sippie Wallace.īut the coil-and-release in her vocals on “Cry Baby” and the swooping disparity between the highs and lows on “A Woman Left Lonely” are befitting a singer whose purse months before she died included an Otis Redding cassette.ĭan Penn, co-author of “A Woman Left Lonely,” told me that he knew he had a great song when it was written. The blues gets mentioned often with Joplin and “Pearl,” and the blues can be felt throughout the album. The way Joplin stretches her vowels exudes pain and playfulness, a high wire feat for a vocalist. It remains a moving piece of music for its spartan presentation. By the time Ken Pearson joins on organ, the vehicle is speeding along.īy contrast, “Mercedes Benz,” another “Pearl” song that has attained ample renown on its own, is just voice and Joplin slapping along in time. The opening track “Move Over” opens crisply and simply with Clark Pierson’s drum quickly joined by John Till’s rigid chords and Joplin’s voice. Her voice is the star of this particular show, but the elements surrounding it are perfectly calibrated to work with Joplin’s dynamic instrument. It helped that the Full Tilt Boogie Band was a tight ensemble capable of helping execute Joplin’s vision for “Pearl” rather than an ensemble seeking a singer. In “Janis: Her Life and Music,” George-Warren charts Joplin’s path, from insecure singer with beast of a voice to an artist who implemented her own vision for how that voice should be applied in song. Joplin’s biographer, Holly George-Warren called Texas “ground zero for her musical mission.” “Pearl” was the beginning of a reclamation of her roots. But with “Pearl” the psychedelic foundation was swapped out for something earthier. In San Francisco’s scene she found her people, a more welcoming crowd than the one that made her feel like an outcast back home. Joplin made her name in San Francisco in the ‘60s, half a country away from her home in Port Arthur. Into that space, arrived “Pearl,” a lustrous gem of an album informed by years of struggle and also a feeling of empowerment. SAME THREE GUYS, SAME THREE CHORDS: "ZZ TOP'S' FIRST ALBUM" TURNS 50 The year also saw the release of Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On,” the Rolling Stones’ “Sticky Fingers,” Sly and the Family Stone’s “There’s a Riot Goin’ On,” Joni Mitchell’s “Blue,” Led Zeppelin’s “IV,” Van Morrison’s “Tupelo Honey,” Funkadelic’s “Maggot Brain,” Carol King’s “Tapestry,” Black Sabbath’s “Master of Reality,” Pink Floyd’s “Meddle,” John Lennon’s “Imagine,” Leonard Cohen’s “Songs of Love and Hate,” the Who’s “Who’s Next,” Elton John’s “Madman Across the Water,” Harry Nilsson’s “Nilsson Schmilsson.” The year included outliers, cult favorites by bands that made better-known recordings: The Beach Boys’ “Surf’s Up” and the Kinks’ “Muswell Hillbillies.”īut notably there was space to fill: For the first time in a long time, 1971 offered nothing new by the Beatles and Bob Dylan. This week marks another big one by a Texas act: “ZZ Top’s First Album” was released 50 years ago. 1 with Joplin’s name attached to it, a posthumous chart topper that continues to circulate ubiquitously a half century later.īecause 1971 was a rich one for music, this year will be full of commentary about beloved albums turning 50. 12 in 1968 with “Piece of My Heart.”īut “Me and Bobby McGee” reached No. The song ended up being Joplin’s only Top 40 hit under her own name with Big Brother and the Holding Company she hit No. “Pearl” contained Joplin’s take on “Me and Bobby McGee,” an instantly revered recording that found Joplin singing Kris Kristofferson’s words with both coiled restraint and enormous feeling. ![]() Photo: Burley Auction Groupįifty years ago today Janis Joplin was three months gone, but her status as an ageless popular music icon was just beginning with the release of “Pearl.” The album sounds bracing even a half century later, the sound of an artist really finding her voice. Janis Joplin Pearl Framed Album Cover Photo. ![]()
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