Good Bad Or Indifferent Janis Joplin
 

She had a unique voice to say the least and her delivery of the way she phrased the lyrics she sung was also quite different to any other singer that we had heard prior to Janis, or after for that matter so on the grand scale of singers where did she rank? Personally I think she was one of a kind who most people did not understand from a musical stand point.

I though she was amazing. Maybe a little too much of the same thing from time to time, but an incredible energy when it worked. Ball and Chain from the Monterrey Pop Fest blows my mind.

Indifferent. I think she had a great voice but not someone I've ever been all that interested in exploring beyond the singles.

I haven't heard much from Janis. While her voice was powerful and made quite a stand for female rockstars, I find her hard to listen to sometimes. So I'll go with indifferent.

I always thought her best stuff was with Big Brother and the Holding Company.

Indifferent/Good.

Her album "Pearl" is good, but most of her stuff tends to sound the same. The voice? I like it, but when it comes to female singers with that kind of voice I go with Etta James every day of the week.

This is a review I wrote for Amazon.com in 2005 of Cheap Thrills, by Big Brother & the Holding Company: That pretty much sums up my feelings about Janis Joplin. She had a remarkable voice but she died before she reached her full creative potential.

Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison left behind a legacy of several brilliant albums before they died but Janis Joplin's body of work is surprisingly thin by comparison.

well said

she was amazing.

I respect Janis mightily. I don't and have never owned any, but she was an amazing talent and important in the evolution of rock music.

Look around back at the time Janis was out there doing what she was doing. There were not a lot of female artists that were trying to mix it up with the big boys. Perhaps her biggest legacy is the what if question........Her body of work was minimal, but her mark on that era of music was immense in my opinion.:bowdown:

Agreed. Love their sound. Something about that San Francisco groove just gets me.

The thing I love about Janis is that she didn't just sing. She bled. She had this incredible war going on in her head, so much pain in her heart, and she just bled on stage. She was authentic. You could feel her; you can still feel her. I get chills listening to her (especially live footage - you can't get the full Janis experience just listening to studio tracks).

I don't really feel there was a tragic loss when she passed. I feel that she accomplished what she needed to in the short time that she was alive, and had she lived on, she would have seen nothing but agony (and chances are, she would have had to stop sharing that with us).

Here's Janis at the Monterey Pop Festival. I lived not far from the fairgrounds where this historical event took place. There's not much there but buildings, and it's all fenced in. Not exactly as magical as I would have imagined. (Sorry to break anyone's heart, but it's gone.)



"Ball and Chain"

at 3:31 you can see Mama Cass - another legend we lost too soon.



RIP Janis, you lost little girl. Love you.

Have you by any chance watched the documentary entitled the Festival Express? This was film just a short couple of months prior to her death.

Here's a copy of an old review I wrote for Cheap Thrills, the first Big Brother & the Holding Company album which appeared in the music magazine No Depression:

JJ totally unique ,ball and chain so soulful bluesy .created a style all her own .

She sings like a cat being tortured!

I'm with those who say she was wonderful with Big Brother and so-so in her solo career.

It seemed to me she was trying too hard on her post-Big Brother recordings, and seemed much more organic and real when paired with BB's garage-band ethos.

It should be pointed out that her voice was perhaps at its best during the much-maligned Mainstream album...powerful but clear as a bell. In a way, it's a shame that the blowzy broad image took over as time went on, as she was actually an intelligent and rather shy woman.

It's very hard to say what would have become of her career had she not died so young. But it's a shame she ever left the womb that was Big Brother and the Holding Company. That will always be Janis to me.

( http://www.musicbanter.com/games-lis...litz-game.html )

It seems kind of sad that several posters have opted for a verdict of "indifferent" to Janis, especially given that her live performances were such an emotional tour de force. She put so much of herself into her music that "indifferent" seems like a slap in the face, so, always ready to be picky about words, I'm gonna propose a different category: Ambivalent.

My attitude to JJ (surprise!) is ambivalent: Gotta respect the power of her performances and her commitment to her art, but on the other hand, I don't particularly like her material and I'm not much interested in hearing her without a video to watch at the same time.

I totally admit to having let her slip past me. I know her name and sort of caught on to the fact that she was sort of a big deal way back. I should probably listen to an album or two and get educated.

5) Down on Me
4) Mercedes Benz
3) Me and Bobby McGee
2) Piece of My Heart
1) Summertime

The only version of Summertime I love more than hers is Charlie Parker with Strings

^ That's an interesting sequence of clips! I wouldn't 've believed you if you'd told me that JJ had covered a Moondog song but can't deny the evidence...
Good for her for choosing some off-center material, though I thought the live version shows some of the failings of her performances. The song is kind of dragged out with no fresh musical ideas and relies on JJ to fill the gap with some heart-felt but ultimately banal details. :(

Yep, Me and Bobbie McGee, Piece of My Heart are prob my favourites too.

@ MicShazam: I know you like female vocalists, but my guess is that JJ's voice will be a bit too harsh for you.

I agree.

But she had a great band and a beyond great voice. I’m not trying to claim it has aged better than it really has but there’s a time and place element there. It was performed with swaying around and passing a joint in mind. I’m old enough to have seen the Grateful Dead. In the bootlegs it sounds like they’re just kind of kicking around waiting to lock into the next song but actually being there was awesome. The Dead had a huge repertoire of great tunes to create the magic but Janis had a mind blowingly powerful voice that I’m sure was ****ing spine chilling live.

I'm indifferent i guess. I know her hits and i like them but im not really interested in listening to her stuff at this point.

I wasn't sure about your age but this gives me a good reference.

Church.

Oh I don't know about that. Some of my favorite female vocalists can do death metal growls, after all :laughing:

But I've yet to check out Joplin. I will though.

Her voice is incredible but the songwriting hasn't held up very well imo but it's still solid and for the time it's great. If she had lived longer I bet she would have come out with some pretty magical material. Gotta go with Good Janice Joplin.

Indifference.

What she sang was heartfelt, I'll give her that.

I just never heard anything that made her special.

If anything, I feel kinda bad for her. She seemed lost.

She always looked like she needed a bath, too.

^ Yes, me too on all your points, including Grateful Dead live (at the "Ally Pally" in London) . Of course the time and place argument applies to any musical performance. For about a year, a friend of mine used to get complementary tickets to classical concerts and he took me along a few times. Watching those violinists and orchestra playing away, they almost tricked me into enjoying classical music. Bastards!

^ Yes like Amy Winehouse she just seemed bewildered by her own success.

Sorry, double post.

cannot stand her voice or her incredibly out of tune and out of time band on the earlier recordings.

My God, those guys were just awful.

sorry

hey, you asked.

just my opinion.

Undeniably unique singing style, I enjoy several songs. But it was never enough to make me actively seek out anything other than a greatest hits collection.

I don't care about the technical quality of the band, I've always thought their sound suited her quite well. She just has a voice that you can emotionally connect to like no other, that alone is an enormous achievement. To me she transcended something with her singing.
And I agree with Ladyislingering that she had a peculiar kind of beauty