She's Got Soul

SD and I went to see the play Love, Janis this afternoon. It was about Janis Joplin and is inspired from letters she wrote to her family, from around 1966 until her death in 1970. One of the characters was Janis, who spoke out the letters to home and the other character was Janis Joplin, the singer. Singing Janis, played by Monica Heuser, sang many of the hit songs associated with Janis Joplin, accompanied by a live back-up band. It rocked!

Watching the actress belt out the songs transported me back to my youth. I had the album Cheap Thrills and I spent hours listening to it in my bedroom, playing the album on my cheap Sears monoraul record player. In the theatre today, I had one of those slap-the-forehead moments. The first time I heard George Gershwin's song, Summertime, was Janis Joplin's version of it. I've always like the song, but until this afternoon didn't realize that was the same song as the one from Porgy and Bess.

The play was a nice study of Janis Joplin and revealed her intellect and ambition, as well as her sensitivity. She was an outcast in high school, a mis-understood artist. A beatnik living in the little town of Port Arthur, Texas. College in Austin wasn't much better. She was voted "ugliest man on campus" by the fraternity boys. Jerks.

I can remember a debate in the popular culture about Janis Joplin, about her having "soul." Some people claimed a white girl couldn't have soul. You decide. Here's a clip from the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, where Janis and Big Brother and the Holding Company performed for free. Their performance rocketed them to stardom. That's Mama Cass at the end mouthing, "Wow! Wow! That's really heavy."