Thrifty Tunes 10.03.09: Pearl - Janis Joplin

Posted by Paul Hollingsworth on 10.03.2009

The biggest voice in rock and roll came from the tiny frame of an outcast little girl from deep Texas. Pearl gets a fresh spin, and a fresh polish, in this week's Thrifty Tunes.

Move Over - Janis Joplin

She was the kind of girl other girls in her high school avoided like the plague. She wore strange clothes, congregated with the the unsavory (which in Texas of the late 50's meant mostly black people), and had no interest in being anybody's wife. She was called "pig", "freak" and "creep". She escaped the constant, merciless bullying by embracing music, and by doing so, gave the world a great gift. Her voice remains one of the most raw and powerful instruments ever recorded.

Janis Joplin died, of a heroin overdose, before Pearl was released, and even in its un-finished from, ranks as one of the greatest albums ever and a testament to Joplin's talent. The album's opening track, "Move Over" sets the tone for the rest of the album. The musicians, all chosen by Joplin herself, are tight and focused in a way that only bands who play together on the road can be. Above it all, though, Janis' voice reigns supreme. This is not a voice piped through a auto tune machine, or even much messed around with in the studio. There's no trickery, nothing plastic about her performance. It's as real as it gets. You feel the pain, the pride and the passion in every line she sings. When she sings, "Please don't you do it to me babe, no! Please don't you do it to me babe' it an awesome, honest plea captured in her performance.

Singers, good singers anyway, have a way to involve the audience in their songs, to make an individual feel as though the song is about them in some way. "Cry Baby", which is a cover of song by The Enchanters, is an example of Janis' ability to connect with her audience. Listening to this song now, almost 40 years later after it was recorded, the heartache Janis infused into the song remains just as poignant and powerful, (maybe even more so) than ever. Joplin loved blues singers like Odetta and Big Mama Thornton, and on this track as well as "A Woman Left Lonely", those influences are evident and well served by Joplin's performance.

Side one ends, rather hauntingly, with the instrumental, "Buried Alive In The Blues." Janis was scheduled to record the vocal track during the weekend she overdosed on heroin. It's an important piece of the album, as it showcases just how big a space Janis and her voice filled in the rest of the songs on the album. Sometimes a song brings ghosts into the room, and this song overflows with spirits and phantoms.

Joplin's most well known song, "Me & Bobby McGee" is an obvious highlight of side two. The song was written by her then boy-toy/friend Kris Kristopherson. (As I've said in previous columns, Kristopherson is one of the more important figures in music. This song may be his exhibit A.) Over time, the song, which was a huge hit, has come to represent a sort of death to the flower-child, hippie movement of the 60's. Janis' voice, which cracks throughout the song and seems on the verge of breaking to pieces, has never sounded more personal or more confessional. To invite yet another ghost into the room, this is also one of the last songs Janis sang before her death.

My absolute favorite song on the album is "Mercedes Benz." There's no music in the song, nothing to distract from Joplin's voice. In just under two minutes, Joplin, almost literality, sang her heart out. This was the last thing Joplin ever recorded, save for a brief Happy Birthday recording to John Lennon. The version on the album is also the one and only take of the song ever recorded. If you don't get chills listening to the threadbare, close to the bone performance, then you obviously have no taste in music at all. Songs like this are why I love music, and why I think it should be held to such high standards.



Complete Track Listing: (1970 on Columbia Records)

Side One
1. Move Over
2. Cry Baby
3. A Woman Left Lonely
4. Half Moon
5. Buried Alive In The Blues

Side Two
1. My Baby
2. Me & Bobby McGee
3. Mercedes Benz
4. Trust Me
5. Get It While You Can



The word 'legend' is given away far too easily, especially in music. I like some of Madonna's music as much as most everybody who grew up in the 80's, but mere survival through a few decades of changing musical tastes and climates doesn't (or rather, shouldn't) make you a legend. Legends are, in my view, musicians who lay their souls and hearts bare in their work. Few, if any, have ever done it better, or more impressively than Janis.

Pickett Stars: Five out of Five

Next Week: Jesus Was A Capricorn by Kris Kristopherson