Janis Joplin, "Pearl"

CJ wonders who will buy him a Mercedes Benz

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Jul 12, 2023

CJ’s Pitch:

Despite his penchant for luxury sedans with killer sound systems, my dad didn’t listen to a lot of music in the car. It was mostly news, sports and talk radio for him. But if we had a little time to burn on the road and he was in the right mood, I could usually convince him to pop in one of the three Greatest Hits tapes he kept in the glove compartment – The Temptations, Simon & Garfunkel and, my favorite, Janis Joplin.

The first time I heard “Piece of My Heart” and “Summertime” I couldn’t fathom how somebody could sing that hard all the time. And the live version of “Ball and Chain”? It was a wonder to me that she could perform another song after that eight-minute vocal firewalk.

At the time I had no idea what direction my life might take, but I knew that I wanted to feel what Janis felt when sang. The primal power, the naked emotion, the unrestrained joy that came from being so goddamn sure that you were doing exactly what you were put on this earth to do.

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Nobody deserved to sing the blues more than Janis Joplin.

Ridiculed and humiliated by her high school classmates and then voted “Ugliest Man on Campus” by the institutionally-sanctioned bullies at UT Austin, Janis sought solace in the music of Big Mama Thornton, Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey. In the voices of these legends, she found her own future and began singing with various local blues acts.

After hooking up with Big Brother and the Holding Company and recording two albums, including the double platinum Cheap Thrills, Janis put out a third album with the Kozmic Blues Band before recording Pearl.

I get swept up in the gospel chorus of “My Baby” and the melancholy of “A Woman Left Lonely.” The boogie backbeat of “Half Moon” and the hippie credo of “Mercedes Benz” add a little levity. And “Get it While You Can” was carpe diem at a time when only Latin students knew what that meant.

My three favorite tunes on Pearl are “Move Over”, “Cry Baby” and “Me and Bobby McGee”. Not just because they’re great accounts of falling in and out of love, but because their echo reverberates down through music history. I heard it when Axl Rose told me that the jungle was gonna bring me to my “sha-na-na-na-na-na-na knees” and again when Amy Winehouse went “Back to Black”. I hear it even more in Steven Tyler, Peter Wolf, Chrissie Hynde and all the jive-talking, street-walking storytellers I love so well.

Those classics are part of the reason this album went all the way to the top of the charts. But Janis never got to see it. Pearl was released three months after she became a charter member of the 27 Club, joining Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix (and later Winehouse and Kurt Cobain) in an All-Star band of artists who died before they finished telling their stories.

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Like a lot of creative people, I’m hooked on the FX show The Bear. It’s an accurate account of what it’s like to pursue a dream that you know will destroy your personal relationships and ultimately kill you. Just so you can have the opportunity to blow someone’s mind with what you’ve created.

In Episode 7 (“Forks”), one of the main characters, Richie, has the following exchange with Garrett, the obsessive manager of an impossibly busy 3-Michelin star restaurant:

Richie: You really drink this Kool-Aid, huh?

Garrett: Yeah, I do.

Richie: Why?

Garrett: Because I love this, Richie. I love this so much, dude…Every day here is the freaking Super Bowl!

Every song was the Super Bowl for Janis Joplin. She never took a note off. When she sang about pain or heartache or loneliness, she threw her whole body and soul into making you feel those things too.

What if we were all like Janis? What if we tried a little harder? Worked a little harder? Loved a little harder?

Janis Joplin realized what most of us spend our days denying. Life is short. You gotta get it while you can.

Mitch’s Response:

Janis Joplin seems like she would have been a tough hang.

Janis seems like one of those friends where you think, "why haven't I hung out with Janis lately? She's always fun!" and then you call her up and she's like "I JUST ATE A FIST FULL OF MUSHROOMS AND GOT A BOX OF FIREWORKS AND WE’RE GONNA SHOOT THEM AT THE HARBORMASTER, COME ON OVER RIGHT FUCKING NOW AND BRING A BOTTLE” and you remember why you never hang out with Janis anymore, but it's too late because you've already committed, and Janis gets real ornery when you don't show.

So you grab that bottle of Jack and meet Janis at her friend's boat (The Me & Bobby McSea) and everyone is drinking and smoking and having a great time, and Janis starts belting out classic road tunes with that crazy powerful voice of hers, and you think "I should hang with Janis more often, she's a blast" and then you ask Janis how she knows the guy with the boat and she bellows, "I DON’T KNOW WHOSE FUCKING BOAT THIS IS, MAN, IT WAS JUST THE FIRST ONE I SAW!” and everyone starts laughing and coughing, coughing and laughing, and then some biker lights a firework but accidentally aims it at the main sail, which promptly catches on fire, and now we're all swimming back to shore, but the biker can't swim and we have to drag his fat, soaked, leather-clad body to the shore, with the lights from the Harbormaster flashing closer and closer, and Janis' cackle echoing across the waves.

Janis was a unique musician with an iconic voice, who crashed through a lot of barriers, and paved the way for a whole new generation of singers who like to scream in a delightful way. Like Janis, Pearl is a lot to take, but a fun enough hang once or twice a year.

Pitch Successful ( Long Live Jackie Jormp-Jomp!)

Ken’s Response:

Just the other day, “Whole Lotta Love” came on Spotify after one of my playlists ended. It was fitting that on the week we’re doing the amazingly talented and groundbreaking Janis Joplin, that I was subjected to the shrieky “WAY DOWN INSIDE…YOU NEED…LOOOOVVVVEEEE!” All those Janis haters (and there are plenty of them) talk about her raw vocals, her odd look (can we call it bohemian-chic?), and her peculiar way of talking as if they’re liabilities. Many of those same people lift the aforementioned Robert Plant, Roger Daltrey, and Steven Tyler onto a pedestal for similar offenses. I find it hard to believe it’s a matter of taste; it’s a matter of misogyny. If Janis was a man, she’d be universally loved.

Pearl is a masterpiece wrapped in tragedy, as it was released just a few months after a heroin overdose took her life. The album remains as a testament to her gorgeous voice, her intensity in and out of the studio, and her originality.

From the opening drum beats of the opening track “Move Over” to the iconic “Cry Baby”, and of course the cover of Kris Kristofferson’s “Me and Bobby McGee”, Janis firmly plants her posthumous flag on the rock and roll world with a truly beautiful album.

She was undoubtedly a flawed, troubled soul, but aren’t we all? I guess my biggest takeaway from my week with Pearl is a bit of sadness that we were deprived of whatever she had in store for us next.

Pitch Successful (I’d never trade a tomorrow for a yesterday)

CJ’s pitch was successful, and Janis will drive her Mercedes all the way to the Newbury St. Collection. What’s your take on Janis Joplin and her smash hit Pearl? What Top 20 album from 1971 would you have pitched? Please let us know in the comments.

Exile on Newbury St.

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