Today, January 19th, is the anniversary of Janis Joplin’s birth, one of the best hard blues singers to come down the pike.
She would be 65 today, eligible for Medicare.
Unfortunately for us all, her excesses of the late 60’s did her in at age 27.
In 1968 (IIRC, which is highly doubtful), I saw Big Brother & the Holding Company perform at Franklin Pierce College in Rindge, NH. It was a fairly small venue in a gymnasium, & when Janis was introduced, the place came undone. She came out on stage, had a few introductory remarks to fire up the crowd, then chugged what appeared to be a pint bottle of Southern Comfort.
People went crazy nuts.
After the bottle was empty, she let out one of her signature "Whaaa-OOO-Whaaa" riffs, & flang that bottle out into the audience.
I’m sitting there stupefied in a weed-induced haze, & think, "Hey- she threw that bottle at ME"!
I stood up, reached up, & that damn bottle bounced off the end of my hand hard enough to near bust my middle finger joint.
A guy behind me two rows caught it.
I still wish I had caught that thing.
RIP Janis, I miss ya…
No comments:
Post a Comment