Janis: the raw voice from San Francisco

Aquest post el vaig publicar al meu blog paral·lel en anglès el 10/08/06. La idea és tancar aquell blog, que òbviament no puc mantenir, així que aniré penjant aquí els 5 posts que conté i després l'eliminaré. Aquest de la Janis va ser el primer (la il·lustració de la Janis és de Jan Op de Beeck)


Well, Janis hit me maybe 15 years ago or so when I got into 60's rock through The Doors, Jimmi Hendrix and herself. At that point, everything which seemed out of the mainstream was fine for me, and in the early 90's, whatever artist outside the Seattle bands had a very small space in the music industry.

When I first got into Janis music I couldn't help falling in love with her: I mean come on, have you listened Janis? if you have: have you been able to forget that voice? don't think so... her overwhelming power on stage and her incredibly raw sense of singing makes listening to Janis an experience that has to be made at least once, alone. And more, if you listen to her I don't think you can escape from her ever again.

At one point I decided to listen to as much of her production as possible and found Pearl, the album released just after her death from heroin and alcohol overdose, with the Big Brother & The Holding Company. Never an album name has better described what's inside: Cry Baby, Me and Bobby McGee, Mercedes Benz... all of them impressive performances by Janis that will touch you if you've never listen to them. After that initial approach I went back to Cheap Trills, her album from 1968 with the incredibly cool cover by Robert Crumb, including probalby her biggest hit: Pice of my heart, and other incredible songs such as Summertime.

After that, I just moved over to other 60's music such as The Doors, Jimi Hendrix or Greatful Dead, but I have not been able to forget her since.

Now, from the distance, I still need some Janis once every while, to charge me up, to make me feel I love music, and to escape from most of the horrible singers of nowadays music industry. Just try this: after a radio hit from -fill in with whoever you might think of, which is en vogue right now, and repeatedly appears on air- just take a breath, seat down, relax, and make yourself a favour: listen to Janis Joplin.