“On stage I make love to twenty five thousand people; and then I go home alone.”
Janis Joplin
Heaven and hell. Love and hate. Ecstasy or eternal depression. Inspiration comes from these opposing forces. Those lucky enough to use these emotive moments to compose romantic poems are remembered through the ages. But Janis Joplin wasn’t like that. Her motto was that everything was rotten. This was in regards to the world around her, and maybe even her soul, because unfortunately she was always dead.
When Robert Hillburn, one of the most acclaimed rock critics, met Janis Joplin for the first time, he was surprised by her ambiguity. She was all decked out in hippie clothing: huge round shades, stacked-up multicolored fabrics, and several rings and necklaces. His first impression was that of an exotic animal that screamed with a bleeding heart, but as steady as a towering monument to women.
When he had the chance to talk to her face to face, he met another side of her. Backstage, Janis seemed like a vulnerable woman weakened by drugs and sadness. It was then that Hillburn understood that she took inspiration from deeply rooted pain, desperation, and tragedy. What makes her music memorable is the raw intensity of her interpretation, which showed her fears and wounds.
“She was the Judy Garland of rock: someone with crushing talent but equally fragile emotionally.” That was her duality. Her monstrous artistic identity was fed by a broken heart and a torn soul. It led her to success, but also to her to death. Janis was a match. She lit up with great intensity, seared everyone around her, and burned out in a second.
A year after Robert Hillburn met the greatest woman in rock history, Janis died from heroin overdose in a dingy motel in Los Angeles. She left an unfinished recording. Her weariness towards the world and her sleepwalking through life allowed her to finish a couple of songs. One of those was “Me and Bobby McGee,” her truest epitaph.
The last verse Janis recorded was “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.” For her, death became the only way to be free from suffering.
“Little Girl Blue”
This is one of Janis’s most endearing songs. The sweet tone of her voice gives the impression of it being sung by the young, defenseless child she was. This lullaby seems to comfort that little girl growing up in Texas in a hurtful environment.
“Ball and Chain”
In this song Janis takes the heavy steel ball used by seventeenth century prisoners as a metaphor of her feelings. Love for most people implies freedom, but for her it was a heavy burden that she could never get away from.
“Trust Me”
“My love is like a seed, baby, just needs time to grow.” Janis saw herself as someone who, like good wine, needed to mature. She begged for time to a love that would get infuriated by her madness. She was never understood, never given what she asked for, and now we know the consequences.
“Maybe”
The night before she died, Janis had been fighting with her partner Seth Morgan. Perhaps it was this confrontation one of the things that lead to her death. Her love life was guided by the possibilities of being or not being. This song is a reflection of that romantic Russian roulette she never understood and that consumed her.
“Cry Baby”
Originally composed by Garnet Mimms, Janis’s unmistakable voice made this song reach its potential. The song is a pleading request to a love that looks to the past to see long gone relationships. Janis begs her partner not to listen to the seducing voices, because she is there for him in body, soul, and voice.
“To Love Somebody”
Many of Janis’s songs were taken up by other composers. This track was first released by the BeeGees in 1967, but that doesn’t mean that it’s distanced from the Cosmic Witch. The feeling that motivated her was the absence of love. This song is about the emptiness of heart, the void response to a kiss or a touch. Maybe her life would’ve been different had she had someone to love.
“Get It While You Can”
Janis says that in these times people run from each other, so when a love comes in, you need to hold on to it. She always wanted a man to show himself like that to her. To give her what she needed. But unfortunately it never happened. Which is why the White Lady of Blues left us too soon.
These songs demonstrated Janis Joplin’s deep loneliness. Nobody was ever able to reach her and heal those old wounds. Her siren voice called out to him, but back then there wasn’t a man who could bear with her greatness.
Translated by María Suárez
