In memory of Janis Joplin

[Nipper]

I have always been a huge Janis fan. Some years ago I wrote a poem about her. I'd like to share it with you guys...

Once I was crying in the rain
‘Cause love was like a ball and chain,
And I remembered her again
To share my misery and pain…

There wasn’t anybody near
And I was gonna die,
The only hope that I could hear
Was ‘Baby, don’t you cry’…

Her name was Kozmic Blues,
Her voice – the nasty nail,
She had no time to lose
‘Cause life seemed short and failed…

She was on stage to shine
In all her radiant glory;
About tomorrow didn’t worry
‘Cause she was way beyond her time…

She was raw iron soul
Who didn’t dream of winning fame,
A guest in our world
Who burnt away in purple haze…

Though times of loneliness are changing
The song remains the same,
She spread her wings and flew to angels
‘Cause freedom was her aim…

The farewell song one day was sung
But in my soul the music lasts…
She has become a flower in the sun,
A little piece of many hearts…

[plasticfantastic]

Really gorgeous. That's a fantastic poem.

I've always been a huge Janis fan as well. I heard her for the first time when I was about eight, I think, and was immediately hooked. Since I am a singer, she is a huge musical influence on me, though hopefully, she'll never be a personal influence, per se. Odd as it sounds, it was through imitating Janis that I was able to find my own style of singing. I think her singing will always be a sort of unattainable goal for me that I know I'll never accomplish, but will always inspire me to try to get better.

Three albums and twenty-seven years on the planet have made three generations of women so far want to sing, and I have no doubt that there will be many generations more. Cheers, Janis.

[EmbryonicRabbit68]

That really is a great poem. There was something very warming about Janis, she really was one of the greatest singers ever lived, and what she has done for music, singing and women in music, can't be measured. That poem is a great way to remember her, and the great feeling and hope she gives.

[Nipper]

I’m sorry for the delay in responding… Glad you liked the poem… Thank you for the kind words for Janis… You're absolutely right, and I totally agree with you…
We all love our great JANIS…

[PsychedelicRabbit]

That was such a beautiful poem.

I love Janis, too. She's such an inspiration. I really connect with her words. She's got a strong heart. I love that about her.

[tontonfranck]

Congratulations for the poem Nipper.
Janis still deserves that kind of words.

[oldblue]

like bob dylan said in his masterpiece "she's your lover now":

The pawnbroker roared
Also, so, so did the landlord
The scene was so crazy, wasn’t it?
Both were so glad
To watch me destroy what I had
Pain sure brings out the best in people, doesn’t it?

Heroin

(Reed)

I don't know just where I'm going
But I'm gonna try for the kingdom, if I can
'Cause it makes me feel like I'm a man
When I put a spike into my vein
And I'll tell ya, things aren't quite the same
When I'm rushing on my run
And I feel just like Jesus' son
And I guess that I just don't know
And I guess that I just don't know

I have made the big decision
I'm gonna try to nullify my life
'Cause when the blood begins to flow
When it shoots up the dropper's neck
When I'm closing in on death
And you can't help me not, you guys
And all you sweet girls with all your sweet talk
You can all go take a walk
And I guess that I just don't know
And I guess that I just don't know

I wish that I was born a thousand years ago
I wish that I'd sail the darkened seas
On a great big clipper ship
Going from this land here to that
In a sailor's suit and cap
Away from the big city
Where a man can not be free
Of all of the evils of this town
And of himself, and those around
Oh, and I guess that I just don't know
Oh, and I guess that I just don't know

Heroin, be the death of me
Heroin, it's my wife and it's my life
Because a mainer to my vein
Leads to a center in my head
And then I'm better off than dead
Because when the smack begins to flow
I really don't care anymore
About all the Jim-Jim's in this town
And all the politicians makin' busy sounds
And everybody puttin' everybody else down
And all the dead bodies piled up in mounds

'Cause when the smack begins to flow
Then I really don't care anymore
Ah, when the heroin is in my blood
And that blood is in my head
Then thank God that I'm as good as dead
Then thank your God that I'm not aware
And thank God that I just don't care
And I guess I just don't know
And I guess I just don't know

[Susan Butcher]

If a drug merely covers up the pain of life, it's next to useless, or worse.

[okeedoe]

When the pain is severe and persistant it blocks or impairs every other feeling and distorts one's qualitative cognition and projection of life.
Do you like sadness, Susan?

By the way I'm hopelessly in love with your prefrontal cortex.

[Susan Butcher]

Sadness is OK sometimes. It's depression I hate. That's when the "cognitive distortion" takes over. As for fixing it with opiates... oh, bugger the lecture, heroin's out of fashion now, anyway.

[usedtobebabson]

Sadness is a necessary part of life. Depression is not...

On the Velvet Underground - I thought Heroine, Waiting for the man and Venus in Furs were all kind of a "first" as far as songs go. I have to wonder how the lyrics got past the record companies!?!

[EmbryonicRabbit68]

I ask myself that too sometimes about the Velvet Underground, how a record company found it was alright to sign them back in 1966. Thank god they did, but somebody was thinking outside the box!

As for depression, for me, it's a drug, that has no high. Maybe I'm not the best judge because I'm not depressed often outside of heartbreak, but from what I've heard about certain drugs, it acts like the downside of some of them. And sometimes depression can come from chasing an emotional need you just can't get, striving to be a better person yet it's just nearly impossible, so you're reaching for that one thing that'll make you happy, but you can't get it. Sometimes you can predict it, sometimes you know that what you want you can't have, so the depression is going to come anyway. I don't find much of a need for drugs because it's all in your imagination, if you free your worries well enough, psychedelics will come to your mind freely. But that might just depend on the type of person... But they're all highs and lows we can achieve on our own. I think a lot of people, such as Janis and her generation, "needed" drugs to get there because they didn't think like that growing up, it was an entirely different world. But that's my opinion, my mind acts very weirdly.

[usedtobebabson]

I ask myself that too sometimes about the Velvet Underground, how a record company found it was alright to sign them back in 1966. Thank god they did, but somebody was thinking outside the box!

As for depression, for me, it's a drug, that has no high. Maybe I'm not the best judge because I'm not depressed often outside of heartbreak, but from what I've heard about certain drugs, it acts like the downside of some of them. And sometimes depression can come from chasing an emotional need you just can't get, striving to be a better person yet it's just nearly impossible, so you're reaching for that one thing that'll make you happy, but you can't get it. Sometimes you can predict it, sometimes you know that what you want you can't have, so the depression is going to come anyway. I don't find much of a need for drugs because it's all in your imagination, if you free your worries well enough, psychedelics will come to your mind freely. But that might just depend on the type of person... But they're all highs and lows we can achieve on our own. I think a lot of people, such as Janis and her generation, "needed" drugs to get there because they didn't think like that growing up, it was an entirely different world. But that's my opinion, my mind acts very weirdly.

Well put ER. I guess depression is a part of life, or we couldn't recognize it. I think depression is a choice we make in our mind and thoughts. Some of the Vets would describe it as " a love affair with "misery" thoughts. But breaking the threshold of depression is more difficult than learning to avoid it by slowing down and focusing on self awareness. (Hey was self awareness a theme of the 60s:)

[oldblue]

I ask myself that too sometimes about the Velvet Underground, how a record company found it was alright to sign them back in 1966. Thank god they did, but somebody was thinking outside the box!

As for depression, for me, it's a drug, that has no high. Maybe I'm not the best judge because I'm not depressed often outside of heartbreak, but from what I've heard about certain drugs, it acts like the downside of some of them. And sometimes depression can come from chasing an emotional need you just can't get, striving to be a better person yet it's just nearly impossible, so you're reaching for that one thing that'll make you happy, but you can't get it. Sometimes you can predict it, sometimes you know that what you want you can't have, so the depression is going to come anyway. I don't find much of a need for drugs because it's all in your imagination, if you free your worries well enough, psychedelics will come to your mind freely. But that might just depend on the type of person... But they're all highs and lows we can achieve on our own. I think a lot of people, such as Janis and her generation, "needed" drugs to get there because they didn't think like that growing up, it was an entirely different world. But that's my opinion, my mind acts very weirdly.

Well put ER. I guess depression is a part of life, or we couldn't recognize it. I think depression is a choice we make in our mind and thoughts. Some of the Vets would describe it as " a love affair with "misery" thoughts. But breaking the threshold of depression is more difficult than learning to avoid it by slowing down and focusing on self awareness. (Hey was self awareness a theme of the 60s:)

for those people who have depression that is physiologically based it's not a matter of choice. they can focus on self awareness all they want and it ain't doing any good.

[Susan Butcher]

Well, I find if I can stop myself thinking for even a few seconds, it interrupts the process that creates depression. The negative cognitive twist is still there, but it's not growing into an unbearably gloomy assesment of my situation. So, yeah, the "self-awareness" thing does help me a little. It doesn't help everybody.

I think it might have been Andy Warhol's prestige that kept the record company off the Velvet's case. In any case, Verve were willing to issue risky stuff if it was arty enough. "Freak Out" is another example.