I see that Janis Joplin died forty years ago on this date, back in 1970. Her final album, Pearl, was released several months after her death, in early 1971, and was a transcendent album for me when I first heard it as a 12-year old.
It was a great group of songs. My favorites at the time were the great Kris Krisofferson song Me and Bobby McGee and Mercedes Benz but soon Cry Baby and Get It While You Can joined them. These songs were bluesy and raw but with a certain vulnerability that made the power of the music expand. Just a great album, one that is a testament to its own time and has a continuing life even today, nearly forty years later.
I should be be highlighting a song from this album today but instead in honor of Janis’ death I will play a wonderful version of her take on the classic Summertime. It’s from 1969, filmed in Stockholm, Sweden. It just seems right, now that summer is now in the past and the first inklings of autumn are upon us.
Redtree Times 