I knew how this documentary was going to end
so as I began to get there I really just wanted to stop. Stop the video.
Stop time. Go back and stop her. There are moments when she is singing that
chills ran up my back and tears pierced my eyes. When Joplin hits some notes
on Summertime and Ball and Chain it is as pure as music can get. Such a powerful
emotive voice completely untrained. Just instinct and pain and a need to
communicate with an audience. She never sang till she was seventeen. When
she did she was surprised that she could. Driven by loneliness and rejection
she found herself singing the blues. Loved Billie and Aretha. It came to
her so naturally. She spilled her guts when she sang. Left nothing behind.
Messed with drugs and alcohol for years to ease her loneliness but also to
feel fun. Everyone she worked with or knew seems to have loved her. Have
nothing but good things to say about her. She wrote letters to her parents
that are read in which she keeps asking them for their recognition. Telling
them she is doing fine. On the verge of everything she wants.
Brought up in Port Arthur Texas. Not a pretty girl and considered the odd
one because she just didn't fit in. First it was Austin where she began to
sing and then to San Francisco where she met The Big Brother Holding Company
and joined them. Down on Me, Bye, Bye Baby, Summertime, Ball and Chain and
Piece of My Heart brought her fame. Switched to a new band and had Try Just
a Little Bit Harder and Little Girl Blues. And finally her last album Pearl
with Mercedes Benz, A Woman Left Lonely and Me and Bobby McGee. And that
was it. Off the stage in 1970, Heroin after everyone thought she had kicked
it. How many more great songs were in there. Great documentary, lots of clips
of her in concert and off.
