tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689865906513225949.post7558830983108712908..comments2024-03-18T06:47:36.697-04:00Comments on Beauty, and What It Means: For Janis Joplin, On Her Sixty-Ninth BirthdayAutumn Whitefield-Madranohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03379314479257695986noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689865906513225949.post-65728530032564093172012-08-01T13:39:12.860-04:002012-08-01T13:39:12.860-04:00Before Janis's late 1970 death, the portable h...Before Janis's late 1970 death, the portable hair blow dryer had not yet been invented, or yet mass marketed and distributed. So it was far harder to tame tumbly, curly, cowlicky hair.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689865906513225949.post-27961675501607190122012-08-01T13:35:34.629-04:002012-08-01T13:35:34.629-04:00... and with Kris Kristofferson, songwriter of &qu...... and with Kris Kristofferson, songwriter of "Me and Bobby McGee."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689865906513225949.post-60080205597836684232012-08-01T13:34:11.767-04:002012-08-01T13:34:11.767-04:00I believe Leonard Cohen wrote "Chelsea Hotel ...I believe Leonard Cohen wrote "Chelsea Hotel #2" while Janis was still alive. The portrait of Janis in it (though she not named) sounds accurate, in accord with other images, accounts and interviews of her. As to "handsome men," I heard that she had an encounter with Jim Morrison.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689865906513225949.post-47100840978315493802012-03-31T16:35:04.600-04:002012-03-31T16:35:04.600-04:00i think she was not ugly, i think she just did not...i think she was not ugly, i think she just did not take care of her self not well. i think she had pretty is just drugs made her look old and i know if she would have put makeup on and dress like all these women hollywood people would notice her like the other women that were famous. also if she did her hair.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689865906513225949.post-87201946746620235732012-01-24T15:40:27.647-05:002012-01-24T15:40:27.647-05:00Laura and Terri, I love that quote. Here I used &q...Laura and Terri, I love that quote. Here I used "pretty" and "beautiful" interchangeably but certainly beauty has other meanings--and Janis absolutely was beautiful in that sense.<br /><br />Shybiker, wow--I'll totally look for that clip. I always felt like I missed something by missing the '60s, but I hadn't considered the broader range of what was thought to be beautiful. I don't want to romanticize the era, but yeah...wish we had more of that.<br /><br />Nicole, that is indeed heartbreaking. And you can feel that pain in her music--a woman left lonely, and hell, every line of "Ball and Chain," one of her greatest. (Also, between your comment and Shybiker's I feel like I want to go on a Dick Cavett splurge...) She suffered, but she didn't play any sort of fragile-suffering card; she just showed the pain. It might have been easier on her had she played up her fragility, but she refused to, proving that vulnerability and fragility are two quite different things. And that one of them is easier for people--specifically men?--to swallow than the other.<br /><br />Rebekah, from the biographies I read of her, she certainly did have a penchant for handsome men. One legendary story goes that she was working on an album with her band and midway through felt like getting laid, and so she walked the streets until she found a handsome youth--Eric Clapton. Ha! On another note: Interesting about the idea of "rub off on me"--I felt that way too, though not about Janis. Hmmm, putting it in the thought bank.<br /><br />Fashnlvr, I feel like "bad girls" identify with Janis, but "good girls" do too--like you said, she put it out there in a way that many of us never could. Not just because of her talent, but because she was, yes, fearless.<br /><br />Caitlin, YES, get thee to Ellen Willis. I'm new to her as well but share the sensation. And, you know, Janis really did live a Pretty Girl life in many ways--she dealt with the unbearable pain Nicole mentions above, but she also did indeed bed many a desirable man. When she says "Get It While You Can," I tend to believe her.<br /><br />Raz, that's an interesting correlation--Janis is one of the rare women who was spoken of as being appealing because of her charisma. While all her biographers took pains to point out she wasn't conventionally pretty, in a full-length biography you'd discuss conventional appeal of anyone, man or woman. She really did make looks beside the point.Autumn Whitefield-Madranohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03379314479257695986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689865906513225949.post-24737468119501927262012-01-22T19:59:25.736-05:002012-01-22T19:59:25.736-05:00I never really got into Janis Joplin, but I rememb...I never really got into Janis Joplin, but I remember when I was about 16 and ill-advisedly idolizing Courtney Love, my mother said she reminded her of Janis.<br /><br />As for her attractiveness, it always seemed to me that she was one of those rare people who is just so *charismatic* that physical beauty becomes irrelevant. Like Mick Jagger. (Of course, this happens more with men, probably because the beauty bar is lower.)Razhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07392174626612431500noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689865906513225949.post-28384538056740515522012-01-22T14:25:07.591-05:002012-01-22T14:25:07.591-05:00Thank you for reminding me that I really need to r...Thank you for reminding me that I really need to read some Ellen Willis. Every time I read excerpts of her I am like o_O (in a good way!).<br /><br />Regarding Janis - I always loved that Janis was not a Pretty Girl, and yet she was still this enormous rock star who was stylish and influential and had sex with really desirable men. I mean, I had read "Pearl" and I knew she was tremendously unhappy, but still, I thought she led a marvelous life in her short time on the planet and it was unfortunate that she couldn't see that.Caitlinhttp://fitandfeminist.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689865906513225949.post-37595469319595402672012-01-21T13:09:06.294-05:002012-01-21T13:09:06.294-05:00I too loved Janis as a teen. I learned of her in a...I too loved Janis as a teen. I learned of her in a similar way from a girl I was good friends with. My friend had a rough life and was often lonely as they moved frequently before I came to know her. I think she identified with Janis' music. I just loved Janis' voice and her fearlessness in putting it all out there in a way I never could. <br />Thank you for sharing a lovely tribute to a soulful singer whose time with us was way too short.Fashnlvrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03935981928961854273noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689865906513225949.post-46993499888816638192012-01-20T18:08:04.159-05:002012-01-20T18:08:04.159-05:00Autumn, I love all these little glimpses of your l...Autumn, I love all these little glimpses of your life. I really am hoping for a book version.<br /><br />"I went barefoot for much of my senior year of high school because it seemed like something Janis would have done..."<br /><br />HHAHhahaahhahha! I did this in college! Got terrible burns on the soles of my feet---- damn this desert pavement.<br /><br /><br />Beautiful! As a teen I listened almost exclusively to 60's-70's music, but never listened to Janis---- partly because I preferred male musicians (hormones or internalized misogyny?). I wonder if part of me was afraid to align myself with another not-conventionally-pretty women, for fear she'd somehow "rub off on me" from beyond the grave. Then again, I also had certain ideas about being The Right Kind of Woman, and I'm sure they didn't involve raw wailing or feather boas. Kitchens and babies, more like.<br /><br />(“What am I going to do with a fucking tire?” she reputedly said upon receiving the award.) <br /><br />A fair question.<br /><br />Are you familiar with Leonard Cohen's song 'Chelsea Hotel #2," written about an evening with Janis?<br /><br />'You told me again you preferred handsome men<br />but for me you would make an exception.<br />And clenching your fist for the ones like us<br />who are oppressed by the figures of beauty,<br />you fixed yourself, you said, "Well never mind,<br />we are ugly but we have the music."' <br /><br />I wonder if she really did prefer handsome men, and if that quote is anything like accurate. I wonder if there's a special hell for songwriters who write about bedding now-dead people. Sorta hope so.Rebekahhttp://www.jauntydame.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689865906513225949.post-67175323249589587002012-01-20T02:20:26.559-05:002012-01-20T02:20:26.559-05:00One of the saddest moments of Patti Smith's Ju...One of the saddest moments of Patti Smith's Just Kids is when Janis comes to her room at the Chelsea crying because another man she liked went home with a prettier girl. I remember reading that and realizing that though my mother, a huge Janis fan, raised me to see Janis as beautiful (so I, like you, never really realized she wasn't considered conventionally pretty), men still chose other more attractive women WHO WEREN'T FAMOUS instead of her. This happened to her all the time. That pain must have been unbearable.<br /><br />I knew a hippie who was a roadie for Janis. He was the same guy who painted her Porsche. His name was Dave Richards. He said she was unbearably lonely. Dave always told Janis he didn't like that she was doing heroin so she'd make him watch her shoot up before she paid him. (The heroin that killed her also killed eight other people that night because the dealer tried to cut it himself but didn't know what he was doing and left it 50-80% pure.)<br /><br />Dave also told me that night Janis was on the Dick Cavett show she slept with Cavett and laughed about how he was running around her hotel room wearing nothing but the feather boa she sported during her interview.Nicole Kristalnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689865906513225949.post-7805106134296911442012-01-19T21:20:30.569-05:002012-01-19T21:20:30.569-05:00What can pretty matter when she could wail a woman...What can pretty matter when she could wail a woman's soul like she did? She was simply BEAUTIFUL.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689865906513225949.post-89202189967272256222012-01-19T10:03:05.734-05:002012-01-19T10:03:05.734-05:00I'm glad you arrived at your final point. Bac...I'm glad you arrived at your final point. Back in the Sixties, there was less procrustean belief about women's beauty. Janis ignored that entirely and focused, instead, on her soul. Her music, like her life, was dedicated to soulfulness.<br /><br />If you can a chance, see her interview on The Dick Cavett Show. She appears as a guest alongside Rachel Welsh, early in both of their careers. Rachel is trying desperately to be the man-pleasing vixen; the contrast to Janis couldn't be more stark.Shybikerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15263331247319768989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689865906513225949.post-69967049606102266162012-01-19T09:50:21.722-05:002012-01-19T09:50:21.722-05:00I seem to remember a quote by Janis that she knew ...I seem to remember a quote by Janis that she knew she wasn't pretty but when she performed she felt like the sexiest most beautiful woman in the world.Laura Connellhttp://forthoseabouttoshop.canoreply@blogger.com