Unfortunately, I am of the opinion that her lasting legacy will not be as a musician, but as the archetype for hundreds of drunken, tattooed biker chick/bar band singers, all of whom think a bellyful of Southern Comfort is an adequate substitute for talent and taste. Certainly Joplin had a dynamic stage presence, and her largely miserable personal life did a lot to make her one of the great tragic figures of her time and place (that and her position as the cornerstone of the Joplin/ Hendrix/ Morrison troika of “ Oops I Died Before I Got Old”-ism). As I grew older, and was exposed to more music I began to realize that Janis Joplin’s legendary status was as much the result of her larger than life personality, early death and initially shocking sound as it was the quality of her music. When I was a kid, it was a given that she was one of the great rockers of all time. My perception of Janis Joplin has changed drastically over the years. These included a hideous and wholly unnecessary (unless you have a financial stake in the careers of Gretchen Wilson and Lynyrd Skynyrd…) “Southern Rock” rehash, polite nods to Lifetime Acheivement award winners Jerry Lee Lewis and Led Zeppelin, and the unholy conjunction of Melissa Etheridge and hot young star-of-the-moment Joss Stone paying “tribute” (I must apologize for the overuse of ironic/sarcastic quotation marks, but believe me, they’re completely deserved here…) to Janis Joplin. Earlier this year, during the Grammy Awards broadcast they did several “tributes”, ranging from 5 second “weren’t they wonderful” blurbs with brief shots of the artists (those that were still alive anyway…) in their seats, to full blown, “star studded” extravaganzas.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |