Posted on 11/12/2009 1:20:04 PM PST by smokingfrog
Janis Joplin has an indelible image as a swaggering, boozing rock 'n' roll mama whose blues-based music was a raw outpouring of her angst. The 1979 Bette Midler film The Rose, which depicts a Joplin-like singer, strengthened that view. Very likely it's why a lengthy list of actresses — including Renee Zellweger, Brittany Murphy, Pink, Lili Taylor, Zooey Deschanel and Vanessa Hudgens (!) — have expressed interest in playing her onscreen.
But it's an image that Lauren Onkey and Mary Davis hope to dispel, or at least replace with a new respect for her key role in the crossbreeding of rock and blues. Onkey, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum's vice president of education and public programs, and Davis, associate director of Case Western Reserve's Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities, are the organizers of this year's 14th edition of the Rock Hall's American Music Masters series, Kozmic Blues: the Life and Music of Janis Joplin. It takes place all this week at the Rock Hall, Case and other venues around town, culminating with the usual gala tribute concert on November 14 at PlayhouseSquare's State Theatre, featuring Lucinda Williams, Nona Hendryx, Roky Erickson, Guy Clark, Susan Tedeschi and others.
Davis acknowledges the enduring fascination with Joplin as a hard-living figure who died in 1970 at the age of 27, saying that in a class she and Onkey are teaching, the students are fixated on it. "The drugs and death part of the story engage them the most," she says. "We've had a really hard time moving them off that story and onto the story of Janis Joplin the serious artist and why she matters."
(Excerpt) Read more at clevescene.com ...
I also think Big Brother was a great band, much better than Janis's other groups. Their raw electric blues deconstructions matched Janis's voice, and had real rock energy. Technical mastery is not everything.
Big Brother was GREAT! I totally agree...
See ya’,
Ed
They have a special event based on the life of an alcoholic, drug-addicted screecher who drank herself to death and call her an “American Master”.
And yet...we have a living, breathing All-American Master who has been kicking a$$ and rocking out since he was a teenager as STILL IS at age 60. Never did drugs, stands for good, honest American values...and the RRHOF won’t even LOOK at him!
The Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame will never be complete...or even worth a minute of my time...until the day it inducts TED NUGENT!
Uncle Ted is definitely not PC enough for the R&RHF.
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