Janis Joplin: Take Another Piece of My Heart

Janis Joplin would have been 70 years-old on January 19, 2013. Enjoy the entire piece from NPR HERE on one of the amazing women of rock and roll.

Joplin struggled with growing up in Texas. She didn’t conform to the mold of the typical young woman of the 1950s. She was a painter, she was chubby, she had bad skin, and she wasn’t conventionally beautiful. In an appearance in 1970 on The Dick Cavett Show, she spoke bitterly about her adolescence — of her classmates who laughed her out of class, and ultimately, out of the state. Not surprisingly, Joplin found her outlet in the blues — especially in artists like Bessie Smith, Lead Belly and Big Mama Thornton. As she told Cavett, singing was the only way she could express how she felt.

“Playing is just about feeling,” Joplin said. “It isn’t necessarily about misery, it isn’t about happiness. It’s just about letting yourself feel all those things you already have inside of you but are trying to push aside because they don’t make for polite conversation or something. But if you just get up there — that’s the only reason I can sing. Because I get up there and just let all those things come out.”

Janis singing Take Another Piece of My Heart—Enjoy.

Gospel Hoedown

nprmusic:

Watch the Spirit Family Reunion play fiddle, banjo, guitar and washboard, all gathered around a single microphone in an old-style tradition at the Tiny Desk.

Photo: Ryan Smith/NPR

More Friday Fun: Guitar Smash

nprfreshair:

Courtesy of fellow tumblr curator, Yowei Shaw, we have added this to our list of favorite tumblr accounts. it is called guitar smash.

You are very welcome.

“I gave my love a chicken…”

Happy Birthday, Charlie Parker!

nprmusic:

Hear the story behind his classic tune, “Ko Ko.” Jazz critic Gary Giddins says, “I swear, the first time you hear it it’s like somebody dumped a bucket of ice water over your head.”

Photo: William Gottlieb/Library of Congress via Flickr