"Tim J." wrote

The first time I heard Janis Joplin was on the song "Ball and Chain".
There has never been anyone before or since that could pour themselves
into a song like that woman. For anyone to even try to cover one of the
songs she made her own is blasphemy.
--


I was "hanging" in SF during the time Big Brother was on the way up and saw
them a few times in small clubs. One time I remember was at the original
Fillmore ( which was a small community center, not a giant show hall)
Janis really got into a number and rocked back onto her high heels ( she was
nearly always drunk and stoned, remember ) .... they slipped out from under
her and she landed, HARD, square on her butt .... except for a chuckle, she
never missed a beat.

She was an inspired performer, and I enjoyed watching and listening ....
but imho, as a blues artist she was not in the class of a Billie Holiday,
.... or Ella



I still remember the first time I heard Billie. I was early in high school
and each night I went to sleep listening to KJAZ. The station had a very
BAD habit of telling what they were going to play, but not what they had
just played, in a given set. I was drifting off when the most intensely
felt song I had ever heard was played and wrenched my adolescent guts.
They didn't say who it was after the set. I was too damn dumb to just get
up and call the station, so I spent the next several hours, most of the
night, intently noting each list of "what's coming next" until I heard that
voice again and could attach a name to it ...Billie Holiday. Bought my
first or her LPs the next afternoon, after begging my mom to drive me to the
store.