for a moment I thought
it was you that I caught,
in my line of sight.
reliving once more,
the battles we fought,
night after
night
after night.
but it was just light fall,
casting shadows on the wall
where we used to sleep.
echoes of the past,
causing me to recall,
what ye sow,
so shall ye
reap.
yet,
in the glow
of morning’s lighting,
I came to know
I was the only one
fighting.
reliving my pain,
as shadows
in the
rain.
you were here
for what seems like
one soft and silent
Summer
when in truth,
you have stolen
my youth.
it flutters furtively
to the ground
to be trampled,
mutilated,
never to be found.
it dies a silent death.
somewhere in a dream,
I think I can hear
the echos
of a scream.
one last dance
in the Autumn breeze,
twirling
to unheard
symphonies.
bending, spinning
flying free.
a seasonal
choreography.
one last chance
to steal the show,
‘til Winter comes
and you must
go.
I’ve got pieces that
I don’t want to keep.
token reminders
that won’t let me sleep.
pieces that poke
and prod at my brain,
they lay on the guilt
again and again.
I don’t understand
what I should do
‘cause most of these pieces
were put here by you.
in someway or fashion,
though I don’t know why.
well yeah,
I guess I know why.
no sense pretending.
I am cursed with the belief
we all deserve a happy ending.
I’m never sure
if I should give less
or more.
I always seem to lose sight
of what exactly is
right.
the recipe is not stable.
evolving – devolving,
defying each label.
I guess that’s why
I’m never sure
who to beseech,
who to implore.
what works today
changes tomorrow.
are things linked to
the passage of time
in a quantum sense?
or do we never return
that which we borrow?
laws only apply
when first they are enacted.
carved in granite,
then redacted.
am I the only one
that’s confused?
“be kind”, she said
always be kind”
“kind is kind
it never changes
an easy thing
to recognize
I see it now
when I look
in your eyes”
“don’t change”
but, I can’t deal in absolutes.
I didn’t make me this way.
It just is.
I just am.
like a tree is a tree.
u wouldn’t walk up
to it and tell it
not to change
wood u?
a heart always open
is subject to bruising.
a life truly lived
is oft times confusing.
“be kind”, she said
always be kind”
someday
never comes.
lying behind curtains
of yesterday,
not to bask
in mid-day sun,
not to hear
the infirm pray.
what shadows fall
on life unsure?
who comes to call
at Autumn’s door?
Just Janis Joplin and a guitar: Me and Bobby McGee demo, July 28, 1970.
What a gem this is! Janis playfully lamenting that her Texas accent is back, to the delight of producer Paul Rothschild and the fellas in the booth, followed by an achingly intimate first take on “Me and Bobby McGee” that reveals the searing pain that you believe would make her willing to trade all of her tomorrows for a single yesterday.
She never sounded more vulnerable, more melodic, and not-so-ironically when you think about it, more powerful. Set yourself at the feet of a master storyteller and prepare to be amazed by a song you only thought you knew.
The familiar (perhaps now even too-familiar) Full Tilt Boogie Band version of the single was released on January 11, 1971, and would spend 9 weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It’s surely been played somewhere on earth every hour of the day since then.
The album Pearl was released the same day and also spent 9 weeks at #1 (the last week of February, and all of March and April), winding up as the 4th best-selling album of 1971.
Janis hadn’t quite completed work on Pearl before she passed, but this was hardly the work of bone-picking scavengers capitalizing on her tragedy. On the contrary, this was the celebration of an artist entering a peak whose height we’ll never know. As you’ll hear here, even Janis had no idea what she was about to unleash.
Unleash she did, nevertheless.
(Tip o’ the hat to the fantastic Barry Feinstein photos in this clip, and the strongest possible recommendation to check out the rest of the gems on the Pearl Legacy Edition, available at your favorite retailer and streaming at Spotify.)
and props to kris kristofferson for another piece of magnificent songwriting.
Hello!
Just a shout out to all you magnificent peeps.
you magnificent peeps who put your heart and soul onto my dash on a daily basis.
u always remind me that there is still joy in sadness, still hope in dismay and still laughter in life.
I am honored to receive your hearts and am equally honored to give you mine.
Don’t ever stop doing wut ur doing. you r all such an incredible inspiration and I appreciate it.
With love and humility,
JP
i write
the things that I feel,
whether or not
I believe them to be
real.
sometimes, I let
too much escape.
I feel empty
inside,
a deflated
balloon.
Until the things that
affect me
slowly begin
to refill my soul,
touch my heart.
then I’m back
where
I was at
the start.
it was always accidental.
she said she didn’t care,
we make our choices
even if
we do not want to share
the reasons as we
believe them to be.
for belief is but perception,
we are never truly free
from want, from need
we just bury it deep,
and pray the lord
our souls to keep.
she had a heart,
a heart
that whimpered it’s beat.
it cried tears of rage
that fell at her feet.
defining each step
as she made her way
one beat at a time
‘til the end of the day
some days she
would abandon all hope
telling me she’d come
to the end of her rope
I just gave her
a look as I sighed,
“your rope is longer
than you think”
I replied.
Back to the Monastery 