Mr. Groovy and that hippie chick
- Thread starter HeyMikey
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Guildedagain
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It appears that humans like these are getting scarce. Enjoy the memories.
davismanLV
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Tom Jones is great. And as he's gotten older, it seems he's gotten better. He's done some amazing stuff! Janis Joplin I can't listen to at all. I know everyone thinks she's so great, but I just cannot listen to her. Weird, huh? Great old video, though!!
Canard
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Mr. Jones has a set of pipes on him. He apparently started out as a blues belter. There was a BBC documentary on the British Blues scene a few years back in which a lot of the old timers got together in the studio to reminisce and perform. Jones could take out the sound booth windows if he were not careful. The other surprise was Lulu. Like I mean "To Sir with Love" Lulu as a blues singer, but she has the chops even if she doesn't use them.
Right there with you Tom. I know there's a lot of love out there for her, but she never did anything for me. In fact, my band recently had the incredibly talented Anne DeAcetis sing a version of "Ball and Chain" with us at a recent gig, and it was so good that it gave me chills. Janis doing that same song sure never did.
davismanLV
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Now Lulu is a whole different story!! That's an amazing and talented lady, right there!! Lots of love for her!! 
HeyMikey
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Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying anything bad about Tom Jones. I love the guy, always have. He can really belt out a tune. Janis just slays me with her totally raw, unbridled energy. She just goes for it with absolutely no reserve. In this vid it looks like Jones caught the fever and started to ride along with her. So powerful. Yeah, she is undisciplined but damn, there just ain’t been nobody like her.
My mother loved Tom Jones and used to watch his TV Show religiously. A a kid I always loved his show, too. Great guests, like C,S,N, and Y and more. This is also a great clip!
She is a tremendous talent, but I would listen to Tom Jones over Janis Joplin any day.
"It's Not Unusual" is still one of my favorite songs.
walrus
She is a tremendous talent, but I would listen to Tom Jones over Janis Joplin any day.
"It's Not Unusual" is still one of my favorite songs.
walrus
davismanLV
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No i'm glad you have a good vibe on her!! But listen to this.... LULU sweetie, f-ing LULUI!!
A fellow classmate sang this to our music professor at a high school reunion, and there wasn't a dry eye in the house!
bobouz
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Well, I never cared much for Janis either. I think it’s basically because I don’t enjoy listening to singers who’s style incorporates a whole lot of shouting or screaming. I’ll take a smooth jazz or swing vocalist every time.
wileypickett
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Well, jeez I can't let this pass!
For me, Janis is a BIG BG yes -- but mainly with Big Brother & the Holding Company.
Saw them from a front row center seat in a movie theater in Jersey City, NJ, on a rainy night in 1968, on one of the last tours the band did with Janis before she went solo, and they were amazing.
A friend of a friend's mom had bought a half dozen tickets as a birthday present for her son, and with one ticket left over, my friend Bob invited me. We all had next-to-last row seats.
The band played a few songs and you could tell something wasn't gelling -- maybe the monitors were bad, or they were in a bad mood, bad drugs, who knows? -- but songs fizzled out after a few bars, the band glared at each other, then huddled, then started again.
Finally Janis said, "We're gonna take a break and try to get our sh*t together." Band exits; lights come up.
I said to my friend, Bob, "Let's go down front and try to catch a few songs up close when the band returns, before the rent-a-cops chase us back to our seats."
When we got up there, two guys with front row center seats saw us milling around and offered us their tickets for $2.00 each. I guess they figured the band was having an off night and decided to try to recoup some of their losses.
We'd paid nothing for our tickets anyway, so were delighted to take their places.
The band finally re-emerged and by the third or fourth song, were firing on all cylinders. I was directly under Janis -- I can still see her silhouetted against the stage lights -- and was blown away. (I'd heard a few things on the radio but knew very little about the band before that show -- had neither of their records at the time.)
After a half-hour or so the audience finally got it too, and went ballistic. Clambering over seats, everyone surged in a giant wave to the front. Bob and I had no choice but to stand, our chests pressed against the stage for the next couple hours.
Because I was pinned right to the edge of the stage, my instinct was to put my hands on the stage itself, to brace myself against the weight of all the people pressing me from behind. But if I had, I'd have had my fingers mashed by Janis's pumps, furiously stomping to the beat.
The band played a long set and were fantastic, so much so that the audience wouldn't let them leave. They brought them back for SEVEN encores. (In all my years of of going to see shows, that's the most encores I've ever seen anyone get. Beat that, Tom Jones!)
After the first couple encores, they said goodbye and waved, indicating that that was it; they were done for the night. But we would have none of it, and after screaming and clapping for 15 minutes, the band finally came back out, where an ebullient Janis cackled and said, "Man, we've played everything we know!" And so they began repeating songs. And were called back again and again and again.
My recollection is that they did "Ball and Chain" and "Piece of My Heart" three times; "Combination of the Two," "Summertime" and "Down On Me" twice and probably repeated some others I don't remember now.
When it was all over, Bob and I were so giddy and star-struck that we found our way to the back door to the theater where, after a half-hour in the rain, I got Janis's autograph (which, along with my ticket, I still have.)
I never cared for Janis's later bands, the Kozmic Blues Band and the Full Tilt Boogie Band. Sure, they were far more slick and "pro" than Big Brother, who, it's true, often veered out of tune and sometimes seemed to have trouble holding down the beat.
But for me, none of Janis's later bands had the chemistry that Big Brother had with her, nor their energy, looseness, verve, grittiness, joie de vivre, etc.
For me, Janis is a BIG BG yes -- but mainly with Big Brother & the Holding Company.
Saw them from a front row center seat in a movie theater in Jersey City, NJ, on a rainy night in 1968, on one of the last tours the band did with Janis before she went solo, and they were amazing.
A friend of a friend's mom had bought a half dozen tickets as a birthday present for her son, and with one ticket left over, my friend Bob invited me. We all had next-to-last row seats.
The band played a few songs and you could tell something wasn't gelling -- maybe the monitors were bad, or they were in a bad mood, bad drugs, who knows? -- but songs fizzled out after a few bars, the band glared at each other, then huddled, then started again.
Finally Janis said, "We're gonna take a break and try to get our sh*t together." Band exits; lights come up.
I said to my friend, Bob, "Let's go down front and try to catch a few songs up close when the band returns, before the rent-a-cops chase us back to our seats."
When we got up there, two guys with front row center seats saw us milling around and offered us their tickets for $2.00 each. I guess they figured the band was having an off night and decided to try to recoup some of their losses.
We'd paid nothing for our tickets anyway, so were delighted to take their places.
The band finally re-emerged and by the third or fourth song, were firing on all cylinders. I was directly under Janis -- I can still see her silhouetted against the stage lights -- and was blown away. (I'd heard a few things on the radio but knew very little about the band before that show -- had neither of their records at the time.)
After a half-hour or so the audience finally got it too, and went ballistic. Clambering over seats, everyone surged in a giant wave to the front. Bob and I had no choice but to stand, our chests pressed against the stage for the next couple hours.
Because I was pinned right to the edge of the stage, my instinct was to put my hands on the stage itself, to brace myself against the weight of all the people pressing me from behind. But if I had, I'd have had my fingers mashed by Janis's pumps, furiously stomping to the beat.
The band played a long set and were fantastic, so much so that the audience wouldn't let them leave. They brought them back for SEVEN encores. (In all my years of of going to see shows, that's the most encores I've ever seen anyone get. Beat that, Tom Jones!)
After the first couple encores, they said goodbye and waved, indicating that that was it; they were done for the night. But we would have none of it, and after screaming and clapping for 15 minutes, the band finally came back out, where an ebullient Janis cackled and said, "Man, we've played everything we know!" And so they began repeating songs. And were called back again and again and again.
My recollection is that they did "Ball and Chain" and "Piece of My Heart" three times; "Combination of the Two," "Summertime" and "Down On Me" twice and probably repeated some others I don't remember now.
When it was all over, Bob and I were so giddy and star-struck that we found our way to the back door to the theater where, after a half-hour in the rain, I got Janis's autograph (which, along with my ticket, I still have.)
I never cared for Janis's later bands, the Kozmic Blues Band and the Full Tilt Boogie Band. Sure, they were far more slick and "pro" than Big Brother, who, it's true, often veered out of tune and sometimes seemed to have trouble holding down the beat.
But for me, none of Janis's later bands had the chemistry that Big Brother had with her, nor their energy, looseness, verve, grittiness, joie de vivre, etc.
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wileypickett
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It's an indelible memory!
bobouz
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Concerts can certainly do that sometimes. I’d seen Bonnie Raitt a number of times, but this one occasion was uniquely special. It was a cool night at an outdoor venue, and Bonnie was touring with Lyle Lovett. Can’t recall for sure, but it might have been shortly into her first song & after she said “My fingers are cold!” that towering flames appeared directly in back of the stage - one of their tour buses had caught on fire. We were sitting close to the front & wondered how bad it was going to get, as of course the music stopped & fire trucks eventually rolled in. The fire was put out, but the bus & a whole lot of gear was lost in the process. After an hour or more, the band was able to return to the stage, and as always, Bonnie’s singing & playing was soooo darn good. No doubt that fire warmed her hands up a wee bit!
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LeFinPepere
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I kind of agree with Bobouz.The song that really gets me is "Move over", I love the goddam tricky guitar solo, when he speeds up,aahaa , wait a minute! How does he do that? Was that Sam Andrews or somebody else??
Canard
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BTW: I misremembered about the TV series which featured Tom Jones, Lulu, Jeff Beck, Van Morrison, etc. It was not a BBC series, although I did watch it on the BBC. It was very loosely a series, with a number of highly idiosyncratic films by a number of major film makers all with the topic of The Blues. Martin Scorsese was the curator of the project. Highly recommended!
