No Left Turn Unstoned

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30 October 2011

 

Janis Joplin with two left handed people.

 

Ken Kesey had a place in La Honda, California, where there was a sign with this message. The world’s first Acid Tests were performed there.

 

The main thing about left handed people is that they are adaptable. They have to be, being born into a right handed world. So, left handers are ambidextrous, shifty, labile, flexible and often sly and slinky. From an early age they learned that there is more than one way to do something. Nicole Kidman had to learn that.

 

There are scholarships for left handed people, because, well, we’re rather backward.

 

I often paint with both hands when i’m in a hurry, or when the background is very simple. I paint the background and foreground at the same time.

RJ Franco took this photograph:

 

The left hand is governed by the right brain, seat of intuitive, non linear thinking, so left handed people are overrepresented in art, music, drama and other creative endeavors.

 

The Italian word for left handed “mancino” means crooked or maimed. “To the left” in Italian is alla sinistra which has sinister connotations. Leonardo was left handed.

 

Manu sinistra pro destra utitur (Latin). She uses the left hand for the right.

But when she plays the piano Aretha Franklin uses both hands. There are no left handed pianos.

 

The rudder on a seagoing vessel was attached on the right side, the steerboard side, the starboard. So docking was done on the left, the port side. Cole Porter often sailed Port Out Starboard Home (POSH).

 

In ancient Hebrew, left handers were called “eetair yad y’mini,” a constricted right hand. Ruth Bader Ginsburg writes opinions with her left hand.

 

Dutch “linker” left handed came from Old High German “slinc,” related to Old English “slincan” crawl, slink. In Swedish linka equals “limp, dangling.” M. C. Escher did all of those amazing drawings with his left hand.

 

In Bulgarian, there are three words for a left handed person. Levichar, levoger and levak. Levak is considered very offensive. There is a term lefteren (from English “left”) which describes something that’s not working properly or isn’t strong enough. Angeliina is as beautiful as her name suggests, and she is gauchée as the French call a left handed woman.

 

In Chinese, the word left is sometimes associated with the “dark side.”

Albrecht Dürer, a left handed person, very successful in his own time, had his own dark side.

 

In Danish, Venstre-håndet means using the left hand. Note the similarity to “sinister” (Latin) Kejthåndet, another word for left handed, has the word “kejthet” in it which means clumsy, awkward. This is a Danish leftist.

 

The origin of left and right as applied to politics goes back to the seating in the Chambre des Deputés, which our own congressional seating imitates.

 

When Democrats enter the House they file to their left, and when the President addresses the chamber, s/he sees the Democrats on her/his right.

 

The Republicans sit on the “right.” That is, on the right as they enter the Chamber, the House. When the President addresses the Republicans, he sees them as being on his left, but they see themselves as being on the right.

 

Barbara Dennerlein is a left handed German woman, worshipper at the Hammond B3 altar, as am I. They didn’t make any left handed Hammond B3s either. You have to play them with everything you’ve got. Both hands and both feet. You could use your nose too, and, god knows, no one would complain. Barbara is such a great B3 player, cool, hot, collected, happening.

 

In Dutch, the word for left handed is Linkshandig. In the Brabants dialect, Links means “inside out,” especially for clothing. The Great Dictator was left handed too, just as Adolf Hitler was. Tellingly, though, Hitler signed autographs with his right hand.

 

Charles Chaplin played the violin left handed. This is very rare. Most violinists, left or right handed, will play the instrument with the bow in their right hand.

 

Elizabeth Cotten was our hero when we were 18,19, and still today. She had a beautiful fingerpicking style that we all tried to emulate. Maybe her special sound had something to do with the fact that she simply turned a right handed guitar upside down, so that the treble strings were on top.

 

In German, Links and linkisch (left) mean awkward. Einstein was a linkshänder, although I see him write at the blackboard with his right hand. He and Picasso used either hand.

 

The Hindi phrase “ulta haanth” means the left hand, and it has the literal meaning “opposite, wrong.” Eudora Welty never married and lived in the same house where she was born in Jackson, Mississippi, all her life. She wrote beautiful, unsentimental stories for The New Yorker with her left hand.

 

The Hungarian language has the word “bal” for left. “Balszerencse,” left luck, means disaster. “Baleset,” left event, is an accident.

 

Gaelic “ciotóg” left, means “the strange one.” “Citog” means left or stupid.

Fiona Sit likes to draw with her left hand. She speaks Cantonese, English, French and Mandarin.

 

Romanian “stangaci” means left hander as well as unskillful.

Paul Klee is left handed and his birthday is 18 December. We have a lot in common.

 

Australian slang has the phrase “Mollie Dooker,” for a left handed person, meaning something to do with having fists like a girl.

If you’re going to be a feminist, and who in their right mind wouldn’t be?, you could always look like Germaine Greer, noted left hander. Germaine lived at The Chelsea Hotel when we did, and she was always cheerful, kind and smart.

 

Polish people say “leworeczcy” or “mankut” for left handed, terms that also mean illegal. Goldie is using both hands to assume the position here.

 

“Canhoto” (Portuguese) is left handed. Canhoto also means lacking ability or physical coordination, clumsy. In Portugal, the Devil is canhoto. A common saying is “Diabo sejas cego, surdo e mudo! Lagarto, lagarto, lagarto sejas canhoto!” (Devil be blind, deaf and mute. Lizard, lizard, lizard be left handed!”) Michelangelo, definitely left handed. My “Leftar” would have told me that even had I not known. I mean, any artist who would argue with a pope must be more than a little obstinate and gauche.

 

Remember the Eugene Levy character in Best In Show? He had two left feet.

When Tamra Engle is sailing down the Seine towards the Atlantic Ocean and she passes through Paris, la rive gauche, the Left Bank will be on her left, the south side.

 

Tamra Engle with Steve Martin. No… just kidding, it’s the equally estimable Willy Porter.

 

Tamra in front, the farthest from the left.

 

In Mexico, “chueco” means “bent.” It also means left handed. There are other words for someone like Jessica Alba, zurda, manca, siniestra, all meaning left handed.

 

I’m going to pay him a left handed compliment and say that I will vote for him, but I’m not going to be totally thrilled about it. I’m hoping that when he gets in there for his last term, he will really step on it and deliver all of the beautiful promises he made the first time.

 

Filipinos say “kaliwete” for left handed. When someone is called a “kaliwete,” it can mean that the person is unfaithful, a two timer. Lady Gaga is left handed.

 

In Russian, left handed is “levsha,” meaning not trustworthy. In the Orthodox church, the women sit on the left side. Paul is a lefty, but he plays drums right handed.

 

Scottish people can be corrie-fisted which comes from the Gaelic “cearr” which means left or wrong hand. My Leftar (like Gaydar, only for left handers) would have told me that Marilyn Monroe was left handed even had I not known that.

 

“Zurdo” in Spanish is left handed. “No eres zurdo.” (You’re not lefthanded) means “you are clever.” Right handed people are “diestro” (able, dextrous) and left handers are “siniestro” (creepy, freakish). In Spanish there is also a very proper word “manco” (cognate with Italian mancino) that means left handed. Picasso era manco, zurdo, chueco y siniestro. He’s painting Guernica with his left hand.

And he’s painting this plate with his right.

 

In Swahili left is kushoto, or weak. Weak would hardly describe Oprah Winfrey, though, and she’s left handed.

 

Ahhh, here we go. In Swedish, vänsterhänt is left handed. “Vänster” left originally meant “the favorable side,” and is related to vän (friend). Rafaello Sanzio (Raphael) drew and painted like an angel and he did it with his left hand.

 

Turkish solak (left handed) also means obstinate, clumsy, out of balance, not functional. Pink, who uses her left hand for most things. She was once going to play Janis Joplin in a film.

 

Lifshá (Ukrainian) for left handed means sneaky or mistrustful also. Benjamin Franklin was sly, inventive, a typical left hander.

 

Chwith in Welsh is left handed. O’i chwith means something is wrong or out of place.

 

Baseball diamonds were often made with home plate in the western corner of the field so that the sun would not be in the batsman’s eyes. Thus, when a left handed pitcher faced the batter, the pitcher’s throwing arm was on the south side. He was a southpaw. Lenny Bruce was definitely out in left field somewhere.

 

In Belarus (White Russia) there is a word “liewsha.” It means left handed, and it also means sneaky or mistrustful. Shirley MacLaine is left handed.

 

Dave Barry, one of the many people who is left handed, but who plays guitar right handed. Duane Allman and Gregg Allman are two others. I’m another.

 

A left handed snowboarder is called “Goofy,” and a left oriented board is called a “Goofy Board,” because the board is designed to slant in the opposite direction of the right handed boards. Tina Fey is goofy in her own goody, goody style.

 

Cack handed to mean left handed is term I have never heard, but it is apparently quite common in the UK. It is related to Old English cack, excrement or dung. Cachus was Old English for a privy. These words come from Latin cacare, to defecate. Matt Groening celebrates left handedness in his own left handed way.

 

Left handed people are also over represented in the gay community.

 

A left handed person photographs left handed people. Cecil Beaton.

 

In Thailand, there is a phrase “e sai pai kee,” which means people who use the left hand to touch excrement.

 

Tippi Hedren, left handed mother of Melanie Griffith.

 

You don’t want to be left handed in the Arab world. These people lived in the desert where there was little water, so the left hand is used for all unclean purposes and the right hand is used for taking food out of the communal bowl.

 

Albert King not only played the guitar left handed, but he also strung and tuned his guitar differently so it was often impossible to tell what he was playing. Those beautiful string bends that he used resulted from his being able to pull the strings down instead of having to push them up as right handers do.

 

In Japanese and Chinese, “left” is written like this:

 

The above is basically a drawing that represents the left hand in this position:

 

The left hand was considered a helper for the right hand, so the original meaning of this character was “to help.” Now it means “left” and in Japanese can be pronounced SA or hidari. When the character is used in combination with other characters, it is pronounced SA. When it is used alone it is usually pronounced hidari.

 

In ancient times, the right side was considered to be better. Left meant inferior, low status, contrary, evil.

 

Hidari kiki (left handed in Japanese)

 

The characters for left and right written together have several meanings:

 

“I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.”     Mark Twain. (left handed)

 

We’ve left.

(Taking the kindergarten diploma in my left hand.)

Sam Andrew

Big Brother and the Holding Company

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The Musical Secret of Life (or one of them anyway)

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9 October 2011

 

 

 

For any of our friends who will be on Okinawa during the Uchinanchu Festival, there will be an invitation only event on Sunday, October 16, 2011 at Sam’s by the Sea. Because space is limited, tickets are required and are available upon request, but the event is free, and is open to the alumni and teachers of Kubasaki, OCS and CKS, and to all of our friends from around the world.

 

A little honesty can get you in trouble. A lot of it can be downright dangerous.

 

Well, if I called the wrong number, then why did you answer the phone?

Photo: Max Clarke.

 

A che cosa serve la noia?

What is boredom for?

 

This face has lasted for a long time. It’s a Barrymore face from the 19th century.

 

Drew’s father was John Drew Barrymore. If they ever made a film about his life, Sean Penn could play him in a second. Drew has two great acting strains  in her family, the Drews and the Barrymores.

 

John Drew (1853-1927) was an actor and a matinée idol, one of the great stars of his day. His father was also a great actor. Louisa Lane Drew, John Drew’s mother, became the manager of the Arch Street theatre in San Francisco, which she ran successfully for thirty years.

 

On her opening night at age 21 in New York, Ethel Barrymore was scared, and someone shouted from the gallery, “Speak up, Ethel, all the Drews are great actors.” A lot of people still think she was the greatest actress of her generation.

 

We should show life neither as it is nor as it ought to be, but as we see it in our dreams.    (Chekhov)

(John Barrymore)

 

Lionel Barrymore, a huge talent, painter and actor, who had so many great roles, maybe the most interesting in Dinner At Eight (1933).

 

So, let’s just say that Drew Barrymore has a lot in her soul. Still continuing the tradition after more than a hundred years. Here’s to you, talented one. You are a Drew and a Barrymore.

 

Big Brother and the Holding Company, Sophia Ramos.

 

Elie Piliwale, the youngest and most attractive member of a very young and attractive family,

 

Art must begin locally so that it may end universally.

 

Will The Circle Be Unbroken? (I just today learned the trick of painting this, after a week of frustration. I’ve only got a little start, but it is a start, and now I know how to do it. That was a tough beginning. (Photo: Max Clarke)

 

What we love tells the story of who we are.

 

Laura Joplin and her daughter Claire.

 

An old saying in English: She was “in the pink,”

means roughly the same as the French “la vie en rose.”

 

What people look like on the street in São Paolo, Brazil.     (Photo: Elise Piliwale)

 

Nat King Cole was such a great piano player. He was as fleet, fast, furious and fun as anyone who ever played the instrument. I still can’t believe how good he was.

 

Die Welt des Glücklichen ist eine andere als die des Unglücklichen. (Wittgenstein)

The world of the happy is other than the world of the unhappy.     (Photo: Max Clarke)

 

LASCIATE OGNI SPERANZA VOI CH’ENTRATE.     (Dante)

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.

 

Beginning improvisors, here is the    Secret Of Life:

Arpeggios with a judicious addition of chromaticism, scale motion and blue notes.     (Milan Melvin and Mimi Fariña, 1968)

 

The great object of music is to touch the heart, and this end can never be obtained by mere noise, drumming and arpeggios. Karl Philipp Emmanuel Bach.

 

One of the most ancient and reverential gestures that accompanied prayer was the spreading of arms and hands heavenward. In time, the arms were pulled in, folded across the breast, wrists intersecting above the heart. Each of these gestures possesses an intrinsic logic and obviousness of intent.

The folding of hands, in the now familar image of prayer, is mentioned nowhere in the Bible.

 

This prayer gesture didn’t appear in the Christian church until the ninth century. Subsequently, sculptors and artists incorporated it into scenes that predated its origin… which, it turns out, has nothing to do with religion or worship, and owes much to subjugation and servitude.

 

The folding of hands in prayer, as we know it, originated from the holding out of hands to be handcuffed. The joined hands became a standard, widely practiced gesture long before it was appropriated and formalized by the Catholic Church.

 

Before waving a white flag signaling surrender, a captured Roman could avert immediate slaughter by affecting the shackled hands posture.

 

He’s tough, sir, tough is Slick Aguilar, and devlish sly !

 

That’s her name there written out in hieroglyphics. Kleopatra.

 

The arpeggios are like the big road map and the chromaticism and blue notes are like little detailed roads to the next town, the next chord.

 

Elise Piliwale, if she were one of those fancy women at the Red Dog Saloon, Virginia City, Nevada.

 

Main thing is… learn the arpeggios of all keys in all positions and inversions. Major, minor, augmented, diminished and, especially, half diminished chords.

 

Knowing the “melody” is also important, even if it is only your own melody.

 

Christy is beautiful, inside and out.

 

Big Boobster and the Holding Company, Maury Baker, Sophia Ramos, Peter Albin, Ben Nieves.

 

I am trying to get one of these people, if not both, to come sing with us soon.

 

Melody and arpeggios… of course they are both vital. it’s like line and color in painting.

 

I’m Charley’s aunt frrom Brazil where the nuts come from. In fact, Brazil was named frm the nut and not the other way round.

 

I still haven’t done a satisfactory portrait of Ben Nieves, but this one is growing on me.

 

To Alechim without whose never-failing sympathy and encouragement this blog would have been finished in half the time.

 

A long way is nothing. It’s how you take the first step that counts.

(Jim Wall, PhD Percussion, Doctor Drums)

 

Learn all these arpeggios in all these positions and modes and save years of time.

 

On the other hand, I suppose it could take a lifetime to learn all these arpeggios in all these positions.

 

It certainly has taken me a lifetime.

 

Of course, i didn’t realize for a long while that learning arpeggios should have been my goal.

 

When I began, I played in a linear style. Melody was the only thing. Melody and paraphrase of that melody.

 

So I played “horizontally.” Up and down the neck from first position on a string all the way up to as high as I could go, 20th fret and beyond.

 

After going through the Berklee methods for guitar, I slowly, dimly began to realize the importance of arpeggios.

 

Then, in the 1980s, 1990s, i began in earnest to learn the arpeggios everywhere on the guitar neck… and on the piano, saxophone and voice also.

 

The arpeggios give a schematic of where we are in the music. We don’t have to play them, but feeling them is good, because they are the outline of the chord. The skeleton. The map.

 

It is important to feel music horizontally and vertically at the same time.

 

This means being able to play melodically step by step and chordally by leaps and bounds. Melody lines and arpeggios.

 

There are many new tricks, mostly in the right hand, that I will probably never learn, but which are important for someone to learn now because most serious players use them at present.

 

If you look up my friend Joel Hoekstra, you will find a gifted teacher who will show you more in his videos and writings than you can probably learn in a lifetime.

(Mick Taylor, Sam Andrew)

 

Joel is not only a teacher, he plays in real life, plays as well as anyone, better than anyone really. See for yourself.

 

I heard a recording tonight of Joel Hoekstra, Blake Thompson and me in a room in Arizona going over Summertime for the show Love, Janis. The musicianship in that room was astonishing. I am tempted to release that recording, but it would only interest guitar players and other musical people. It’s not going to be on the Top Ten real soon, but it is a fascinating document.

 

The chronicler of daily nonsense in Zug, Switzerland.

 

Music is a tongue that utters no mean nor sarcastic words.     Photo: Don Aters.

 

This is the Foul Fiend Flibbertigibbet.

 

Sophia Ramos and I in Las Vegas.

 

Conscience, an inner voice that warns us that someone is looking, even if it’s only ourselves.     Photo: Max Clarke

 

Cogito, ergo sum.

 

My dear friend, clear your mind of cant… You may talk in this manner; it is a mode of talking in society: but don’t THINK foolishly.    Samuel Johnson.

 

Cant (Latin cantus, song)

Phraseology taken up and used for fashion’s sake, and not as a genuine expression of sentiment.

Insincere, especially conventional expressions of enthusiasm for high ideals, goodness or piety, the jargon peculiar to a particular class, party, profession, e.g.,  The cant of the music industry.

 

You usually hear cant when people aren’t really thinking. Their mind slips into neutral and they begin parroting common, trendy thoughts. Politicians do this a lot. You hear accepted notions fly by like banners of banality.

 

Marin County Cant, early 21st Century:

(Full Disclosure, I am a vegetarian from Marin County.)

MARIN CANT

I’m radiating total acceptance now, so, I love you, man, no, I really love you.

It’s all good. Don’t blame me for that Astral Projection. My Mars was conjuncting Jupiter.

What color is my aura? Red? Holy Atlantis, it was green just yesterday !

I wish my chakra were red. I’m channeling BaBa Lu and psychometrisized on my spiritual journey. I’m on the path, closer to the godess, bro.

There are other realities, like, like tantric sex which will lead us to manifesting abundance. It’s a Higher Consciousness, so consult the Tarot and use your Third Eye. That’s my special mantra.

 

We’re going to Okinawa, Japan. We’ll see you next week.

(I think Kat Feaver snapped this.)

Sam Andrew

Big Brother and the Holding Company

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One of the Regular, Weird People

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I’m one of those regular weird people.  Janis Joplin.

There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.   Somerset Maugham.

Listening to music is to the soul, what bathing is to the body.

“There are no atheists in foxholes” isn’t an argument against atheism, it’s an argument against foxholes. James Morrow.

You don’t finish a painting. You abandon it.

You can’t reason with someone who never used reason to establish what he believes.

Art is a way of imposing a structure where there is no structure.

Friends are like guitar strings; don’t tune them higher than their natural pitch.

Nothing ever changes and yet everything is always completely new.

Don’t threaten me with love, baby, let’s just go walking in the rain.

Billie Holliday

I just hate you and I hate your ass face.  Corky St. Clair.

Rule For All The Arts:

Start at the start. A little bit after the middle, make something big happen. Solve that, and then go on to the end.

If there’s an empty space, just fill it with a line, that’s what I like to do. Even it it’s from another show. Ron Albertson.

We are more often treacherous through weakness than through calculation.  François de la Rochefoucauld

CONSPIRACY THEORIES:

I’ve been coming to this circle for about five years, and measuring it. The diameter and the circumference are constantly changing, but the radius stays the same. Which brings me to the number 5. There are five letters in the word Blaine. Now, if you mix up the letters in the word Blaine, mix ‘em around, eventually, you’ll come up with Nebali. Nebali. The name of a planet in a galaxy way, way, way… way far away. And another thing. Once you go into that circle, the weather never changes. It is always 67 degrees with a 40% chance of rain.  (Waiting For Guffman)

Believe those who are seeking the truth.  Doubt those who find it.

André Gide.

The scientific mind often believes that if you name something, that you then understand its cause and effect.

I did it to myself. It wasn’t society. It wasn’t a pusher.  It wasn’t being blind or being black or being poor. It was all my doing.

Ray Charles.  (This is how a real man talks.)

To know the answer,  you must first know the question.

Weak eyes are fondest of glittering objects.  Thomas Carlyle.

We don’t know what we’ve got till it’s gone, but we also don’t know what we’ve been missing until it happens.

I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.  Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth. Niels Bohr.

Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise.  Seek what they sought.  Matsuo Basho.

The word “awesome” should describe something momentous like a woman giving birth. “Awesome” to describe how a pizza tastes takes away all that word’s worth and cheapens the word to the point of rendering it useless. Yes, I do know that this is a lost battle. Awesome.

Jazz is not dead. It just smells funny. Frank Zappa.

Love is like war. Easy to begin, but hard to end.

Sam Andrew

Big Brother and the Holding Company

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It’s A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood.

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14 November 2010

Steve Brown took this lovely photograph of Janis.

I could have met Stela Mandel at this engagement, but, no….

The very lively Cathy Richardson.

Marin: Lizards in the summer, Salamanders when it gets cooler.

Elise au naturel.

Janis at her house in Larkspur. She was once the pool champion of Avenue D.

If Tom Cruise lived in East Texas, he might look like this.

Basic human decency, rock and roll version.

Two and a half years old.

Elise when she was modeling. Sarasota, Florida. 1980s.

Mary Bridget Davies. Very intelligent, smart as can be. Funny. Strong.

Kate Russo and Peter Albin in Koh Samui, Thailand.

My sister Lillian and my father.

See? I told you she knew how to play flügelhorn.

Janis had an angular, jabbing kind of writing style. Sharp as she was.

Moondog, serious classical composer, author of All Is Loneliness.

Tom Finch and Tara Coyote. Glamorous and amorous.

Nick Gravenites, a very happy unidentified woman, and John Cipollina.

On the cover of the Rolling Stone, Italian style. Good photograph.

We learned Ball and Chain from this woman.

Elise took this dawn photograph of the Wörthersee in southern Austria.

Tim Braun and Woo Salazar in the Kansas City, Missouri, Love, Janis.

278 West 11th Street, NYC. I lived in the West Village for almost ten years.

McNear’s Beach, I think. Janis, Peter, Dave, Sam. Total madhouse.

One of the many appropriations of Robert Crumb’s great idea.

We played with Steve at The Shoreline Amphitheatre a couple of years ago.

Karen Lyberger, glassical scholar, Hawaii.

Merl Saunders, Barry Melton, Norton Buffalo, shot by Don Aters.

The Hummingbird that Janis first played Bobby McGee on. Beautiful guitar.

I remember these vehicles.

Joan, Karen, Elise, Hawaii.

This was quite a gig.

Big Brother in Kyoto. Tom Finch, Duffy Bishop. 1996?

Just another night backstage.

Shanghai Elise.

In this manicured England, we were at the Bein Inn. Not like a Be In.

The top of San Francisco. Fisherman’s Wharf. Aquatic Park. The Marina.

Aspects of Elise. 1980s.

Max Clarke, peripheralist, photographer extraordinaire.

Carla, Elise’s mother, and Edd came to Scotland when we played there.

Almost two.

Dave Getz, Hawaii.

Regensburg, Germany 2003.

Kathi McDonald and Bob Mosely.

The Pik Ass Playroom.

White Plains, New York.

With my brother Dan in Austin. 1980s.

I wonder how many times I’ve played Piece of My Heart?

Elise is singing.

Getting ready to go to Okinawa the first time.

Do I look proud to be with these people? Sophia Ramos and Ben Nieves.

Chad Quist, Lisa Mills, Todd Vinciguerra. This was a good band.

With Kathi McDonald. Seattle.

Sam Andrew

Big Brother and the Holding Company

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Letter To Janis – Sundays With Sam

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                                                Sam Andrew and Janis Joplin

Remember the day when Otis Redding died? You called me and your voice was trembling. I had never heard you like that before and you seemed so forlorn. We met at your place and played all of Otis’ records. It was a good night because we honored the man but now and then you would get a troubled expression on your face and I knew that you wanted him to still be there and that you knew he could do so much more if he had only lived.

Well, guess what, Janis? Tonight I am sitting here with a glass of wine in my hand after playing a song that we wrote together a long time ago. I am thinking a lot of you and it is making me happy, but, you know? There may be a slightly troubled expression on my face. You were a good friend to me and I wonder what you would be doing if you were still here and playing your music. I know one thing for sure. We would be laughing a lot right now. You were one of the funniest human beings I ever knew. You had a way of expressing yourself that was original, picturesque and Texan, raw and wry. You always sounded like home to me.

What about that time our band Big Brother and the Holding Company was backstage at the Fillmore doing a photo shoot? Remember that? I was playing a Stratocaster through a small tuning amp and you were opening a bottle of champagne. I think we were actually writing a song at the same time, one that we played together for a long time. You weren’t doing such a great job of opening the bottle though. The cork flew out of the bottle neck and bounced off the guitar neck. The lost cork playing the lost chord. We found a new lick that day. I still have the photographs from that session and even see one in a book now and then. There is champagne all over the floor and we are all laughing as hard as we can. God, that was a fun session. One of those days when everything seems right.

I liked the jazz standards that we did together and would have loved to do an entire album of them just for a pleasant sidetrip. We only had the chance to do Summertime and Little Girl Blue but they turned out rather well, didn’t they? You really were on your way with Little Girl Blue. That night at Columbia studios in New York when you got the phrasing right and made the song your own in such a strong and tender manner was a chilling experience. Suddenly I realized that you could sing anything you wanted to and that you could probably sing it really well. This made me want to find an aria from one of the great operas and hear you interpret something in a bet canto style. Later I adapted one of Donizetti’s beautiful songs Una Furtiva Lacrima for Big Brother and we actually performed the tune for a couple of years. Every time we did I wish you could have been singing it with us with all of that power and style a la Joplin.

Well, Janis, I have just returned from Santa Barbara where I played with Peter Lewis from Moby Grape and John McPhee from the Doobie Brothers. We had a good time. Peter really writes some quality songs and he has a classic voice. John is a perfectionist, totally unassuming and a lyrical guitar player with a great ear. Remember when he was in Clover and they used to open for us? Huey Lewis was in that band and he was just the harmonica player. Alex Call was the singer. We have done a couple of projects together. I remember that Clover’s road manager used to try to get fifty dollars for them when they were playing with us. Fifty dollars for the whole band. I think I helped him once and they seemed so grateful. Then Huey went on to make gazillions with Mario Cipollina and friends. Life is funny. You should have stayed around to check it out and laugh at it a little bit. Where are you, Janis?

Oh, yes, I almost forgot. Peter reminded me of one date when Moby Grape and Big Brother were playing at the Fillmore and you had a crush on Bob Mosely who was a great singer and who looked like a blonde surfer boy­dude from Southern California. You chased him all the way out on to the fire escape a couple of floors above the street and had him cornered. Peter says you almost shoved Bob over the side. You totally intimidated the man and he was not usually intimidated by anyone.

You were a strong woman, my dear, and I will never forget you. You came into our black and white lives and they instantly turned to color. You were my best friend and I will always love you. We learned a lot together and even better we laughed all the time. Even when any sane person would be crying. I miss you every day but not in any tragic way. It’s more like I feel lucky to have spent the time with you that I did and to have had a woman friend like you.

Here’s hoping we meet again.

Janis Joplin and Sam (no further description for Sam) rehearsing on a California motel patio in 1969. Photo by John Bryne Cooke