Frenzy with Janis

In a cow pasture outside San Francisco in the early sixties I attended a concert by Big Brother and the Holding Company, featuring an unknown singer by the name of Janis Joplin. Nobody had ever heard of her. That would soon change . . .


half naked
arms uplifted
mouth opened wide
screaming as Janis made love
to Down on Me
Big Brother and the Holding Company
kicking ass
and picking notes behind her
the yet-to-be “Pearl” opens her mouth and
sings the blues
as black as Muddy Waters
listen, you can smell
the Mississippi juke joints
she has pizzazz that only a white
muthafuckin’ chick from
Corpus Christi, Texas can have
bona fide blues woman
as her own blues life unfolds
fame begets riches;
gets on the cover of The Rolling Stone
not nearly enough for
Janis, the Trash Queen
that’s who she was
screaming out Ball and Chain
bitch liked getting dirty and funky . . . yeah
When she belted a song
she got carnal with it
reamed it . . . sucked it . . . fucked it in the ass
when the last
screaming note left her blues mouth
we all knew we’d experienced
Janis Joplin . . .
singing the blues she lived . . .

©July 5, 2008 / Jerry Pat Bolton