The first time I knew about Janis was a black and white performance aired on KQED channel 9 in SF. I'm thinkin' '66?? I was maybe fourteen or fifteen. I had never seen any "hippies" before and this stuff was so raw. I had never seen any one with hair that long and dressed like freaks. My mom came in and wouldn't let us watch the end of it because it was obscene she said.
My next recollection was some free concerts at Speedway Meadows about '67 and '68. Lot's of people at the last one with the Dead, Airplane, Quicksilver and I think Santana Blues Band. Hard to remember it was a long time ago. I remember about a hundred Hell's Angels parked on one side of the Meadow and the Cops totally out numbered, watching the spectacle on the other side.
One night we went to see the Dead at the Carousel Ballroom. We were tripping heavily and at some point we couldn't take being so close to the stage and we retreated to the little cafe in the front. There were some TV monitors and you could hear the PA still. There were two narrow doors that opened out onto small balconies over looking Market Street. Only two could stand there and I remember being there for ten minutes when that little Porche Speedster Janis had pulled up and double parked in the bus zone. From above, all we could see was a wild cartoon paint job and this mass of frizzy hair trailing boa feathers leap out of the car and into the building.
Janis made her way to the stage in short order and we could see on the monitors she and Pigpen were working on a bottle of Southern Comfort. We made our way back into the ballroom and watched Mr. Pen and Janis lay down and epic twenty minute rendition of Lovelights.
A bunch of us decided that we should go to the Fillmore West to catch the final Big Brother concerts. I just read in the thread, April '70. By the time we got downtown there was a line six deep all the way around the block. We said, let's go to see John Mayall at the Avalon. We got up to Sutter St. as the line was going in and ended up sitting near the back on the floor. What can I say? Mayall with Mick Taylor?
On the bill was Big Mama Willie Mae Thornton. After a bunch of tunes she starts talking to the audience about her music and stuff. She says that she is going to sing a song that she wrote that really launched her into the limelight. She said that the person most responsible for that was here tonight, and she points right at me. I turn my head and Janis is standing right behind me. She says, I want to dedicated this to Janis Joplin. Janis is smiling and crying when the band starts playing. Big Mama turned the place upside down. In a few minutes Janis was gone. I read later that she had come up there between sets at the Fillmore.
Anybody else have memories?
