Janis Joplin – “Cry Baby”

“Cry Baby” was one of Janis Joplin’s iconic numbers, full of the energy and passion that characterised all her music.

Janis Joplin only just made it into the Seventies – she died 40 years ago in 1970, on October 4th, aged 27.

But her music kept her name alive through the Seventies and beyond nonetheless.

Here’s a live video from that year, “Cry Baby”, filmed in 1970 in Toronto:

My first encounter with Janis Joplin was in 1971, as a young teenager, when I heard one of the last two songs she had recorded, less than a year earlier: “Mercedes Benz” on the posthumously published album “Pearl”.

I was staying at someone’s place in Wellington, New Zealand, waiting for a lift the few hundred miles to my home – the younger brother of a friend of my parents.

Many years later I was to meet up with him again in Frankfurt, Germany, where I also lived at the time, but almost all I remember of his flat in Wellington was “Oh Lord, won’t you buy me, a Mercedes Benz, my friends all drive Porsches, I must make, amends”, and that album cover…

By coincidence, as I was locating this video, I discovered it was Janis Joplin’s birthday just a day or two ago (depending on where you live): January 19th.

So here’s a belated “Happy Birthday” Janis. I see you got your Porsche in the end…

Paul