alisonboston.com

The artist of course, is Janis Joplin. People have compared me with her. I was stunned the first time a young American man compared me to her after hearing me sing in Big Bang. He said: “I thought Janis was alive again. I heard you singing this radical anti-war song - in Barcelona, Spain - and I thought I was back in the 1960’s and it was Janis.” (What kind of drugs was he on? He was all of about 19!)

Then others compared me with her, and one young woman from Argentina who lives here in Barcelona went so far as to say: “You’re the Janis Joplin of Barcelona.” Well….I prefer to me than to be anyone else, but if I am going to be compared with a singer, I certainly can’t complain about being compared with Janis!

Then a woman who plays piano at the Barcelona Blues Society jam sessions - Anna Piana - suggested I learn Turtle Blues. But as I said before, I looked at the lyrics and just couldn’t bring myself to learn them. They are just too hard (cruel). Then, a few days later, I heard a documentary about Janis’ life on BBC ( I listen on the web) and decided that I need to learn a song she sang.

So I started to listen to her songs and read the lyrics. Everything was in the first person singular and filled with anguish…I don’t want to sing first-person filled with anguish! I’ve lived my anguish, I don’t want to live it over and over and over by singing about it!

Then I heard Joss Stone and Melissa Etheridge pay tribute to Janis with Cry and Piece of my Heart and I was blown away. Joss is a great singer, and Melissa is a great singer who has lived…and survived…and triumphed! Suddenly Janis’ music took on a whole new meaning for me.

…and Piece of My Heart has a special place in my life. It was the song that made me hear Janis. I was very young when Janis hit the music scene, she and Jimi Hendrix, The Doors and Led Zepplin were the music my big brother and his friends were listening to when I was growing up in the back woods of Northern New Brunswick, Canada. Their music blared through the rear speakers as I - trying to be cooler and older - sat in the back seats of cars. It was jangly and kind of scary to my innocent ears, yet it was the happening sound, but oh, how I wished they’d turn down the volume! Mostly, I preferred Donovan, or Joni Mitchell, Gordon Lightfoot, Lighthouse, Leonard Cohen or for something a bit more raucous, the Beatles. As far as 60’s rock went, Stairway to Heaven and Light My Fire were the heaviest I could handle. (I finally got into Jimi Hendrix about thirty years later - I kid you NOT - after training my ears with years of listening to opera and classical!)

60’s Rock Scene Scary

Overall, the ’60’s rock scene was scary for this little girl growing up in the back woods of Northern New Brunswick. And Janis was the scariest of all! First, she was doing what the boys were doing, and she was a girl(woman), and that in and of itself was pretty daunting. Then she died - of a drug overdose. First Hendrix, then just two weeks later, Janis and the following spring, Jim Morrison. It was all very frightening. It was enough to convince me that being a rock star was anything but a stairway to heaven!

But there was something about Janis singing Piece of my Heart that made me pay attention.
And there’s something about Melissa Etheridge singing it today that is making me pay attention again.
Now I’m learning to sing it - and there’s little chance of me turning into a heroin addict today. I’ve dealt with most of my demons, though there are still a few lurking in the background - but unlike the young Janis, or the young Alison, I’ve got tools today to help me deal with them in a healthy manner.

This doesn’t of course mean I’m going to emerge as a late-blooming rock star, but it does permit me to learn to sing a soulful song that was made famous by one of the greatest rock stars of all time!