I just read a Joplin book and anyone who follows me knows what that means…a few Janis Joplin posts are coming.
She wasn’t here to be conventional or a cookie-cutter person. She was here to blaze a path and leave her mark…and she did just that.
I owned the album Pearl a long time ago and loved it. Through the years I also got her greatest hits and was wrapped up in those songs. I had forgotten about this funky song…and I use funky in the best way. It reaffirmed what a singer should be about to me…giving 100 percent of yourself every time out there.
On her last album, she was produced by Paul Rothchild who wanted Janis to use less of her brash voice to give more. He also worked on her dynamics which worked perfectly with this album and song. She was working with her 3rd band in two years…and this one was the best one no doubt. I liked Big Brother but she HAD to scream to get over those loud guitars. She was taking more of an R&B/soul/funk/blues/rock approach unlike her strictly rock/blues approach with Big Brother. She had more nuances on this album and her voice never sounded better.
Half Moon was written by John Hall and his first wife, the former Johanna Schier. It was picked as the B-side to Me and Bobby McGee. At the time, John was a struggling musician and Johanna was a writer for The Village Voice. Johanna was assigned an interview with Joplin, who suggested the couple write a song for her. Joplin wanted Johanna to write a song about how she was feeling about a man she met in Rio Janeiro and was planning to marry in the future after he finished what he was doing.
It was the first song they wrote together, and a huge break for the couple, who were able to buy a house and a sailboat with the royalties. John Hall got a lot of credibility in the rock realm from co-writing it, and his career took off. A few years later, he formed the group Orleans, which had hits with two songs he wrote: “Still The One” and “Dance With Me.”
I never realized what it meant when I heard people say…”the artist always gives everything of themselves” until I saw clips of Joplin, Springsteen, and Hendrix. They go out on a limb on stage and risk a train wreck to give you that raw excitement. In today’s world of pre-packaged high-priced Las Vegas style shows…you get a slick show with dancers (I never understood that) without a bit of soul. Sure…the live acts sound exactly like their records and that can be tedious after a while. Some love that…and more power to them but I like the emotional roller coaster journey you take with an artist like Joplin…and she gives you that feeling on studio albums also.
The amazing thing about Pearl is that all of the vocals were called “scratch” takes…meant to be redone later on. She was planning to replace all of her vocals…she went all out anyway so I don’t see how she could have improved on them. Funny thing about the album…the original producer was no other than Todd Rundgren…Janis got rid of him right off the bat because she could not relate to him. Paul Rothchild (Door’s producer) took over and just fell for Janis’s voice and Janis.
I included a live version she did a few months before her death on the Dick Cavett show. When she grabs that mic…there is no doubt who is in charge. There is no screaming in this…just pure soul/blues singing…I love the high notes and dynamics…and she just plain kicked ass on this song.
Pearl peaked at #1 on the Billboard Album Charts, #1 in Canada, and #20 in the UK in 1971.
John Hall: “It was numerological and astrological in nature. And it also had an alliterative repetition that was kind of captivating. It wasn’t rhyming, exactly, but it was an internal rhyme, perhaps you could say. It’s a device that poets use and that songwriters use to not just have the end of lines rhyme or the end of verses rhyme, but to have sort of a foreshadowing of that and words inside each line.”
Half Moon
Half moon, night time sky
Seven stars, heaven’s eyes
Seven songs on seven seas
Just to bring all your sweet love home to me
Hey, you fill me like the mountains
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
You fill me like the sea, Lord
Not coming past but still at last
Your love brings life to me
Your love brings life to me, hey
Rings of cloud and arms aflame
Wings rise up to call your name
Sun rolls high, Lord, it burns the ground
Just to tell about the first good man I found
Yeah, you fill me like the mountains
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
You fill me like the sea, Lord
Not coming past but still at last
Your love brings life to me
Your love brings life to me
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh yeah
Half moon on night time sky
Seven stars, heaven’s eyes
Seven songs on seven seas
Just to bring all your sweet love home to me
Hey baby, you fill me like the mountains
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
You fill me like the sea, Lord
Not coming past honey still at last
Lord, you fill me like the mountains
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
You fill me like the sea, Lord
Not coming past but still at last
Hey, you fill me like the mountains
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
You fill me like the sea, oh Lord
You’re not coming past, honey, still at last
Your love brings life to me
Your love brings life to me
Your love, la la la la la, la
Won’t you bring life to me
I said you’re gonna ride around
When I’m on a little home babe
Bring it on home, you bring it on home
Bring it on home, bring it on home
I said your love brings life to me, yeah
…
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Todd Rundgren wow…Thats a cool fact right there as I never knew he went that far back in the biz. Great stuff Mad Max
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Very enjoyable song Max, thanks for starting my day off with this.
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Glad you liked it Jim…
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Funky! Thanks for sharing.
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Glad you liked it Randy
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Sometimes the best thing about a powerful voice is learning how to control it. I think the same when I hear Tracy Nelson. She can belt with the best of them, but when she reels it in, we go to another level.
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Playing with Big Brother probably help start the loud singing because they were so loud and P.A.’s at the time…just couldn’t handle as much. I agree….learning control is important.
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The lyrics are poetic and good to hear the origin story of the song. Imagining her thinking of her love for her man as she sings it.
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pretty good song for a B-side. Same thought as Halffast… talent of a real strong voice is knowing how to control it, something she was starting to ‘get’ here I think.
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Like I said to him…playing with Big Brother you had to be loud as hell to get over their guitars.
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She really had a good voice when she held back.
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I think she was finding that out with this album.
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If she wasn’t so self-destructive we might have seen and heard some amazing things.
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If a person is not a Joplin fan after hearing that they never will be!
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I totally agree Bruce…I mean how could you not like that?
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Gone too soon, just as she was coming into her own and discovering what she could do with that voice. Thanks for the good post.
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She was always going to only burn bright and brief. Never ever destined to put on a diamante dress and step out for another endless enervated Vegas show.
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Great tune with a nice funky vibe I hadn’t known. While I admittedly like Janis Joplin’s “screaming songs” with Big Brother and the Holding Company, especially “Piece of My Heart”, I agree that she also sounded incredibly powerful when holding back vocally speaking. There truly was no one else who sang like her.
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I DO like her screaming songs as well! They are fine with me like Cry Baby…she could sing the phonebook and I would buy it
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“Cry Baby” is incredible. Another tune that gives me chills is “Try (Just a Little Bit Harder)”.
At the same time, a tune like “Half Moon” is a perfect illustration that ultimately Joplin’s power resulted from great feeling. Sometimes, that meant going full throttle screaming, other times when she seemingly held back, it was all about great dynamic!
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When she hits that not in Cry Baby…yea I wanna cry…for joy.
She had dynamics built in. I know there are other singers who resemble her voice…Melissa Ethridge is one…but none have her feel for me…added with a Texas twang.
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First, I’ve been hearing all afternoon about what happened in Nashville, Max, and it has to be hurting all of you nearby. I’m so sorry. There must be something right to say, but I’m at a loss.
About Janis, this song is new to me. I was a little kid when she was a star, and she was too loud and harsh for me to relate to. I’ve been listening and appreciating her as an adult. As others have said, she has a good voice, and didn’t get the ideal conditions for showing it off. But she did establish her own ‘brand’ with it, and it made her eternally famous.
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It is so terrible. No there is nothing no one can say. Why target kids? The mental illness these days is just terrible.
This producer was getting her to use her voice instead of being loud and brash…and it worked on this album. She knew she would blow her voice out if she continued like before. I would love to know what we missed.
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I agree, Janis had a lot more to show us. She definitely had to find a way to manage her voice. I hear McCartney using his scream all the way back to the early days, and I don’t know how he didn’t damage his more.
About the shooter, I just hurt so badly for all of those families in immeasurable pain right now.
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I know…it’s only around 10 miles from where I work. One of my co-workers were directly affected. I was in an executive meeting and one of them was going to say the name but the other one hushed him… I can’t imagine what they are going through.
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How awful.
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Janis is special. I have Pearl, the greatest hits and a live album and I love all three. As you said, she blazed a path and it is a shame it all ended so soon.
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Thanks John. I don’t hear as many female vocalists I really like…but her I do.
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