Janis Joplin – My Baby

As of yesterday, she has been gone for 53 years. She dedicated this song to her dad. It was on her last studio album Pearl released in 1971 right after Joplin died.

Janis’s voice is gold on this one… a pure blues voice. I’m convinced Janis had a built-in dynamic. She had one of the best dynamics in her songs based purely on her building up to the choruses of her songs. Her influences were Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, and last but not least…Otis Redding. She saw Otis a few months before he died and copped some of his stage mannerisms.

This was written by Jerry Ragovoy and Mort Shuman. Shuman’s credits include Teenager In Love and Let’s Live For Today. Ragovoy also wrote Joplin’s songs Piece Of My Heart and Try. The song was first released by Garnet Mimms in 1966.

I have included the studio version and a live version she did on the Dick Cavett show. Cavett talks about her as if he had somewhat fallen for her. It was an odd combination…Cavett attended Yale and here was Janis…a loud brash blues singer from Port Arthur Texas.

Cavett tells a story about Janis and him eating at a restaurant and the song “Down On Me” is playing while they are at the table. Cavett said to Janis…I bet they don’t play that song on the radio because of it’s sexual nature…Janis then leaned in and told Cavett…Dick…uh it’s a gospel song.

Cavett later credited Joplin for sending so many other major rock stars his way after her first appearance on his show in 1968. She told her fellow musicians that Cavett wasn’t a dreary television personality like many. The fact is…Cavett was different from other talk show hosts…especially now. He would dedicate entire shows to one person and he had conversations with them, not interviews. He also mixed and matched people that you would not see in everyday life. Janis for instance, was on a show with Raquel Welch and Gloria Swanson. Three completely different women but he had all of them in a conversation.

If you see the Cavett DVD’s…get them…if not many of them are on youtube.

The biography I read on Janis was by Holly George-Warren. It was released in 2019 and it is one of the best books about her I’ve read. Here are a few quotes from that author.

Holly George-Warren: You can look to two major influences that Janis had that I think affected her sexuality and the way she expressed it on stage. One was, of course, the great Bessie Smith, whose lyrics Janis knew by heart. She started out singing Bessie Smith songs way before we ever saw her, these images of her with Big Brother and the Holding Company. She started performing Bessie Smith songs around 1963. And those kind of lyrics of sexuality, of sexual longing, sexual betrayal, those very much informed Janis’ own songwriting and the songs that she chose to sing.

The other major influence was Otis Redding. She was a huge Otis fan until the day she died. And she got to see him perform live three nights in a row at The Fillmore back in 1966, and it transformed her because he was a very sexual performer. And he was able to emit this heat on stage that Janis herself was able to do through her own way of manifesting these feelings that she had while singing these songs. And I mean, Janis herself, she compared singing on stage to having an orgasm. She blew some journalists’ minds when she used that expression, but she – it was a very sexual experience for her.

The original version of this song was by Garnet Mimms. 

My Baby

And when I work hard all day long
I tell you what, it don’t bother me nohow,
‘Cause how could anything ever go wrong
When I got my baby, Lord, yes,
When I got my baby, oh Lord!

And when they tell me love is pain
I said it might be true for you, honey,
But not for Janis no more, no no no no.
All I’ve ever got to do is call my daddy?s name
Yeah and I got m-my baby, Lord, yeah,
Yes I got my baby, good good God,
Honey, I want to tell you something that I do.

Deep down, h-honey, in the dark of the night,
When I lay my head down, I want to go to sleep,
And I know everything is gonna be alright,
Yeah I got my baby, Lord yeah,
‘Cause I got m-my baby, oh yeah.

And when I want to call the names
Or the things to be that want to be to you.
And when I want to reach out my hand
It always seems you hold me, dear,
Love, don’t you know how long I looked for you
Daddy, daddy, daddy.
Love, don’t you know how hard I tried,
But now I got my baby, Lord, yeah,
Now I got my baby, yeah.

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

46 thoughts on “Janis Joplin – My Baby”

    1. I understand…same here… the whole package. I’m reading Pete Townshend’s autobiography and he was saying how great she was live…her and Jimi Hendrix…and he doesn’t hand out compliments very much. I’ve heard that though from a lot of people.

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    1. Oh I remember that from a clip…the look in Cass’s face says it all.
      I was telling John…that I’m reading a Pete Townshend book right now and he basically said she was just incredible live and Pete doesn’t hand out compliments much.

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  5. The info on Cavett was really interesting to me. So many times I wished there’d be a talk show like that , that wasn’t following a template of monologue, funny bit, guest 1, banter with band leader, guest 2 plugging new book or movie, musical guest! She looked like she was having fun on his show.

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    1. Her and Cavett were close and many say REAL close….and he has pretty much admitted it.
      What I wouldn’t give for another Dick Cavett show. I liked him better than Carson. The reason is…he didn’t interview people Dave…he had conversations with them. Joplin told her peers about Cavett and that is a big reason he started to get rock artists.
      Now days…no…it’s a quick 10 minutes and they are off. Cavett devoted complete shows to some guests.

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      1. I don’t see why some hosts these days don’t think to do the same, it would be refreshing if the guest had anything interesting to say – which a lot of them do.

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      2. Because Dave…and this is just my opinion… they don’t think…and maybe they are right…that the masses have any patience. I DO…and yes I wish they would do that now. Someone should at least try.
        Imagine getting someone like Jack Nicolson (or whoever… an interesting person) for a complete show interview. I would love it.

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    2. The other great interviewer is Terry Gross (host of “Fresh Air” from WHYY in Philadelphia, available on NPR). She is always well-prepared and interested in her subjects. Her interviews run about 45 minutes. Her guests are often plugging their new book, but she gets them talking. Her interview with one of the stars of “The Wire” (an old HBO show about Heroin dealers in a housing project and the narcs trying to catch them) got me to start watching it. The interview was re-broadcast when he died of a Heroin OD. He had talked openly about his struggles with addiction in the interview (and was clean at the time).

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      1. I have heard her before… she is really good.
        Oh The Wire was one of the best television programs I’ve ever watched. I think I know which actor you are talking about.
        I think it was Michael Kenneth Williams who played Omar…he was my favorite character on the show.

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  6. Cavett embraced his nerdiness. When others tried way too hard to be hip, he was himself…maybe even a parody of himself. Your reference to his mixing and matching reminds me of the early Fillmore – when you would see people sharing a bill that you wouldn’t otherwise see – in a way that paid tribute to the elders and showed the cross-pollination in music at that time. There is a Joplin recording with Jorma Kaukonen from 1964 to hear where they both came from. The pre-Airplane Kaukonen (with hints of how Hot Tuna would sound) and Joplin showing her roots.

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    1. Yes I agree…Cavett did mix personailities well…a good example would be Joplin and Raquel Welch together. That one was interesting.
      I’ve read where Bill Graham did the same thing.
      I just heard one song out of that with Kaukonen and it’s great… the old Bessie Smith song Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out

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  7. Janis Joplin gets my old pulses going a bit and I start imagining rolling around on an Afghan rug, man, smothered in patchouli oil, calling her “mama”. There was just something appealing about her. On those live recordings she is delightfully giggly in some of her between songs chats. Man!!

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    1. LOL…I wish I would have had THAT intro to my post!
      I’ve always been atrracted to her as well. She had such a big personality, a certain look, and talent…all in one package….so yea! I totally get what you are saying.

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      2. Also a few gulps of Southern Comfort. I think onstage she was happy…it’s offstage she had her problems. She is wonderful in “Festival Express.” When she revs up her voice to sing Cry Baby it was incredible.

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  9. She was amazing! And it’s true what you commented somewhere the other day – she wouldn’t fit the ‘looks’ criteria to get the airplay these days.
    (America had Janis … we had / have Maggie Bell – and coz she’s from Glasgow, she just edges it! 😉 😀 )

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    1. Maggie Bell! Yes, always voted “best female vocalist” in NME and Disc, along with Carol Grimes. Maggie did a great version of Trade Winds, a couple of years before Rod Stewart did. It’s on her Queen Of The Night album, but you knew that, of course!

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      2. Oh Yea I knew what you were talking about buy…I didnt’ know what you meant by that….I like Cavett…and he loved Janis.

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