Janis Joplin Woodstock
It was now 2 AM Sunday, 14 hours into Saturday’s show with three more acts to follow. She would play a bit over an hour.
The rap on Janis’s set is that she was so saturated with Southern Comfort that she could barely perform. I wish I could barely perform, saturated or not, as well. Another common observation is that the band was so newly formed, that the set had to be weak. Having the opportunity to listen to what Rhino Records producers Andy Zax and Steve Woolard have done with the set evaporates that haze.
Personnel:
- Janis Joplin: vocals
- Terry Clements: tenor saxophone
- Cornelius “Snooky” Flowers: baritone saxophone
- Luis Gasca: trumpet
- John Till: guitar
- Richard Kermode: keyboards
- Brad Campbell: bass
- Maury Baker: drums
Setlist:
- Raise Your Hand
- As Good As You’ve Been to This World
- To Love Somebody
- Summertime
- Try (Just a Little Bit Harder)
- Kozmic Blues
- I Can’t Turn You Loose
- Work Me, Lord
- Piece of My Heart
- Ball and Chain
Janis Joplin Woodstock
Raise Your Hand
Written by Steve Cropper, Eddie Floyd, and Alvertis Isbell (Al Bell). Janis jumps right into Raise Your Hand without so much as a howdy do. It hadn’t appeared on any of her (or Big Brother’s) album and wouldn’t until the 1993 compilation, Janis
Raise your hand.
Let’s go, come on!
Hon, that you’ve never, ever, ever had.
I know you’ve never had it.
Oh, honey, don’t you just sit there cryin’,
Don’t just sit there feelin’ bad.
No, no, no.
Now do you understand ?
And raise you hand.
Hey, hey, hey.
I said raise your hand.
Want to give you all my love.
Oh, honey, won’t you come on and open up,
I said, open up in your heart.
Please won’t you let me try ?
Don’t ya understand ?
Raise your hand.
Hey, hey, hey.
I said, raise your hand right here,
Right here, right now, yeah!
Honey, why won’t you come and tell me so ?
I said honey
An’ if you ever feel, whoa, that you just might need my lovin’
Honey, all I just want you to do is just let go.
Don’t ya understand,
Raise your hand.
Hey, hey, hey!
I said, raise your hand,
Raise, raise, raise, raise.
Honey,
Ha, ha, ha
Honey,
Whoa, whoa, whoa
Said-a, whoa
Alright!
‘Cause I want you to come along.
Raise your hand
‘Cause you know where you belong.
You belong here, now
Said here and now
Said, here and now
Honey, here and now
Here and now
Honey, here, now
Honey, here, now,
Honey, here
Now, now, now, now, now, now, now
Raise your hand.
Raise your hand.
Raise your hand.
Raise your hand.
Raise your hand.
Hey, hey, get it up now!
Hey, hey, get it up now!
Hey, hey, get it up now!
Hey, hey, get it up now!
Hey, hey, get it up now!
Hey, hey, get it up!
Raise your hand, yeah.
Raise your hand, yeah.
Alright!
Janis Joplin Woodstock
As Good As You’ve Been to This World
Brass blasting behind her, Janis’s sprinted right into As Good As You’ve Been to This World. She’d already recorded the song for her I Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again Mama! album which Columbia would release on September 11, 1969. Nick Gravenites wrote the song.
Live it all the best you can
And if you pay no attention darling
To what you might ever hear from your man,
I think you’re just like a servant
Don’t you know it makes the world go round,
You gotta go and honey share everywhere else.
Come on, come on, come on!
So good I want to be right back to you.
As good as you’ve been now,
As good as you’ve been to this whole wide world,
As good as you’ve been now, say,
As good as you’ve been to this whole wide world,
As good as you’ve been, babe,
So good I want to be here.
I see you look at the sky.
I know what’s in it make you happy there,
But it only make you cry.
I think you got good intentions too,
Whatever you give to the world outside,
I want to give it right back to you, yes I am!
Come on, come on, come on!
You know you treat him mighty fine,
Or you meet somebody on the street
And you give him a real hard time.
I said it’s gonna come right back home to you.
I said it’s gonna visit you now,
Yes it is, oh yes it is.
As good as you’ve been, babe,
So good I want to be here.
Oh, good as you’ve been to this whole wide world,
So good I want to be here.
Ah, the way you love your mother,
The way you love your sister, your brother,
The way you love your aunt, your uncle,
Anybody now, everybody now.
Good as you’ve been babe, hey!
Good as you’ve been babe, hey!
Good as you’ve been babe
And I’m just gonna make you want it now
‘Cause I ‘m just gonna give you a thrill
Say, good as you been babe,
Hurrah, good as you been babe,
I say, good as you been babe,
Oh daddy, good as you been babe,
My man, good as you been babe,
All right, yeah hey.
Janis Joplin Woodstock
To Love Somebody
Still not taking any time, next Janis covers (steals), Barry and Robin Gibbs’s To Love Somebody, which she’d also included on I Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again Mama!
Never ever, never shone on me, no, no
Honey, I want, I want my whole life
To be lived with you, babe
That’s what I want oh, was to be
Living and loving you
You can do anything, every thing yeah
Honey, what good could it ever bring
Because I haven’t got you with my love
And I can’t find you babe, no I can’t
No you don’t, honey no you don’t know
You don’t know what it’s like
To love anybody
Oh honey, I want to talk about love
And trying to hold somebody
The way I love you babe
And I’ve been loving you babe
I know my frame of mind, yeah
But nobody, nobody has to ever be so blind
Honey, like I did, I know I was blind
Honey, I tell you that I was, I was very, very blind
Oh but I’m just a girl
Can’t you just take a look at me and tell
Tell that I live, honey I live and I breathe for you
Don’t you know I do!
Honey, what good could it ever bring
Because I haven’t got you with my love
And I can’t find you babe, no I can’t
No you don’t, honey no you don’t know
You don’t know what it’s like
To love anybody
Oh honey, I want to talk about love
And trying to hold somebody
The way I love you babe
And I’ve been loving you babe
Because everybody came to me one time and said
“Honey, you can do anything
Every little thing, and I think I can
Oh, but what good, what good
Honey, what awfully good can it ever, ever bring
Because I can’t find you with my love
And I can’t find you babe, oh anywhere
No you don’t, honey no you don’t know
You don’t know what it’s like
To love anybody
Oh honey, I want to talk about love
And trying to hold somebody
The way I love you babe
And I’ve been loving you babe
No you don’t, honey no you don’t know
You don’t know what it’s like
To love anybody
Oh honey, I want to talk about love
And trying to hold somebody
The way I love you babe
And I’ve been loving you babe
Janis Joplin Woodstock
Summertime
Janis had done Summertime on the classic Cheap Thrills album with Big Brother and the Holding Company. “Summertime” is an aria composed in 1934 by George Gershwin for the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess. The lyrics are by DuBose Heyward, the author of the novel Porgy on which the opera was based.
The band’s intro briefly reflects that legacy.
Summertime, time, time,
Child, the living’s easy.
Fish are jumping out
And the cotton, Lord,
Cotton’s high, Lord, so high.
Your daddy’s rich
And your ma is so good-looking, baby.
She’s looking good now,
Hush, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby,
No, no, no, no, don’t you cry.
Don’t you cry!
One of these mornings
You’re gonna rise, rise up singing,
You’re gonna spread your wings,
Child, and take, take to the sky,
Lord, the sky.
But until that morning
Honey, n-n-nothing’s going to harm you now,
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
Don’t you cry,
Cry.
Janis Joplin Woodstock
Try (Just a Little Bit Harder)
Still no patter, Try (Just a Little Bit Harder) is the third song of her set that will appear on her forthcoming album. Jerry Ragovoy and Chip Taylor wrote it.
Try, try, try just a little bit harder
So I can love, love, love him, I tell myself
Well, I’m gonna try yeah, just a little bit harder
So I won’t lose, lose, lose him to nobody else.
Hey! Well, I don’t care how long it’s gonna take you now,
But if it’s a dream I don’t want No I don’t really want it
If it’s a dream I don’t want nobody to wake me.
Yeah, I’m gonna try yeah, just a little bit harder
So I can give, give, give, give him every bit of my soul.
Yeah, I’m gonna try yeah, just a little bit harder
So I can show, show, show him love with no control.
Hey! I’ve waited so long for someone so fine
I ain’t gonna lose my chance, no I don’t wanna lose it,
Ain’t gonna lose my chance to make you mine, all mine.
All right, get it! Yeah!
Try yeah, try yeah, hey, hey, hey, try yeah,
Oh try whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,
Oh anybody, oh anybody, oh anybody,
Try oh yeah (just a little bit harder)
Whoa I gotta try some more,
I said try yeah, aw I said try,
I said try try try try try try,
Oh try oh yeah, try oh yeah!
Hey hey, I gotta talk to my man now,
You know I, I gotta feel for my man now,
I said I, I gotta work for my man now,
You know I, I gotta hurt for my man now,
I think-a every day for my man now,
You know it, every way for my man now.
I say try, try yeah, oh try yeah,
Hey hey hey, try yeah-hey, oh, try…
Janis Joplin Woodstock
Kozmic Blues
Kozmic Blues is the sixth song in the set and the first that Janis wrote (with Gabriel Makler). It would also appear on I Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again Mama!
Janis mentions the album and its title and cryptically says, “Talkin’ about the cosmic blues. You know what I mean, man. If you don’t know what I mean, you will soon enough. So…”
Friends they turn away.
Well, I keep moving on
But I never found out why
I keep pushing so hard a dream,
I keep trying to make it right
Through another lonely day.
Honey, time keeps a-moving on, hey yeah, yeah yeah.
Well, I’m twenty-five years older now
So I know it can’t be right
And I’m no better baby and I can’t help you no more
Than I did when I was just a girl. Yeah!
Cause I know that I could always try.
There’s a fire inside of everyone of us, huh-uh,
I’m gonna need it now,
I’m gonna hold it yeah,
I’m gonna use it till the day I die.
Ah, I know they don’t come with ease, no, no, no, no.
Hey, I ain’t never gonna love you any better baby
Cause I’m never gonna love you right
So you better take it now, I said right yes now, yeah.
Cause I know that I could always try.
There’s a fire inside of everyone of us, huh-uh,
I’m gonna need it now,
I’m gonna use it yeah,
I’m gonna hold it till the day I die.
Honey, I hate to be the one.
I said you’re gonna live your life
And you’re gonna love, love, love your life.
I’m gonna need it now,
I’m gonna hold it yeah,
I’m gonna use it, say, whoa
Honey, I hate, I hate to be the one.
I said every time you’re gonna want to love somebody,
Every time you’re gonna want to need somebody,
You’re gonna want to turn around, I’m gonna be there.
No no no no no, no no no no no, no no no no.
All your want is some kind of lovin’ man,
He ain’t gonna be there, I said, not here.
No no no no, no no no no, no no no no,
No no no, no no no, no no no no,
No no no no, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa
Whoa, wah wah, whoa,
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa
Honey when I want to reach out my hand
I said darling all I ever wanted
Was for you to understand me now, whoa
Ah baby, I want to sing about me Lord, honey, every day yeah!
Janis Joplin Woodstock
I Can’t Turn You Loose
Before the cover of Otis Redding’s I Can’t Turn You Loose begins, Janis introduces saxophonist Snooky Flowers with a silly goose joke, laughs, and lets Snooky take over. He’s the song’s lead vocalist giving Janis a brief break. She jumps back in briefly about five and a half minutes into the song, but Snooky finishes. The horns get a chance to blow the roof off the place.
I can’t turn you loose,
If I do I’m gonna lose my mind.
I can’t never turn you loose,
If I do I’m gonna lose my mind.
Whoa!! I can’t turn you loose for nobody,
I love you, yes I do, huh!
Hip-shakin’ mama, I love you,
Love no one but you.
Hear me, baby, I call you,
Call you.
I can’t turn you loose,
If I do I’m gonna lose my mind.
I can never turn you loose, huh!
If I do I’m gonna lose my mind.
I can’t turn you loose for nobody,
I love you, yes I do, huh!
Hip-shakin’ mama, I love you,
Love no one but you.
Hear me, baby, I call you,
Call you.
Ah, tell me mama, baby!
Hey, baby, baby, baby
Now, Wooh, baby, huh!
Talkin’ about my baby
Oh baby, – huh! – about my baby
Baby, baby I love you,
I gotta do everything, ha!
Baby!
My!
My, my, my, baby!
Baby, baby, baby, baby yeah
Whoa!! Baby, baby, baby, huh!
Talkin’ about you
Every, every day, baby,
Gotta keep on holdin’
Gotta keep on holdin’ on you, baby
Holdin’.
Oh baby, huh! Talkin’ about you, ah!
Huh! Baby
Baby, baby, baby, baby,
Huh! Baby I love you
Every, every day, baby,
Huh! Love you
Baby, let me hear you say yeah!
Over here, yeah!
Yeah!!!! I feel good.
Sam, I need a little help.
Bring it down a little bit, Maury,
Bring it down a little bit.
I need a little help.
Fellas, get your hands from under your girl’s dress for a minute,
Young ladies, yeah we’re about to get into this.
Hold on a minute
Aah!!
Yeah!!
Every day, baby, every day, baby, aahh!!
Lord!!
Yeah, baby, every, every day, baby
Whoaa, whooo, ahh, aahhha
Every, every day, baby
Huh! Bring it on down, bring it down!
Mercy! Do you feel alright?
If you don’t, fuck you, you oughta go home!
Mercy! Do you feel alright?
Get on in, daddy!
I feel good, woohh, mercy, I can dig it, aww!
Say you’re lookin’ good to me,
Say you’re lookin’ fine.
Say you’re lookin’ good to me,
Hon you’re lookin’ fine.
Hey you’re lookin’ good to me,
Hon you’re lookin’ fine.
Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah!!
Oh!! Oh!! Oh!! Oh!! Oh yeah!! Oh yeah!! Oh yeah!! oh yeah!!
Woh yeah!! Woh yeah!! Woh yeah!! Wo yeah!! – alright!
Yeah, yeah, yeah, baby
Yeah, yeah, yeah,
I feel good because I love you
You know I love you
Huh! I love you
Every day
Huh!
Babe, aw!! wooh! Huh!
Say you’re looking good! Mercy!
Let’s get the horns in
Do you want to hear the horns blow?
Do you want to hear the horns blow?
Do you want to hear the horns blow?
Yeah!! Huh, talkin’ about you
Say look-a here, here we go
One, two, three, four, ah!!
Hey!
Ooh!
Shit!
Wohh!
Janis Joplin Woodstock
Work Me, Lord
Another song from the upcoming album (no surprise) and also written by Nick Gravenites. It is the “last” song, but of course it isn’t.
Please don’t you leave me,
I feel so useless down here
With no one to love
Though I’ve looked everywhere
And I can’t find me anybody to love,
To feel my care.
Don’t you know how hard it is
Trying to live all alone.
Every day I keep trying to move forward,
But something is driving me, oh, back,
Honey, something’s trying to hold on to me,
To my way of life.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
Ah, ah, don’t you forget me, Lord.
Well I don’t think I’m any very special
Kind of person down here, I know better,
But I don’t think you’re gonna find anybody,
Not anybody who could say that they tried like I tried,
The worst you can say all about me
Is that I’m never satisfied. Whoa.
Please, honey, don’t you leave me,
I feel so useless down here.
I can’t find me anybody to love me
And I’ve looked around,
I’ve looked everywhere, everywhere
And I can’t find me anyone to love,
To feel my care.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
Honey, don’t you go off and leave me, Lord.
Can’t I show you how hard it is
Trying to live when you’re all alone.
Everyday I keep pushing,
Keep trying to move forward
But something is driving me, oh, back,
And something’s trying to hold on to me,
To my way of life, why.
Forget me down here, don’t forget me, Lord.
I think that maybe you can ease me,
Maybe I can help you, said uh whoa,
Oh please, please, don’t you go and leave me Lord,
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, whoa, whoa please,
Hmm please, don’t you leave me, Lord.
Janis Joplin Woodstock
Piece of My Heart
Jerry Ragovoy (again) and Bert Berns (2016 R & R Hall of Fame inductee) wrote it and Erma Franklin originally recorded in 1967, but few think of anyone other than Janis’s cover.
Janis would likely have done an encore no matter what, but the crowd’s response certainly helped make it happen.
And didn’t I give you nearly everything that a woman possibly can?
Honey, you know I did
And each time I tell myself that I, well I think I’ve had enough
But I’m gonna show you, baby, that a woman can be tough
Take another little piece of my heart now, baby (whoa, break it)
Break another little bit of my heart now, darling, yeah, yeah, yeah (whoa, have a)
Have another little piece of my heart now, baby
You know you got it if it makes you feel good
Oh, yes indeed
And baby, deep down in your heart, I guess you know that it ain’t right
Never, never, never, never, never, never hear me when I cry at night
Babe, and I cry all the time
But each time I tell myself that I, well I can’t stand the pain
But when you hold me in your arms, I’ll sing it once again
Take another little piece of my heart now, baby
Break another little bit of my heart now, darling, yeah
Have another little piece of my heart now, baby
Well, you know you got it, child, if it makes you feel good
Take another little piece of my heart now, baby (whoa, break it)
Break another little bit of my heart, now darling, yeah, c’mon now (whoa, have a)
Have another little piece of my heart now, baby
You know you got it, whoa
Take another little piece of my heart now, baby (whoa, break it)
Break another little bit of my heart, now darling, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah (whoa, have a)
Have another little piece of my heart now, baby, hey
You know you got it, child, if it makes you feel good
Janis Joplin Woodstock
Ball and Chain
Written by Willie Mae Thornton, Janis’s cover is another example of stealing a song.
The crowd continues to call for an encore. Before her actual final song, Janis speaks to the crowd.
“How are you out there? Everybody OK? You’re not, ah…you’re stayin’ stoned and you have enough water? You got a place to sleep and everything [the crowd calls out]? What does that mean? Because we oughta’ all of us–I don’t mean to be preachy, but–we oughta remember–and that means promoters, too–that music’s for grooving, man, not for putting yourself into bad changes. You don’t have to go and take anyone’s shit man, just to like music. You know what I mean? You don’t. So if you’re getting more shit than you deserve, you know what to do about it man. You know, it’s just music. Music’s supposed to be different than that.”
The band blasts.
Honey, looking out at the rain
Sitting down by my window, looking out at the rain
All around that I felt it
All I can see was the rain
Something grabbed a hold of me
Feel to me, oh, like a ball and chain
Hey, you know what I mean that’s exactly what it felt like
But that’s way too heavy for you, you can’t hold them all
Just because I got oh, your love, please
Why does every
Oh, this can’t be just because I got to need you, daddy
Please don’t you knock it down now, please
Here you’ve gone today
What I wanted to love you and I wanted to hold you, yeah, till the day I die
Yes, I did, yes, I did, yeah, hey, hey, alright
This can’t be anything I’ve ever wanted from your daddy tell me now
Oh, tell me, baby
Oh, say, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, honey
This can’t be, no, no, no, no, no
Yeah, yeah
I hope there’s someone out there who could tell me
Tell me why just because I got to want your love
Honey, just because I got to need, need, need, need your love
I said I understand
Honey, what I’m wanna trying to say hi
Trying, try, try, try, try, try, try
Honey, everybody in the world, also same, baby
When everybody in the world what needs, seem lonely
What I wanted work for your love, daddy
What I wanted trust your love, daddy
I din’t understand how come you’re gone
I don’t understand why half the world is still crying, man
And the other half of the world is still crying too, man
I can’t get it together
I mean if you go to ? Oneday, man
I mean, so baby, you want ? Three and sixty five days, right
You ain’t gonna within sixty five days, you gonna for one day, man
I tell you, that one day, man, better be your life, man
Because you know, you can stay oh man, you can cry about the other three and sixty four, man I said whoa, whoa, whoa
But you gonna lose that one day, man
That’s all you got, you got to call it love, man
That’s what it is, man
If you got today, you don’t worry about tomorrow, man
Because you don’t need it
Because the matter of the fact, as we discovered tat’s rain, tomorrow never happens, man
It’s all the same fucking day, man
You gotta hold them like it’s the last minutes of your life
You gotta hold, hold, hold and I say, oh, whoa, whoa, now babe, tell me why
Hold, baby, ’cause some come on your shoulder, baby
It’s gonna feel too heavy, it’s gonna weigh on you why does every thing, every thing
It’s gonna feel just like a ball
Oh, daddy and a chain
Janis Joplin Woodstock
The next act was Sly and the Family Stone.