My Nite with JANIS JOPLIN

for pics, google .... "janis joplin nashville"
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The concert, at the old Tennessee State Fairgrounds Coliseum in Nashville, December 16, 1969, headlined JANIS JOPLIN on her Kozmic Blues album tour with Rotary Connection with MINNIE RIPERTON as the opening act, and was promoted by Wired Dragon Efforts, Inc .

Back in 1969, I WAS the Wired Dragon .... well, that was the name I picked for the production company ...

But this concert almost did not happen.

I was first informed by her booking agency that they were not taking any more dates for her current tour. But they called back and told me that when Janis heard it was NASHVILLE, she instructed them to find a date and add it to the tour, she didn't care if it was the night before or after a scheduled date, she wanted to come to Nashville ... BECAUSE, if possible, she wanted to see if I could arrange for her to meet Skeeter Davis and Kris Kristofferson.  Kristofferson makes sense to most people because of "Me and Bobby McGee", but Skeeter Davis, the country music artist, was a big voiced female singer like Janis.  Skeeter did come, and it was hard to tell which one of them was more excited about meeting the other.  Kristofferson in those days was often in his regular booth at Melfi's, an Italian restaurant near Music Row, high on peyote buttons, thinking up that Rhodes Scholar grade poetry he turned into songs, but we were unable to find him there.   I was also more than pleased to book as the opening act from the same agency Rotary Connection with the great Minnie Riperton.   I liked the idea of a concert with women fronting both acts.

The Fairgrounds Coliseum was an old brick structure, configured like a big hockey rink with elevated permanent seats all around the sides and an open floor for rodeos, ice capade type shows, a circus, etc.   For concerts, one had to rent folding chairs to put on the main floor.  I had a stage set up at one end of the floor area, and behind it were three rented trailers to serve as dressing rooms... one for Janis, one for her band, and one for Rotary Connection and Minnie Riperton.

Many of my "hippie"  friends served as ushers and event staff, and were of invaluable help with a myriad of pre-concert tasks, which they all did for free, their only compensation was being part of the promotion and free admission to the concert.  I cannot remember whose idea it was, but I rented white high-collar Busboy jackets for them to wear at the show where they served as ushers, stage "security," and happy gofers backstage for Janis and the musicians.  The white jackets basically meant you had free run of the arena.  These jackets in their inappropriateness for a rock concert (in Nashville seen almost exclusively worn by young black males serving white folks) worked rather well in creating an ambience unusual for Nashville concerts at the time, especially since this concert featured two powerful female singers, one a flamboyant white hippie and the other a black diva.  We thought we were making a small statement with the white jackets since in Nashville they were traditionally a uniform of subservience for minorities but at the concert they were privileged personnel.  We were young, naive and idealistic.

I had the hottest DJ  in Nashville, the "Super Shan" Scott Shannon to be the MC; he came with the advertizing package for the concert on his station, WMAK.  Later in his broadcast career, he was a morning drive time institution in New York City, and a member of a broadcasters hall of fame.  He was dressed as what he thought was "hip" at the time, a flowery shirt, tight pants with a scarf tied above one knee.   He wanted to meet the artists of course, and be sure just how they wanted to be introduced.  We first went to Rotary Connection's trailer; when I opened the door a thick cloud of weed smoke billowed out as we stepped up into the trailer.

I could tell the band members were wanting to have some fun with this local DJ in the South trying to look cool, and one of the band members came up to Shannon with this joint the size of a Cuban cigar in his mouth and then held it out right in Shannon's face.  Now, in 1969 in Nashville, weed was a radical, dangerously illegal thing for most folks, and for a sense of the cultural times, Martin Luther King was dead less than eighteen months, there were still "White Only" signs on some public facilities, so a joint offered directly from the lips of a black man to a white man in the South was way outside the box in many ways for those days.

But old Shan did step up and took a short hit.  He tried to hand it back, but the guy said "C'mon man, you can do better than that, this is some righteous shit, man, hit it a good one."  Shannon did take another deeper hit and did not cough.  The black musician was right about the righteousness. These were Chicago-based musicians, they had been around, they just exuded oceans of "cool."

I do remember they told him they did not want any pompous intro ... just ... "from Chicago ... Rotary Connection" and no need to mention their record label ... real musicians usually despise record label execs and the business bullshit which consists primarily of cheating the creative artists.  I have no recollection of Minnie Riperton sharing in the "righteousness," perhaps to assure her vocal performance's integrity.  Riperton that night was indeed Amazing in her range and control, the band super tight.  Her flame of talent was extinguished by a fatal disease way too early (FYI, Riperton is SNL's alumna Maya Rudolph's mother).  They wowed the almost entirely white audience, many of which I am sure had never heard of them before that evening.  I remember feeling proud of my home town audience for the warm reception they gave her and her band.

Earlier in Janis's dressing trailer, she told me her famous chinchilla coat had been sent unsolicited to her by the Southern Comfort folks in appreciation for the huge increase in sales of their product which she had unintentionally made famous.   She giggled that infectious high pitched laugh when she told the story, picked up the coat and held it out to me and said "Just Feeeeel that motherfucker .. rub your face in it .... if it had a dick, I'd marry it" and her infectious giggle filled the trailer again.

I did NOT see Janis drink any alcohol nor consume any drugs before her set.  The only thing she would accept were UNopened cokes ... she said she could not take the chance someone might spike one with acid (do I need to say LSD?) or something before she had to perform.

The audience was still jazzed up from Riperton and Rotary Connection while the roadies set up for Janis's set, then the house lights went down, and after a few moments Shannon appeared in a tight spotlight center front stage, making the introduction. When he finished, the spot goes out, and he gets the hell out of the way as he had been instructed, and the band began laying down a funky beat.  Janis was crouched behind the amps, bouncing in a kind of squat position, like a sprinter getting ready to run ... then she opened a full pint of Southern Comfort and killed nearly half of it in one swig then chased it with some orange juice from a glass container she had brought herself.   She bounced up, out into the spotlight, and literally killed the audience of about 2,500 .... so much energy, so much brass, giving all of herself into her performance.

She would hit the Southern Comfort and OJ throughout the show.  As I am writing this, I am getting little chills remembering her nailing "Ball and Chain" and "Piece o' my Heart."  It was a very, very cool night musically in Nashville, and to my knowledge, the first time a San Francisco spawned rock act of Joplin's stature had been brought to the Music City.

Janis Joplin and Minnie Riperton on the same stage on the same night in Nashville in 1969, two icons who died too young .... it was special.

But, I was also a young and dumb kid then .... I did not think to have anyone take any pictures of me with Janis or the other performers.  I had also neglected to notify or offer passes to either of Nashville's two daily newspapers, or any of the TV stations, so the press coverage of the concert was minimal.  A lady reporter from the TENNESSEAN newspaper was at the airport when I met Janis, but her article stated she was surprised no promotion staff had met Janis.  I called her after the article was published and informed her I was right beside Janis and her road manager as she asked questions while we all walked through the concourse. She refused to write a correction, saying she thought I was one of the musicians because of my youth and long curly hair!

All and all, I was just stereotypically a young person, infatuated with being in the presence of true female rock icons, consumed by the exciting moment, with no idea what would be really valuable decades down the road. Perhaps it was amazing enough I had gotten the date, the venue, the stage erected with a tarp stretched tight over it, and UNION electricians to lay the drop boxes required for the stage equipment, got the proper array of UNION stage lighting and crews specified by the performance contracts, the dressing trailers delivered and hooked up to electricity, a couple of thousand folding chairs set up on the floor to correlate to the printed tickets and the permanent seats.  Thanks to all my hippie friends helping, the evening went off without a glitch.  This still amazes me, that essentially a bunch of kids pulled off this concert.

Sadly, the old Coliseum burned to the ground not long after this concert, and with it, my rock concert promoter dreams .... the venue was riculously cheap .... 250 dollars while at the same time the newer downtown Municipal Auditorium would take a significant percentage of the total gate while being guaranteed a fee in the thousands of dollars to be paid in advance.  And since this rock and roll stuff was considered so "dangerous," the Municipal Auditorium had a strict policy of everyone remaining in their seats which was vigorously enforced.  And I was told they would NOT ever book the Municipal Auditorium for The Doors or Sly and the Family Stone.   No such restrictions applied at the old Coliseum and the crowd quickly left their seats when Rotary Connection began to play and gathered close to the stage.   One could tell the performers liked this intimacy with the audience and it gave a special atmosphere to the evening not then common in the South.  Janis even invited one of my Busboys (who  happened to be the one who had offered her an opened Coke and was blonde and handsome) up onto the stage to dance with her.  The crowd went absolutely wild at this.  Maybe it was because they felt this superstar validated the hipness of this audience in a country music town by having a local onstage with her, however briefly, and it was something not seen in other Nashville venues.   Perhaps it is just as well the Coliseum burned .... had I gotten into that world big time, I might be dead now.

Since the flight for Janis and her band out of Nashville was a take-off the next day, most of the band members accepted our invitation to party at my hippie pad in an old house on Blair Avenue ... they were genuinely surprised the promoter asked them to party since apparently promoters tended to be more established and much older people than my young dumb ass.  Nashville was, and is, the capitol of redneck super-patriotic country music located on the Buckle of the Bible Belt, and it was the peak of the Viet Nam era and Civil Rights tensions, so I guess this mixed race band was pleasantly surprised by their treatment from the locals.

I was not personally at the band party at the beginning, because Janis's road manager invited me and my lady to accompany them back to the hotel bar club.  Imagine the ego-rush for this kid from Nashville, being invited out with Janis Joplin !!!  Just how fucking unbelievable was that ?!?!?!?

At the booth in the bar, I soon realized I was not with Janis Joplin, the rock icon, but Janis, the girl who had been disrespected in Port Athur, Texas .... the brassy confidence was no longer evident. Janis slammed screwdriver after screwdriver, and she constantly asked if the "kids" really liked her.   The talent which had just two hours before had dominated the stage and enthralled the audience was now replaced by an almost palpable personal insecurity.  The woman on stage who had been the sexual fantasy of so many young males in the audience was gone, replaced by someone who did not think of herself as desirable, but rather someone who knew she had imperfect skin, someone who had been ridiculed in her youth.  So, when less than a year later Janis was dead from an overdose, I was, sadly, not that surprised.  But I will always have my memories of My Night with Janis Joplin and Minnie Riperton, two stars whose light disappeared too early, one from a path of self-destruction, the other by a fatal disease.

(more articles for your entertainment or irritation available in BLOG ARCHIVE near top right of this page.)

Questions for THEIST Friends ...

To all the nice, intelligent folks out there, dear and valued Friends such as the Christian Left type of groups, and wonderful persons, some of whom I truly love, to all who happen to profess a belief in some higher power or deity or savior or prophet or afterlife:  please note the "YOU" and "WE" used below are not personal, but General ... as in a spirited discussion of the merits of females and males ... an individual is essentially One or the Other with well-established and discernible differences with the acknowledgment of individual variations, and no single person bears responsibilty for another's variations.  But such a discussion typically engenders strong and passionate views, so this is YOUR Warning to read no further if you feel you may be offended in a discussion of an issue as intense and personal in nature as Theism.  Your decision is respected; but the honor is Mine, even if only in the aspect of your tolerance, should the offering below receive your examination.  The thick of skin and/or great of heart may proceed.

You may know of the cartoon going around Facebook with the unwritten caption implying something like, "a woman voting Republican is like punching herself in the face."  You may also wonder why otherwise intelligent women (other than 5%ers who will vote to protect their wealth)  do indeed vote GOPer.  Perhaps you cannot understand why they would vote for the political party which consistently seeks to restrict the full personhood of women and LGBTs and deny them the experience of all the rights, privileges, and self-realization that full personhood implies?  Why do these people choose something so clearly contrary to their own best interests?

Those of us who have found no reason to devote any of our existence to deity-belief, etc. .. well, we kinda wonder the same thing about you theists ..... why would intelligent and otherwise decent human beings have a need to choose an unsubstantiated Belief over a direct experience of Reality?

We do not understand why you have not transcended Theism like other pleasant imaginings such as the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, and the Tooth Fairy which at least do not have an undeniable history of violence, physical and intellectual, against those who do not believe in them.  And why do you choose to adhere to a belief tradition which has always been on the wrong side of the progress of science?  Why do you make excuses, perform apologetic contortions for a cosmic metaphor which is so obviously flawed, its divinely inspired books so ambiguous with vastly varying interpretations, and has so blatantly failed to manifest its professed ideals?  How do you find value in a belief whose adherents since the Hebrews slaughtered the inhabitants of Canaan has allowed, encouraged, and often commanded its adherents to do unspeakable violence to non-adherents?   How do you dismiss centuries of facts in order to feel good about a deity/savior/prophet in whose names so many atrocities have been committed?  Have some of You also postulated a convenient Evil One to explain the failures of your deity?  Or Is it your fear of death is so profoundly disturbing you must take comfort in an imaginary deity which promises an afterlife?

We just do not get it ..... but do not worry, We will not go all Theist religious-history on You, round you up, burn some of you at the stake, seize your lands, or blow up your country, because, you see, We really do have a form of "faith" ... a reasoned faith based upon Our experiences that intelligent people have come across information or liberating epiphanies which enabled them to take the training wheels off their cosmic-viewing bicycles.  We do not understand why you are afraid to ride your life's bicycle all by yourself without some imaginary hand steadying your balance.

Now before some of you may go tut-tut, feeling that my phrasing is too snarky or condescending, I ask how could You say that of My viewpoint? ....... BECAUSE .... 

It is the Theists who assert the existence of some deity which WE, otherwise intelligent and decent human beings, CANNOT perceive.  How much more condescending can one be than to assert an ULTIMATE COSMIC REALITY which We are unable to experience due to what necessarily must be some ignorance, insensitivity, lack of faith, or other deficiency which renders US incapable of seeing what YOU can see?    And the beliefs of many, many monotheists  consign US to a horrible eternal suffering for our inability to see what You see.

So ? YOU are able to see this idealized Cosmic Reality which WE cannot?  Oh, REALLY ???

Cannot YOU see how to US, that is actually what is truly a condescending position which has no evidence or facts to back it up..

But PLEASE Understand ....WE do not seek to only take some pleasant, comforting belief away from You .... We are just asking you to remove the veil you have chosen to wear which obscures your view of a greater reality.  We wish for YOU to realize that You, unlike a caterpillar, have complete control of When you can change into something which can escape the limitations of crawling on branches to Flying around in a world more wonderful and filled with nectars you never imagined when you were clinging to a branch.   Your Wings are ready, whenever you realize you have them.  FLY !!!  Fly, let go of the branch, Fly in the warmth of unveiled Light and taste the nectars of a grander universe.

As the description of this little blog says "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, does NOT go away ... gods go away, gravity does not."   Don't be afraid to try knowing instead of believing .... clean your windows of perception, and I assure you, the universe You will see is a more marvelous and precious experience without the limitations of imaginary friends  .... go ahead ... You Can do it ... pedal your cosmic-viewing bicycle all by yourself ... it is a much, much better ride .... you can do it ... there is no need to be afraid ... perhaps you might take comfort in the awareness that "In their Ultimate Essence, all things are ONE, and that Oneness is the Supreme Reality."

Oh, and when your body, an amazing though Most Temporary coalescence of stardust, ceases to function, the "you," the-once-in-the-history-of-the-universe self-aware-energy generated by that stardust, simply returns to what it was before "you" were born ...."you" are again part of the undifferentiated and therefore pure essence of the Cosmos,... "you" are no longer separated by your body and petty ego-centered consciousness from the Ground Being of Reality ... "you" again resonate with the cosmic chord of the music of the celestial spheres..... "you" are once again ONE with all that ever was or will be ... "   That is not so scary, is it?  And WE would ask YOU  "what more could you want?"

Realizing language is inherently incapable of expressing the Transcendent as experienced by humans, I would attempt to describe what We offer You in place of a limiting theism as a "Spiritual" Realism ..... a perspective which may allow one to experience an awe of blissful self-awareness of being an integerated part of the Cosmos .... being what you really are in what really exists.

(more articles for your entertainment or irritation available in BLOG ARCHIVE near top right of this page.)

SOLUTION to a GREAT AMERICAN CONTROVERSY

Among those knowledgeable on the subject, few things arouse more passionate and reasoned arguments than the Designated Hitter rule in Baseball.  The pro and con camps are well-defined, and no quarter is asked nor given.  That the DH eliminates much of a Manager's strategic decision-making is unquestioned. The American League has decided  the sport needs more offense to entertain the fans; for many, watching a pitcher hit is as exciting as watching paint dry, hence the DH in the AL and in the AL parks during the World Series.  The current World Series situation, to me, seems to give a distinct advantage to the National League which is used to playing without the DH but gets an additional regular hitter in the AL parks.

Historically, the DH position has been filled by power-hitters, either aging and past their prime as an everyday player OR a hitter who is a definite liability in the field.  My solution will change this situation and place value on players with complete baseball skills, especially those capable of fielding more than one position, and actually create MORE managerial options in game strategy and pitching staff management.

Under my Solution, any person with enough baseball knowledge to be able to "watch" a game from the Managers' perspectives will easily think of many, many possible new game situation managerial options, decisions, and strategies.


****  Expand the roster by three players, which my Solution will likely dictate to be complete players. The players union should love this, and the teams will likely not be paying them the huge money big-boppers usually command.

****  The DH must always bat in the traditional pitcher's slot ... ninth.

****  Here is the big one ....... If the Manager makes a pitching change, he also must change the DH on the lineup card at the time of the pitching change, even if the starting DH has not yet had an at-bat.  This only applies to the first pitching change in an inning.  If there are multiple pitching changes in any inning, there is only the one DH change in that inning. The new DH must be a player from the bench (or a roster catcher from the bullpen; pitchers are not eligible to DH with one exception to be explained below).  A new DH must stay in the game for at least one at-bat, regardless of any other pitching changes by his team made before his time to bat comes up UNLESS the other team makes a pitching change in which case the manager may pinch hit for the DH or replace him with a new DH.  (This provision is a disincentive to the manager to insert as DH an injured player, or a player he intends to give the day off, when the DH turn at bat is several hitters away and then make a DH change before the next DH at-bat.)

****  At the time of the pitcher/DH change, the Manager can make a switch by having the current DH take a position in the field  (this places value on players who can also play multiple positions in the field).  If the DH at the time of an inning's first pitching change is not placed in the field, he is done for the game as is any position player the DH might replace unless the manager makes a double-switch involving the player whose position the DH takes.

****  Players who are currently playing a position in the field are not eligible to switch to DH.

****  After a third DH change has been made because of a pitching change by his team, that DH may remain in the game regardless of the number of subsequent pitching changes by his team (this provision prevents compulsory exhaustion of the bench by pitching changes.)  If the fourth DH must leave the game because of injury or a pinch hitter, he may be replaced by a bench or bullpen regular player for the remainder of the game, or if regular position players have been exhausted, this is the only time a pitcher from the bullpen may DH.

My Solution gives more opportunities for truly versatile baseball players and creates many more decisions for Managers. The baseball world is welcome to apply my Solution to a Great American Controversy, and if they do, I only ask that it be known as the Swain Solution.   LOL. 

(more articles for your entertainment or irritation available in BLOG ARCHIVE near top right of this page.)