Janis Joplin sings the Bee Gees
March 23, 2021 12:11 PM Subscribe
Janis Joplin, To Love Somebody (The Dick Cavett Show, July 8, 1969)
Cavett’s prime-time show famously featured a who’s who of rock stars that both performed and sat for loose, freeform conversations, which brought the ethos of the hippie generation to the homes of millions. Joplin and Cavett’s relationship dated back to July 1968 when she made her national television debut alongside Big Brother & The Holding Company on ABC’s This Morning. The pair would go on to build a comfortable rapport with each other over the course of Joplin’s three visits [July 1969 continued - she also sang Try (just a little bit harder) during the program; June & August 1970 (singing Move Over and Get it While You Can), a few months before her death] to The Dick Cavett Show. -- Jambase, Oct. 4, 2018
Cavett later credited Joplin for sending so many other major rock stars his way after her first appearance on his show in 1968. “She had done other television she didn’t like very much,” he remembered in 2016 on PBS’s American Masters. “She told people, ‘it’s okay to do his show, he’s not a dreary figure.’” -- Open Culture, Feb. 26, 2020
A few Joplin previouslies on MetaFilter
Cavett’s prime-time show famously featured a who’s who of rock stars that both performed and sat for loose, freeform conversations, which brought the ethos of the hippie generation to the homes of millions. Joplin and Cavett’s relationship dated back to July 1968 when she made her national television debut alongside Big Brother & The Holding Company on ABC’s This Morning. The pair would go on to build a comfortable rapport with each other over the course of Joplin’s three visits [July 1969 continued - she also sang Try (just a little bit harder) during the program; June & August 1970 (singing Move Over and Get it While You Can), a few months before her death] to The Dick Cavett Show. -- Jambase, Oct. 4, 2018
Cavett later credited Joplin for sending so many other major rock stars his way after her first appearance on his show in 1968. “She had done other television she didn’t like very much,” he remembered in 2016 on PBS’s American Masters. “She told people, ‘it’s okay to do his show, he’s not a dreary figure.’” -- Open Culture, Feb. 26, 2020
A few Joplin previouslies on MetaFilter
The Owsley Stanley Foundation just announced that they've gotten donor funding to preserve a previously unheard board recording of a New York Joplin / Kozmic Blues Band show from February '69.
They've been slowly releasing selected shows from what looks like a very impressive archive (and the two I've heard have stellar sound quality.)
posted by ryanshepard at 12:54 PM on March 23, 2021 [3 favorites]
They've been slowly releasing selected shows from what looks like a very impressive archive (and the two I've heard have stellar sound quality.)
posted by ryanshepard at 12:54 PM on March 23, 2021 [3 favorites]
I only know a tiny bit about Janis Joplin's life but I'll say this.. I had a teacher once, he went to the same Texas high school as Joplin, but younger. He did not get into details but he recounts his sister as being among those who made it their mission to let Joplin know she was nothing special. When we think about how bullying can impact people, I think about his story. Great song, thanks for posting this.
posted by elkevelvet at 1:29 PM on March 23, 2021 [10 favorites]
posted by elkevelvet at 1:29 PM on March 23, 2021 [10 favorites]
Mysteriously, this clip also apparently features a young Eric Idle on drums?
posted by sixswitch at 2:16 PM on March 23, 2021
posted by sixswitch at 2:16 PM on March 23, 2021
Mysteriously, this clip also apparently features a young Eric Idle on drums?
Time-travelin' Timothée Chalamet.
posted by Celsius1414 at 2:52 PM on March 23, 2021
Time-travelin' Timothée Chalamet.
posted by Celsius1414 at 2:52 PM on March 23, 2021
Nina's yt is probably my favorite.
hard to argue though the Flying Burrito Bros did a solid job as well. It's definitely one of those songs that yearns to be explored and interpreted. Has unrequited love ever spoken its piece so plainly, deeply? Good on those brothers Gibb for conjuring it.
posted by philip-random at 3:51 PM on March 23, 2021 [2 favorites]
hard to argue though the Flying Burrito Bros did a solid job as well. It's definitely one of those songs that yearns to be explored and interpreted. Has unrequited love ever spoken its piece so plainly, deeply? Good on those brothers Gibb for conjuring it.
posted by philip-random at 3:51 PM on March 23, 2021 [2 favorites]
Janis Joplin and Tom Jones is three minutes of joy
posted by Sweetie Darling at 8:49 PM on March 23, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by Sweetie Darling at 8:49 PM on March 23, 2021 [4 favorites]
I like how Cavette, when showing the magazine cover, noted how he should have asked Janis first before showing the photo of Janis' cleavage, in case she didn't like it. He showed it all the same, but at least he acknowledged that her feelings about the cover should be taken into account. That seemed unusually respectful to me.
posted by Thella at 11:09 PM on March 23, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by Thella at 11:09 PM on March 23, 2021 [3 favorites]
Oh my gosh, I was 3 days old.
So I missed it the first time around, is what I'm saying. She really brought the drama and the ache, and that's what I love about her version. This is my favorite Bee Gees song of the late 60s.
When Nina sang it in Antibes, I was 23 days old.
--------
Robin and Barry wrote this song together. Crazy how they wrote big hits, but fought each other so much. ::sigh:: Barry is always mentioning these days how guilty he feels that he and Robin were at loggerheads so often, and he talks at some length about it in that recent HBO doc. He and Robin seem like they were fundamentally different people, and both leaders. I've seen this too, recently (Maurice is behind the camera), and it's so sweet. Such a shame they didn't really get along as they got older.
While I'm not a big fan of Robin's late 1960s vocal stylings (his vibrato was a bit much for my taste), I can see where he was pissed that Barry got most of the attention from Robert Stigwood, the media, and the fans at the time when Robin was the one singing lead on most of the hits. I wonder how things might have been different between them if Barry hadn't been so gorgeous.
posted by droplet at 12:13 AM on March 24, 2021 [3 favorites]
So I missed it the first time around, is what I'm saying. She really brought the drama and the ache, and that's what I love about her version. This is my favorite Bee Gees song of the late 60s.
When Nina sang it in Antibes, I was 23 days old.
--------
Robin and Barry wrote this song together. Crazy how they wrote big hits, but fought each other so much. ::sigh:: Barry is always mentioning these days how guilty he feels that he and Robin were at loggerheads so often, and he talks at some length about it in that recent HBO doc. He and Robin seem like they were fundamentally different people, and both leaders. I've seen this too, recently (Maurice is behind the camera), and it's so sweet. Such a shame they didn't really get along as they got older.
While I'm not a big fan of Robin's late 1960s vocal stylings (his vibrato was a bit much for my taste), I can see where he was pissed that Barry got most of the attention from Robert Stigwood, the media, and the fans at the time when Robin was the one singing lead on most of the hits. I wonder how things might have been different between them if Barry hadn't been so gorgeous.
posted by droplet at 12:13 AM on March 24, 2021 [3 favorites]
Dick Cavett won the television simply with this Bernstein selection for his theme song.
posted by mikelieman at 5:33 AM on March 24, 2021
posted by mikelieman at 5:33 AM on March 24, 2021
For the sake of comparison, one must also listen to the original, which is really the pinnacle of the Brothers Gibb's pre-disco output.
Janis and Nina are incredible, obviously, but I think their covers are too slow. *hides from the onslaught*
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 8:49 AM on March 24, 2021
Janis and Nina are incredible, obviously, but I think their covers are too slow. *hides from the onslaught*
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 8:49 AM on March 24, 2021
And on a separate note, Dick Cavett has never stopped being cool. In 2000, I had the utter delight to see him play the narrator in The Rocky Horror Show on Broadway.
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 8:53 AM on March 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 8:53 AM on March 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
Here's a Roberta Flack cover of "To Love Somebody" (Her album, "Quiet Fire," from which it comes, is entirely great.)
posted by Guy Smiley at 12:43 PM on March 24, 2021
posted by Guy Smiley at 12:43 PM on March 24, 2021
Nina's is probably my favorite.
Impossible to overstate my love for Janis and Gram, but Nina's literally gives me chills on 4-5 different spots.
posted by thecincinnatikid at 1:13 PM on March 24, 2021
Impossible to overstate my love for Janis and Gram, but Nina's literally gives me chills on 4-5 different spots.
posted by thecincinnatikid at 1:13 PM on March 24, 2021
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To Love Somebody was supposed to have been recorded by Otis Redding -- and what a song that would have been...
posted by Capt. Renault at 12:21 PM on March 23, 2021 [1 favorite]