Marty Balin September 27, 2018
Jo Jo Laine October 29, 2006
Lou Reed October 27, 2013
Trust Me - Janis Joplin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SesWRweA4fM
One of Joe Vig's all-time favorite songs and performances
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Janis Lyn Joplin (January 19, 1943 – October 4, 1970), nicknamed "Pearl", was an American rock, soul and blues singer and songwriter, and one of the most successful and widely-known female rock stars of her era.[1][2][3] After releasing three albums, she died of a heroin overdose at the age of 27. A fourth album, Pearl, was released in January 1971, just over three months after her death. It reached number one on the Billboard charts. Wikipedia
I met Michael McClure, co-author of Mercedes Benz
in Cambridge; got his autograph on the sheet music
MERCEDES BENZ
Song Review by Joe Viglione [-]
Track number eight on the timeless Pearl album by Janis Joplin is an a cappella performance written by Joplin and poet Michael McClure. It may not have been intended to be totally sang without instrumental accompaniment, as a version exists on the Wicked Woman bootleg recorded at Harvard Stadium in Cambridge, MA, in August of 1970, allegedly the final concert performance of Joplin with her Full Tilt Boogie Band. The musicians add their individual flavors to the song during the live show, but it is the solitary click track on the studio version recorded October 1, 1970, possibly the final complete vocal take Janis put to tape, that is legend. Doors producer Paul A. Rothchild had recorded Jim Morrison's "petition the Lord with prayer" rant, and here Joplin does just that under Rothchild's guiding hand. Her simple request to the deity is a declaration which includes the great line "Dialing for Dollars is trying to find me." Joplin, of course, got the answer to her prayer before praying it -- she could buy Porsches galore, but the charm of the one-minute-and-46-second moment is that it is this great blues singer talking to her fans in an endearing way, opening the song up with a statement: "I'd like to do a song of great social and political import -- it goes like this..." The genius of Joplin is then unveiled, with perfect pitch, her raspy whiskey-soaked voice telling God how she got "no help from my friends" (which is an untruth, just listen to the shimmering beauty of the work of her friends on Pearl), but the great blues vocalist who had to overpower the acidic guitars of Big Brother & the Holding Company, who could sweetly phrase Bobby Womack's "Trust Me," which follows this number, stands naked before the listener providing a clear picture of what a commanding presence her voice was, and the texture of that extraordinary instrument as well. The song is so popular that the brave at karaoke bars go up to the mic and emulate one of the greatest singers in rock history. It's Joplin throwing her fans a pearl where they, in under two minutes, can copy her entertaining personality. Can anyone name another short and sweet solo performance which has left such an indelible mark?
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TRUST ME
TRUST ME
Song Review by Joe Viglione [-]
Songwriter Bobby Womack released this superb tune on his 1975 Safety Zone album, but in its form as the sleeper track on Janis Joplin's 1971 Pearl album, "Trust Me" emerges with great power, a performance that is Janis at her absolute best. Her voice goes from sweet in the first couple of lines to raspy when she so knowingly issues lines like "the older the grape, the sweeter the wine." Ken Pearson's organ works wonderfully alongside Bobby Womack's acoustic guitar and John Till's electric. Paul Rothchild's production work is simply amazing, choreographing this thick array of sounds and piecing them together perfectly, Brad Campbell's bass and Richard Bell's piano lines both dancing inside the changes. Listen to Clark Pierson's definite drums as the song fades out, a solid team effort recorded on September 25, 1970, just a week and a half before Janis would leave us. In a small catalog of work, "Trust Me" shows what truly gifted art Janis Joplin brought to this world. Having Womack participating is a treat, the element of the songwriter working with the interpreter and their camaraderie as a major contribution to this definitive version cannot be overlooked. The creative energy is in these grooves and one doesn't have to imagine how magical the room must have been when this music was made. It translates very well. As "Me & Bobby McGee" has been overplayed, "Trust Me" has been underexposed. This key piece of the Pearl album concisely shows Janis Joplin as the equal of Bessie Smith, Big Mama Thornton, Billie Holiday, Otis Redding and her other heroes. At certain moments during this song Joplin eclipses even those gods. https://www.allmusic.com/song/trust-me-mt0008311314
Move Over - Janis Joplin
Song Review by Joe Viglione [-]
The snarling blues riff copies the melody sung and written by Janis Joplin on this three minute and forty second performance which opens the Pearl album.
Recorded on the same day as "Trust Me" and "Me And Bobby McGee, September 25, 1970, fans got to see Joplin give a preview of this on the Dick Cavett Show prior to the release of Pearl. The subject matter concerns "men", as Janis told Cavett. More specifically, the guy tells her it's "over", but keeps hanging around. It's a very driving, very direct rocking blues number, the singer equating the way some guys hold out on love to a carrot stick keeping the food inches away from the mouth of a mule. "Please don't you do it to me, babe" she - not begs - but demands - "Honey, you're teasing me...I believe you're toying with my affections...I can't take it no more babe, and furthermore I don't intend to." The fading lyric is a bit salty/blasphemous with producer Paul Rothchild tucking the scat and bluesy wail inside the music as it concludes. The opening drum beat with Joplin's vocal and the guitar makes for a powerful first track, the hook built inside the song and the riff when she repeats the line "You know that I need a man". Different from anything else on the album, unlike the co-write that is "Mercedes Benz", Janis wrote "Move Over" on her own. https://www.allmusic.com/song/move-over-mt0008237332
Marty Balin (/ˈbælɪn/; born Martyn Jerel Buchwald; January 30, 1942 – September 27, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician best known as the founder and one of the lead singers and songwriters of Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship.[1]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marty_Balin
