Today is Janis Joplin's birthday. If she was still alive today and hadn't died an untimely death under still unsure curcumstance (her death was unquestionably a heroin overdose, but the method of injection and quality of the smack still something questioned in some circles), she would be 64. Janis was, is and will always be an icon. There was and will never be another Janis, her crazed, out of control personal life and onstage rants. Her voice echoed power, pain and beauty all in the same verse. She was larger than life and her legend only grows as the years go on. So dig out some of her songs, be it with Big Brother, Kozmic Blues or Full Tilt Boogie, lay back, inhale and remember how great she was. Happy B-Day Janis, we miss ya:-)

The first video is from the Festival Express documentary. Only released a couple of years ago, after the sound bites and video where re-united after several years lost, this recording of Cry Baby is, in my opinion, the best video footage of Janis, period. When I first saw this performance in the theater, chills went right up my spine. With the camera right in Janis's face, we can really see the emotion. To me, it is almost as if she had forsight into her destiny when she went into spoken word mode, you can see that all she wanted, really, really wanted was to have someone to hold. True love and the simple life. I cannot watch it without feeling that, in the context that she would die alone in less than 3 months, that she is painting an effigy of her life struggle through her gift of music. Too bad someone wasn't listening.