Wed 3/18 @ 7PM
I had an interesting conversation with a fellow music fan a few weeks back, talking about the late 60s/early 70s. Despite the image of that time as being progressive, open-minded and revolutionary, it’s a much-researched and –documented fact that the music scene was incredibly hostile to women, whose music comprised a tiny fraction of all music being released and played.
“What about Janis Joplin?” he said. OK, and who else? (He couldn’t even dredge up fellow anomaly Grace Slick from his memory bank).
In fact, Joplin’s huge talent was boxed in by prejudicial ideas of what women were and could be. She was lauded and stereotyped as a sexually available red-hot mama, an image that titillated the male-dominated music business and audience, but didn’t begin to capture her range. She’s been called “influential” but she wasn’t really: she was sui generis, and not a lot of performers were able to follow in her footsteps, even had they wanted to.
Since then, many writers have tackled the story of this complex individual and performer including author Holly George-Warren who wrote Janis: Her Life and Music, published last year. George-Warren will be at the Rock Hall for a program to honor the 1995 inductee during Women’s History Month. Joining her for the program is Cleveland native Mary Bridget Davies, who has performed around the country and on Broadway as Joplin in Love, Janis and A Night With Janis Joplin. She’ll do an acoustic performance to close the program; George-Warren will sign books afterwards.
Tickets are $15.
rockhall/spotlight-janis-joplin
1100 Rock and Roll Blvd, Cleveland, OH 44114