A photograph of Janis Joplin by David Gahr appears (in tinted form) as a beautiful Forever stamp from the United States Postal Service. You can see the photograph and stamp at David Gahr Photographs.
When I first saw this stamp, I felt a shock of recognition: I knew the photograph right away. It appeared in the September / October 1970 issue of Sing Out! (“The Folk Song Magazine”), the twentieth-anniversary issue, as part of a two-page feature, titled “David Gahr photo essay” and ”for a painted heart.”
[Does anyone else know this?]
Friday, September 19, 2014
Janis Joplin in Sing Out!
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comments: 5
I've seen the photo before, but didn't know the rest. Cool!
(A few days ago, as I sat in the hairdresser's chair being shorn, Janis' "Piece of My Heart" was playing on the salon's background sound machine. I wasn't certain it was she at first, and asked the girl cutting my hair if that was Janis Joplin singing? She said, "Who?" I was too stunned to answer. My reflection in the mirror aged 45 years in an instant, and a little piece of my heart faded away.)
I’m trying to decide: in 1970, would I have recognized names and voices of popular singers from 1925? Al Jolson, I guess. Bessie Smith, for sure. But then things would get very uncertain.
Seeing a piece in the New York Times today makes me remember that the last time I mentioned Woody Guthrie in a class, no one knew who he was. In that same class, one person had heard of Bob Dylan.
We are dead to the world when the only response the icons of our youth garner is "Who?"
Another one bites the dust, dammit! We sometimes refer to preserved cucumbers as pike-les, an homage of sorts to Woody's motor-sickle song. Oh, what a world! What a world!
(1925 - Bing Crosby, Mario Lanza?
In 1970, I probably recognized more 1940s-1950s voices than ones of the day, but that was because we listened more to my mother's favorites at home.)
Cheers, friend!
Oops! I was thinking of Arlo, not his father. Another 'Duh' moment in Old Broadville.
Oh, I remember “The Motorcycle Song.“ I think most people my age would have recognized Bing’s name and voice circa 1970. (All those orange juice ads and holiday specials.) I’m pretty sure that I’d never heard of Mario Lanza then.
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