Sitting down by my window, baby, ha ha!
Whoa, mama, honey, looking on at the rain.
You know what I mean when it's all around you ?
Oh, sitting down by my window,
All 'round looking at the rain,
I felt it's got to be the rain.
Somethin' grabbed a hold of me, daddy,
Felt to me, honey like, like a ball and chain, yeah!
You know what I mean, babe,
I say it's way too heavy now.
I say, whoa, whoa, honey, tell me why
Does everything I always want to hold on to
Always wanna go let me down babe — whoa!!
Yeah, tell me whoa, whoa, whoa, honey, tell me why does everything
I always pick to hold on to seems to hurt me now ?
Whoa, woo woo woo, whoa!!!
Here you gone today,
I wanted to love you,
I wanted to hold you till the day I die
That 's all I ever wanted, babe,
I just wanted to hold on to you, now.
I say, whoa, whoa, whoa, honey, it ain't fair
Now daddy, it ain't fair, now it ain't fair what you're gonna do,
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, you know it ain't fair.
I say, whoa, whoa, honey, it ain't fair!!!!
No, no, no, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, no, no, it ain't fair.
Here you gone today, all I ever wanted to do,
Now baby, baby, baby, I just wanted to love ya,
Honey, I wasn't going to hurt ya,
I said I wasn't gonna hurt you darlin'.
No, no, no, no, no.
S-s-s-s-ittin' down, sitting down, whoa,
Baby by my window, whoa, honey, felt the rain.
Something grabbed a hold of me, baby
Felt to me ... whoa ... Yeah!, Hey! all right!
I said whoa, whoa, whoa, honey, this can't be, no this can't,
Honey this can't be in vain
This can't be in vain all that you said to me baby.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, hey!
I say whoa whoa whoa, honey this can't be, whoa!!!
This can't be in vain, baby, no, no, no, no, no, no, no
No, not in vain, yeah!
I bet you can't tell me, tell me why
Sometimes I got to know why, said why
Come on, tell me why —
Can you do it ?
Tell me why
Love
Honey, love
It hurts me
Like a ball, daddy, and a chain.
All right!
Summertime
Summertime,
Child, you're living easy.
Fish are, fish are jumping out
And the cotton, Lord, cotton's high, Lord, so high.
Your daddy's rich
And your ma, honey I think she's a mighty good-looking babe.
I think she's looking pretty fine to me now.
Hush, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby,
No, no, no, no, no, don't you cry.
Don't you cry!!!
One of these mornings
Child, you'll rise up singing,
An' since you gotta go, honey, spread your wings,
You can take, take the sky,
Lord, the sky.
Until that morning,
Honey, n-n-no, nothing's gonna harm you babe.
I said, honey, no one's ever gonna let you down,
They wouldn't do it.
Hush, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby,
No, no, no, no, no, don't you cry.
No!
Cry.
Albert Hall Interview (1969)
This whole thing that's happened to me, you see, this whole success
thing, er, it hasn't yet really compromised the position that I took
a long time ago in Texas, that was to be true to myself, to be the person
that I f ... that was on inside of me and not play games. You see, actually
what I'm trying to do mostly, if I, in the whole world, is to not bullshit
myself, and not bullshit anybody else. To be righteous to myself, I
mean to be real, you know what I mean ? And so far, you know I'm, I'm
just tryin' to ... I'm doin' that, I am, you know. I'm not wearin' cardboard
eyelashes, and, and, you know, and girdles, and playin' in Las Vegas.
By still bein' Janis, I just happens to be on a slightly different level
or somethin' now. And ... you know I suppose it's because I've never
been premeditated enough in show-business that I was worried about putting
on a, a face, you know what I mean ? So I can sit here and tell you
the truth. You know ? Otherwise it's slightly inhibiting, really, it
doesn't, it doesn't force a game on me, because I refuse to let it force
a game on me. So I can sit here and be just as honest as I would be
in a bar, although I'd be a lot happier in a bar!
Move Over My first guest is one of the most exciting singers there is. Some
think the most exciting. We have extra stage hands to hold the roof
down when she sings. If you have never seen Janis Joplin, here is your
chance. Here is Janis Joplin!
Hey! This song's about Rock & Roll, and needs some help from the
crowd. It goes like this. I can't hear ya!!
Hey! You say that it's over baby, Lord,
You say that it's over dear,
But still you hang around me, come on,
Won't you move over.
Yeah! You know that I need a man, hey,
You know that I need a man,
But when I ask you to you just say
That you think you can.
Hey! Please dontcha do it to me, babe, no!
Please dontcha do it to me, baby,
Either take the love I offer
Or let me be.
I ain't got no time for walking, no!
I ain't got no time for walking,
What's a poor girl gonna do with your life,
Life all just dangling ?
Hey! Make up your mind, honey,
You're playing with me.
Make up your mind, honey,
You're playing with me,
I said now well either be my loving man,
Come on, let me honey, let me be, yeah!
You say that it's over, baby, huh!
You say that it's over dear,
But still you hang around me, come on,
Won't you move over.
Hey! You know that I need a man, baby,
You know that I need a man.
When I ask you to you just say
That you think you can.
I ain't quite a-ready for walking, no!
I ain't quite a-ready for walking,
'Cause whatcha gonna do with your life,
Life all just dangling ?
Honey, I feel that it's dangling
Honey, Lord, Lord, Lord.
It's like a carrot, baby now
Like a carrot, baby now
Like a carrot, baby now
Like a carrot, dear.
Oh! Yeah! Yeah! Whew!
Dick Cavett TV Interview (1970)
Janis it's a shame you couldn't do an up tune for us but I liked that
one. Later in the show.
Yeah, maybe later we'll be talking too. You're really shot after, after
a number, let alone a whole evening I would think. Yeah, yeah.
You tell me you kind of collapse after a show ? Well, I'm used to it because I'm so turned on by doing one that
it's hard to do, it's hard to stop after one to tell you the truth,
because it just makes you wanna do more.
Your engine is revved up ? Yeah, sort of!
I know all the hip expressions, you see. Your engine is revved up. You're a real swinger, I can tell by your shoes, man!
Wait a minute, Janis, Janis. These were good enough for my grand-father,
they're good enough for me. I had a lot of trouble, last week I, er, it wasn't that tune, we
opened with another tune and I tore a muscle.
I heard about this. You tore a mussel somewhere near Maryland. Er ... It was closer to home than that!
Well, er ... But I played forty minutes, man! I did forty minutes!
Yeah, but how do you, how do you tear a muscle singing, was it from
the exhaustion or ... No, I went ... like that.
You actually, literally tore a muscle ... I mean like that ... Every time, it hurt.
Could you feel it go ? Yeah.
Phew! Yeah.
What do they do, do they set a muscle or do they tape you up or something
? They told me to keep still.
Janis you wrote that tune that you were just singing like we just agreed
to ask about. You er, you wrote the first tune, right ? I wrote the first tune. It's, er, yes I did, it's about men.
It's about men. It's a little hard to tell what it was about 'cause
I was standing over there where the sound is a little distorted. Well in my story that's what it is anyway.
Yeah. D'you ever see those mule carts ?
Yeah. They, er, there's a dumb mule on there right and a long stick with
a string and a carrot, and it hangs over the mule's nose, and it runs
after it all day long. Some ...
Who is the man in this, in this parable, the mule, or the person holding
the carrot ? No, the woman is the, is the mule. Chasing something that somebody's
holds her way.
Constantly chasing her man ... Yeah.
... who always eludes her. Well, they always hold something more than they're prepared to give.
I have to defend my entire sex, ladies and gentlemen! The burden of
the defense. Go right ahead!
Well, one-arm wrestling I can take you two out of three. I hope so.
Do you, er, do you actually sit down when you get up in the morning
and, and write out a song, or do you . . . When you say you write it,
you compose it you write it on a paper. You just make it up, I don't write songs, I make them up.
They don't exist on paper your songs, don't they ? Sometimes I just write down the words so I don't forget 'em, but
I mean I don't write songs, that's a whole different concept. I just
make 'em up.
Yeah. Did you ever get back to Port Arthur, Texas ? No, but I'm going back next in August, man. And guess what I'm doin'
?
I don't know. I'm going to my 10th annual High School Reunion.
Oh! Oh! Take movies and bring 'em back to show us, will you ?
Hey would you like to go ? Well, I don't remember, I don't have any friends in your high school
class.
I don't either. I don't either, believe me.
You don't either ? It's hard going, man!
Weren't you a kind of a, weren't you kind of a business administration
major or something in high school. No, it's something in your past.
You were ... No, I worked.
Yeah. But a high school major in Art does have plenty of time.
Yeah. And do you think you'll have a lot to say to your old high-school
classmates? I don't have a lot, man.
You were not surrounded by friends in high school ? They laughed me out of class, out of town, and out of state, man.
Hmm ... Somethin' goin' on.
Thank you. Thank you.
Port Arthur High School Reunion
What do you think about your town since you've left and come back ? It's fantastic! I was across the river from the club last night,
I never had more fun in my life! Except sometimes in California I have
more fun.
Do you plan to come back soon ? Oh ? Er, er, er, I have no immediate plans, ha ha ha!!
Did you entertain in high school, at the high school, when you went
back at the high school ? Only when I walked down the aisles, man. No, I did, no, I was, er,
I was a painter, and a sort of a recluse in high school. I've changed.
What happened ? I got liberated! I don't know, I just started to sing and singing
makes you want to come out because painting, I feel, keeps you inside,
you know ? And once you start singing you just sort of want too talk
to people more and go out more and, you know, your lifestyle's becomes
more a come-out, flow-out thing instead of a hold-it-and-be-quiet type.
How were you different from your schoolmates when you were a teenager
? I don't know, why don't you ask them?
Did they make you different ? No.
Otherwise were you different in comparison with them, or were you ? I felt apart from them.
Did you take a part in football games ? I think not. I didn't go to the high school prom, and er...
Oh, you were asked, weren't you ? No, I wasn't. I don't think, I don't think they wanted to take me.
Till I'll be a hundred and sufferin'! It's enough to make you wanna
sing the blues!
Maybe Thank you. All right, this is a tune called Maybe. Let's go.
Maybe
If I could pray and I try, dear,
You might come back home, home to me.
Honey, maybe
Oh dear, if I could ever hold your hand
Oh you just might understand.
Honey maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, yeah.
Maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe dear
I guess I might have done something wrong,
Hon' I'd be glad to admit it.
If you'd come back home to me!
Honey maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe yeah.
Well, I know that it just doesn't ever seem to matter, babe,
Oh honey, when I go out or what I'm trying to do,
'Cause I'm still left here
Oh Lord, and I'm needing you.
Please, please, please, please,
Oh won't you reconsider, baby, come on.
I said come back,
Won't you come back to me!
Maybe dear, oh maybe, maybe, maybe,
Let me help you show me how.
Honey, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe,
Maybe, maybe, maybe,
Maybe, maybe, maybe, yeah —
Ooh!
