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Dakilang Kapistahan ni San Jose, Kabiyak ng Puso ng Mahal na Birhen 2 Samuel 7, 4-5a. 12-14a. 16 Salmo 88, 2-3. 4-5. 27 at 29 Lahi niya'y walang wakas, kailanma'y hindi lilipas. Roma 4, 13. 16-18. 22 Mateo 1, 16. 18-21. 24a o kaya Lucas 2, 41-51a
Hamid Sefat - Arezooye Mahal (Arash Mohseni Remix) by Arash Mohseni
1 Petrus 1:18-19 PENDAHULUAN -Melalui bacaan ini, kita akan melihat bahwa darah Kristus adalah satu-satunya jalan untuk penebusan kita—penebusan yang tidak dapat digantikan oleh apapun di dunia ini. 1. Penebusan Kita – Mengapa Kita Perlu Ditebus? 2. Darah Kristus yang Mahal dan Tidak Tergantikan 3. Bagaimana Kristus Menebus Kita? 4. Cara Hidup yang Telah Ditebus ... Read more
Bismillah,SAHABAT YANG SHALIH ITU MAHALUstadz Muhammad Nuzul Dzikri -Hafizhahumullah-Video Pendek dari kajian:15 Menit Bersama Para Ulama“Jagalah Persahabatanmu”#MuhammadNuzulDzikriAnimasi
Menteri Perdagangan Budi Santoso mengatakan akan mencabut izin usaha distributor nakal yang membuat harga minyak kita sampai ke pasaran meningkat. Harga minyak kita sendiri diketahui rata rata mencapai 17.200 per liter. Padahal harga eceran tertinggi 15.700 per liter. pihaknya akan memberikan sangsi bagi distributor nakal mulai dari peringatan hingga mencabut izin nya.
Sabado ng Ika-7 Linggo sa Karaniwang Panahon (I) o kaya Paggunita sa Mahal na Birheng Maria tuwing Sabado Sirak 17, 1-13 Salmo 102, 13-14. 15-16. 17-18a Pag-ibig mo'y walang hanggan sa bayan mong nagmamahal. Marcos 10, 13-16
On today's episode of The Morning Rush: #KapagMahalMoThe multi-award-winning comedy radio program is now on your favorite streaming platforms!Join our daily Top 10 entries by sending us a post on X with the hashtag of the day's Top 10 topic and #TheMorningRushSend in your greets or requests via the Monster text line: +63 961 1367 931Follow us on our socials: Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTokSubscribe to our YouTube channel for more content!Follow our TMR hosts: Chico, Hazel, and Markki!
Ang kuwento ng Our Lady of Guadalupe ay isang pambihirang kabanata sa kasaysayan ng pananampalatayang Katoliko. Mula sa pagpapakita ng Mahal na Birhen kay San Juan Diego noong 1531 hanggang sa mga himala na hindi pa rin maipaliwanag hanggang ngayon, ang debosyon sa Our Lady of Guadalupe ay patuloy na nagbibigay-inspirasyon sa milyon-milyon. Sa video na ito, tatalakayin natin ang: ✅ Ang kasaysayan ng Our Lady of Guadalupe ✅ Mga hindi maipaliwanag na himala na may kaugnayan sa kanya ✅ Ang kanyang papel sa pananampalataya at kultura Manalig at palalimin ang iyong pananampalataya!
Grabe ang pag-ibig ni Earl sa kanyang asawa. Knowing her background and accepting her for who she is, masasabi nating nagawa niya ito dahil sa matinding grace at mercy ng Panginoon na nasa kanya. At kahit ilang beses siyang masaktan sa pangangaliwa ni Beth, lagi siyang handang magpatawad at tanggapin ito pabalik.All Rights Reserved, CBN Asia Inc.https://www.cbnasia.com/giveSupport the show
'Gelieve rechts aan te houden. Bij de volgende afrit slaat u rechtsaf en - WHAT THE FUCK WIE HEEFT HIER PLOTS EEN TRAP GEZET? Kijk nu, heel je wagen aan frieten. En je arm is gebroken, zeg je? OK, ik weet dat je me nu niet meer vertrouwt, maar ik ken iemand met een zeer goede zorgverzekering, die je wel kan helpen. Echt waar, hij is zelfs vrienden met de baas van de wereld. Oké oké, de president van Frankrijk, maar dat is basically hetzelfde. Zal ik je tonen hoe je bij hem komt? Je wandelt gewoon naar die derde boom voorbij het standbeeld, en...' Nieuwe truien: https://computerclub.online/shop/p/ascii-sweaters Nieuwe t-shirts: https://computerclub.online/shop/p/classic-tshirts Forum: https://computerclub.forum Word Vriend van de Show: https://vrienden.computerclub.online Nieuwsbrief: https://nieuwsbrief.computerclub.online Merchandise: https://computerclub.shop
First, The Indian Express' Jayprakash Naidu tells us about Mukesh Chandrakar, a journalist from Chhattisgarh who was allegedly murdered last week by two men, including his cousin and childhood best friend, Suresh Chandrakar.Next, The Indian Express' Vidheesha Kuntamalla explains how IIT campuses across the country have changed six years after implementing the 20% quota for women (10:00).Finally, we discuss the ongoing "Sheesh Mahal" controversy between the Aam Aadmi Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party (20:40).Hosted, written and produced by Shashank BhargavaEdited and mixed by Suresh Pawar
Alamin ang kuwento ng pananampalataya ng ilang sikat na personalidad na deboto ng Mahal na Poong Nazareno!
Online Seller Daily Life - Jualan Online - Kehidupan Entrepreneur
Anda mau barang bagus, murah, cepat? Tidak ada hahaha Anda mau Bagus dan Cepat, maka akan Mahal.. Analogi ini gw dapet waktu setting bass di OMJL - Bass Repair - Yuk dengerin kisahnya! Thank you buat semua yang sudah setia mendengarkan podcast Online Seller Daily Life! Have a nice day guys!
Pokud byste na jednom místě rádi viděli newyorskou Sochu svobody, londýnský Tower Bridge, pařížskou Eiffelovu věž a indický Tádž Mahal, můžete se vydat do centra jihočeského města Tábora. Tam totiž sídlí Muzeum Lega a všechny jmenované ikonické stavby v něm najdete. Tedy samozřejmě jejich modely, postavené z legendární stavebnice. A nejenom je.
Pokud byste na jednom místě rádi viděli newyorskou Sochu svobody, londýnský Tower Bridge, pařížskou Eiffelovu věž a indický Tádž Mahal, můžete se vydat do centra jihočeského města Tábora. Tam totiž sídlí Muzeum Lega a všechny jmenované ikonické stavby v něm najdete. Tedy samozřejmě jejich modely, postavené z legendární stavebnice. A nejenom je.
Pokud byste na jednom místě rádi viděli newyorskou Sochu svobody, londýnský Tower Bridge, pařížskou Eiffelovu věž a indický Tádž Mahal, můžete se vydat do centra jihočeského města Tábora. Tam totiž sídlí Muzeum Lega a všechny jmenované ikonické stavby v něm najdete. Tedy samozřejmě jejich modely, postavené z legendární stavebnice. A nejenom je.Všechny díly podcastu Výlety můžete pohodlně poslouchat v mobilní aplikaci mujRozhlas pro Android a iOS nebo na webu mujRozhlas.cz.
Pokud byste na jednom místě rádi viděli newyorskou Sochu svobody, londýnský Tower Bridge, pařížskou Eiffelovu věž a indický Tádž Mahal, můžete se vydat do centra jihočeského města Tábora. Tam totiž sídlí Muzeum Lega a všechny jmenované ikonické stavby v něm najdete. Tedy samozřejmě jejich modely, postavené z legendární stavebnice. A nejenom je.
Paggunita sa Pagdadala sa Mahal na Birheng Maria sa Templo Mga Pagpipiliang Pagbasa Zacarias 2, 14-17 Lucas 1, 46-47. 48-49. 50-51. 52-53. 54-55 D'yos ay Makapangyarihan, Banal ang kanyang pangalan. o kaya Mahal na Birheng Maria, Ina ng Anak ng Ama. Mateo 12, 46-50
Boyfriend material si Lino, siya ang jowa na hinahanap ng marami. Kaya nang subukan ni Lino na ligawan si Georgette, hindi na nagpakipot pa ang dalaga. Masaya at maayos ang relasyon nilang dalawa hanggang sa malasing si Lino at mai-kuwento niya sa kanyang girlfriend ang 'issues' niya sa kanyang ama. Pakinggan ang kwento ni Georgette sa Barangay Love Stories.
Ep 114 Cindy Mahal - Perioperative Success Starts with Giving Nurses a Voice at the Table Success in the operating room is critical to the financial health of many healthcare organizations, with perioperative services contributing up to 75% of primary revenue streams. Effective perioperative care relies on skilled nurses who balance patient care while collaborating with other teams. On this episode Dan sits down with Cindy Mahal, Chief Administrative Officer of Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center, to explore the challenges nurses face in achieving alignment and how to overcome them. They'll uncover insights into key strategies administrators can implement to empower nurses, giving them a voice and enabling them to not only align but also lead. To stream our Station live 24/7 visit www.HealthcareNOWRadio.com or ask your Smart Device to “….Play Healthcare NOW Radio”. Find all of our network podcasts on your favorite podcast platforms and be sure to subscribe and like us. Learn more at www.healthcarenowradio.com/listen
"Hayaan mo na muna siguro Mahal. Ako na mismo magsasabi sa'yo, si Frank na mismo ang unang lalapit sa iyo. Hayaan mo lang." #DearMORMatalikNaKaibigan - The Joel Story Podcast Socials Link Follow us: Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/MOREntertainment Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/MORentPH Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/morentertainmentph
Well, wala na si Myx sa competition pero patuloy pa rin niyang i-uuplift ang Philippine drag industry dahil siya ang drag mother ni Eba, ni RuPaul at ni Enrile. Mahal ka namin Myx kahit sa dinami-dami ng sinabi mo eh you still found the wrong words. HAHA. Arizona also joins us to give her assassin opinion on the epic Lalaparuza episode.
In this JCO Precision Oncology Article Insights episode, Mitchell Elliot summarizes an editorial: “A Targeted Methylation–Based Multicancer Early Detection Blood Test Preferentially Detects High-Grade Prostate Cancer While Minimizing Overdiagnosis of Indolent Disease” by Dr. Brandon A. Mahal, et al. published on August 29, 2024. TRANSCRIPT Mitchell Elliott: Hello and welcome to JCO Precision Oncology Article Insights. My name is Mitchell Elliott, a JCO Editorial Fellow. Today, I'll be discussing the article, “A Targeted Methylation–Based Multicancer Early Detection Blood Test Preferentially Detects High-Grade Prostate Cancer While Minimizing Overdiagnosis of Indolent Disease,” by Mahal et al. Cancer overdiagnosis, particularly of low-risk conditions that are unlikely to cause harm, is a common issue in screening tests. In prostate cancer screening, overdiagnosis affects 23% to 42% of cases, often due to the prevalence of low-grade cancers and the low specificity of the prostate specific antigen or PSA tests. Data from previous studies have highlighted that men with low grade prostate cancer often die with prostate cancer and not of prostate cancer. Over diagnosis can lead to unnecessary treatments, increased patient anxiety, side effects, and excessive healthcare costs. Multicancer early detection, or MCED tests offer a new approach by detecting multiple cancer types from a single blood sample with low false positive rates, typically less than 2%, and they also have the ability to predict the cancer type from this one test. The GRAIL Galleri test, based on methylation patterns of circulating tumor DNA, showed high accuracy detecting over 50 cancer types, including prostate cancer, in the circulating cell free genome atlas or CCGA in PATHFINDER studies. This type of MCED test paradigm is being developed for use alongside traditional screening methods in adults over the age of 50. This study evaluated this particular MCED test ability to detect both indolent and aggressive prostate cancer, aiming to assess its potential to contribute to over diagnosis. This cohort was part of the circulating cell free genome atlas or CCGA study, a multicenter case control study with three phases to validate this particular MCED test. The CCGA enrolled 15,254 participants, of which 8,584 had cancer and 6,670 did not. Enrollment was carried out in 142 North American sites between 2016 and 2019. Eligibility for cancer cases required a confirmed diagnosis or high suspicion with planned biopsy or surgery within six weeks of enrollment. This study evaluated 420 recently diagnosed men with prostate cancer from substudy 3, the independent clinical validation arm. The PATHFINDER study was a prospective cohort study of 6,662 adults over the age of 50 enrolled from seven US health networks between December 2019 and December 2020. Participants underwent testing with the GRAIL Galleri test, with results shared with physicians and participants. The test indicated the presence or absence of a cancer signal and predicted the cancer signal of origin if detected. This study's prostate cancer cohort included 18 men diagnosed through MCED testing or PSA screening, excluding two with recurrent disease. PSA testing was not collected in this particular study. Detectability by the Gleason group, clinical stage, association of detection status with tumor methylation fraction, and overall survival were assessed in these studies. The results are broken down by each substudy evaluated. Substudy three of the CCGA enrolled a clinically relevant patient population. The median age of the men enrolled were 65. Ethnic diversity was not represented, however, in this cohort, with only 15% of participants reporting as non-white, non-Hispanic. It is important to note that only 8.4% of patients included in the study self-identified as black non-Hispanic, a particular group of participants with a higher incidence in more aggressive prostate cancer. The overall MCED test sensitivity for prostate cancer detection was low in 11.2% or 47 out of 420 patients included in this cohort. The cancer signal of origin prediction accuracy was 91.5% with 43 of 47 patients having prostate cancer predicted. The test did not detect any low-grade tumors. It detected 3 of 157 favorable or intermediate grade tumors as well as 4 of 78 unfavorable intermediate grade tumors, and finally 36 of 113 high grade tumors, typically, Gleason score 4 and 5. Detection increase was staged with only 3.2% or 3 of 95 of stage one disease detected with the MCED test, while 14.9% or 7 of 47 with stage 3 and 81.5% 22 out of 27 patients with stage four disease. Compared with expected overall survival estimated from the United States SEER database, non-detected cancer cases had roughly three times better overall survival with a hazard ratio of 0.263 with a 95% interval of 0.1 to 0.5 with a p value of less than 0.05, and detected case that had similar survival, the hazard ratio of 0.672 with a 95% interval crossing one and a p value of 0.2 when adjusted for age, Gleason grade, and clinical stage. This suggests that patients identified to be ctDNA positive at diagnosis have an overall worse outcome than those who are ctDNA negative, a consistent phenomenon with previous studies using the same or different tumor informed and diagnostic ctDNA assays. Next, the authors evaluated the outcomes in the PATHFINDER cohort of 18 participants. The characteristics of patients enrolled were similar to the previous cohort. Only one case was detected, which was between Gleason group 3 and 5, and had either stage 3 or stage 4 disease not defined in the manuscript. Because only a single case of prostate cancer was identified in PATHFINDER via this test, cancer signal of origin, predicted accuracy, tumor methylation fraction, and survival outcomes were not calculated. In summary, this test preferentially detected high grade and advanced stage prostate cancers, identifying 93% of Gleason grade 3 to 5 and 67% of stages 3 and 4 cases, while notably did not detect Gleason grade 1, having only 1.9% of Gleason grade 2 detected and 4.2% of stage 1 and stage 2 cancers overall. Importantly, around one third of the detected cases in substudy three of the CCGA, involved non metastatic disease, including stage 1 to stage 3 were Gleason grade 3 to 5, which are potentially curable. Prostate cancers that were not detected via this test had better survival rates after adjusting for age, grade and stage in the SEER database. This suggested that MCED testing is unlikely to contribute to the overdiagnosis of indolent prostate cancers. Additionally, a positive cancer signal with a predicted prostate origin strongly indicates the presence of aggressive disease, warranting immediate diagnostic investigation. One limitation of the study is the lack of representative inclusion of patients from diverse ethnic backgrounds. Overdiagnosis of prostate cancer due to PSA levels disproportionately affects black men, and the generalizability of these findings in the study is limited by the fact that over 85% of the study cohort was self-reported as white non-Hispanic. Further data is required to understand the biology of cancer in this community and limit the bias of molecular screening tests so they are effective regardless of ethnicity. Thank you for listening to JCO Precision Oncology Article Insights. This was a summary on “A Targeted Methylation–Based Multicancer Early Detection Blood Test Preferentially Detects High-Grade Prostate Cancer While Minimizing Overdiagnosis of Indolent Disease.” Please follow and subscribe on your favorite streaming platforms. For more podcasts from ASCO, visit www.asco.org/podcasts. The purpose of this podcast is to educate and to inform. This is not a substitute for professional medical care and is not intended for use in the diagnosis or treatment of individual conditions. Guests on this podcast express their own opinions, experience, and conclusions. Guest statements on the podcast do not express the opinions of ASCO. The mention of any product, service, organization, activity, or therapy should not be construed as an ASCO endorsement.
Curious about what it takes to transition from corporate life to owning multiple successful child care centers? In Episode 124 of the Child Care Genius Podcast, Brian and Carol Duprey have a lively conversation with Raman Mahal and Kanika Setia, a dynamic couple from the Seattle area who are thriving in the child care industry. When the Dupreys first met them in person, they were instantly impressed by their passion and dedication. Raman and Kanika share their inspiring journey from corporate and tech backgrounds to owning multiple child care centers. Kanika's transition from a corporate job to managing her own child care center came after struggling with leaving her children in the care of others. With Raman's encouragement and problem-solving mindset, they embarked on this new path, growing their centers with a focus on providing exceptional care, including freshly prepared meals and a curriculum that nurtures children's emotional and developmental needs. They also discuss the challenges they've faced, from finding the right real estate in the competitive Seattle market to hiring and retaining quality staff post-COVID. They highlight how attending Child Care Genius conferences and having a coach just a call away has been invaluable in navigating obstacles and refining their business strategies. Looking ahead, Raman and Kanika are planning to expand further, with a vision of opening more centers in the next few years. Their story is a testament to the power of perseverance and the impact of supportive coaching. Tune in to hear their full story and gain insights into their journey and future goals. Mentioned in this episode: Join the Child Care Genius LIVE Conference waitlist: https://childcaregenius.com/ccglive/ Need help with your child care marketing? Reach out! At Child Care Genius Marketing we offer website development, hosting, and security, Google Ads creation and management, done for you social media content and ads management. If you'd rather do it yourself, we also have the Genius Box, which is a monthly subscription chock full of social media & blog content, as well as a new monthly lead magnet every month! Learn more at Child Care Genius Marketing. https://childcaregenius.com/marketing-solutions/ Schedule a no obligation call to learn more about how we can partner together to ignite your marketing efforts. If you need help in your child care business, consider joining our coaching programs at Child Care Genius University. Learn More Here. https://childcaregenius.com/university Connect with us: Child Care Genius Website Like us on Facebook Join our Owners Only Private Mastermind Group on Facebook Join our Child Care Mindset Facebook Group Follow Us on Instagram Connect with us on LinkedIn Subscribe to our YouTube Channel Buy our Books Check out our Free Resources
Sa ika-18 taon ng Pista ng Mahal na Ina ng Peñafrancia sa Sydney, hinikayat ng simbahang Katoliko ang mga kabataan na makibahagi sa mga tradisyunal na gawaing pangrelihiyon.
Understanding how dental care works in Australia can be crucial for maintaining your health and well-being. Learn how to access dental services, the costs involved, and some essential dental health tips to keep you and your family smile bright. - Memahami cara kerja perawatan gigi di Australia /sangat penting untuk menjaga kesehatan dan kesejahteraan Anda. Pelajari cara mengakses layanan gigi, biaya yang terlibat, dan beberapa tips kesehatan gigi penting untuk membuat Anda dan keluarga Anda tersenyum cerah.
ਸਲੋਕੁ ਮਃ ੩ ॥ ਪਰਥਾਇ ਸਾਖੀ ਮਹਾ ਪੁਰਖ ਬੋਲਦੇ ਸਾਝੀ ਸਗਲ ਜਹਾਨੈ ॥ ਗੁਰਮੁਖਿ ਹੋਇ ਸੁ ਭਉ ਕਰੇ ਆਪਣਾ ਆਪੁ ਪਛਾਣੈ ॥ ਗੁਰ ਪਰਸਾਦੀ ਜੀਵਤੁ ਮਰੈ ਤਾ ਮਨ ਹੀ ਤੇ ਮਨੁ ਮਾਨੈ ॥ਜਿਨ ਕਉ ਮਨ ਕੀ ਪਰਤੀਤਿ ਨਾਹੀ ਨਾਨਕ ਸੇ ਕਿਆ ਕਥਹਿ ਗਿਆਨੈ ॥੧॥ ਮਃ ੩ ॥ ਗੁਰਮੁਖਿ ਚਿਤੁ ਨ ਲਾਇਓ ਅੰਤਿ ਦੁਖੁ ਪਹੁਤਾ ਆਇ ॥ ਅੰਦਰਹੁ ਬਾਹਰਹੁ ਅੰਧਿਆਂ ਸੁਧਿ ਨ ਕਾਈ ਪਾਇ ॥ ਪੰਡਿਤ ਤਿਨ ਕੀ ਬਰਕਤੀ ਸਭੁ ਜਗਤੁ ਖਾਇ ਜੋ ਰਤੇ ਹਰਿ ਨਾਇ ॥ ਜਿਨ ਗੁਰ ਕੈ ਸਬਦਿ ਸਲਾਹਿਆ ਹਰਿ ਸਿਉ ਰਹੇ ਸਮਾਇ ॥ਪੰਡਿਤ ਦੂਜੈ ਭਾਇ ਬਰਕਤਿ ਨ ਹੋਵਈ ਨਾ ਧਨੁ ਪਲੈ ਪਾਇ ॥ ਪੜਿ ਥਕੇ ਸੰਤੋਖੁ ਨ ਆਇਓ ਅਨਦਿਨੁ ਜਲਤ ਵਿਹਾਇ ॥ ਕੂਕ ਪੂਕਾਰ ਨ ਚੁਕਈ ਨਾ ਸੰਸਾ ਵਿਚਹੁ ਜਾਇ ॥ ਨਾਨਕ ਨਾਮ ਵਿਹੂਣਿਆ ਮੁਹਿ ਕਾਲੈ ਉਠਿ ਜਾਇ ॥੨॥ ਪਉੜੀ ॥ ਹਰਿ ਸਜਣ ਮੇਲਿ ਪਿਆਰੇ ਮਿਲਿ ਪੰਥੁ ਦਸਾਈ ॥ ਜੋ ਹਰਿ ਦਸੇ ਮਿਤੁ ਤਿਸੁ ਹਉ ਬਲਿ ਜਾਈ ॥ ਗੁਣ ਸਾਝੀ ਤਿਨ ਸਿਉ ਕਰੀ ਹਰਿ ਨਾਮੁ ਧਿਆਈ ॥ ਹਰਿ ਸੇਵੀ ਪਿਆਰਾ ਨਿਤ ਸੇਵਿ ਹਰਿ ਸੁਖੁ ਪਾਈ ॥ਬਲਿਹਾਰੀ ਸਤਿਗੁਰ ਤਿਸੁ ਜਿਨਿ ਸੋਝੀ ਪਾਈ ॥੧੨॥ਅਰਥ: ਮਹਾਂ ਪੁਰਖ ਕਿਸੇ ਦੇ ਸੰਬੰਧ ਵਿਚ ਸਿੱਖਿਆ ਦਾ ਬਚਨ ਬੋਲਦੇ ਹਨ (ਪਰ ਉਹ ਸਿੱਖਿਆ) ਸਾਰੇ ਸੰਸਾਰ ਲਈ ਸਾਂਝੀ ਹੁੰਦੀ ਹੈ, ਜੋ ਮਨੁੱਖ ਸਤਿਗੁਰੂ ਦੇ ਸਨਮੁਖ ਹੁੰਦਾ ਹੈ, ਉਹ (ਸੁਣ ਕੇ) ਪ੍ਰਭੂ ਦਾ ਡਰ (ਹਿਰਦੇ ਵਿਚ ਧਾਰਨ) ਕਰਦਾ ਹੈ, ਤੇ ਆਪਣੇ ਆਪ ਦੀ ਖੋਜ ਕਰਦਾ ਹੈ। ਸਤਿਗੁਰੂ ਦੀ ਕਿਰਪਾ ਨਾਲ ਉਹ ਸੰਸਾਰ ਵਿਚ ਵਰਤਦਾ ਹੋਇਆ ਹੀ ਮਾਇਆ ਵਲੋਂ ਉਦਾਸ ਰਹਿੰਦਾ ਹੈ, ਤਾਂ ਉਸ ਦਾ ਮਨ ਆਪਣੇ ਆਪ ਵਿਚ ਪਤੀਜ ਜਾਂਦਾ ਹੈ (ਬਾਹਰ ਭਟਕਣੋਂ ਹਟ ਜਾਂਦਾ ਹੈ) ।ਹੇ ਨਾਨਕ! ਜਿਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਦਾ ਮਨ ਪਤੀਜਿਆ ਨਹੀਂ, ਉਹਨਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਗਿਆਨ ਦੀਆਂ ਗੱਲਾਂ ਕਰਨ ਦਾ ਕੋਈ ਲਾਭ ਨਹੀਂ ਹੁੰਦਾ।੧।SHALOK, THIRD MEHL:ਹੇ ਪੰਡਿਤ! ਜਿਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਮਨੁੱਖਾਂ ਨੇ ਸਤਿਗੁਰੂ ਦੇ ਸਨਮੁਖ ਹੋ ਕੇ (ਹਰੀ ਵਿਚ) ਮਨ ਨਹੀਂ ਜੋੜਿਆ, ਉਹਨਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਆਖ਼ਰ ਦੁੱਖ ਵਾਪਰਦਾ ਹੈ; ਉਹਨਾਂ ਅੰਦਰੋਂ ਤੇ ਬਾਹਰੋਂ ਅੰਨਿ੍ਹਆਂ ਨੂੰ ਕੋਈ ਸਮਝ ਨਹੀਂ ਆਉਂਦੀ। (ਪਰ) ਹੇ ਪੰਡਿਤ! ਜੋ ਮਨੁੱਖ ਹਰੀ ਦੇ ਨਾਮ ਵਿਚ ਰੱਤੇ ਹੋਏ ਹਨ, ਜਿਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਨੇ ਸਤਿਗੁਰੂ ਦੇ ਸ਼ਬਦ ਦੀ ਰਾਹੀਂ ਸਿਫ਼ਤਿ-ਸਾਲਾਹ ਕੀਤੀ ਹੈ ਤੇ ਹਰੀ ਵਿੱਚ ਲੀਨ ਹਨ, ਉਹਨਾਂ ਦੀ ਕਮਾਈ ਦੀ ਬਰਕਤਿ ਸਾਰਾ ਸੰਸਾਰ ਖਾਂਦਾ ਹੈ।ਹੇ ਪਿਆਰੇ ਹਰੀ! ਮੈਨੂੰ ਗੁਰਮੁਖ ਮਿਲਾ, ਜਿਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਮਿਲ ਕੇ ਮੈਂ ਤੇਰਾ ਰਾਹ ਪੁੱਛਾਂ। ਜੋ ਮਨੁੱਖ ਮੈਨੂੰ ਹਰੀ ਮਿਤ੍ਰ (ਦੀ ਖ਼ਬਰ) ਦੱਸੇ, ਮੈਂ ਉਸ ਤੋਂ ਸਦਕੇ ਹਾਂ। ਉਹਨਾਂ ਨਾਲ ਮੈਂ ਗੁਣਾਂ ਦੀ ਭਿਆਲੀ ਪਾਵਾਂ ਤੇ ਹਰੀ-ਨਾਮ ਸਿਮਰਾਂ। ਮੈਂ ਸਦਾ ਪਿਆਰਾ ਹਰੀ ਸਿਮਰਾਂ ਤੇ ਸਿਮਰ ਕੇ ਸੁਖ ਲਵਾਂ।ਮੈਂ ਸਦਕੇ ਹਾਂ ਉਸ ਸਤਿਗੁਰੂ ਤੋਂ, ਜਿਸ ਨੇ (ਪਰਮਾਤਮਾ ਦੀ) ਸਮਝ ਬਖ਼ਸ਼ੀ ਹੈ।੧੨।Great men speak the teachings by relating them to individual situations, but the whole world shares in them. One who becomes Gurmukh knows the Fear of God, and realizes his own self. If, by Guru's Grace, one remains dead while yet alive, the mind becomes content in itself. Those who have no faith in their own minds, O Nanak — how can they speak of spiritual wisdom? || 1 || THIRD MEHL: Those who do not focus their consciousness on the Lord, as Gurmukh, suffer pain and grief in the end. They are blind, inwardly and outwardly, and they do not understand anything. O Pandit, O religious scholar, the whole world is fed for the sake of those who are attuned to the Lord's Name. Those who praise the Word of the Guru's Shabad, remain blended with the Lord. O Pandit, O religious scholar, no one is satisfied, and no one finds true wealth through the love of duality. They have grown weary of reading scriptures, but still, they do not find contentment, and they pass their lives burning, night and day. Their cries and complaints never end, and doubt does not depart from within them. O Nanak, without the Naam, the Name of the Lord, they rise up and depart with blackened faces. || 2 || PAUREE: O Beloved, lead me to meet my True Friend; meeting with Him, I shall ask Him to show me the Path. I am a sacrifice to that Friend, who shows it to me. I share His Virtues with Him, and meditate on the Lord's Name. I serve my Beloved Lord forever; serving the Lord, I have found peace. I am a sacrifice to the True Guru, who has imparted this understanding to me. || 12 ||
In the newest "Casual Conversations with The Classic'' episode, The Wrestling Classic Justin catches up with The Maharaja Raj Dhesi formerly known as Jinder Mahal. They discuss his current run with GCW since becoming a free agent, returning to the WWE in 2016, the WWE Championship run, the unique entrance, Randy Orton, the segment with The Rock, Tony Khan, Hook, Seth Rollins, South Asian Representation and much much more!Social Handles Raj Dhesi - @rajthemaharaja (IG & Twitter) Justin Dhillon - @thewrestlingclassic (IG) & @twcworldwide (Twitter)www.justindhillon.comJoin the Discord Community https://linktr.ee/thewrestlingclassicAll Episodes are on "The Wrestling Classic" Youtube Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOQOYraeFlX-xd8f3adQtTwThis show is available on iTunes, Spotify and Google Play when you search “TWC Show”iTunes - https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/twc-show/id1474551466 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5DXU6kqwuKJPYwhnQPvQQEPlease leave a review!Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/twc-show--4417554/support.
Joe Singleton and Paul Krauss MA LPC discuss Joe' new book MARA DAWN BUDDHA RISE: THE AWAKENING . Joe Singleton discusses his background in Existential Philosophy, Buddhism, his previous, his current pursuits, as well as a deep dive into why he believes philosophy and Buddhist practices may help a modern person cope with chaos and difficulties of modern living. Joe's writing and speaking are both poetic in nature and his observations of the current state of the world is at once sharp and loving. If you are wondering why life seems like it never makes it to the point you want, and you notice continuous suffering--this podcast episode is for you. If you are questioning your own life philosophy and you are looking an applied practice--take a list to this episode. JOE SINGLETON IS AN AUTHOR, EDITOR, PUBLISHER, TAROT CARD SPINNER, ROCKHOUND, LAPIDARY ARTIST AND CO-OWNER WITH NOELLE EDWARDS OF 'THE LOCAL STONE' CRYSTAL, TAROT AND CHAKRA JEWELRY BOUTIQUE IN GALVESTON, TX. EVER SEEKING TO FULFILL THE CHALLENGE AND QUEST OF THE GOD APOLLO TO 'KNOW THYSELF', HIS LITERARY JOURNEY HAS TAKEN HIM FROM THE CORE OF EXISTENTIAL PHILOSOPHY ALL THE WAY TO THE REALMS OF THE SPIRITUAL BUDDHAVERSE. Get involved with the National Violence Prevention Hotline: 501(c)(3) Donate Share with your network Write your congressperson Sign our Petition Preview an Online Video Course for the Parents of Young Adults (Parenting Issues) Unique and low cost learning opportunities through Shion Consulting Paul Krauss MA LPC is the Clinical Director of Health for Life Counseling Grand Rapids, home of The Trauma-Informed Counseling Center of Grand Rapids. Paul is also a Private Practice Psychotherapist, an Approved EMDRIA Consultant , host of the Intentional Clinician podcast, Behavioral Health Consultant, Clinical Trainer, Counseling Supervisor, and Meditation Teacher. Paul is now offering consulting for a few individuals and organizations. Paul is the creator of the National Violence Prevention Hotline as well as the Intentional Clinician Training Program for Counselors. Paul has been quoted in the Washington Post, NBC News, Wired Magazine, and Counseling Today. Questions? Call the office at 616-200-4433. If you are looking for EMDRIA consulting groups, Paul Krauss MA LPC is now hosting a weekly online group. For details, click here. For general behavioral and mental health consulting for you or your organization. Follow Health for Life Counseling- Grand Rapids: Instagram | Facebook | Youtube Original Music: ”Alright" from the forthcoming album Mystic by PAWL (Spotify) "Black Sand" from Mahal by Glass Beams (Spotify) ”Windshield" from the forthcoming album Mystic by PAWL (Spotify)
Paggunita kina San Joaquin at Santa Ana, mga magulang ng Mahal na Birheng Maria Jeremias 3, 14-17 Jeremias 31, 10. 11-12ab. 13 Pumapatnubay na Diyos ang Pastol na kumukupkop. Mateo 13, 18-23
In this week's episode you get to hear what you were supposed to hear last week. It's an extra-special episode recorded live on location! Let the Tub Tales continue!!! You can follow me on Instagram at: @karen.e.osborne Click on this link to join Club Sandwich (the LITSZ Private Facebook Group): LITSZ_Club_Sandwich --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/karen-osborne9/message
In 2023, there were over 2.33 million registered overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) worldwide. Their remittances for loved ones contribute significantly to the Philippine economy, amounting to US$37.2 billion in the same year according to the Central Bank of the Philippines. However, the question remains: how ready are Filipinos for the digital methods of transferring money? - Sa taong 2023, tinatayang 2.33 milyon ang rehistradong overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) sa mundo at walang palya ang mga ito sa pagpapadala ng pera sa kanilang mga naiwang mahal sa buhay sa Pilipinas. Sa katunayan sa parehong taon, umabot sa US$37.2 bilyong dolyar ang naging remittance sa buong taon ayon sa Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. Pero gaano nga ba kahanda ang mga Pinoy sa mga paraan ng pagpapadala ng pera?
Del guitarrista y compositor Pat Metheny a algunos nombres escogidos por Ted Gioia, como Howie Lee o Mei Semones. También Gregory Porter, Lauren Henderson con Mark Dover y Michael Thurber, Melody Gardot o Maro con Nasaya. Más Músicas Posibles.MoonDial Pat Metheny MoonDialSoftly, as in a Morning Sunrise Fred Hersch Silent, ListeningMantra of Manjushri 文殊菩萨心咒 Howie Lee At The Drolma Wesel-Ling MonasteryTegami Mei Semones KabutomushiMahal Glass Beams MahalThe World (Is Going Up In Flames) Gregory Porter The World (Is Going Up In Flames) [BBC Series This Town]Ven Muerte Lauren Henderson, Mark Dover, Michael Thurber Alma OscuraOnce I Was Loved +Samba Em Prelúdio con Philippe Powell +La chanson des vieux amants Melody Gardot Sayonara Meu AmorSparrow con Angelique Kidjo + Your Love con Meshell Ndegeocello y Brandee Younger Lizz Wright ShadowLifeline Maro y Nasaya LifelineEscuchar audio
Sabado ng Ika-10 Linggo sa Karaniwang Panahon (II) o kaya Paggunita sa Mahal na Birheng Maria tuwing Sabado 1 Hari 19, 19-21 Salmo 15, 1-2a at 5. 7-8. 9-10 D'yos ko, aking kapalara'y manahin ang iyong buhay. Mateo 5, 33-37
Fluent Fiction - Hindi: Unveiling Hawa Mahal's Hidden Treasures: A School Trip Adventure Find the full episode transcript, vocabulary words, and more:fluentfiction.org/unveiling-hawa-mahals-hidden-treasures-a-school-trip-adventure Story Transcript:Hi: जयपुर का हवा महल अपने सौंदर्य के लिए प्रसिद्ध है।En: Hawa Mahal of Jaipur is famous for its beauty.Hi: एक दिन, रोहन, मीरा, और अमित अपनी स्कूल यात्रा पर वहां आए थे।En: One day, Rohan, Meera, and Amit came there on a school trip.Hi: सुबह का समय था।En: It was morning time.Hi: सूर्य की किरणें महल की जालीदार खिड़कियों से होकर पास रही थीं।En: The sun's rays were passing through the lattice windows of the palace.Hi: तभी रोहन की नज़र एक अनोखी खिड़की पर पड़ी।En: Just then, Rohan's eyes fell on a unique window.Hi: उसकी जाली में से कुछ पेपर झांक रहे थे।En: Some papers were peeking out from its lattice.Hi: रोहन ने वह पेपर निकाला।En: Rohan pulled out the paper.Hi: यह एक पुराना नक्शा था। नक्शे पर अजीब निशान और लिपि थी।En: It was an old map, with strange marks and script on it.Hi: "देखो, मुझे क्या मिला!" रोहन ने खुशी से चीखते हुए कहा।En: "Look what I found!" Rohan shouted with joy.Hi: मीरा और अमित भी पास आ गए।En: Meera and Amit also came close.Hi: तीनों नक्शे को ध्यान से देखने लगे।En: The three of them started looking at the map intently.Hi: नक्शे में एक खजाने का स्थान दिखाया गया था।En: The map showed the location of a treasure.Hi: "यह तो राजसी खजाना है!" मीरा ने उत्तेजना से कहा।En: "This must be royal treasure!" Meera said excitedly.Hi: वे तीनों महल के अलग-अलग हिस्सों में जाने लगे।En: The three of them started exploring different parts of the palace.Hi: नक्शे की हर गली और कॉरीडोर पर ध्यान से देख रहे थे।En: They were carefully observing every alley and corridor according to the map.Hi: कुछ दूर जाने पर, एक छोटी सी गुफा नुमा मार्ग मिला।En: After walking a bit further, they found a small cave-like passage.Hi: वह बहुत संकरी थी।En: It was very narrow.Hi: सभी एक-एक करके अंदर गए।En: They all went in one by one.Hi: आगे बढ़ते जाते हुए, उन्होंने एक कोठरी देखी।En: After moving ahead, they saw a small chamber.Hi: कोठरी के चारों ओर पुराने सिक्के और आभूषण बिखरे हुए थे।En: Scattered around the chamber were old coins and jewelry.Hi: "यह वही खजाना है, जो हम ढूंढ रहे थे!" अमित ने कहा।En: "This is the treasure we were looking for!" Amit exclaimed.Hi: सभी ने खजाने को एकत्र किया।En: They collected the treasure.Hi: वे वापस आने की योजना बना ही रहे थे कि महल के अधीकारी आए।En: Just as they were planning to return, palace officials arrived.Hi: "यह खजाना राजा के समय का है," अधीकारी ने कहा।En: "This treasure dates back to the king's era," an official said.Hi: वे सभी तीनों बच्चों की तारीफ करने लगे।En: They began to praise the three children.Hi: स्कूल यात्रा का अंत रोमांचकारी रहा।En: The school trip ended on an exciting note.Hi: रोहन, मीरा, और अमित ने न केवल नया ज्ञान प्राप्त किया, बल्कि इतिहास के पन्नों में अपना नाम भी दर्ज करवा लिया।En: Rohan, Meera, and Amit not only gained new knowledge but also etched their names in the pages of history.Hi: वे सभी खुशी-खुशी अपने स्कूल लौटे।En: They all returned to their school happily.Hi: इस तरह, जयपुर के हवा महल की रहस्यमयी यात्रा ने उन्हें स्कूल में नायक बना दिया।En: Thus, the mysterious journey of the Hawa Mahal in Jaipur made them heroes at school.Hi: अंत में, उन्होंने सिखा कि कभी-कभी उत्सुकता और साहस हमें अद्भुत खोज की ओर ले जा सकती हैं।En: In the end, they learned that sometimes curiosity and courage can lead us to wonderful discoveries. Vocabulary Words:beauty: सौंदर्यlattice: जालीदारunique: अनोखीpeeking: झांकpulled: निकालाscript: लिपिintently: ध्यान सेtreasure: खजानाexploring: जानेobserving: देख रहेcorridor: कॉरीडोरcave-like: गुफा नुमाnarrow: संकरीchamber: कोठरीscattered: बिखरेjewelry: आभूषणexclaimed: कहाcollect: एकत्रofficials: अधकारीera: समयpraise: तारीफjourney: यात्राetched: दर्जhistory: इतिहासheroes: नायकcuriosity: उत्सुकताcourage: साहसdiscoveries: खोजmorning: सुबहrays: किरणें
Delhi Journalist Reveals what Happened inside Sheesh Mahal | Vibhav Kumar लापता
Paggunita sa Mahal na Birhen ng Fatima Isaias 61, 9-11 Salmo 44, 11-12. 14-15. 16-17 O kab'yak ng hari namin, ang payo ko'y ulinigin. Lucas 11, 27-28
If you were an early listener to the First Black Champ Podcast, you know the dislike one of our hosts had for former WWE Champion Jinder Mahal. It has been reported that Mahal and a couple of others have been released from the company. We ask the age-old question: Did they drop the ball? We have new challengers and a predicted Heel turn. Which champion should be the most nervous?
May mga bagay na kaya mong palampasin kapag gumawa ng mali ang kapatid mo. Pero kapag sa iba na niya ito ginawa, kahit papaano may responsibilidad kang pagsabihan ito. Mahal na mahal ni Wendel ang nag-iisa niyang kapatid, bilang kuya kaya niyang magsakripisyo para kay Darwin. Pero hinding-hindi kukunsintihin ni Wendel ang panlolokong ginagawa ni Darwin sa sarili nitong girlfriend. Pakinggan ang kwento ni Wendel sa Barangay Love Stories.
This is a developing story. Stay tuned to JJWN for any further developing updates.
"Snake Oil" by Glass Beams from Mahal; "Melancholic Serenity" by White Poppy from Sound of Blue; "La Alhambra" by Marina Herlop from Nekkuja; "Don't Forget You're Mine" by Laetitia Sadier from Rooting for Love; "On Its Rounds the Wind Returns" by Maya Shenfeld from Under the Sun; "Test" by Discovery Zone from Quantum Zone; "Tripping in the Graveyard" by Goat from Medicine; "Funambule (Deus pas de Serein)" by Esmarine from Los Voices; "Pepper" by Speedy J from Ginger; "Invisible Man" by NPVR from 33 34.
Today's Song of the Day is “Mahal” from Glass Beams' EP Mahal, out now.
Today's Song of the Day is “Mahal” from Glass Beams' EP Mahal, out March 22.
Ang mayayaman ay ginawa raw para sa kapwa nila mayayaman. Kaya ang mga hikahos na tulad ni Sol ay hinding-hindi makakapiling ang mga kagaya ni Belen - ang babaeng matagal na niyang gusto. Pero kung kailan desidido na si Sol na kalimutan ang dalaga, ay saka niya naman malalaman na mukhang may pag-asa pa pala siya! Pakinggan ang kwento ni Estrella sa Barangay Love Stories.
For those who haven't heard the announcement I just posted , songs from this point on will sometimes be split among multiple episodes, so this is the second part of a multi-episode look at the Byrds in 1966-69 and the birth of country rock. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a half-hour bonus episode, on "With a Little Help From My Friends" by Joe Cocker. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Resources No Mixcloud at this time as there are too many Byrds songs in the first chunk, but I will try to put together a multi-part Mixcloud when all the episodes for this song are up. My main source for the Byrds is Timeless Flight Revisited by Johnny Rogan, I also used Chris Hillman's autobiography, the 331/3 books on The Notorious Byrd Brothers and The Gilded Palace of Sin, I used Barney Hoskyns' Hotel California and John Einarson's Desperadoes as general background on Californian country-rock, Calling Me Hone, Gram Parsons and the Roots of Country Rock by Bob Kealing for information on Parsons, and Requiem For The Timeless Vol 2 by Johnny Rogan for information about the post-Byrds careers of many members. Information on Gary Usher comes from The California Sound by Stephen McParland. And this three-CD set is a reasonable way of getting most of the Byrds' important recordings. The International Submarine Band's only album can be bought from Bandcamp. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Before we begin, a brief warning – this episode contains brief mentions of suicide, alcoholism, abortion, and heroin addiction, and a brief excerpt of chanting of a Nazi slogan. If you find those subjects upsetting, you may want to read the transcript rather than listen. As we heard in the last part, in October 1967 Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman fired David Crosby from the Byrds. It was only many years later, in a conversation with the group's ex-manager Jim Dickson, that Crosby realised that they didn't actually have a legal right to fire him -- the Byrds had no partnership agreement, and according to Dickson given that the original group had been Crosby, McGuinn, and Gene Clark, it would have been possible for Crosby and McGuinn to fire Hillman, but not for McGuinn and Hillman to fire Crosby. But Crosby was unaware of this at the time, and accepted a pay-off, with which he bought a boat and sailed to Florida, where saw a Canadian singer-songwriter performing live: [Excerpt: Joni Mitchell, "Both Sides Now (live Ann Arbor, MI, 27/10/67)"] We'll find out what happened when David Crosby brought Joni Mitchell back to California in a future story... With Crosby gone, the group had a major problem. They were known for two things -- their jangly twelve-string guitar and their soaring harmonies. They still had the twelve-string, even in their new slimmed-down trio format, but they only had two of their four vocalists -- and while McGuinn had sung lead on most of their hits, the sound of the Byrds' harmony had been defined by Crosby on the high harmonies and Gene Clark's baritone. There was an obvious solution available, of course, and they took it. Gene Clark had quit the Byrds in large part because of his conflicts with David Crosby, and had remained friendly with the others. Clark's solo album had featured Chris Hillman and Michael Clarke, and had been produced by Gary Usher who was now producing the Byrds' records, and it had been a flop and he was at a loose end. After recording the Gene Clark with the Gosdin Brothers album, Clark had started work with Curt Boettcher, a singer-songwriter-producer who had produced hits for Tommy Roe and the Association, and who was currently working with Gary Usher. Boettcher produced two tracks for Clark, but they went unreleased: [Excerpt: Gene Clark, "Only Colombe"] That had been intended as the start of sessions for an album, but Clark had been dropped by Columbia rather than getting to record a second album. He had put together a touring band with guitarist Clarence White, bass player John York, and session drummer "Fast" Eddie Hoh, but hadn't played many gigs, and while he'd been demoing songs for a possible second solo album he didn't have a record deal to use them on. Chisa Records, a label co-owned by Larry Spector, Peter Fonda, and Hugh Masekela, had put out some promo copies of one track, "Yesterday, Am I Right", but hadn't released it properly: [Excerpt: Gene Clark, "Yesterday, Am I Right"] Clark, like the Byrds, had left Dickson and Tickner's management organisation and signed with Larry Spector, and Spector was wanting to make the most of his artists -- and things were very different for the Byrds now. Clark had had three main problems with being in the Byrds -- ego clashes with David Crosby, the stresses of being a pop star with a screaming teenage fanbase, and his fear of flying. Clark had really wanted to have the same kind of role in the Byrds that Brian Wilson had with the Beach Boys -- appear on the records, write songs, do TV appearances, maybe play local club gigs, but not go on tour playing to screaming fans. But now David Crosby was out of the group and there were no screaming fans any more -- the Byrds weren't having the kind of pop hits they'd had a few years earlier and were now playing to the hippie audience. Clark promised that with everything else being different, he could cope with the idea of flying -- if necessary he'd just take tranquilisers or get so drunk he passed out. So Gene Clark rejoined the Byrds. According to some sources he sang on their next single, "Goin' Back," though I don't hear his voice in the mix: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "Goin' Back"] According to McGuinn, Clark was also an uncredited co-writer on one song on the album they were recording, "Get to You". But before sessions had gone very far, the group went on tour. They appeared on the Smothers Brothers TV show, miming their new single and "Mr. Spaceman", and Clark seemed in good spirits, but on the tour of the Midwest that followed, according to their road manager of the time, Clark was terrified, singing flat and playing badly, and his guitar and vocal mic were left out of the mix. And then it came time to get on a plane, and Clark's old fears came back, and he refused to fly from Minneapolis to New York with the rest of the group, instead getting a train back to LA. And that was the end of Clark's second stint in the Byrds. For the moment, the Byrds decided they were going to continue as a trio on stage and a duo in the studio -- though Michael Clarke did make an occasional return to the sessions as they progressed. But of course, McGuinn and Hillman couldn't record an album entirely by themselves. They did have several tracks in a semi-completed state still featuring Crosby, but they needed people to fill his vocal and instrumental roles on the remaining tracks. For the vocals, Usher brought in his friend and collaborator Curt Boettcher, with whom he was also working at the time in a band called Sagittarius: [Excerpt: Sagittarius, "Another Time"] Boettcher was a skilled harmony vocalist -- according to Usher, he was one of the few vocal arrangers that Brian Wilson looked up to, and Jerry Yester had said of the Modern Folk Quartet that “the only vocals that competed with us back then was Curt Boettcher's group” -- and he was more than capable of filling Crosby's vocal gap, but there was never any real camaraderie between him and the Byrds. He particularly disliked McGuinn, who he said "was just such a poker face. He never let you know where you stood. There was never any lightness," and he said of the sessions as a whole "I was really thrilled to be working with The Byrds, and, at the same time, I was glad when it was all over. There was just no fun, and they were such weird guys to work with. They really freaked me out!" Someone else who Usher brought in, who seems to have made a better impression, was Red Rhodes: [Excerpt: Red Rhodes, "Red's Ride"] Rhodes was a pedal steel player, and one of the few people to make a career on the instrument outside pure country music, which is the genre with which the instrument is usually identified. Rhodes was a country player, but he was the country pedal steel player of choice for musicians from the pop and folk-rock worlds. He worked with Usher and Boettcher on albums by Sagittarius and the Millennium, and played on records by Cass Elliot, Carole King, the Beach Boys, and the Carpenters, among many others -- though he would be best known for his longstanding association with Michael Nesmith of the Monkees, playing on most of Nesmith's recordings from 1968 through 1992. Someone else who was associated with the Monkees was Moog player Paul Beaver, who we talked about in the episode on "Hey Jude", and who had recently played on the Monkees' Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd album: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Star Collector"] And the fourth person brought in to help the group out was someone who was already familiar to them. Clarence White was, like Red Rhodes, from the country world -- he'd started out in a bluegrass group called the Kentucky Colonels: [Excerpt: The Kentucky Colonels, "Clinch Mountain Backstep"] But White had gone electric and formed one of the first country-rock bands, a group named Nashville West, as well as becoming a popular session player. He had already played on a couple of tracks on Younger Than Yesterday, as well as playing with Hillman and Michael Clarke on Gene Clark's album with the Gosdin Brothers and being part of Clark's touring band with John York and "Fast" Eddie Hoh. The album that the group put together with these session players was a triumph of sequencing and production. Usher had recently been keen on the idea of crossfading tracks into each other, as the Beatles had on Sgt Pepper, and had done the same on the two Chad and Jeremy albums he produced. By clever crossfading and mixing, Usher managed to create something that had the feel of being a continuous piece, despite being the product of several very different creative minds, with Usher's pop sensibility and arrangement ideas being the glue that held everything together. McGuinn was interested in sonic experimentation. He, more than any of the others, seems to have been the one who was most pushing for them to use the Moog, and he continued his interest in science fiction, with a song, "Space Odyssey", inspired by the Arthur C. Clarke short story "The Sentinel", which was also the inspiration for the then-forthcoming film 2001: A Space Odyssey: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "Space Odyssey"] Then there was Chris Hillman, who was coming up with country material like "Old John Robertson": [Excerpt: The Byrds, "Old John Robertson"] And finally there was David Crosby. Even though he'd been fired from the group, both McGuinn and Hillman didn't see any problem with using the songs he had already contributed. Three of the album's eleven songs are compositions that are primarily by Crosby, though they're all co-credited to either Hillman or both Hillman and McGuinn. Two of those songs are largely unchanged from Crosby's original vision, just finished off by the rest of the group after his departure, but one song is rather different: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "Draft Morning"] "Draft Morning" was a song that was important to Crosby, and was about his -- and the group's -- feelings about the draft and the ongoing Vietnam War. It was a song that had meant a lot to him, and he'd been part of the recording for the backing track. But when it came to doing the final vocals, McGuinn and Hillman had a problem -- they couldn't remember all the words to the song, and obviously there was no way they were going to get Crosby to give them the original lyrics. So they rewrote it, coming up with new lyrics where they couldn't remember the originals: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "Draft Morning"] But there was one other contribution to the track that was very distinctively the work of Usher. Gary Usher had a predilection at this point for putting musique concrete sections in otherwise straightforward pop songs. He'd done it with "Fakin' It" by Simon and Garfunkel, on which he did uncredited production work, and did it so often that it became something of a signature of records on Columbia in 1967 and 68, even being copied by his friend Jim Guercio on "Susan" by the Buckinghams. Usher had done this, in particular, on the first two singles by Sagittarius, his project with Curt Boettcher. In particular, the second Sagittarius single, "Hotel Indiscreet", had had a very jarring section (and a warning here, this contains some brief chanting of a Nazi slogan): [Excerpt: Sagittarius, "Hotel Indiscreet"] That was the work of a comedy group that Usher had discovered and signed to Columbia. The Firesign Theatre were so named because, like Usher, they were all interested in astrology, and they were all "fire signs". Usher was working on their first album, Waiting For The Electrician or Someone Like Him, at the same time as he was working on the Byrds album: [Excerpt: The Firesign Theatre, "W.C. Fields Forever"] And he decided to bring in the Firesigns to contribute to "Draft Morning": [Excerpt: The Byrds, "Draft Morning"] Crosby was, understandably, apoplectic when he heard the released version of "Draft Morning". As far as Hillman and McGuinn were concerned, it was always a Byrds song, and just because Crosby had left the band didn't mean they couldn't use material he'd written for the Byrds. Crosby took a different view, saying later "It was one of the sleaziest things they ever did. I had an entire song finished. They just casually rewrote it and decided to take half the credit. How's that? Without even asking me. I had a finished song, entirely mine. I left. They did the song anyway. They rewrote it and put it in their names. And mine was better. They just took it because they didn't have enough songs." What didn't help was that the publicity around the album, titled The Notorious Byrd Brothers minimised Crosby's contributions. Crosby is on five of the eleven tracks -- as he said later, "I'm all over that album, they just didn't give me credit. I played, I sang, I wrote, I even played bass on one track, and they tried to make out that I wasn't even on it, that they could be that good without me." But the album, like earlier Byrds albums, didn't have credits saying who played what, and the cover only featured McGuinn, Hillman, and Michael Clarke in the photo -- along with a horse, which Crosby took as another insult, as representing him. Though as McGuinn said, "If we had intended to do that, we would have turned the horse around". Even though Michael Clarke was featured on the cover, and even owned the horse that took Crosby's place, by the time the album came out he too had been fired. Unlike Crosby, he went quietly and didn't even ask for any money. According to McGuinn, he was increasingly uninterested in being in the band -- suffering from depression, and missing the teenage girls who had been the group's fans a year or two earlier. He gladly stopped being a Byrd, and went off to work in a hotel instead. In his place came Hillman's cousin, Kevin Kelley, fresh out of a band called the Rising Sons: [Excerpt: The Rising Sons, "Take a Giant Step"] We've mentioned the Rising Sons briefly in some previous episodes, but they were one of the earliest LA folk-rock bands, and had been tipped to go on to greater things -- and indeed, many of them did, though not as part of the Rising Sons. Jesse Lee Kincaid, the least well-known of the band, only went on to release a couple of singles and never had much success, but his songs were picked up by other acts -- his "Baby You Come Rollin' 'Cross My Mind" was a minor hit for the Peppermint Trolley Company: [Excerpt: The Peppermint Trolley Company, "Baby You Come Rollin' 'Cross My Mind"] And Harry Nilsson recorded Kincaid's "She Sang Hymns Out of Tune": [Excerpt: Harry Nilsson, "She Sang Hymns Out of Tune"] But Kincaid was the least successful of the band members, and most of the other members are going to come up in future episodes of the podcast -- bass player Gary Marker played for a while with Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band, lead singer Taj Mahal is one of the most respected blues singers of the last sixty years, original drummer Ed Cassidy went on to form the progressive rock band Spirit, and lead guitarist Ry Cooder went on to become one of the most important guitarists in rock music. Kelley had been the last to join the Rising Sons, replacing Cassidy but he was in the band by the time they released their one single, a version of Rev. Gary Davis' "Candy Man" produced by Terry Melcher, with Kincaid on lead vocals: [Excerpt: The Rising Sons, "Candy Man"] That hadn't been a success, and the group's attempt at a follow-up, the Goffin and King song "Take a Giant Step", which we heard earlier, was blocked from release by Columbia as being too druggy -- though there were no complaints when the Monkees released their version as the B-side to "Last Train to Clarksville". The Rising Sons, despite being hugely popular as a live act, fell apart without ever releasing a second single. According to Marker, Mahal realised that he would be better off as a solo artist, but also Columbia didn't know how to market a white group with a Black lead vocalist (leading to Kincaid singing lead on their one released single, and producer Terry Melcher trying to get Mahal to sing more like a white singer on "Take a Giant Step"), and some in the band thought that Terry Melcher was deliberately trying to sink their career because they refused to sign to his publishing company. After the band split up, Marker and Kelley had formed a band called Fusion, which Byrds biographer Johnny Rogan describes as being a jazz-fusion band, presumably because of their name. Listening to the one album the group recorded, it is in fact more blues-rock, very like the music Marker made with the Rising Sons and Captain Beefheart. But Kelley's not on that album, because before it was recorded he was approached by his cousin Chris Hillman and asked to join the Byrds. At the time, Fusion were doing so badly that Kelley had to work a day job in a clothes shop, so he was eager to join a band with a string of hits who were just about to conclude a lucrative renegotiation of their record contract -- a renegotiation which may have played a part in McGuinn and Hillman firing Crosby and Clarke, as they were now the only members on the new contracts. The choice of Kelley made a lot of sense. He was mostly just chosen because he was someone they knew and they needed a drummer in a hurry -- they needed someone new to promote The Notorious Byrd Brothers and didn't have time to go through a laborious process of audtioning, and so just choosing Hillman's cousin made sense, but Kelley also had a very strong, high voice, and so he could fill in the harmony parts that Crosby had sung, stopping the new power-trio version of the band from being *too* thin-sounding in comparison to the five-man band they'd been not that much earlier. The Notorious Byrd Brothers was not a commercial success -- it didn't even make the top forty in the US, though it did in the UK -- to the presumed chagrin of Columbia, who'd just paid a substantial amount of money for this band who were getting less successful by the day. But it was, though, a gigantic critical success, and is generally regarded as the group's creative pinnacle. Robert Christgau, for example, talked about how LA rather than San Francisco was where the truly interesting music was coming from, and gave guarded praise to Captain Beefheart, Van Dyke Parks, and the Fifth Dimension (the vocal group, not the Byrds album) but talked about three albums as being truly great -- the Beach Boys' Wild Honey, Love's Forever Changes, and The Notorious Byrd Brothers. (He also, incidentally, talked about how the two songs that Crosby's new discovery Joni Mitchell had contributed to a Judy Collins album were much better than most folk music, and how he could hardly wait for her first album to come out). And that, more or less, was the critical consensus about The Notorious Byrd Brothers -- that it was, in Christgau's words "simply the best album the Byrds have ever recorded" and that "Gone are the weak--usually folky--tracks that have always flawed their work." McGuinn, though, thought that the album wasn't yet what he wanted. He had become particularly excited by the potentials of the Moog synthesiser -- an instrument that Gary Usher also loved -- during the recording of the album, and had spent a lot of time experimenting with it, coming up with tracks like the then-unreleased "Moog Raga": [Excerpt: The Byrds, "Moog Raga"] And McGuinn had a concept for the next Byrds album -- a concept he was very excited about. It was going to be nothing less than a grand sweeping history of American popular music. It was going to be a double album -- the new contract said that they should deliver two albums a year to Columbia, so a double album made sense -- and it would start with Appalachian folk music, go through country, jazz, and R&B, through the folk-rock music the Byrds had previously been known for, and into Moog experimentation. But to do this, the Byrds needed a keyboard player. Not only would a keyboard player help them fill out their thin onstage sound, if they got a jazz keyboardist, then they could cover the jazz material in McGuinn's concept album idea as well. So they went out and looked for a jazz piano player, and happily Larry Spector was managing one. Or at least, Larry Spector was managing someone who *said* he was a jazz pianist. But Gram Parsons said he was a lot of things... [Excerpt: Gram Parsons, "Brass Buttons (1965 version)"] Gram Parsons was someone who had come from a background of unimaginable privilege. His maternal grandfather was the owner of a Florida citrus fruit and real-estate empire so big that his mansion was right in the centre of what was then Florida's biggest theme park -- built on land he owned. As a teenager, Parsons had had a whole wing of his parents' house to himself, and had had servants to look after his every need, and as an adult he had a trust fund that paid him a hundred thousand dollars a year -- which in 1968 dollars would be equivalent to a little under nine hundred thousand in today's money. Two events in his childhood had profoundly shaped the life of young Gram. The first was in February 1956, when he went to see a new singer who he'd heard on the radio, and who according to the local newspaper had just recorded a new song called "Heartburn Motel". Parsons had tried to persuade his friends that this new singer was about to become a big star -- one of his friends had said "I'll wait til he becomes famous!" As it turned out, the day Parsons and the couple of friends he did manage to persuade to go with him saw Elvis Presley was also the day that "Heartbreak Hotel" entered the Billboard charts at number sixty-eight. But even at this point, Elvis was an obvious star and the headliner of the show. Young Gram was enthralled -- but in retrospect he was more impressed by the other acts he saw on the bill. That was an all-star line-up of country musicians, including Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters, and especially the Louvin Brothers, arguably the greatest country music vocal duo of all time: [Excerpt: The Louvin Brothers, "The Christian Life"] Young Gram remained mostly a fan of rockabilly music rather than country, and would remain so for another decade or so, but a seed had been planted. The other event, much more tragic, was the death of his father. Both Parsons' parents were functioning alcoholics, and both by all accounts were unfaithful to each other, and their marriage was starting to break down. Gram's father was also, by many accounts, dealing with what we would now call post-traumatic stress disorder from his time serving in the second world war. On December the twenty-third 1958, Gram's father died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Everyone involved seems sure it was suicide, but it was officially recorded as natural causes because of the family's wealth and prominence in the local community. Gram's Christmas present from his parents that year was a reel-to-reel tape recorder, and according to some stories I've read his father had left a last message on a tape in the recorder, but by the time the authorities got to hear it, it had been erased apart from the phrase "I love you, Gram." After that Gram's mother's drinking got even worse, but in most ways his life still seemed charmed, and the descriptions of him as a teenager are about what you'd expect from someone who was troubled, with a predisposition to addiction, but who was also unbelievably wealthy, good-looking, charming, and talented. And the talent was definitely there. One thing everyone is agreed on is that from a very young age Gram Parsons took his music seriously and was determined to make a career as a musician. Keith Richards later said of him "Of the musicians I know personally (although Otis Redding, who I didn't know, fits this too), the two who had an attitude towards music that was the same as mine were Gram Parsons and John Lennon. And that was: whatever bag the business wants to put you in is immaterial; that's just a selling point, a tool that makes it easier. You're going to get chowed into this pocket or that pocket because it makes it easier for them to make charts up and figure out who's selling. But Gram and John were really pure musicians. All they liked was music, and then they got thrown into the game." That's not the impression many other people have of Parsons, who is almost uniformly described as an incessant self-promoter, and who from his teens onwards would regularly plant fake stories about himself in the local press, usually some variant of him having been signed to RCA records. Most people seem to think that image was more important to him than anything. In his teens, he started playing in a series of garage bands around Florida and Georgia, the two states in which he was brought up. One of his early bands was largely created by poaching the rhythm section who were then playing with Kent Lavoie, who later became famous as Lobo and had hits like "Me and You and a Dog Named Boo". Lavoie apparently held a grudge -- decades later he would still say that Parsons couldn't sing or play or write. Another musician on the scene with whom Parsons associated was Bobby Braddock, who would later go on to co-write songs like "D-I-V-O-R-C-E" for Tammy Wynette, and the song "He Stopped Loving Her Today", often considered the greatest country song ever written, for George Jones: [Excerpt: George Jones, "He Stopped Loving Her Today"] Jones would soon become one of Parsons' musical idols, but at this time he was still more interested in being Elvis or Little Richard. We're lucky enough to have a 1962 live recording of one of his garage bands, the Legends -- the band that featured the bass player and drummer he'd poached from Lobo. They made an appearance on a local TV show and a friend with a tape recorder recorded it off the TV and decades later posted it online. Of the four songs in that performance, two are R&B covers -- Little Richard's "Rip It Up" and Ray Charles' "What'd I Say?", and a third is the old Western Swing classic "Guitar Boogie Shuffle". But the interesting thing about the version of "Rip it Up" is that it's sung in an Everly Brothers style harmony, and the fourth song is a recording of the Everlys' "Let It Be Me". The Everlys were, of course, hugely influenced by the Louvin Brothers, who had so impressed young Gram six years earlier, and in this performance you can hear for the first time the hints of the style that Parsons would make his own a few years later: [Excerpt: Gram Parsons and the Legends, "Let it Be Me"] Incidentally, the other guitarist in the Legends, Jim Stafford, also went on to a successful musical career, having a top five hit in the seventies with "Spiders & Snakes": [Excerpt: Jim Stafford, "Spiders & Snakes"] Soon after that TV performance though, like many musicians of his generation, Parsons decided to give up on rock and roll, and instead to join a folk group. The group he joined, The Shilos, were a trio who were particularly influenced by the Journeymen, John Phillips' folk group before he formed the Mamas and the Papas, which we talked about in the episode on "San Francisco". At various times the group expanded with the addition of some female singers, trying to capture something of the sound of the New Chrisy Minstrels. In 1964, with the band members still in school, the Shilos decided to make a trip to Greenwich Village and see if they could make the big time as folk-music stars. They met up with John Phillips, and Parsons stayed with John and Michelle Phillips in their home in New York -- this was around the time the two of them were writing "California Dreamin'". Phillips got the Shilos an audition with Albert Grossman, who seemed eager to sign them until he realised they were still schoolchildren just on a break. The group were, though, impressive enough that he was interested, and we have some recordings of them from a year later which show that they were surprisingly good for a bunch of teenagers: [Excerpt: The Shilos, "The Bells of Rhymney"] Other than Phillips, the other major connection that Parsons made in New York was the folk singer Fred Neil, who we've talked about occasionally before. Neil was one of the great songwriters of the Greenwich Village scene, and many of his songs became successful for others -- his "Dolphins" was recorded by Tim Buckley, most famously his "Everybody's Talkin'" was a hit for Harry Nilsson, and he wrote "Another Side of This Life" which became something of a standard -- it was recorded by the Animals and the Lovin' Spoonful, and Jefferson Airplane, as well as recording the song, included it in their regular setlists, including at Monterey: [Excerpt: Jefferson Airplane, "The Other Side of This Life (live at Monterey)"] According to at least one biographer, though, Neil had another, more pernicious, influence on Parsons -- he may well have been the one who introduced Parsons to heroin, though several of Parsons' friends from the time said he wasn't yet using hard drugs. By spring 1965, Parsons was starting to rethink his commitment to folk music, particularly after "Mr. Tambourine Man" became a hit. He talked with the other members about their need to embrace the changes in music that Dylan and the Byrds were bringing about, but at the same time he was still interested enough in acoustic music that when he was given the job of arranging the music for his high school graduation, the group he booked were the Dillards. That graduation day was another day that would change Parsons' life -- as it was the day his mother died, of alcohol-induced liver failure. Parsons was meant to go on to Harvard, but first he went back to Greenwich Village for the summer, where he hung out with Fred Neil and Dave Van Ronk (and started using heroin regularly). He went to see the Beatles at Shea Stadium, and he was neighbours with Stephen Stills and Richie Furay -- the three of them talked about forming a band together before Stills moved West. And on a brief trip back home to Florida between Greenwich Village and Harvard, Parsons spoke with his old friend Jim Stafford, who made a suggestion to him -- instead of trying to do folk music, which was clearly falling out of fashion, why not try to do *country* music but with long hair like the Beatles? He could be a country Beatle. It would be an interesting gimmick. Parsons was only at Harvard for one semester before flunking out, but it was there that he was fully reintroduced to country music, and in particular to three artists who would influence him more than any others. He'd already been vaguely aware of Buck Owens, whose "Act Naturally" had recently been covered by the Beatles: [Excerpt: Buck Owens, "Act Naturally"] But it was at Harvard that he gained a deeper appreciation of Owens. Owens was the biggest star of what had become known as the Bakersfield Sound, a style of country music that emphasised a stripped-down electric band lineup with Telecaster guitars, a heavy drumbeat, and a clean sound. It came from the same honky-tonk and Western Swing roots as the rockabilly music that Parsons had grown up on, and it appealed to him instinctively. In particular, Parsons was fascinated by the fact that Owens' latest album had a cover version of a Drifters song on it -- and then he got even more interested when Ray Charles put out his third album of country songs and included a version of Owens' "Together Again": [Excerpt: Ray Charles, "Together Again"] This suggested to Parsons that country music and the R&B he'd been playing previously might not quite be so far apart as he'd thought. At Harvard, Parsons was also introduced to the work of another Bakersfield musician, who like Owens was produced by Ken Nelson, who also produced the Louvin Brothers' records, and who we heard about in previous episodes as he produced Gene Vincent and Wanda Jackson. Merle Haggard had only had one big hit at the time, "(My Friends Are Gonna Be) Strangers": [Excerpt: Merle Haggard, "(My Friends are Gonna Be) Strangers"] But he was about to start a huge run of country hits that would see every single he released for the next twelve years make the country top ten, most of them making number one. Haggard would be one of the biggest stars in country music, but he was also to be arguably the country musician with the biggest influence on rock music since Johnny Cash, and his songs would soon start to be covered by everyone from the Grateful Dead to the Everly Brothers to the Beach Boys. And the third artist that Parsons was introduced to was someone who, in most popular narratives of country music, is set up in opposition to Haggard and Owens, because they were representatives of the Bakersfield Sound while he was the epitome of the Nashville Sound to which the Bakersfield Sound is placed in opposition, George Jones. But of course anyone with ears will notice huge similarities in the vocal styles of Jones, Haggard, and Owens: [Excerpt: George Jones, "The Race is On"] Owens, Haggard, and Jones are all somewhat outside the scope of this series, but are seriously important musicians in country music. I would urge anyone who's interested in them to check out Tyler Mahan Coe's podcast Cocaine and Rhinestones, season one of which has episodes on Haggard and Owens, as well as on the Louvin Brothers who I also mentioned earlier, and season two of which is entirely devoted to Jones. When he dropped out of Harvard after one semester, Parsons was still mostly under the thrall of the Greenwich Village folkies -- there's a recording of him made over Christmas 1965 that includes his version of "Another Side of This Life": [Excerpt: Gram Parsons, "Another Side of This Life"] But he was encouraged to go further in the country direction by John Nuese (and I hope that's the correct pronunciation – I haven't been able to find any recordings mentioning his name), who had introduced him to this music and who also played guitar. Parsons, Neuse, bass player Ian Dunlop and drummer Mickey Gauvin formed a band that was originally called Gram Parsons and the Like. They soon changed their name though, inspired by an Our Gang short in which the gang became a band: [Excerpt: Our Gang, "Mike Fright"] Shortening the name slightly, they became the International Submarine Band. Parsons rented them a house in New York, and they got a contract with Goldstar Records, and released a couple of singles. The first of them, "The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming" was a cover of the theme to a comedy film that came out around that time, and is not especially interesting: [Excerpt: The International Submarine Band, "The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming"] The second single is more interesting. "Sum Up Broke" is a song by Parsons and Neuse, and shows a lot of influence from the Byrds: [Excerpt: The international Submarine Band, "Sum Up Broke"] While in New York with the International Submarine Band, Parsons made another friend in the music business. Barry Tashian was the lead singer of a band called the Remains, who had put out a couple of singles: [Excerpt: The Remains, "Why Do I Cry?"] The Remains are now best known for having been on the bill on the Beatles' last ever tour, including playing as support on their last ever show at Candlestick Park, but they split up before their first album came out. After spending most of 1966 in New York, Parsons decided that he needed to move the International Submarine Band out to LA. There were two reasons for this. The first was his friend Brandon DeWilde, an actor who had been a child star in the fifties -- it's him at the end of Shane -- who was thinking of pursuing a musical career. DeWilde was still making TV appearances, but he was also a singer -- John Nuese said that DeWilde sang harmony with Parsons better than anyone except Emmylou Harris -- and he had recorded some demos with the International Submarine Band backing him, like this version of Buck Owens' "Together Again": [Excerpt: Brandon DeWilde, "Together Again"] DeWilde had told Parsons he could get the group some work in films. DeWilde made good on that promise to an extent -- he got the group a cameo in The Trip, a film we've talked about in several other episodes, which was being directed by Roger Corman, the director who worked a lot with David Crosby's father, and was coming out from American International Pictures, the company that put out the beach party films -- but while the group were filmed performing one of their own songs, in the final film their music was overdubbed by the Electric Flag. The Trip starred Peter Fonda, another member of the circle of people around David Crosby, and another son of privilege, who at this point was better known for being Henry Fonda's son than for his own film appearances. Like DeWilde, Fonda wanted to become a pop star, and he had been impressed by Parsons, and asked if he could record Parsons' song "November Nights". Parsons agreed, and the result was released on Chisa Records, the label we talked about earlier that had put out promos of Gene Clark, in a performance produced by Hugh Masekela: [Excerpt: Peter Fonda, "November Nights"] The other reason the group moved West though was that Parsons had fallen in love with David Crosby's girlfriend, Nancy Ross, who soon became pregnant with his daughter -- much to Parsons' disappointment, she refused to have an abortion. Parsons bought the International Submarine Band a house in LA to rehearse in, and moved in separately with Nancy. The group started playing all the hottest clubs around LA, supporting bands like Love and the Peanut Butter Conspiracy, but they weren't sounding great, partly because Parsons was more interested in hanging round with celebrities than rehearsing -- the rest of the band had to work for a living, and so took their live performances more seriously than he did, while he was spending time catching up with his old folk friends like John Phillips and Fred Neil, as well as getting deeper into drugs and, like seemingly every musician in 1967, Scientology, though he only dabbled in the latter. The group were also, though, starting to split along musical lines. Dunlop and Gauvin wanted to play R&B and garage rock, while Parsons and Nuese wanted to play country music. And there was a third issue -- which record label should they go with? There were two labels interested in them, neither of them particularly appealing. The offer that Dunlop in particular wanted to go with was from, of all people, Jay Ward Records: [Excerpt: A Salute to Moosylvania] Jay Ward was the producer and writer of Rocky & Bullwinkle, Peabody & Sherman, Dudley Do-Right and other cartoons, and had set up a record company, which as far as I've been able to tell had only released one record, and that five years earlier (we just heard a snippet of it). But in the mid-sixties several cartoon companies were getting into the record business -- we'll hear more about that when we get to song 186 -- and Ward's company apparently wanted to sign the International Submarine Band, and were basically offering to throw money at them. Parsons, on the other hand, wanted to go with Lee Hazlewood International. This was a new label set up by someone we've only talked about in passing, but who was very influential on the LA music scene, Lee Hazlewood. Hazlewood had got his start producing country hits like Sanford Clark's "The Fool": [Excerpt: Sanford Clark, "The Fool"] He'd then moved on to collaborating with Lester Sill, producing a series of hits for Duane Eddy, whose unique guitar sound Hazlewood helped come up with: [Excerpt: Duane Eddy, "Rebel Rouser"] After splitting off from Sill, who had gone off to work with Phil Spector, who had been learning some production techniques from Hazlewood, Hazlewood had gone to work for Reprise records, where he had a career in a rather odd niche, producing hit records for the children of Rat Pack stars. He'd produced Dino, Desi, and Billy, who consisted of future Beach Boys sideman Billy Hinsche plus Desi Arnaz Jr and Dean Martin Jr: [Excerpt: Dino, Desi, and Billy, "I'm a Fool"] He'd also produced Dean Martin's daughter Deana: [Excerpt: Deana Martin, "Baby I See You"] and rather more successfully he'd written and produced a series of hits for Nancy Sinatra, starting with "These Boots are Made for Walkin'": [Excerpt: Nancy Sinatra, "These Boots are Made for Walkin'"] Hazlewood had also moved into singing himself. He'd released a few tracks on his own, but his career as a performer hadn't really kicked into gear until he'd started writing duets for Nancy Sinatra. She apparently fell in love with his demos and insisted on having him sing them with her in the studio, and so the two made a series of collaborations like the magnificently bizarre "Some Velvet Morning": [Excerpt: Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra, "Some Velvet Morning"] Hazlewood is now considered something of a cult artist, thanks largely to a string of magnificent orchestral country-pop solo albums he recorded, but at this point he was one of the hottest people in the music industry. He wasn't offering to produce the International Submarine Band himself -- that was going to be his partner, Suzi Jane Hokom -- but Parsons thought it was better to sign for less money to a label that was run by someone with a decade-long string of massive hit records than for more money to a label that had put out one record about a cartoon moose. So the group split up. Dunlop and Gauvin went off to form another band, with Barry Tashian -- and legend has it that one of the first times Gram Parsons visited the Byrds in the studio, he mentioned the name of that band, The Flying Burrito Brothers, and that was the inspiration for the Byrds titling their album The Notorious Byrd Brothers. Parsons and Nuese, on the other hand, formed a new lineup of The International Submarine Band, with bass player Chris Ethridge, drummer John Corneal, who Parsons had first played with in The Legends, and guitarist Bob Buchanan, a former member of the New Christy Minstrels who Parsons had been performing with as a duo after they'd met through Fred Neil. The International Submarine Band recorded an album, Safe At Home, which is now often called the first country-rock album -- though as we've said so often, there's no first anything. That album was a mixture of cover versions of songs by people like Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard: [Excerpt: The International Submarine Band, "I Must Be Somebody Else You've Known"] And Parsons originals, like "Do You Know How It Feels To Be Lonesome?", which he cowrote with Barry Goldberg of the Electric Flag: [Excerpt: The International Submarine Band, "Do You Know How It Feels To Be Lonesome?"] But the recording didn't go smoothly. In particular, Corneal realised he'd been hoodwinked. Parsons had told him, when persuading him to move West, that he'd be able to sing on the record and that some of his songs would be used. But while the record was credited to The International Submarine Band, everyone involved agrees that it was actually a Gram Parsons solo album by any other name -- he was in charge, he wouldn't let other members' songs on the record, and he didn't let Corneal sing as he'd promised. And then, before the album could be released, he was off. The Byrds wanted a jazz keyboard player, and Parsons could fake being one long enough to get the gig. The Byrds had got rid of one rich kid with a giant ego who wanted to take control of everything and thought his undeniable talent excused his attempts at dominating the group, and replaced him with another one -- who also happened to be signed to another record label. We'll see how well that worked out for them in two weeks' time.
For the first time ever, Krisy joins the show to talk about WWE Raw that aired January 8th, 2024 in which we saw Jinder Mahal confront Seth Rollins, CM Punk confront Drew McIntyre, The Women's Tag Team Champions take on Chelsea Green & Piper Niven, Cody Rhodes vs Shinsuke Nakamura and more!Go AD-FREE and get this show plus hundreds more by heading to Patreon.com/WWEPodcastAlso Get your NEW WWE Podcast MERCH at WWEPodcast.comBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/show/the-wwe-podcast/support.
Episode 169 of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “Piece of My Heart" and the short, tragic life of Janis Joplin. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a half-hour bonus episode available, on "Spinning Wheel" by Blood, Sweat & Tears. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Resources There are two Mixcloud mixes this time. As there are so many songs by Big Brother and the Holding Company and Janis Joplin excerpted, and Mixcloud won't allow more than four songs by the same artist in any mix, I've had to post the songs not in quite the same order in which they appear in the podcast. But the mixes are here — one, two . For information on Janis Joplin I used three biographies -- Scars of Sweet Paradise by Alice Echols, Janis: Her Life and Music by Holly George-Warren, and Buried Alive by Myra Friedman. I also referred to the chapter '“Being Good Isn't Always Easy": Aretha Franklin, Janis Joplin, Dusty Springfield, and the Color of Soul' in Just Around Midnight: Rock and Roll and the Racial Imagination by Jack Hamilton. Some information on Bessie Smith came from Bessie Smith by Jackie Kay, a book I can't really recommend given the lack of fact-checking, and Bessie by Chris Albertson. I also referred to Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday by Angela Y. Davis And the best place to start with Joplin's music is this five-CD box, which contains both Big Brother and the Holding Company albums she was involved in, plus her two studio albums and bonus tracks. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Before I start, this episode contains discussion of drug addiction and overdose, alcoholism, mental illness, domestic abuse, child abandonment, and racism. If those subjects are likely to cause you upset, you may want to check the transcript or skip this one rather than listen. Also, a subject I should probably say a little more about in this intro because I know I have inadvertently caused upset to at least one listener with this in the past. When it comes to Janis Joplin, it is *impossible* to talk about her without discussing her issues with her weight and self-image. The way I write often involves me paraphrasing the opinions of the people I'm writing about, in a mode known as close third person, and sometimes that means it can look like I am stating those opinions as my own, and sometimes things I say in that mode which *I* think are obviously meant in context to be critiques of those attitudes can appear to others to be replicating them. At least once, I have seriously upset a fat listener when talking about issues related to weight in this manner. I'm going to try to be more careful here, but just in case, I'm going to say before I begin that I think fatphobia is a pernicious form of bigotry, as bad as any other form of bigotry. I'm fat myself and well aware of how systemic discrimination affects fat people. I also think more generally that the pressure put on women to look a particular way is pernicious and disgusting in ways I can't even begin to verbalise, and causes untold harm. If *ANYTHING* I say in this episode comes across as sounding otherwise, that's because I haven't expressed myself clearly enough. Like all people, Janis Joplin had negative characteristics, and at times I'm going to say things that are critical of those. But when it comes to anything to do with her weight or her appearance, if *anything* I say sounds critical of her, rather than of a society that makes women feel awful for their appearance, it isn't meant to. Anyway, on with the show. On January the nineteenth, 1943, Seth Joplin typed up a letter to his wife Dorothy, which read “I wish to tender my congratulations on the anniversary of your successful completion of your production quota for the nine months ending January 19, 1943. I realize that you passed through a period of inflation such as you had never before known—yet, in spite of this, you met your goal by your supreme effort during the early hours of January 19, a good three weeks ahead of schedule.” As you can probably tell from that message, the Joplin family were a strange mixture of ultraconformism and eccentricity, and those two opposing forces would dominate the personality of their firstborn daughter for the whole of her life. Seth Joplin was a respected engineer at Texaco, where he worked for forty years, but he had actually dropped out of engineering school before completing his degree. His favourite pastime when he wasn't at work was to read -- he was a voracious reader -- and to listen to classical music, which would often move him to tears, but he had also taught himself to make bathtub gin during prohibition, and smoked cannabis. Dorothy, meanwhile, had had the possibility of a singing career before deciding to settle down and become a housewife, and was known for having a particularly beautiful soprano voice. Both were, by all accounts, fiercely intelligent people, but they were also as committed as anyone to the ideals of the middle-class family even as they chafed against its restrictions. Like her mother, young Janis had a beautiful soprano voice, and she became a soloist in her church choir, but after the age of six, she was not encouraged to sing much. Dorothy had had a thyroid operation which destroyed her singing voice, and the family got rid of their piano soon after (different sources say that this was either because Dorothy found her daughter's singing painful now that she couldn't sing herself, or because Seth was upset that his wife could no longer sing. Either seems plausible.) Janis was pushed to be a high-achiever -- she was given a library card as soon as she could write her name, and encouraged to use it, and she was soon advanced in school, skipping a couple of grades. She was also by all accounts a fiercely talented painter, and her parents paid for art lessons. From everything one reads about her pre-teen years, she was a child prodigy who was loved by everyone and who was clearly going to be a success of some kind. Things started to change when she reached her teenage years. Partly, this was just her getting into rock and roll music, which her father thought a fad -- though even there, she differed from her peers. She loved Elvis, but when she heard "Hound Dog", she loved it so much that she tracked down a copy of Big Mama Thornton's original, and told her friends she preferred that: [Excerpt: Big Mama Thornton, "Hound Dog"] Despite this, she was still also an exemplary student and overachiever. But by the time she turned fourteen, things started to go very wrong for her. Partly this was just down to her relationship with her father changing -- she adored him, but he became more distant from his daughters as they grew into women. But also, puberty had an almost wholly negative effect on her, at least by the standards of that time and place. She put on weight (which, again, I do not think is a negative thing, but she did, and so did everyone around her), she got a bad case of acne which didn't ever really go away, and she also didn't develop breasts particularly quickly -- which, given that she was a couple of years younger than the other people in the same classes at school, meant she stood out even more. In the mid-sixties, a doctor apparently diagnosed her as having a "hormone imbalance" -- something that got to her as a possible explanation for why she was, to quote from a letter she wrote then, "not really a woman or enough of one or something." She wondered if "maybe something as simple as a pill could have helped out or even changed that part of me I call ME and has been so messed up.” I'm not a doctor and even if I were, diagnosing historical figures is an unethical thing to do, but certainly the acne, weight gain, and mental health problems she had are all consistent with PCOS, the most common endocrine disorder among women, and it seems likely given what the doctor told her that this was the cause. But at the time all she knew was that she was different, and that in the eyes of her fellow students she had gone from being pretty to being ugly. She seems to have been a very trusting, naive, person who was often the brunt of jokes but who desperately needed to be accepted, and it became clear that her appearance wasn't going to let her fit into the conformist society she was being brought up in, while her high intelligence, low impulse control, and curiosity meant she couldn't even fade into the background. This left her one other option, and she decided that she would deliberately try to look and act as different from everyone else as possible. That way, it would be a conscious choice on her part to reject the standards of her fellow pupils, rather than her being rejected by them. She started to admire rebels. She became a big fan of Jerry Lee Lewis, whose music combined the country music she'd grown up hearing in Texas, the R&B she liked now, and the rebellious nature she was trying to cultivate: [Excerpt: Jerry Lee Lewis, "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On"] When Lewis' career was derailed by his marriage to his teenage cousin, Joplin wrote an angry letter to Time magazine complaining that they had mistreated him in their coverage. But as with so many people of her generation, her love of rock and roll music led her first to the blues and then to folk, and she soon found herself listening to Odetta: [Excerpt: Odetta, "Muleskinner Blues"] One of her first experiences of realising she could gain acceptance from her peers by singing was when she was hanging out with the small group of Bohemian teenagers she was friendly with, and sang an Odetta song, mimicking her voice exactly. But young Janis Joplin was listening to an eclectic range of folk music, and could mimic more than just Odetta. For all that her later vocal style was hugely influenced by Odetta and by other Black singers like Big Mama Thornton and Etta James, her friends in her late teens and early twenties remember her as a vocal chameleon with an achingly pure soprano, who would more often than Odetta be imitating the great Appalachian traditional folk singer Jean Ritchie: [Excerpt: Jean Ritchie, "Lord Randall"] She was, in short, trying her best to become a Beatnik, despite not having any experience of that subculture other than what she read in books -- though she *did* read about them in books, devouring things like Kerouac's On The Road. She came into conflict with her mother, who didn't understand what was happening to her daughter, and who tried to get family counselling to understand what was going on. Her father, who seemed to relate more to Janis, but who was more quietly eccentric, put an end to that, but Janis would still for the rest of her life talk about how her mother had taken her to doctors who thought she was going to end up "either in jail or an insane asylum" to use her words. From this point on, and for the rest of her life, she was torn between a need for approval from her family and her peers, and a knowledge that no matter what she did she couldn't fit in with normal societal expectations. In high school she was a member of the Future Nurses of America, the Future Teachers of America, the Art Club, and Slide Rule Club, but she also had a reputation as a wild girl, and as sexually active (even though by all accounts at this point she was far less so than most of the so-called "good girls" – but her later activity was in part because she felt that if she was going to have that reputation anyway she might as well earn it). She also was known to express radical opinions, like that segregation was wrong, an opinion that the other students in her segregated Texan school didn't even think was wrong, but possibly some sort of sign of mental illness. Her final High School yearbook didn't contain a single other student's signature. And her initial choice of university, Lamar State College of Technology, was not much better. In the next town over, and attended by many of the same students, it had much the same attitudes as the school she'd left. Almost the only long-term effect her initial attendance at university had on her was a negative one -- she found there was another student at the college who was better at painting. Deciding that if she wasn't going to be the best at something she didn't want to do it at all, she more or less gave up on painting at that point. But there was one positive. One of the lecturers at Lamar was Francis Edward "Ab" Abernethy, who would in the early seventies go on to become the Secretary and Editor of the Texas Folklore Society, and was also a passionate folk musician, playing double bass in string bands. Abernethy had a great collection of blues 78s. and it was through this collection that Janis first discovered classic blues, and in particular Bessie Smith: [Excerpt: Bessie Smith, "Black Mountain Blues"] A couple of episodes ago, we had a long look at the history of the music that now gets called "the blues" -- the music that's based around guitars, and generally involves a solo male vocalist, usually Black during its classic period. At the time that music was being made though it wouldn't have been thought of as "the blues" with no modifiers by most people who were aware of it. At the start, even the songs they were playing weren't thought of as blues by the male vocalist/guitarists who played them -- they called the songs they played "reels". The music released by people like Blind Lemon Jefferson, Son House, Robert Johnson, Kokomo Arnold and so on was thought of as blues music, and people would understand and agree with a phrase like "Lonnie Johnson is a blues singer", but it wasn't the first thing people thought of when they talked about "the blues". Until relatively late -- probably some time in the 1960s -- if you wanted to talk about blues music made by Black men with guitars and only that music, you talked about "country blues". If you thought about "the blues", with no qualifiers, you thought about a rather different style of music, one that white record collectors started later to refer to as "classic blues" to differentiate it from what they were now calling "the blues". Nowadays of course if you say "classic blues", most people will think you mean Muddy Waters or John Lee Hooker, people who were contemporary at the time those white record collectors were coming up with their labels, and so that style of music gets referred to as "vaudeville blues", or as "classic female blues": [Excerpt: Mamie Smith, "Crazy Blues"] What we just heard was the first big blues hit performed by a Black person, from 1920, and as we discussed in the episode on "Crossroads" that revolutionised the whole record industry when it came out. The song was performed by Mamie Smith, a vaudeville performer, and was originally titled "Harlem Blues" by its writer, Perry Bradford, before he changed the title to "Crazy Blues" to get it to a wider audience. Bradford was an important figure in the vaudeville scene, though other than being the credited writer of "Keep A-Knockin'" he's little known these days. He was a Black musician and grew up playing in minstrel shows (the history of minstrelsy is a topic for another day, but it's more complicated than the simple image of blackface that we are aware of today -- though as with many "more complicated than that" things it is, also the simple image of blackface we're aware of). He was the person who persuaded OKeh records that there would be a market for music made by Black people that sounded Black (though as we're going to see in this episode, what "sounding Black" means is a rather loaded question). "Crazy Blues" was the result, and it was a massive hit, even though it was marketed specifically towards Black listeners: [Excerpt: Mamie Smith, "Crazy Blues"] The big stars of the early years of recorded blues were all making records in the shadow of "Crazy Blues", and in the case of its very biggest stars, they were working very much in the same mould. The two most important blues stars of the twenties both got their start in vaudeville, and were both women. Ma Rainey, like Mamie Smith, first performed in minstrel shows, but where Mamie Smith's early records had her largely backed by white musicians, Rainey was largely backed by Black musicians, including on several tracks Louis Armstrong: [Excerpt: Ma Rainey, "See See Rider"] Rainey's band was initially led by Thomas Dorsey, one of the most important men in American music, who we've talked about before in several episodes, including the last one. He was possibly the single most important figure in two different genres -- hokum music, when he, under the name "Georgia Tom" recorded "It's Tight Like That" with Tampa Red: [Excerpt: Tampa Red and Georgia Tom, "It's Tight Like That"] And of course gospel music, which to all intents and purposes he invented, and much of whose repertoire he wrote: [Excerpt: Mahalia Jackson, "Take My Hand, Precious Lord"] When Dorsey left Rainey's band, as we discussed right back in episode five, he was replaced by a female pianist, Lil Henderson. The blues was a woman's genre. And Ma Rainey was, by preference, a woman's woman, though she was married to a man: [Excerpt: Ma Rainey, "Prove it on Me"] So was the biggest star of the classic blues era, who was originally mentored by Rainey. Bessie Smith, like Rainey, was a queer woman who had relationships with men but was far more interested in other women. There were stories that Bessie Smith actually got her start in the business by being kidnapped by Ma Rainey, and forced into performing on the same bills as her in the vaudeville show she was touring in, and that Rainey taught Smith to sing blues in the process. In truth, Rainey mentored Smith more in stagecraft and the ways of the road than in singing, and neither woman was only a blues singer, though both had huge success with their blues records. Indeed, since Rainey was already in the show, Smith was initially hired as a dancer rather than a singer, and she also worked as a male impersonator. But Smith soon branched out on her own -- from the beginning she was obviously a star. The great jazz clarinettist Sidney Bechet later said of her "She had this trouble in her, this thing that would not let her rest sometimes, a meanness that came and took her over. But what she had was alive … Bessie, she just wouldn't let herself be; it seemed she couldn't let herself be." Bessie Smith was signed by Columbia Records in 1923, as part of the rush to find and record as many Black women blues singers as possible. Her first recording session produced "Downhearted Blues", which became, depending on which sources you read, either the biggest-selling blues record since "Crazy Blues" or the biggest-selling blues record ever, full stop, selling three quarters of a million copies in the six months after its release: [Excerpt: Bessie Smith, "Downhearted Blues"] Smith didn't make royalties off record sales, only making a flat fee, but she became the most popular Black performer of the 1920s. Columbia signed her to an exclusive contract, and she became so rich that she would literally travel between gigs on her own private train. She lived an extravagant life in every way, giving lavishly to her friends and family, but also drinking extraordinary amounts of liquor, having regular affairs, and also often physically or verbally attacking those around her. By all accounts she was not a comfortable person to be around, and she seemed to be trying to fit an entire lifetime into every moment. From 1923 through 1929 she had a string of massive hits. She recorded material in a variety of styles, including the dirty blues: [Excerpt: Bessie Smith, "Empty Bed Blues] And with accompanists like Louis Armstrong: [Excerpt: Bessie Smith with Louis Armstrong, "Cold in Hand Blues"] But the music for which she became best known, and which sold the best, was when she sang about being mistreated by men, as on one of her biggest hits, "'Tain't Nobody's Biz-Ness if I Do" -- and a warning here, I'm going to play a clip of the song, which treats domestic violence in a way that may be upsetting: [Excerpt: Bessie Smith, "'Tain't Nobody's Biz-Ness if I Do"] That kind of material can often seem horrifying to today's listeners -- and quite correctly so, as domestic violence is a horrifying thing -- and it sounds entirely too excusing of the man beating her up for anyone to find it comfortable listening. But the Black feminist scholar Angela Davis has made a convincing case that while these records, and others by Smith's contemporaries, can't reasonably be considered to be feminist, they *are* at the very least more progressive than they now seem, in that they were, even if excusing it, pointing to a real problem which was otherwise left unspoken. And that kind of domestic violence and abuse *was* a real problem, including in Smith's own life. By all accounts she was terrified of her husband, Jack Gee, who would frequently attack her because of her affairs with other people, mostly women. But she was still devastated when he left her for a younger woman, not only because he had left her, but also because he kidnapped their adopted son and had him put into a care home, falsely claiming she had abused him. Not only that, but before Jack left her closest friend had been Jack's niece Ruby and after the split she never saw Ruby again -- though after her death Ruby tried to have a blues career as "Ruby Smith", taking her aunt's surname and recording a few tracks with Sammy Price, the piano player who worked with Sister Rosetta Tharpe: [Excerpt: Ruby Smith with Sammy Price, "Make Me Love You"] The same month, May 1929, that Gee left her, Smith recorded what was to become her last big hit, and most well-known song, "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out": [Excerpt: Bessie Smith, "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out"] And that could have been the theme for the rest of her life. A few months after that record came out, the Depression hit, pretty much killing the market for blues records. She carried on recording until 1931, but the records weren't selling any more. And at the same time, the talkies came in in the film industry, which along with the Depression ended up devastating the vaudeville audience. Her earnings were still higher than most, but only a quarter of what they had been a year or two earlier. She had one last recording session in 1933, produced by John Hammond for OKeh Records, where she showed that her style had developed over the years -- it was now incorporating the newer swing style, and featured future swing stars Benny Goodman and Jack Teagarden in the backing band: [Excerpt: Bessie Smith, "Gimme a Pigfoot"] Hammond was not hugely impressed with the recordings, preferring her earlier records, and they would be the last she would ever make. She continued as a successful, though no longer record-breaking, live act until 1937, when she and her common-law husband, Lionel Hampton's uncle Richard Morgan, were in a car crash. Morgan escaped, but Smith died of her injuries and was buried on October the fourth 1937. Ten thousand people came to her funeral, but she was buried in an unmarked grave -- she was still legally married to Gee, even though they'd been separated for eight years, and while he supposedly later became rich from songwriting royalties from some of her songs (most of her songs were written by other people, but she wrote a few herself) he refused to pay for a headstone for her. Indeed on more than one occasion he embezzled money that had been raised by other people to provide a headstone. Bessie Smith soon became Joplin's favourite singer of all time, and she started trying to copy her vocals. But other than discovering Smith's music, Joplin seems to have had as terrible a time at university as at school, and soon dropped out and moved back in with her parents. She went to business school for a short while, where she learned some secretarial skills, and then she moved west, going to LA where two of her aunts lived, to see if she could thrive better in a big West Coast city than she did in small-town Texas. Soon she moved from LA to Venice Beach, and from there had a brief sojourn in San Francisco, where she tried to live out her beatnik fantasies at a time when the beatnik culture was starting to fall apart. She did, while she was there, start smoking cannabis, though she never got a taste for that drug, and took Benzedrine and started drinking much more heavily than she had before. She soon lost her job, moved back to Texas, and re-enrolled at the same college she'd been at before. But now she'd had a taste of real Bohemian life -- she'd been singing at coffee houses, and having affairs with both men and women -- and soon she decided to transfer to the University of Texas at Austin. At this point, Austin was very far from the cultural centre it has become in recent decades, and it was still a straitlaced Texan town, but it was far less so than Port Arthur, and she soon found herself in a folk group, the Waller Creek Boys. Janis would play autoharp and sing, sometimes Bessie Smith covers, but also the more commercial country and folk music that was popular at the time, like "Silver Threads and Golden Needles", a song that had originally been recorded by Wanda Jackson but at that time was a big hit for Dusty Springfield's group The Springfields: [Excerpt: The Waller Creek Boys, "Silver Threads and Golden Needles"] But even there, Joplin didn't fit in comfortably. The venue where the folk jams were taking place was a segregated venue, as everywhere around Austin was. And she was enough of a misfit that the campus newspaper did an article on her headlined "She Dares to Be Different!", which read in part "She goes barefooted when she feels like it, wears Levi's to class because they're more comfortable, and carries her Autoharp with her everywhere she goes so that in case she gets the urge to break out into song it will be handy." There was a small group of wannabe-Beatniks, including Chet Helms, who we've mentioned previously in the Grateful Dead episode, Gilbert Shelton, who went on to be a pioneer of alternative comics and create the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, and Shelton's partner in Rip-Off Press, Dave Moriarty, but for the most part the atmosphere in Austin was only slightly better for Janis than it had been in Port Arthur. The final straw for her came when in an annual charity fundraiser joke competition to find the ugliest man on campus, someone nominated her for the "award". She'd had enough of Texas. She wanted to go back to California. She and Chet Helms, who had dropped out of the university earlier and who, like her, had already spent some time on the West Coast, decided to hitch-hike together to San Francisco. Before leaving, she made a recording for her ex-girlfriend Julie Paul, a country and western musician, of a song she'd written herself. It's recorded in what many say was Janis' natural voice -- a voice she deliberately altered in performance in later years because, she would tell people, she didn't think there was room for her singing like that in an industry that already had Joan Baez and Judy Collins. In her early years she would alternate between singing like this and doing her imitations of Black women, but the character of Janis Joplin who would become famous never sang like this. It may well be the most honest thing that she ever recorded, and the most revealing of who she really was: [Excerpt: Janis Joplin, "So Sad to Be Alone"] Joplin and Helms made it to San Francisco, and she started performing at open-mic nights and folk clubs around the Bay Area, singing in her Bessie Smith and Odetta imitation voice, and sometimes making a great deal of money by sounding different from the wispier-voiced women who were the norm at those venues. The two friends parted ways, and she started performing with two other folk musicians, Larry Hanks and Roger Perkins, and she insisted that they would play at least one Bessie Smith song at every performance: [Excerpt: Janis Joplin, Larry Hanks, and Roger Perkins, "Black Mountain Blues (live in San Francisco)"] Often the trio would be joined by Billy Roberts, who at that time had just started performing the song that would make his name, "Hey Joe", and Joplin was soon part of the folk scene in the Bay Area, and admired by Dino Valenti, David Crosby, and Jerry Garcia among others. She also sang a lot with Jorma Kaukonnen, and recordings of the two of them together have circulated for years: [Excerpt: Janis Joplin and Jorma Kaukonnen, "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out"] Through 1963, 1964, and early 1965 Joplin ping-ponged from coast to coast, spending time in the Bay Area, then Greenwich Village, dropping in on her parents then back to the Bay Area, and she started taking vast quantities of methamphetamine. Even before moving to San Francisco she had been an occasional user of amphetamines – at the time they were regularly prescribed to students as study aids during exam periods, and she had also been taking them to try to lose some of the weight she always hated. But while she was living in San Francisco she became dependent on the drug. At one point her father was worried enough about her health to visit her in San Francisco, where she managed to fool him that she was more or less OK. But she looked to him for reassurance that things would get better for her, and he couldn't give it to her. He told her about a concept that he called the "Saturday night swindle", the idea that you work all week so you can go out and have fun on Saturday in the hope that that will make up for everything else, but that it never does. She had occasional misses with what would have been lucky breaks -- at one point she was in a motorcycle accident just as record labels were interested in signing her, and by the time she got out of the hospital the chance had gone. She became engaged to another speed freak, one who claimed to be an engineer and from a well-off background, but she was becoming severely ill from what was by now a dangerous amphetamine habit, and in May 1965 she decided to move back in with her parents, get clean, and have a normal life. Her new fiance was going to do the same, and they were going to have the conformist life her parents had always wanted, and which she had always wanted to want. Surely with a husband who loved her she could find a way to fit in and just be normal. She kicked the addiction, and wrote her fiance long letters describing everything about her family and the new normal life they were going to have together, and they show her painfully trying to be optimistic about the future, like one where she described her family to him: "My mother—Dorothy—worries so and loves her children dearly. Republican and Methodist, very sincere, speaks in clichés which she really means and is very good to people. (She thinks you have a lovely voice and is terribly prepared to like you.) My father—richer than when I knew him and kind of embarrassed about it—very well read—history his passion—quiet and very excited to have me home because I'm bright and we can talk (about antimatter yet—that impressed him)! I keep telling him how smart you are and how proud I am of you.…" She went back to Lamar, her mother started sewing her a wedding dress, and for much of the year she believed her fiance was going to be her knight in shining armour. But as it happened, the fiance in question was described by everyone else who knew him as a compulsive liar and con man, who persuaded her father to give him money for supposed medical tests before the wedding, but in reality was apparently married to someone else and having a baby with a third woman. After the engagement was broken off, she started performing again around the coffeehouses in Austin and Houston, and she started to realise the possibilities of rock music for her kind of performance. The missing clue came from a group from Austin who she became very friendly with, the Thirteenth Floor Elevators, and the way their lead singer Roky Erickson would wail and yell: [Excerpt: The 13th Floor Elevators, "You're Gonna Miss Me (live)"] If, as now seemed inevitable, Janis was going to make a living as a performer, maybe she should start singing rock music, because it seemed like there was money in it. There was even some talk of her singing with the Elevators. But then an old friend came to Austin from San Francisco with word from Chet Helms. A blues band had formed, and were looking for a singer, and they remembered her from the coffee houses. Would she like to go back to San Francisco and sing with them? In the time she'd been away, Helms had become hugely prominent in the San Francisco music scene, which had changed radically. A band from the area called the Charlatans had been playing a fake-Victorian saloon called the Red Dog in nearby Nevada, and had become massive with the people who a few years earlier had been beatniks: [Excerpt: The Charlatans, "32-20"] When their residency at the Red Dog had finished, several of the crowd who had been regulars there had become a collective of sorts called the Family Dog, and Helms had become their unofficial leader. And there's actually a lot packed into that choice of name. As we'll see in a few future episodes, a lot of West Coast hippies eventually started calling their collectives and communes families. This started as a way to get round bureaucracy -- if a helpful welfare officer put down that the unrelated people living in a house together were a family, suddenly they could get food stamps. As with many things, of course, the label then affected how people thought about themselves, and one thing that's very notable about the San Francisco scene hippies in particular is that they are some of the first people to make a big deal about what we now call "found family" or "family of choice". But it's also notable how often the hippie found families took their model from the only families these largely middle-class dropouts had ever known, and structured themselves around men going out and doing the work -- selling dope or panhandling or being rock musicians or shoplifting -- with the women staying at home doing the housework. The Family Dog started promoting shows, with the intention of turning San Francisco into "the American Liverpool", and soon Helms was rivalled only by Bill Graham as the major promoter of rock shows in the Bay Area. And now he wanted Janis to come back and join this new band. But Janis was worried. She was clean now. She drank far too much, but she wasn't doing any other drugs. She couldn't go back to San Francisco and risk getting back on methamphetamine. She needn't worry about that, she was told, nobody in San Francisco did speed any more, they were all on LSD -- a drug she hated and so wasn't in any danger from. Reassured, she made the trip back to San Francisco, to join Big Brother and the Holding Company. Big Brother and the Holding Company were the epitome of San Francisco acid rock at the time. They were the house band at the Avalon Ballroom, which Helms ran, and their first ever gig had been at the Trips Festival, which we talked about briefly in the Grateful Dead episode. They were known for being more imaginative than competent -- lead guitarist James Gurley was often described as playing parts that were influenced by John Cage, but was equally often, and equally accurately, described as not actually being able to keep his guitar in tune because he was too stoned. But they were drawing massive crowds with their instrumental freak-out rock music. Helms thought they needed a singer, and he had remembered Joplin, who a few of the group had seen playing the coffee houses. He decided she would be perfect for them, though Joplin wasn't so sure. She thought it was worth a shot, but as she wrote to her parents before meeting the group "Supposed to rehearse w/ the band this afternoon, after that I guess I'll know whether I want to stay & do that for awhile. Right now my position is ambivalent—I'm glad I came, nice to see the city, a few friends, but I'm not at all sold on the idea of becoming the poor man's Cher.” In that letter she also wrote "I'm awfully sorry to be such a disappointment to you. I understand your fears at my coming here & must admit I share them, but I really do think there's an awfully good chance I won't blow it this time." The band she met up with consisted of lead guitarist James Gurley, bass player Peter Albin, rhythm player Sam Andrew, and drummer David Getz. To start with, Peter Albin sang lead on most songs, with Joplin adding yelps and screams modelled on those of Roky Erickson, but in her first gig with the band she bowled everyone over with her lead vocal on the traditional spiritual "Down on Me", which would remain a staple of their live act, as in this live recording from 1968: [Excerpt: Big Brother and the Holding Company, "Down on Me (Live 1968)"] After that first gig in June 1966, it was obvious that Joplin was going to be a star, and was going to be the group's main lead vocalist. She had developed a whole new stage persona a million miles away from her folk performances. As Chet Helms said “Suddenly this person who would stand upright with her fists clenched was all over the stage. Roky Erickson had modeled himself after the screaming style of Little Richard, and Janis's initial stage presence came from Roky, and ultimately Little Richard. It was a very different Janis.” Joplin would always claim to journalists that her stage persona was just her being herself and natural, but she worked hard on every aspect of her performance, and far from the untrained emotional outpouring she always suggested, her vocal performances were carefully calculated pastiches of her influences -- mostly Bessie Smith, but also Big Mama Thornton, Odetta, Etta James, Tina Turner, and Otis Redding. That's not to say that those performances weren't an authentic expression of part of herself -- they absolutely were. But the ethos that dominated San Francisco in the mid-sixties prized self-expression over technical craft, and so Joplin had to portray herself as a freak of nature who just had to let all her emotions out, a wild woman, rather than someone who carefully worked out every nuance of her performances. Joplin actually got the chance to meet one of her idols when she discovered that Willie Mae Thornton was now living and regularly performing in the Bay Area. She and some of her bandmates saw Big Mama play a small jazz club, where she performed a song she wouldn't release on a record for another two years: [Excerpt: Big Mama Thornton, "Ball 'n' Chain"] Janis loved the song and scribbled down the lyrics, then went backstage to ask Big Mama if Big Brother could cover the song. She gave them her blessing, but told them "don't" -- and here she used a word I can't use with a clean rating -- "it up". The group all moved in together, communally, with their partners -- those who had them. Janis was currently single, having dumped her most recent boyfriend after discovering him shooting speed, as she was still determined to stay clean. But she was rapidly discovering that the claim that San Franciscans no longer used much speed had perhaps not been entirely true, as for example Sam Andrew's girlfriend went by the nickname Speedfreak Rita. For now, Janis was still largely clean, but she did start drinking more. Partly this was because of a brief fling with Pigpen from the Grateful Dead, who lived nearby. Janis liked Pigpen as someone else on the scene who didn't much like psychedelics or cannabis -- she didn't like drugs that made her think more, but only drugs that made her able to *stop* thinking (her love of amphetamines doesn't seem to fit this pattern, but a small percentage of people have a different reaction to amphetamine-type stimulants, perhaps she was one of those). Pigpen was a big drinker of Southern Comfort -- so much so that it would kill him within a few years -- and Janis started joining him. Her relationship with Pigpen didn't last long, but the two would remain close, and she would often join the Grateful Dead on stage over the years to duet with him on "Turn On Your Lovelight": [Excerpt: Janis Joplin and the Grateful Dead, "Turn on Your Lovelight"] But within two months of joining the band, Janis nearly left. Paul Rothchild of Elektra Records came to see the group live, and was impressed by their singer, but not by the rest of the band. This was something that would happen again and again over the group's career. The group were all imaginative and creative -- they worked together on their arrangements and their long instrumental jams and often brought in very good ideas -- but they were not the most disciplined or technically skilled of musicians, even when you factored in their heavy drug use, and often lacked the skill to pull off their better ideas. They were hugely popular among the crowds at the Avalon Ballroom, who were on the group's chemical wavelength, but Rothchild was not impressed -- as he was, in general, unimpressed with psychedelic freakouts. He was already of the belief in summer 1966 that the fashion for extended experimental freak-outs would soon come to an end and that there would be a pendulum swing back towards more structured and melodic music. As we saw in the episode on The Band, he would be proved right in a little over a year, but being ahead of the curve he wanted to put together a supergroup that would be able to ride that coming wave, a group that would play old-fashioned blues. He'd got together Stefan Grossman, Steve Mann, and Taj Mahal, and he wanted Joplin to be the female vocalist for the group, dueting with Mahal. She attended one rehearsal, and the new group sounded great. Elektra Records offered to sign them, pay their rent while they rehearsed, and have a major promotional campaign for their first release. Joplin was very, very, tempted, and brought the subject up to her bandmates in Big Brother. They were devastated. They were a family! You don't leave your family! She was meant to be with them forever! They eventually got her to agree to put off the decision at least until after a residency they'd been booked for in Chicago, and she decided to give them the chance, writing to her parents "I decided to stay w/the group but still like to think about the other thing. Trying to figure out which is musically more marketable because my being good isn't enough, I've got to be in a good vehicle.” The trip to Chicago was a disaster. They found that the people of Chicago weren't hugely interested in seeing a bunch of white Californians play the blues, and that the Midwest didn't have the same Bohemian crowds that the coastal cities they were used to had, and so their freak-outs didn't go down well either. After two weeks of their four-week residency, the club owner stopped paying them because they were so unpopular, and they had no money to get home. And then they were approached by Bob Shad. (For those who know the film Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, the Bob Shad in that film is named after this one -- Judd Apatow, the film's director, is Shad's grandson) This Shad was a record producer, who had worked with people like Big Bill Broonzy, Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, and Billy Eckstine over an eighteen-year career, and had recently set up a new label, Mainstream Records. He wanted to sign Big Brother and the Holding Company. They needed money and... well, it was a record contract! It was a contract that took half their publishing, paid them a five percent royalty on sales, and gave them no advance, but it was still a contract, and they'd get union scale for the first session. In that first session in Chicago, they recorded four songs, and strangely only one, "Down on Me", had a solo Janis vocal. Of the other three songs, Sam Andrew and Janis dueted on Sam's song "Call on Me", Albin sang lead on the group composition "Blindman", and Gurley and Janis sang a cover of "All Is Loneliness", a song originally by the avant-garde street musician Moondog: [Excerpt: Big Brother and the Holding Company, "All is Loneliness"] The group weren't happy with the four songs they recorded -- they had to keep the songs to the length of a single, and the engineers made sure that the needles never went into the red, so their guitars sounded far more polite and less distorted than they were used to. Janis was fascinated by the overdubbing process, though, especially double-tracking, which she'd never tried before but which she turned out to be remarkably good at. And they were now signed to a contract, which meant that Janis wouldn't be leaving the group to go solo any time soon. The family were going to stay together. But on the group's return to San Francisco, Janis started doing speed again, encouraged by the people around the group, particularly Gurley's wife. By the time the group's first single, "Blindman" backed with "All is Loneliness", came out, she was an addict again. That initial single did nothing, but the group were fast becoming one of the most popular in the Bay Area, and almost entirely down to Janis' vocals and on-stage persona. Bob Shad had already decided in the initial session that while various band members had taken lead, Janis was the one who should be focused on as the star, and when they drove to LA for their second recording session it was songs with Janis leads that they focused on. At that second session, in which they recorded ten tracks in two days, the group recorded a mix of material including one of Janis' own songs, the blues track "Women is Losers", and a version of the old folk song "the Cuckoo Bird" rearranged by Albin. Again they had to keep the arrangements to two and a half minutes a track, with no extended soloing and a pop arrangement style, and the results sound a lot more like the other San Francisco bands, notably Jefferson Airplane, than like the version of the band that shows itself in their live performances: [Excerpt: Big Brother and the Holding Company, "Coo Coo"] After returning to San Francisco after the sessions, Janis went to see Otis Redding at the Fillmore, turning up several hours before the show started on all three nights to make sure she could be right at the front. One of the other audience members later recalled “It was more fascinating for me, almost, to watch Janis watching Otis, because you could tell that she wasn't just listening to him, she was studying something. There was some kind of educational thing going on there. I was jumping around like the little hippie girl I was, thinking This is so great! and it just stopped me in my tracks—because all of a sudden Janis drew you very deeply into what the performance was all about. Watching her watch Otis Redding was an education in itself.” Joplin would, for the rest of her life, always say that Otis Redding was her all-time favourite singer, and would say “I started singing rhythmically, and now I'm learning from Otis Redding to push a song instead of just sliding over it.” [Excerpt: Otis Redding, "I Can't Turn You Loose (live)"] At the start of 1967, the group moved out of the rural house they'd been sharing and into separate apartments around Haight-Ashbury, and they brought the new year in by playing a free show organised by the Hell's Angels, the violent motorcycle gang who at the time were very close with the proto-hippies in the Bay Area. Janis in particular always got on well with the Angels, whose drugs of choice, like hers, were speed and alcohol more than cannabis and psychedelics. Janis also started what would be the longest on-again off-again relationship she would ever have, with a woman named Peggy Caserta. Caserta had a primary partner, but that if anything added to her appeal for Joplin -- Caserta's partner Kimmie had previously been in a relationship with Joan Baez, and Joplin, who had an intense insecurity that made her jealous of any other female singer who had any success, saw this as in some way a validation both of her sexuality and, transitively, of her talent. If she was dating Baez's ex's lover, that in some way put her on a par with Baez, and when she told friends about Peggy, Janis would always slip that fact in. Joplin and Caserta would see each other off and on for the rest of Joplin's life, but they were never in a monogamous relationship, and Joplin had many other lovers over the years. The next of these was Country Joe McDonald of Country Joe and the Fish, who were just in the process of recording their first album Electric Music for the Mind and Body, when McDonald and Joplin first got together: [Excerpt: Country Joe and the Fish, "Grace"] McDonald would later reminisce about lying with Joplin, listening to one of the first underground FM radio stations, KMPX, and them playing a Fish track and a Big Brother track back to back. Big Brother's second single, the other two songs recorded in the Chicago session, had been released in early 1967, and the B-side, "Down on Me", was getting a bit of airplay in San Francisco and made the local charts, though it did nothing outside the Bay Area: [Excerpt: Big Brother and the Holding Company, "Down on Me"] Janis was unhappy with the record, though, writing to her parents and saying, “Our new record is out. We seem to be pretty dissatisfied w/it. I think we're going to try & get out of the record contract if we can. We don't feel that they know how to promote or engineer a record & every time we recorded for them, they get all our songs, which means we can't do them for another record company. But then if our new record does something, we'd change our mind. But somehow, I don't think it's going to." The band apparently saw a lawyer to see if they could get out of the contract with Mainstream, but they were told it was airtight. They were tied to Bob Shad no matter what for the next five years. Janis and McDonald didn't stay together for long -- they clashed about his politics and her greater fame -- but after they split, she asked him to write a song for her before they became too distant, and he obliged and recorded it on the Fish's next album: [Excerpt: Country Joe and the Fish, "Janis"] The group were becoming so popular by late spring 1967 that when Richard Lester, the director of the Beatles' films among many other classics, came to San Francisco to film Petulia, his follow-up to How I Won The War, he chose them, along with the Grateful Dead, to appear in performance segments in the film. But it would be another filmmaker that would change the course of the group's career irrevocably: [Excerpt: Scott McKenzie, "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair)"] When Big Brother and the Holding Company played the Monterey Pop Festival, nobody had any great expectations. They were second on the bill on the Saturday, the day that had been put aside for the San Francisco acts, and they were playing in the early afternoon, after a largely unimpressive night before. They had a reputation among the San Francisco crowd, of course, but they weren't even as big as the Grateful Dead, Moby Grape or Country Joe and the Fish, let alone Jefferson Airplane. Monterey launched four careers to new heights, but three of the superstars it made -- Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, and the Who -- already had successful careers. Hendrix and the Who had had hits in the UK but not yet broken the US market, while Redding was massively popular with Black people but hadn't yet crossed over to a white audience. Big Brother and the Holding Company, on the other hand, were so unimportant that D.A. Pennebaker didn't even film their set -- their manager at the time had not wanted to sign over the rights to film their performance, something that several of the other acts had also refused -- and nobody had been bothered enough to make an issue of it. Pennebaker just took some crowd shots and didn't bother filming the band. The main thing he caught was Cass Elliot's open-mouthed astonishment at Big Brother's performance -- or rather at Janis Joplin's performance. The members of the group would later complain, not entirely inaccurately, that in the reviews of their performance at Monterey, Joplin's left nipple (the outline of which was apparently visible through her shirt, at least to the male reviewers who took an inordinate interest in such things) got more attention than her four bandmates combined. As Pennebaker later said “She came out and sang, and my hair stood on end. We were told we weren't allowed to shoot it, but I knew if we didn't have Janis in the film, the film would be a wash. Afterward, I said to Albert Grossman, ‘Talk to her manager or break his leg or whatever you have to do, because we've got to have her in this film. I can't imagine this film without this woman who I just saw perform.” Grossman had a talk with the organisers of the festival, Lou Adler and John Phillips, and they offered Big Brother a second spot, the next day, if they would allow their performance to be used in the film. The group agreed, after much discussion between Janis and Grossman, and against the wishes of their manager: [Excerpt: Big Brother and the Holding Company, "Ball and Chain (live at Monterey)"] They were now on Albert Grossman's radar. Or at least, Janis Joplin was. Joplin had always been more of a careerist than the other members of the group. They were in music to have a good time and to avoid working a straight job, and while some of them were more accomplished musicians than their later reputations would suggest -- Sam Andrew, in particular, was a skilled player and serious student of music -- they were fundamentally content with playing the Avalon Ballroom and the Fillmore and making five hundred dollars or so a week between them. Very good money for 1967, but nothing else. Joplin, on the other hand, was someone who absolutely craved success. She wanted to prove to her family that she wasn't a failure and that her eccentricity shouldn't stop them being proud of her; she was always, even at the depths of her addictions, fiscally prudent and concerned about her finances; and she had a deep craving for love. Everyone who talks about her talks about how she had an aching need at all times for approval, connection, and validation, which she got on stage more than she got anywhere else. The bigger the audience, the more they must love her. She'd made all her decisions thus far based on how to balance making music that she loved with commercial success, and this would continue to be the pattern for her in future. And so when journalists started to want to talk to her, even though up to that point Albin, who did most of the on-stage announcements, and Gurley, the lead guitarist, had considered themselves joint leaders of the band, she was eager. And she was also eager to get rid of their manager, who continued the awkward streak that had prevented their first performance at the Monterey Pop Festival from being filmed. The group had the chance to play the Hollywood Bowl -- Bill Graham was putting on a "San Francisco Sound" showcase there, featuring Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead, and got their verbal agreement to play, but after Graham had the posters printed up, their manager refused to sign the contracts unless they were given more time on stage. The next day after that, they played Monterey again -- this time the Monterey Jazz Festival. A very different crowd to the Pop Festival still fell for Janis' performance -- and once again, the film being made of the event didn't include Big Brother's set because of their manager. While all this was going on, the group's recordings from the previous year were rushed out by Mainstream Records as an album, to poor reviews which complained it was nothing like the group's set at Monterey: [Excerpt: Big Brother and the Holding Company, "Bye Bye Baby"] They were going to need to get out of that contract and sign with somewhere better -- Clive Davis at Columbia Records was already encouraging them to sign with him -- but to do that, they needed a better manager. They needed Albert Grossman. Grossman was one of the best negotiators in the business at that point, but he was also someone who had a genuine love for the music his clients made. And he had good taste -- he managed Odetta, who Janis idolised as a singer, and Bob Dylan, who she'd been a fan of since his first album came out. He was going to be the perfect manager for the group. But he had one condition though. His first wife had been a heroin addict, and he'd just been dealing with Mike Bloomfield's heroin habit. He had one absolutely ironclad rule, a dealbreaker that would stop him signing them -- they didn't use heroin, did they? Both Gurley and Joplin had used heroin on occasion -- Joplin had only just started, introduced to the drug by Gurley -- but they were only dabblers. They could give it up any time they wanted, right? Of course they could. They told him, in perfect sincerity, that the band didn't use heroin and it wouldn't be a problem. But other than that, Grossman was extremely flexible. He explained to the group at their first meeting that he took a higher percentage than other managers, but that he would also make them more money than other managers -- if money was what they wanted. He told them that they needed to figure out where they wanted their career to be, and what they were willing to do to get there -- would they be happy just playing the same kind of venues they were now, maybe for a little more money, or did they want to be as big as Dylan or Peter, Paul, and Mary? He could get them to whatever level they wanted, and he was happy with working with clients at every level, what did they actually want? The group were agreed -- they wanted to be rich. They decided to test him. They were making twenty-five thousand dollars a year between them at that time, so they got ridiculously ambitious. They told him they wanted to make a *lot* of money. Indeed, they wanted a clause in their contract saying the contract would be void if in the first year they didn't make... thinking of a ridiculous amount, they came up with seventy-five thousand dollars. Grossman's response was to shrug and say "Make it a hundred thousand." The group were now famous and mixing with superstars -- Peter Tork of the Monkees had become a close friend of Janis', and when they played a residency in LA they were invited to John and Michelle Phillips' house to see a rough cut of Monterey Pop. But the group, other than Janis, were horrified -- the film barely showed the other band members at all, just Janis. Dave Getz said later "We assumed we'd appear in the movie as a band, but seeing it was a shock. It was all Janis. They saw her as a superstar in the making. I realized that though we were finally going to be making money and go to another level, it also meant our little family was being separated—there was Janis, and there was the band.” [Excerpt: Big Brother and the Holding Company, "Bye Bye Baby"] If the group were going to make that hundred thousand dollars a year, they couldn't remain on Mainstream Records, but Bob Shad was not about to give up his rights to what could potentially be the biggest group in America without a fight. But luckily for the group, Clive Davis at Columbia had seen their Monterey performance, and he was also trying to pivot the label towards the new rock music. He was basically willing to do anything to get them. Eventually Columbia agreed to pay Shad two hundred thousand dollars for the group's contract -- Davis and Grossman negotiated so half that was an advance on the group's future earnings, but the other half was just an expense for the label. On top of that the group got an advance payment of fifty thousand dollars for their first album for Columbia, making a total investment by Columbia of a quarter of a million dollars -- in return for which they got to sign the band, and got the rights to the material they'd recorded for Mainstream, though Shad would get a two percent royalty on their first two albums for Columbia. Janis was intimidated by signing for Columbia, because that had been Aretha Franklin's label before she signed to Atlantic, and she regarded Franklin as the greatest performer in music at that time. Which may have had something to do with the choice of a new song the group added to their setlist in early 1968 -- one which was a current hit for Aretha's sister Erma: [Excerpt: Erma Franklin, "Piece of My Heart"] We talked a little in the last episode about the song "Piece of My Heart" itself, though mostly from the perspective of its performer, Erma Franklin. But the song was, as we mentioned, co-written by Bert Berns. He's someone we've talked about a little bit in previous episodes, notably the ones on "Here Comes the Night" and "Twist and Shout", but those were a couple of years ago, and he's about to become a major figure in the next episode, so we might as well take a moment here to remind listeners (or tell those who haven't heard those episodes) of the basics and explain where "Piece of My Heart" comes in Berns' work as a whole. Bert Berns was a latecomer to the music industry, not getting properly started until he was thirty-one, after trying a variety of other occupations. But when he did get started, he wasted no time making his mark -- he knew he had no time to waste. He had a weak heart and knew the likelihood was he was going to die young. He started an association with Wand records as a songwriter and performer, writing songs for some of Phil Spector's pre-fame recordings, and he also started producing records for Atlantic, where for a long while he was almost the equal of Jerry Wexler or Leiber and Stoller in terms of number of massive hits created. His records with Solomon Burke were the records that first got the R&B genre renamed soul (previously the word "soul" mostly referred to a kind of R&Bish jazz, rather than a kind of gospel-ish R&B). He'd also been one of the few American music industry professionals to work with British bands before the Beatles made it big in the USA, after he became alerted to the Beatles' success with his song "Twist and Shout", which he'd co-written with Phil Medley, and which had been a hit in a version Berns produced for the Isley Brothers: [Excerpt: The Isley Brothers, "Twist and Shout"] That song shows the two elements that existed in nearly every single Bert Berns song or production. The first is the Afro-Caribbean rhythm, a feel he picked up during a stint in Cuba in his twenties. Other people in the Atlantic records team were also partial to those rhythms -- Leiber and Stoller loved what they called the baion rhythm -- but Berns more than anyone else made it his signature. He also very specifically loved the song "La Bamba", especially Ritchie Valens' version of it: [Excerpt: Ritchie Valens, "La Bamba"] He basically seemed to think that was the greatest record ever made, and he certainly loved that three-chord trick I-IV-V-IV chord sequence -- almost but not quite the same as the "Louie Louie" one. He used it in nearly every song he wrote from that point on -- usually using a bassline that went something like this: [plays I-IV-V-IV bassline] He used it in "Twist and Shout" of course: [Excerpt: The Isley Brothers, "Twist and Shout"] He used it in "Hang on Sloopy": [Excerpt: The McCoys, "Hang on Sloopy"] He *could* get more harmonically sophisticated on occasion, but the vast majority of Berns' songs show the power of simplicity. They're usually based around three chords, and often they're actually only two chords, like "I Want Candy": [Excerpt: The Strangeloves, "I Want Candy"] Or the chorus to "Here Comes the Night" by Them, which is two chords for most of it and only introduces a third right at the end: [Excerpt: Them, "Here Comes the Night"] And even in that song you can hear the "Twist and Shout"/"La Bamba" feel, even if it's not exactly the same chords. Berns' whole career was essentially a way of wringing *every last possible drop* out of all the implications of Ritchie Valens' record. And so even when he did a more harmonically complex song, like "Piece of My Heart", which actually has some minor chords in the bridge, the "La Bamba" chord sequence is used in both the verse: [Excerpt: Erma Franklin, "Piece of My Heart"] And the chorus: [Excerpt: Erma Franklin, "Piece of My Heart"] Berns co-wrote “Piece of My Heart” with Jerry Ragavoy. Berns and Ragavoy had also written "Cry Baby" for Garnet Mimms, which was another Joplin favourite: [Excerpt: Garnet Mimms, "Cry Baby"] And Ragavoy, with other collaborators