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Speaker 1: The twenty seven Club is a production of I Heart

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Speaker 1: Radio and Double Elvis. Dennis Joplin died at the age

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Speaker 1: of seven, and she lived the life where the highs

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Speaker 1: mingled closely with the lows. I can give you twenty

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Speaker 1: seven reasons why that statement is true. Eleven would be

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Speaker 1: the number on a scale of one to ten that

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Speaker 1: she would turn her performance level up to while on

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Speaker 1: stage performing, especially when she was joined by a good

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Speaker 1: friend like Ron Pigpen McKernan. Another one would be the

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Speaker 1: number of performances by a certain rabble rousing rock band

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Speaker 1: in Detroit that would make her suddenly feel like a

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Speaker 1: woman out of time. Ten more would be the number

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Speaker 1: of jaws of San Francisco musicians that hit the floor

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Speaker 1: when news of Big Brother in the Holding companies unprecedented

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Speaker 1: deal with Columbia Records hit the wires. Another three would

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Speaker 1: be the early hour of the morning when she stepped

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Speaker 1: into an elevator at the Chelsea Hotel, only to have

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Speaker 1: fate intervene in the form of an unexpected passenger. And

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Speaker 1: to be the number of years she would have left

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Speaker 1: to live after she sat her band down and told

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Speaker 1: them that she would be leaving to pursue a solo career.

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Speaker 1: All totally on this our seventh episode of season three,

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Speaker 1: Rabble rosing, jaws on the floor, early morning, elevator rides

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Speaker 1: in Janice Joplin walking a winding path to liberation, Um

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Speaker 1: Jake Grennan and this is then'clock m Detroit, Michigan March.

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Speaker 1: The air in the Grand Ballroom was electric. The stage

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Speaker 1: was set, lights dimmed, the room balanced on edge. The

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Speaker 1: edge peered into a chasm, and then the chasm was

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Speaker 1: something that no one had seen or felt before, something new,

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Speaker 1: a revolution. People in the audience weren't restless, They were tense.

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Speaker 1: Every second felt like a minute, every minute like an hour.

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Speaker 1: Cigarette smoke hung in suspension, as if it too was

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Speaker 1: waiting for something to happen, before it faded into thin air.

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Speaker 1: A guy in dark aviator sunglasses and a black leather

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Speaker 1: jacket that read Zenta on the back and huge letters

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Speaker 1: was pacing the stage. He took the electric air, the

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Speaker 1: edge of the chasm, the suspended cigarette smoke, took it

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Speaker 1: all in his fuel. He put it in his legs,

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Speaker 1: which were in constant motion. He put it all in

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Speaker 1: his hands, which he flexed and clenched and crackled knuckles.

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Speaker 1: Janice Joplin stood to the side of the stage, bottle

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Speaker 1: in one hand, half smoked butt in the other, and

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Speaker 1: she felt the collective tension. She had goose bumps on

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Speaker 1: her arms. Who is this guy? She asked the promoter

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Speaker 1: standing next to her and motioned to the guy pacing

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Speaker 1: the stage. He's he in the band? The promoter shook

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Speaker 1: his head. Nah, that's J. C. Crawford. He's the band's

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Speaker 1: spiritual advisor. And here Janice thought the Big Brother was

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Speaker 1: bringing the enlightenment to the unsuspecting masses in Detroit. But

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Speaker 1: the crowd in Detroit didn't know Big Brother from Adam.

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Speaker 1: The crowd was there for the openers, the band from

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Speaker 1: up the road in Lincoln Park that was about to

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Speaker 1: set ship off. The guy on stage finally stopped pacing

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Speaker 1: and wrapped his hands around the microphone. The band walked

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Speaker 1: on stage and turned their amplifiers on, and Janice could

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Speaker 1: feel the hum of the amps tubes in her bones.

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Speaker 1: She felt the collective tension in the room swall up.

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Speaker 1: It was practically unbearable, and then the guy started to

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Speaker 1: wrap with the audience. It was a church sermon in

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Speaker 1: a political Allie wrapped in one, scored by the electric

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Speaker 1: breath of the band's amplifiers, switched on and ready to pounce.

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Speaker 1: Brothers and sisters, I want to see your hands. I

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Speaker 1: want everybody to kick up some noise. I want to

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Speaker 1: hear some revolution out there. Brothers and sisters, the time

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Speaker 1: is comfort each and every one of each decide whether

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Speaker 1: you were going to be the problem or whether you're

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Speaker 1: going to be the solution. You must choose, brothers. You

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Speaker 1: must choose brothers. It's time to testify. And I want

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Speaker 1: to know are you ready to testify? The ladies and gentlemen,

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Speaker 1: I give you the m C five. The music started

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Speaker 1: and it was like a bomb went off. Fuck. Janice

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Speaker 1: thought the m C five played far outside her comfort zone.

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Speaker 1: She didn't even know what zone they were in. And

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Speaker 1: Big Brother was yesterday and the m C five or tomorrow.

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Speaker 1: Then maybe right now, Albert Grossman was right. Maybe Big

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Speaker 1: Brother was holding her back. When the m C five

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Speaker 1: finished their set, there was only one thing Janice could

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Speaker 1: say when it was time for Big Brother to headline

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Speaker 1: the night, No fucking way. In March of Big Brother

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Speaker 1: in the Holding Company were on tour again, Detroit wasn't

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Speaker 1: intended to be just another show, but a recording session.

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Speaker 1: Albert Grossman had finally come through on his promise to

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Speaker 1: sweet talk Clive Davis, and Big Brother was part of

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Speaker 1: the Columbia family, and the deal was all anyone was

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Speaker 1: talking about out West. Columbia wound up paying a small

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Speaker 1: fortune for the band. First, Davis had to pay Bob

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Speaker 1: Shad two grand to release the group from their mainstream

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Speaker 1: records contract. Next, Shad with pocket a two percent royalty

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Speaker 1: from the group's first two records on Columbia, and then

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Speaker 1: Davis ponied up a fifty grand advance to cover costs

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Speaker 1: for the new record. The totality of the deal eclipsed

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Speaker 1: any other deal for any other Bay Area band, and

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Speaker 1: the high of the deal was quickly undermined by the

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Speaker 1: lows they felt on the tour. New York City was

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Speaker 1: way too uptight. Five grand worth of gear was stolen

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Speaker 1: after the show at the Psychedelic Supermarket in Boston. In Detroit,

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Speaker 1: the land was to record their shows for the Columbia

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Speaker 1: record a live album, and the studio fell short when

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Speaker 1: it came to capturing their raw live sound. The best

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Speaker 1: place to witness Big Brother was in their natural habitats,

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Speaker 1: sweaty and breathless under bright stage lights and feeding off

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Speaker 1: of an audiences approving roar. He couldn't be there, then

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Speaker 1: a recorded document would be the next best thing. But

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Speaker 1: they weren't prepared for what was happening in Detroit. The

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Speaker 1: m C five shook them right down to the core.

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Speaker 1: The m C five showed them what true badass motherfucker's

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Speaker 1: looked like, regardless of how many zeros your record deal

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Speaker 1: had on it. And the m C five called for

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Speaker 1: a quote total assault on the culture by any means necessary,

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Speaker 1: and that included rock and roll, dope and fucking in

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Speaker 1: the streets. They were associates of the White Panthers and

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Speaker 1: anti racist political collective co founded by their manager John

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Speaker 1: Sinclair and heavily influenced by Fred Hampton and Hughey Newton

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Speaker 1: of the Black Panthers, and they were strip searched. It shows,

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Speaker 1: their phone lines were tapped, They endured routine visits from

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Speaker 1: g men. They said their fucker on their debut album

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Speaker 1: and then called for a boycott of the stores that

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Speaker 1: wouldn't carry it. Here was Big Brother getting the shape

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Speaker 1: down in San fran for playing too loud and smoking

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Speaker 1: too much grass, and then there was the m C

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Speaker 1: five turning the whole fucking system upside down. Later that summer,

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Speaker 1: the Democratic National Convention would be held at Grant Park

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Speaker 1: in Chicago, and a full lineup of contemporary rock and

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Speaker 1: roll was scheduled. The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother

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Speaker 1: in the Holding Company, and the m C five. Big

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Speaker 1: Brother bailed at the last minute. The other groups followed.

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Speaker 1: The m C five was the only band that showed up.

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Speaker 1: The d n c's whole vibe was off. Something was

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Speaker 1: going to go down and it wouldn't be pretty. Janice

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Speaker 1: could feel it. She knew it deep down. She thought

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Speaker 1: back to the show they played with the m C

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Speaker 1: five at the Grand Ballroom in March, about how in

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Speaker 1: the wrong scenario that sort of performance would be like

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Speaker 1: a bad trip truth bomb, and she was right. The

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Speaker 1: m C five's Rockets performance was nearly eclipsed by the

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Speaker 1: sound of ten thousand anti war demonstrators chanting at a

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Speaker 1: wall of National guardsmen, and then by the sound of

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Speaker 1: Chicago police helicopters circling overhead, and then by the sound

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Speaker 1: of demonstrators being hit with tear gas canisters and billy

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Speaker 1: clups back. On that March night in Detroit, Big Brother

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Speaker 1: finally took the stage following the m c fives opening set.

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Speaker 1: The Real to Real was rolling on the mobile recording unit,

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Speaker 1: and they didn't bring it at all. There was no

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Speaker 1: revolution in their sound, no liberation. Janie listened to the

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Speaker 1: playback afterwards and stormed off and frustration. Who would have

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Speaker 1: to try again another night in another city, preferably not

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Speaker 1: one where their preconceptions about rock and roll would be

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Speaker 1: burned to the ground in front of them by the

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Speaker 1: opening band, And Janis knew what city they'd be in next,

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Speaker 1: and the night after next, and then the night after

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Speaker 1: that the tour. She told her that she didn't know

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Speaker 1: how they'd sound, though, or what they'd find when they

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Speaker 1: shifted from one time zone to another. He just never knew.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes the elevator door would open up and the plot

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Speaker 1: would twist, and then the elevator door would closed and

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Speaker 1: the plot would twist again where it would wind up.

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Speaker 1: Jannis didn't know. She knew, she wasn't prepared. Jannis Joplin

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Speaker 1: stepped into the elevator at the Chelsea Hotel on West

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Speaker 1: twenty three Street in New York City, only to find

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Speaker 1: that the lift wasn't empty after all. He was standing

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Speaker 1: in the corner adjacent to the buttons, tucked out of sight.

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Speaker 1: He looked like a professor who have been up all

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Speaker 1: night grading papers and nursing a bottomless old fashioned. It

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Speaker 1: was spring night, three in the morning. Time was nothing

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Speaker 1: but a number to the Chelsea Hotel. The Venerable Institution

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Speaker 1: was a favorite of artists who favored unorthodox hours and

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Speaker 1: unorthodox desires. Mark Twain was a guest, as was Charles Mukowski,

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Speaker 1: William Burrows, Jackson Pollock, Arthur Miller, Arthur C. Clark wrote

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Speaker 1: two thousand one, A Space Odyssey in one of the

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Speaker 1: Chelsea rooms. Jack carrollac wrote On the Road in another.

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Speaker 1: Dylan Thomas entered the coma that would end his life

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Speaker 1: there in nineteen fifty three, and decades later, in ninety eight,

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Speaker 1: Sid Vicious girlfriend Nancy sponge In was found dead in

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Speaker 1: the bathroom of Sweet Number one hundred. Janis and Big

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Speaker 1: Brother were in New York City to begin their new

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Speaker 1: but faithfully short lived time with Albert Grossman, Clive Davis,

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Speaker 1: and Columbia Records. They had begun recording at Columbia's New

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Speaker 1: York studios and the tour that wuld take them to

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Speaker 1: Janice's eye opening woman in Detroit was about to start.

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Speaker 1: The Chelsea Hotel was as good of a home base

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Speaker 1: for Janice as anywhere she had. The man in the

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Speaker 1: elevator made within seconds of stepping inside. She knew exactly

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Speaker 1: who he was, but he looked at her with a

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Speaker 1: look of late night lust, the kind of leer that

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Speaker 1: would get others in trouble, but for him led to

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Speaker 1: more sexual conquests, and he could count on two hands

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Speaker 1: and two feet. His leer was driven by his ego,

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Speaker 1: which told him he could ball whomever he wanted, even

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Speaker 1: a stranger in an elevator at three in the morning.

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Speaker 1: Is ego also told him that this stranger had no

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Speaker 1: idea who he was. The celebrity meant nothing, that all

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Speaker 1: there was was this moment, this look, these people, a man,

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Speaker 1: a woman in the unspoken chemistry in this six by

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Speaker 1: seven box. Good evening, Miss, he said, is a voice,

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Speaker 1: low paced, like a turtle, and not the hair. Are

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Speaker 1: you looking for someone? She responded that she was looking

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Speaker 1: for Chris Christofferson. Little lady, you were in luck, the

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Speaker 1: mayor responded, because I am Chris Christofferson. Hold up. That

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Speaker 1: was his version of the encounter. Leonard Cohen's Leonard Cohen

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Speaker 1: had his own version of all of his encounters. He'd

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Speaker 1: tell this romanticized story on stage years later when he

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Speaker 1: introduced the song Chelsea Hotel Number two, which he wrote

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Speaker 1: about this very night, in this very encounter, about the

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Speaker 1: night that he slept with Janice Choplin in the Chelsea Hotel.

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Speaker 1: But that wasn't exactly how it all went down. Janice's

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Speaker 1: memory wasn't so poetic. First of all, she hadn't met

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Speaker 1: Chris Christofferson yet, hadn't even heard of the guy, So

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Speaker 1: why she would be saying his name in a Chelsea

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Speaker 1: hotel lift in was anyone's guests. Second, Leonard was in

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Speaker 1: a much gloomier state than he led on. He was

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Speaker 1: in his early thirties, and he had bailed on a

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Speaker 1: poet's life in his native Canada to try his hand

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Speaker 1: at being a singer songwriter in America. It wasn't going

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Speaker 1: so well. Rolling Stone said that his day View album

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Speaker 1: Songs of Leonard Cohen had three brilliant songs, one good one,

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Speaker 1: three qualified bumbers, and three flaming ships. That last part

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00:13:08,280 --> 00:13:11,120
Speaker 1: eate a month. He was depressed. He took a walk

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Speaker 1: and ate his feelings in the form of a greasy

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00:13:13,080 --> 00:13:16,400
Speaker 1: cheeseburger at Bronco Burger, gotta drink at a bar, tried

220
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Speaker 1: to pick up chicks, but kind of did it half

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Speaker 1: asked as glum and bummed out as he was, and

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Speaker 1: then went back to his hotel and hanging low. When

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Speaker 1: Janice ran into him in the elevator, she knew exactly

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Speaker 1: who he was. He was on her fucking record label,

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00:13:28,960 --> 00:13:30,960
Speaker 1: for Christ's sakes, she was recording the new Big Brother

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Speaker 1: album in the same studio Leonard to cut his lukewarm

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Speaker 1: received debut. She also knew exactly the kind of night

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Speaker 1: he was having. She'd been there, done that. He wanted

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Speaker 1: to pretend that he didn't know who she was, and

230
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Speaker 1: that was fine, but she was no groupie. She was

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Speaker 1: the one in church here. She was the one who

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Speaker 1: asked him what floor he was staying on, and when

233
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Speaker 1: she found out they were both on the fourth floor,

234
00:13:50,280 --> 00:13:53,840
Speaker 1: asked him to come to her room. She later all

235
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Speaker 1: but forget about the night because it was so forgettable.

236
00:13:56,400 --> 00:13:59,280
Speaker 1: There was no passion, no spark. She had some better

237
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Speaker 1: late night trip at the Chelsea, though, including one with

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Speaker 1: a member of the Chambers Brothers, and that was after

239
00:14:04,440 --> 00:14:07,240
Speaker 1: a show they played with Jimmie Hendricks, the show crashed

240
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Speaker 1: by Jim Morrison, the show where Janice had to put

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Speaker 1: an end to Morrison's drunken hijinks by bringing a liquor

242
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Speaker 1: bottle down on his head. Men, God, damn men. Men

243
00:14:16,760 --> 00:14:19,080
Speaker 1: could be so goddamn groovy one minute and then so

244
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Speaker 1: disappointing the next. Joe McDonald was an exception to the rule,

245
00:14:23,480 --> 00:14:26,000
Speaker 1: but even that was a relationship that was doomed from

246
00:14:26,040 --> 00:14:29,520
Speaker 1: the start. They called him Country Joe, a k A

247
00:14:29,600 --> 00:14:32,760
Speaker 1: leader of Country Joe and the Fish, a psychedelic band

248
00:14:32,760 --> 00:14:35,840
Speaker 1: out of Berkeley. It was recently divorced. On the rebound,

249
00:14:35,880 --> 00:14:39,760
Speaker 1: it was mesmerized by Janis's voice and humor. But Joe

250
00:14:39,840 --> 00:14:43,560
Speaker 1: like singing protest music and dropping LSD taps, and Janice

251
00:14:43,640 --> 00:14:46,720
Speaker 1: liked Booze was continuing to develop a taste for heroin.

252
00:14:47,040 --> 00:14:51,160
Speaker 1: It wasn't interested in living a life of rallies and protests.

253
00:14:51,200 --> 00:14:54,040
Speaker 1: All Joe wanted to talk about was the Vietnam War.

254
00:14:54,600 --> 00:14:59,200
Speaker 1: Urgo dude. From the start, there were more men to fall,

255
00:14:59,280 --> 00:15:02,320
Speaker 1: whether it was pig Pen mccern and Chris Christofferson had

256
00:15:02,360 --> 00:15:05,880
Speaker 1: long last or David Nyhouse later on in Rio. And

257
00:15:05,920 --> 00:15:08,320
Speaker 1: there was also Seth Morgan, the man she would wind

258
00:15:08,360 --> 00:15:10,600
Speaker 1: up engaged to, although no one in her life knew

259
00:15:10,640 --> 00:15:13,640
Speaker 1: much about him, let alone their engagement. They met when

260
00:15:13,640 --> 00:15:16,440
Speaker 1: he delivered coke to her house one afternoon. They kept

261
00:15:16,440 --> 00:15:20,120
Speaker 1: the relationship on the downlow, real hush hush, so hush

262
00:15:20,200 --> 00:15:22,160
Speaker 1: hush that many of her close friends would have a

263
00:15:22,200 --> 00:15:24,760
Speaker 1: lot of questions for Seth Morgan when Janis didn't show

264
00:15:24,840 --> 00:15:28,600
Speaker 1: up as scheduled at a recording session in October nineteen seventy.

265
00:15:28,880 --> 00:15:31,720
Speaker 1: And then there was a time in late nineteen sixty

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00:15:31,760 --> 00:15:35,080
Speaker 1: seven when Janice woke up one morning feeling sick. It

267
00:15:35,160 --> 00:15:37,240
Speaker 1: was a different kind of sick than the kind she

268
00:15:37,360 --> 00:15:40,400
Speaker 1: was used to, the kind she had experience after drinking

269
00:15:40,440 --> 00:15:43,720
Speaker 1: too much or when she needed to fix she was pregnant.

270
00:15:45,040 --> 00:15:48,200
Speaker 1: She wasn't one sure of the father, but she assumed

271
00:15:48,240 --> 00:15:51,360
Speaker 1: it was Paul Wally, the drummer for Blue Cheer, a

272
00:15:51,360 --> 00:15:54,320
Speaker 1: heavy San Francisco rock trio, that she had spent some

273
00:15:54,480 --> 00:15:56,960
Speaker 1: nights with Paul at skipped town and no one knew

274
00:15:57,000 --> 00:16:00,080
Speaker 1: where he was, and Janice made the difficult decision to

275
00:16:00,080 --> 00:16:02,480
Speaker 1: get an abortion. She knew she wasn't fit to be

276
00:16:02,520 --> 00:16:06,000
Speaker 1: a mother, not now, maybe not ever. Roe V. Wade

277
00:16:06,040 --> 00:16:09,040
Speaker 1: was still years away, however, and abortions weren't an option

278
00:16:09,040 --> 00:16:12,880
Speaker 1: in the States. She drove herself to Mexico for the procedure,

279
00:16:12,920 --> 00:16:15,040
Speaker 1: which turned out to be a botched one, as she

280
00:16:15,160 --> 00:16:19,040
Speaker 1: was hemorrhaging days later after she returned. Sometimes you're with

281
00:16:19,160 --> 00:16:21,600
Speaker 1: someone and you're convinced that they have something to tell you,

282
00:16:21,680 --> 00:16:24,200
Speaker 1: she later said, looking back on her relationships with all

283
00:16:24,280 --> 00:16:27,280
Speaker 1: these men and more, and maybe nothing's really happening, but

284
00:16:27,320 --> 00:16:30,280
Speaker 1: you keep telling yourself something's happening, So you keep showing up,

285
00:16:30,440 --> 00:16:33,160
Speaker 1: you keep pulling, giving, rapping, and then all of a sudden,

286
00:16:33,160 --> 00:16:35,680
Speaker 1: about four o'clock in the morning, you realize that this

287
00:16:35,760 --> 00:16:38,960
Speaker 1: motherfucker is just lying there. She could have been talking

288
00:16:39,000 --> 00:16:41,720
Speaker 1: about Leonard Cohen or Jim Morrison or Joe McDonald or

289
00:16:41,720 --> 00:16:43,960
Speaker 1: Paul Wally, or she could have been talking about her

290
00:16:44,000 --> 00:16:48,560
Speaker 1: band big brother in the holding company, was just lying there,

291
00:16:49,000 --> 00:16:55,200
Speaker 1: and Janice Joplin was ready to move on. We'll be

292
00:16:55,360 --> 00:17:02,160
Speaker 1: right back after this word. We were. She knew it

293
00:17:02,200 --> 00:17:05,360
Speaker 1: was a dream because in it the southern comfort tasted

294
00:17:05,400 --> 00:17:07,800
Speaker 1: like tang. She was on the back of a Harley

295
00:17:08,119 --> 00:17:11,040
Speaker 1: pig Pen was driving. She always thought the pig Pen

296
00:17:11,160 --> 00:17:13,800
Speaker 1: looked like one of the Hell's Angels. When she first

297
00:17:13,840 --> 00:17:16,320
Speaker 1: met him, she thought he was. He was wearing a

298
00:17:16,320 --> 00:17:19,760
Speaker 1: Paisley bandana around his head, his goatee was going rogue

299
00:17:19,800 --> 00:17:22,199
Speaker 1: on his face, and his jean jacket was littered with

300
00:17:22,320 --> 00:17:25,760
Speaker 1: pins and buttons. The wind blew Pig's hair back as

301
00:17:25,800 --> 00:17:28,120
Speaker 1: he opened the throttle and the bike pressed on down

302
00:17:28,119 --> 00:17:30,920
Speaker 1: the road. Janice looked in the bike's tiny rear view

303
00:17:30,960 --> 00:17:33,760
Speaker 1: mirror to see Pig's face, but his wind swept hair

304
00:17:33,880 --> 00:17:36,679
Speaker 1: was in the way. She reached her arms forward and

305
00:17:36,720 --> 00:17:39,120
Speaker 1: pulled his hair out of his face. But it wasn't

306
00:17:39,160 --> 00:17:41,880
Speaker 1: Pig's face she saw in the mirror. It was Jay

307
00:17:41,920 --> 00:17:45,879
Speaker 1: Whittaker's face. And the road was wet, the sky was dark.

308
00:17:46,520 --> 00:17:48,720
Speaker 1: Every time they drove past the street light, the face

309
00:17:48,760 --> 00:17:51,399
Speaker 1: in the rear view mirror was illuminated for a split second,

310
00:17:51,880 --> 00:17:54,920
Speaker 1: and every time it was somewhat different, but not Pig.

311
00:17:55,640 --> 00:17:59,200
Speaker 1: The face was Peter de Blanks. The face was Chad Helms.

312
00:17:59,400 --> 00:18:02,280
Speaker 1: The face was Jim Morrison's. He actually looked more like

313
00:18:02,320 --> 00:18:05,439
Speaker 1: his boozed up pal jimbo. He cracked a devilish smile,

314
00:18:06,040 --> 00:18:08,280
Speaker 1: and the face was her father's. But when the harley

315
00:18:08,359 --> 00:18:10,879
Speaker 1: came to a stop at the intersection of Hayton Ashbury

316
00:18:11,359 --> 00:18:14,639
Speaker 1: and its hopped off, the back pig was gone, and

317
00:18:14,720 --> 00:18:16,760
Speaker 1: the driver was now one of the shadow people she

318
00:18:16,800 --> 00:18:19,760
Speaker 1: had once seen skulking around Venice Beach. He kicked the

319
00:18:19,800 --> 00:18:21,760
Speaker 1: stand down and propped the bike up in the middle

320
00:18:21,800 --> 00:18:24,560
Speaker 1: of the intersection. He held out his hand at Janice

321
00:18:24,720 --> 00:18:28,720
Speaker 1: flat palm up, and stood there waiting for something. She

322
00:18:28,840 --> 00:18:31,679
Speaker 1: had nothing to give him. And then he was gone.

323
00:18:33,280 --> 00:18:36,160
Speaker 1: The city was empty. There were no musicians or beat next,

324
00:18:36,240 --> 00:18:39,439
Speaker 1: no diggers or headshot proprietors, no hippies or freaks or

325
00:18:39,440 --> 00:18:42,959
Speaker 1: Mary Prankster's. Janice pulled the bottle of Southern Comfort from

326
00:18:42,960 --> 00:18:45,800
Speaker 1: her back pocket, twisted the cap off, and took a swig.

327
00:18:46,160 --> 00:18:49,520
Speaker 1: She twisted her face up, still tasted like tang. She

328
00:18:49,600 --> 00:18:52,280
Speaker 1: screwed the cap back on, waited for five seconds, twisted

329
00:18:52,320 --> 00:18:57,040
Speaker 1: it off again, and took another pole, still sucking tang. Insanity.

330
00:18:57,119 --> 00:18:59,720
Speaker 1: She thought, this is insanity, to keep doing something in

331
00:18:59,760 --> 00:19:02,360
Speaker 1: next appecting it to somehow be suddenly different. To think

332
00:19:02,359 --> 00:19:04,720
Speaker 1: that her booze would suddenly taste like booze and not

333
00:19:04,880 --> 00:19:08,959
Speaker 1: like some orange adjacent spaceman juice. She stuffed the bottle

334
00:19:08,960 --> 00:19:11,040
Speaker 1: in the back pocket of her bell bottoms and walked

335
00:19:11,080 --> 00:19:13,720
Speaker 1: to the first door she saw. It was the entrance

336
00:19:13,760 --> 00:19:17,280
Speaker 1: to the Psychedelic Shop. She opened the door and stepped inside.

337
00:19:18,800 --> 00:19:22,159
Speaker 1: But inside wasn't the inside of the Psychedelic Shop. It

338
00:19:22,280 --> 00:19:25,240
Speaker 1: was the ranch in a lema where Quicksilver Messenger Service

339
00:19:25,320 --> 00:19:29,720
Speaker 1: lived communally. Everyone referred to them as Quicksilver Consumer Service

340
00:19:29,760 --> 00:19:33,480
Speaker 1: because they were on a NonStop diet of dope. Typically,

341
00:19:33,600 --> 00:19:37,080
Speaker 1: Quicksilver's place was bustling with activity unless they were all

342
00:19:37,119 --> 00:19:39,560
Speaker 1: over at the Dead's Compound, her big brother's spot in

343
00:19:39,640 --> 00:19:44,120
Speaker 1: nearby Lognitis, but it was dead quiet. Janice called out,

344
00:19:44,200 --> 00:19:47,920
Speaker 1: but there was no response, no signs of life, and

345
00:19:48,119 --> 00:19:50,040
Speaker 1: she could hear the ways crashing on the shore in

346
00:19:50,119 --> 00:19:53,440
Speaker 1: the distance, and they were rhythmic and soothing. She walked

347
00:19:53,440 --> 00:19:56,240
Speaker 1: down a dirt road surrounded on both sides by rows

348
00:19:56,280 --> 00:19:59,960
Speaker 1: of eucalyptus trees. The trees towered over her and provided

349
00:20:00,080 --> 00:20:02,720
Speaker 1: shade from the sun. She could hear them wrinkle and

350
00:20:02,760 --> 00:20:06,280
Speaker 1: crackle as the wind blew. Soon she found herself at

351
00:20:06,320 --> 00:20:10,280
Speaker 1: the entrance to the Vedanta Society spiritual retreat. She thought

352
00:20:10,280 --> 00:20:13,560
Speaker 1: of the MC five spiritual Adviser. She heard his voice

353
00:20:13,680 --> 00:20:17,480
Speaker 1: ring out throughout the calm of the distinctly Californian geography.

354
00:20:20,280 --> 00:20:23,679
Speaker 1: Somewhere a bell told that there were more trees now,

355
00:20:24,000 --> 00:20:26,640
Speaker 1: and though these were bent over her like a deformed canopy,

356
00:20:26,920 --> 00:20:30,760
Speaker 1: they were covered in moss. Long translucent whiffs hung from

357
00:20:30,800 --> 00:20:34,359
Speaker 1: the thick branches. She had felt a calmness up until now,

358
00:20:34,800 --> 00:20:38,000
Speaker 1: and now something unsettling took up space in the pit

359
00:20:38,040 --> 00:20:41,280
Speaker 1: of her stomach. The wind kicked up, and the translucent

360
00:20:41,280 --> 00:20:44,160
Speaker 1: whiffs swung back and forth in the breeze. She heard

361
00:20:44,240 --> 00:20:47,160
Speaker 1: voices coming from the Vedanta Society's place in the big

362
00:20:47,200 --> 00:20:50,240
Speaker 1: white two story house up the road. The voices hoummed

363
00:20:50,240 --> 00:20:53,000
Speaker 1: in unison, and there were no words. She thought the

364
00:20:53,040 --> 00:20:55,640
Speaker 1: sound of the other human voices would provide some sort

365
00:20:55,640 --> 00:21:00,720
Speaker 1: of comfort. They just made her feel increasingly uneasy. Soon,

366
00:21:00,800 --> 00:21:03,480
Speaker 1: the rumble of a motorcycle could be heard in the distance.

367
00:21:03,800 --> 00:21:07,240
Speaker 1: It was getting closer. Janice hoped it was Pig again.

368
00:21:07,640 --> 00:21:09,600
Speaker 1: It really picked this time, and not any of the

369
00:21:09,640 --> 00:21:13,000
Speaker 1: other people that Pig and morphed into earlier. She could

370
00:21:13,040 --> 00:21:15,359
Speaker 1: see a small cloud of dust down the dirt road

371
00:21:15,400 --> 00:21:17,920
Speaker 1: where the bike was. The rumble of the engine got

372
00:21:17,920 --> 00:21:20,960
Speaker 1: louder and the bike got closer. She realized now that

373
00:21:21,040 --> 00:21:23,600
Speaker 1: it wasn't Pig on the bike, and the Harley was

374
00:21:23,640 --> 00:21:27,080
Speaker 1: painted gold. Orange flames were drawn on either side, and

375
00:21:27,160 --> 00:21:30,240
Speaker 1: Janice noticed the rider's tattoos as he got closer. A

376
00:21:30,400 --> 00:21:32,800
Speaker 1: son on one arm, a scorpion on the other. He

377
00:21:32,840 --> 00:21:35,199
Speaker 1: had short hair, thick mutton chops on the sides of

378
00:21:35,240 --> 00:21:38,200
Speaker 1: his face. He wasn't wearing sunglasses, and his eyes were

379
00:21:38,200 --> 00:21:41,000
Speaker 1: nearly squinted shut from the sun. She had never seen

380
00:21:41,119 --> 00:21:44,120
Speaker 1: him before, not in real life, not in any other dreams.

381
00:21:44,480 --> 00:21:47,320
Speaker 1: He was a stranger. He slowed down and motioned to

382
00:21:47,400 --> 00:21:49,560
Speaker 1: Janice to get on the bike, and the pit her

383
00:21:49,560 --> 00:21:52,720
Speaker 1: stomach quickly faded away. She climbed onto the back seat.

384
00:21:55,840 --> 00:21:58,160
Speaker 1: When she woke up, she could hear the rain coming

385
00:21:58,160 --> 00:22:02,359
Speaker 1: down hard outside, and room was pitch black. She started

386
00:22:02,400 --> 00:22:04,679
Speaker 1: to piece together the parts of her dream, but like

387
00:22:04,800 --> 00:22:07,560
Speaker 1: most of her dreams, it was already fading from memory

388
00:22:07,560 --> 00:22:10,440
Speaker 1: when she awoke, and the last part stuck with her.

389
00:22:10,680 --> 00:22:13,199
Speaker 1: The stranger on the bike that she had never seen before,

390
00:22:14,440 --> 00:22:16,560
Speaker 1: lying awake in the middle of the night after a

391
00:22:16,640 --> 00:22:19,320
Speaker 1: strange dream. She wasn't in the mood for a stranger

392
00:22:20,000 --> 00:22:22,320
Speaker 1: She reached over in the bed and her hands found

393
00:22:22,359 --> 00:22:25,159
Speaker 1: a pig Pen, the dead head she loved the most,

394
00:22:25,560 --> 00:22:28,719
Speaker 1: laying next to her. He was passed out, and they

395
00:22:28,720 --> 00:22:31,800
Speaker 1: were in Pig's room at the Dead's compound in Marin County.

396
00:22:32,119 --> 00:22:35,400
Speaker 1: The two had been up late drinking Thunderbird and Southern Comfort,

397
00:22:35,840 --> 00:22:39,040
Speaker 1: and the Southern Comfort did not taste like tang. The

398
00:22:39,119 --> 00:22:41,320
Speaker 1: more they drank, the lucier they got, and the lucer

399
00:22:41,359 --> 00:22:43,439
Speaker 1: they got, the more they felt a deep connection with

400
00:22:43,480 --> 00:22:46,640
Speaker 1: each other. Unlike the other members of the Dead, pig

401
00:22:46,680 --> 00:22:49,280
Speaker 1: Pen would rather take long poles of a bottle than

402
00:22:49,359 --> 00:22:54,240
Speaker 1: drop doses of Owsley's Finest. Like Janice, pig Pen loved

403
00:22:54,280 --> 00:22:58,120
Speaker 1: the blues, and the older the blues, the better. There

404
00:22:58,119 --> 00:23:01,040
Speaker 1: were two old souls. They made her racket and Pig's room,

405
00:23:01,119 --> 00:23:04,199
Speaker 1: which was right above Phil Lusher's room. Phil what hit

406
00:23:04,240 --> 00:23:06,760
Speaker 1: his ceiling with a broom handle with the intimate noises

407
00:23:06,800 --> 00:23:10,320
Speaker 1: got to be too much. A year later, Janice would

408
00:23:10,359 --> 00:23:12,679
Speaker 1: join the Dead on stage at the film War. She

409
00:23:12,680 --> 00:23:15,040
Speaker 1: would duet with pig on one of those blue songs

410
00:23:15,080 --> 00:23:18,040
Speaker 1: they loved Bobby Blue Blands, turn on your Love Light.

411
00:23:18,800 --> 00:23:22,560
Speaker 1: As their voices co mingled in ragged unison, Janice thought

412
00:23:22,600 --> 00:23:25,720
Speaker 1: back to that night, waking up in pigs room, the

413
00:23:25,840 --> 00:23:29,560
Speaker 1: rain pounding outside, the dream lifting like fog on a

414
00:23:29,640 --> 00:23:32,600
Speaker 1: San Francisco morning, and how it gave her comfort to

415
00:23:32,640 --> 00:23:35,680
Speaker 1: reach over and feel him next to her. She looked

416
00:23:35,680 --> 00:23:38,360
Speaker 1: over at Pig Pens standing next to her on the stage,

417
00:23:38,720 --> 00:23:42,199
Speaker 1: her eyes staring directly into his. The band picking up

418
00:23:42,240 --> 00:23:45,560
Speaker 1: momentum as the song came around to a refrain, and

419
00:23:45,640 --> 00:23:48,720
Speaker 1: the stage lights changed colors from white to red to

420
00:23:48,840 --> 00:23:52,400
Speaker 1: green and black to white again, and each time they changed,

421
00:23:52,680 --> 00:23:56,240
Speaker 1: suddenly Pig's face changed with them, like it had in

422
00:23:56,280 --> 00:23:59,520
Speaker 1: the dream. Pig was Jay, and then Pig was Peter,

423
00:23:59,600 --> 00:24:02,520
Speaker 1: and then it was her father, and Janice closed her

424
00:24:02,560 --> 00:24:05,320
Speaker 1: eyes tight, twisted her voice up with Pigs and their

425
00:24:05,400 --> 00:24:08,320
Speaker 1: alley cat harmony, and reached out for his hand to

426
00:24:08,359 --> 00:24:12,520
Speaker 1: ground her. On stage in front of thousands, she couldn't

427
00:24:12,520 --> 00:24:43,320
Speaker 1: help but feel totally alone. August, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Peter Alban

428
00:24:43,440 --> 00:24:45,760
Speaker 1: was thinking of the sweater incident and Mother Blues in

429
00:24:45,840 --> 00:24:49,240
Speaker 1: Chicago years earlier when he decided he'd had enough of

430
00:24:49,359 --> 00:24:53,000
Speaker 1: Janice Choplin. He was all bent out of shape then,

431
00:24:53,040 --> 00:24:55,520
Speaker 1: and he was still bent out of shape now. At

432
00:24:55,560 --> 00:24:58,000
Speaker 1: some point in between he had allowed himself to be

433
00:24:58,040 --> 00:25:00,800
Speaker 1: bent back into shape, and he regret edit that it

434
00:25:00,840 --> 00:25:04,200
Speaker 1: made him seem weak. Janice had ditched him. They all

435
00:25:04,240 --> 00:25:07,320
Speaker 1: ditched him, actually, after a recent gig to go shoot

436
00:25:07,400 --> 00:25:10,120
Speaker 1: up with a bunch of junkies and somehow somewhere fun.

437
00:25:10,200 --> 00:25:12,600
Speaker 1: If he knew where, then, if he knew where, Janice

438
00:25:12,640 --> 00:25:15,800
Speaker 1: drove Porst three fifty six around town painted and I

439
00:25:15,960 --> 00:25:18,800
Speaker 1: catching psychedelic design, while the rest of them just lived

440
00:25:18,840 --> 00:25:22,160
Speaker 1: like fucking papers that they were supporting players for this

441
00:25:22,240 --> 00:25:24,600
Speaker 1: rock and roll goddess, even though they were a democracy,

442
00:25:24,600 --> 00:25:28,600
Speaker 1: a band of five, supposedly a band of five, no

443
00:25:28,640 --> 00:25:30,760
Speaker 1: one was above anyone else, or at least that's what

444
00:25:30,800 --> 00:25:34,840
Speaker 1: they had told depressed early on. Obviously things had changed.

445
00:25:35,400 --> 00:25:37,360
Speaker 1: They were on stage at the gut Throe Theater when

446
00:25:37,400 --> 00:25:41,119
Speaker 1: Peter lost it. He humiliated Janice told her she sounded

447
00:25:41,160 --> 00:25:43,520
Speaker 1: like Lassie the way she was dancing around and was

448
00:25:43,560 --> 00:25:45,560
Speaker 1: all out of breath every time she came back to

449
00:25:45,600 --> 00:25:49,200
Speaker 1: the microphone to sing. Janis told Peter to fuck off.

450
00:25:49,359 --> 00:25:51,760
Speaker 1: Just as he expected she would. Hell, she had a

451
00:25:51,800 --> 00:25:54,000
Speaker 1: bottle of something hanging around, she probably would have tossed

452
00:25:54,000 --> 00:25:57,200
Speaker 1: that at his head to Later, he regretted what he said.

453
00:25:57,440 --> 00:25:59,199
Speaker 1: He realized that he had let his anger and his

454
00:25:59,240 --> 00:26:03,639
Speaker 1: sadness get but it was true. Peter felt betrayed. Janis

455
00:26:03,640 --> 00:26:06,359
Speaker 1: had made the announcement to leave Big Brother. She wanted

456
00:26:06,359 --> 00:26:08,080
Speaker 1: a band to lift her up to the next level,

457
00:26:08,119 --> 00:26:10,080
Speaker 1: and she felt the Big Brother was not that band.

458
00:26:10,600 --> 00:26:13,280
Speaker 1: Albert Grossman knew the Big Brother was not that band,

459
00:26:13,840 --> 00:26:15,720
Speaker 1: so she told the boys of the band meeting in

460
00:26:15,760 --> 00:26:18,480
Speaker 1: August ninety eight, that she would be leaving at the

461
00:26:18,560 --> 00:26:21,280
Speaker 1: end of the year, just a few months away. They

462
00:26:21,280 --> 00:26:23,639
Speaker 1: all knew that their career as they knew it was

463
00:26:24,119 --> 00:26:28,280
Speaker 1: d o a even worse, Sam Andrew told the group

464
00:26:28,320 --> 00:26:31,520
Speaker 1: that he was going with Janice. That may have stung

465
00:26:31,560 --> 00:26:33,880
Speaker 1: a little more, to be honest, and they all knew

466
00:26:33,880 --> 00:26:36,480
Speaker 1: that Janie's day would come that she would move on.

467
00:26:36,760 --> 00:26:39,720
Speaker 1: But Sam's decision made the whole situation seemed like an

468
00:26:39,800 --> 00:26:42,800
Speaker 1: US and them split, and they had just gotten their

469
00:26:42,840 --> 00:26:45,920
Speaker 1: ship together to a big industry deal, a big manager,

470
00:26:45,960 --> 00:26:49,919
Speaker 1: a big label, a big record. When Cheap Thrills was

471
00:26:49,960 --> 00:26:53,560
Speaker 1: released in August ninety eight, it sold so many advanced

472
00:26:53,560 --> 00:26:56,640
Speaker 1: copies that had already gone gold by the time had shipped.

473
00:26:56,880 --> 00:27:00,879
Speaker 1: That's five hundred thousand copies soon after store shelves that

474
00:27:00,960 --> 00:27:04,200
Speaker 1: topped the Billboard charts and sold upwards of a million copies.

475
00:27:04,840 --> 00:27:07,760
Speaker 1: It wasn't exactly a live album as had been intended.

476
00:27:08,040 --> 00:27:11,240
Speaker 1: The live performances were tough to capture, and the album's

477
00:27:11,280 --> 00:27:14,760
Speaker 1: producer John Simon built a makeshift stage in the studio

478
00:27:14,880 --> 00:27:17,359
Speaker 1: so that they could have complete control over the process

479
00:27:17,400 --> 00:27:20,280
Speaker 1: and still replicate the feel of a live show, though

480
00:27:20,320 --> 00:27:23,240
Speaker 1: only one of the album's seven songs was actually taken

481
00:27:23,240 --> 00:27:27,560
Speaker 1: from a live show. Rock critic Dean Robert Christgau ranked

482
00:27:27,560 --> 00:27:31,639
Speaker 1: it the third best album of night, behind Dylan's John

483
00:27:31,640 --> 00:27:35,960
Speaker 1: Wesley Harding and the Birds notorious Bird Brothers. Other critics

484
00:27:36,240 --> 00:27:39,480
Speaker 1: weren't so flattering. The New York Times called out Big

485
00:27:39,520 --> 00:27:42,760
Speaker 1: Brother as middle class white kids with long blonde hair

486
00:27:42,920 --> 00:27:45,840
Speaker 1: pretending to be black, and said the record was a

487
00:27:45,880 --> 00:27:50,880
Speaker 1: bad parody down be panded as quote unquote embarrassing blackface.

488
00:27:51,560 --> 00:27:54,520
Speaker 1: Mick Jagger, himself an acolyte of black American music, and

489
00:27:54,680 --> 00:27:56,439
Speaker 1: R and B said, if I want to listen to

490
00:27:56,480 --> 00:28:00,359
Speaker 1: a black singer. I'll listen to a black singer. Jannis

491
00:28:00,400 --> 00:28:03,359
Speaker 1: put the blinders on and moved forward. She was busy

492
00:28:03,400 --> 00:28:06,320
Speaker 1: assembling a new crew, and the musicians would rise up

493
00:28:06,359 --> 00:28:09,159
Speaker 1: to meet her far above where Big Brother were operating.

494
00:28:10,240 --> 00:28:12,520
Speaker 1: Albert Grossman wanted her new band to sound like the

495
00:28:12,600 --> 00:28:16,240
Speaker 1: Muscle Shoals sound the greasy R and B rock hybrid

496
00:28:16,280 --> 00:28:19,359
Speaker 1: that had propelled Aretha Franklin's career making hits, not to

497
00:28:19,440 --> 00:28:23,080
Speaker 1: mention that A James Is Tell Mama. Skip pro Cop,

498
00:28:23,160 --> 00:28:25,879
Speaker 1: a Canadian drummer who played with the Paupers, one of

499
00:28:25,920 --> 00:28:29,680
Speaker 1: Grossman's clients, had been tapped to put together Janice's new band.

500
00:28:30,200 --> 00:28:32,399
Speaker 1: They needed to hit the ground running when Big Brother

501
00:28:32,520 --> 00:28:35,960
Speaker 1: in its course. Skip moved to San Francisco and they

502
00:28:35,960 --> 00:28:40,920
Speaker 1: workshop new material. It was late one evening after a

503
00:28:40,960 --> 00:28:44,800
Speaker 1: rehearsal session that Skip saw the beefy figure approaching him

504
00:28:44,800 --> 00:28:48,040
Speaker 1: outside the film more. He was walking straight at Skip.

505
00:28:48,280 --> 00:28:51,600
Speaker 1: It was erily quiet. Soon there was another figure, and

506
00:28:51,640 --> 00:28:54,920
Speaker 1: then another, and another, and they came from the shadows.

507
00:28:55,000 --> 00:28:59,200
Speaker 1: For such big dudes, they were incredibly stealthy. Skip was

508
00:28:59,240 --> 00:29:02,800
Speaker 1: surrounded on all sides by Hell's Angels and leather. Their

509
00:29:02,840 --> 00:29:06,560
Speaker 1: faces were bearded and bruised. Some were missing teeth. One

510
00:29:06,600 --> 00:29:09,200
Speaker 1: had a patch over one of his eyes. Skip tried

511
00:29:09,240 --> 00:29:13,000
Speaker 1: to swallow what his spit caught in his throat. You

512
00:29:13,160 --> 00:29:15,600
Speaker 1: skip pro cop, the one with the earliest beard and

513
00:29:15,640 --> 00:29:19,960
Speaker 1: biggest belly, asked. Skip's hands shook. He tried to swallow again,

514
00:29:19,960 --> 00:29:22,640
Speaker 1: but it was no use. He confirmed in as few

515
00:29:22,680 --> 00:29:25,680
Speaker 1: words as possible, they yes, he was skip pro cop.

516
00:29:26,320 --> 00:29:28,640
Speaker 1: The biker nodded, you're going to take care of our

517
00:29:28,680 --> 00:29:31,640
Speaker 1: little sisterem, aren't she skip pro cop. He wouldn't want

518
00:29:31,640 --> 00:29:33,680
Speaker 1: to go and do a stupid thing like not take

519
00:29:33,720 --> 00:29:36,200
Speaker 1: care of our little sister, would you now, skip pro cop?

520
00:29:36,840 --> 00:29:40,800
Speaker 1: Skip confirmed again, in as few words as possible that yes,

521
00:29:40,880 --> 00:29:42,760
Speaker 1: absolutely he was going to take care of heror no,

522
00:29:42,880 --> 00:29:45,440
Speaker 1: he didn't want to do stupid things. He thanked the

523
00:29:45,480 --> 00:29:48,440
Speaker 1: angels for looking out for their little sister. His hands

524
00:29:48,480 --> 00:29:53,840
Speaker 1: continued to shake. In nineteen sixty nine, however, Janice's problems

525
00:29:53,880 --> 00:29:56,840
Speaker 1: would begin to multiply. She'd have to hide her drug

526
00:29:56,880 --> 00:30:00,360
Speaker 1: habit from Grossman, band members would go missing, needs to

527
00:30:00,360 --> 00:30:04,640
Speaker 1: wear disguises, and not least because the FBI had Janice

528
00:30:04,720 --> 00:30:10,600
Speaker 1: Joplin on a watch list um Jake Brennan in this

529
00:30:10,720 --> 00:30:26,000
Speaker 1: is the seven Club, all Right? This episode of The

530
00:30:26,360 --> 00:30:28,680
Speaker 1: Seven Club is brought to you by disgrace Land, the

531
00:30:28,720 --> 00:30:31,800
Speaker 1: award winning music and true crime podcast that I also host.

532
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Speaker 1: Disgrace Land is available only on the free Amazon Music app.

533
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535
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536
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539
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Speaker 1: Club is hosted and co written by me Jake Brennan.

540
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541
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Speaker 1: voting the mixes. The show. Additional music and score elements

542
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Speaker 1: is produced by myself for Double Elvis and partnership with

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Speaker 1: Double Elvis dot com on the twenty seven Club series page.

546
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