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Speaker 1: The Seven Club is a production of I Heart Radio

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Speaker 1: and Double Elvis. Janice Joplin died at the age of

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Speaker 1: and she lived the life that was restless, from Texas

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Speaker 1: to California and back again. I can give you twenty

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

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Speaker 1: the number of times she would implore you to take it,

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Speaker 1: break it, have it her heart in the span of

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Speaker 1: a four minute R and B single that she made

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Speaker 1: her own, and one that would quickly become one of

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Speaker 1: her signature songs. Two more would be the number of

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Speaker 1: bikers who came looking to collect the debt that she owed,

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Speaker 1: and one that she would have to repay some other way,

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Speaker 1: if not with cold heart cash. Another one would be

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Speaker 1: the number of Blues Highways she drove down as a teenager,

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Speaker 1: racing to beat the clock and to keep a secret,

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Speaker 1: the very same highway where Robert Johnson made a hellishly

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Speaker 1: good deal decades earlier. Three more would be the number

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Speaker 1: of guys caught up in controversy with her when that

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Speaker 1: Blues Highway drive turned problematic. And nine would be the

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Speaker 1: number of years she had left to live after she

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Speaker 1: stumbled upon Venice Beach in California. And got her first

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Speaker 1: taste of a truly beatn Nick lifestyle and culture that

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Speaker 1: was as dangerous as it was freeing on this our

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Speaker 1: fourth episode of season three, Debts, Bikers, Reckonings, Crossroads, beat

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Speaker 1: Nick Beach life in Janice Joplin, Walking a winding path

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Speaker 1: to Liberation. I'm Jake Brennan and this is the twenty

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Speaker 1: seven Cloud. The heart of Burt Burns was scarred from

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Speaker 1: the start. Unlike other R and B songwriters from the

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Speaker 1: nineteen sixties who used figurative scars in their verses and

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Speaker 1: choruses to communicate loneliness and desire and existential tread, Bert

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Speaker 1: Burns affliction was the real deal. Rheumatic fever was the

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Speaker 1: case that they gave him. It was he was fourteen.

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Speaker 1: The doctors didn't sugarcoat it. The damage the disease did

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Speaker 1: to Bert's heart was irreversible. It would prove to be

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Speaker 1: deadly one day, whether it was next year or ten

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Speaker 1: years down the road. He probably wouldn't make it past thirty.

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Speaker 1: But Bert Burns was a tough motherfucker. He made it

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Speaker 1: to thirty. Whitecoats be damned. Thirty felt like a new life.

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Speaker 1: Thirty felt like a new lease. If he could buck

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Speaker 1: the doctor's predictions and stay alive, then he could do anything.

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Speaker 1: He could be a songwriter, he could start a record label.

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Speaker 1: He could make hit records. So he did. Right out

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Speaker 1: of the gate. He crushed it. In the early to

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Speaker 1: mid sixties, he wrote or co wrote Twist and Shout

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Speaker 1: Cry to Me, Everybody needs somebody to love. I want

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Speaker 1: candy here comes to the Night and Hang on Sloopy.

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Speaker 1: He worked with Solomon Burke, Van Morrison and the Drifters.

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Speaker 1: He started his own label, Bang Records, a subsidiary of Atlantic,

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Speaker 1: and then he launched Shout Records for the R and

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Speaker 1: B material he continued to crank out. By the end

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Speaker 1: of the decade, he land over fifty hits on the charts,

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Speaker 1: like the death defying, scarred Heart, badass that he was.

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Speaker 1: But as tough as Burt was, he felt that he

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Speaker 1: needed help, help to be tougher. What he called in

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Speaker 1: his big guns. They were literally just that, big guns

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Speaker 1: strapped to the waste of give no fox, big guys,

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Speaker 1: capable men, qualified men, earners for the Genevese family in

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Speaker 1: New York City, the world of R and B music

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Speaker 1: publishing and production in the mid twentieth century was straight, cutthroat,

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Speaker 1: a high stakes game where anything went. Like many label

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Speaker 1: men muscling their way through a sea of competition, Bert

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Speaker 1: wanted to do what Bert wanted to do. He wanted

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Speaker 1: his word to be fucking gospel from his mouth to

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Speaker 1: God's ears. If he needed some well connected men by

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Speaker 1: his side to make his desire a reality, then so

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Speaker 1: be it. People wouldn't just be impressed by Bird songs,

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Speaker 1: they'd fear him. When Record Exact Jerry Wexler and i

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Speaker 1: ad Eric And tried to take over Bang Records, Bert

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Speaker 1: brought made man Tommy Eviley over to Wexler's office, and

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Speaker 1: they made it very clear that no one was taking

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Speaker 1: Bang Records away. And they made it even clearer that

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Speaker 1: no one fucked with Bert Burns. It was hard to

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Speaker 1: deny the whiff of goon muscle in the air. When

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Speaker 1: Van Morrison signed a comprehensive contract with Bert that gave

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Speaker 1: him control of everything management, production, label, publishing. Bert wanted

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Speaker 1: Van to sign it all, and so Van signed it all.

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Speaker 1: And then there was Neil Diamond. Neil Diamond didn't own

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Speaker 1: a gun, so when he needed one for his own

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Speaker 1: protection and to protect his family, he borrowed a thirty

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Speaker 1: eight Revolver from a friend, and the solitary man was

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Speaker 1: feeling real solitary, scared, paranoid. He told himself that he

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Speaker 1: wasn't acting crazy, that his paranoia was justified. Burt was

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Speaker 1: the one acting crazy. Neil wanted to release his latest song, Shiloh,

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Speaker 1: as a single, but Bert found it a little too

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Speaker 1: introspective and not bubblegummy enough. Bert said no Bert's word

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Speaker 1: was the word. The two argued, Neil stood his ground.

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Speaker 1: Neil said some things he would regret, and Bert up

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Speaker 1: the antie and had some guys come around to assist

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Speaker 1: Neil and seeing things Bert's way, and then things got weird.

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Speaker 1: Neil's manager, Fred Weintrop, didn't catch the faces of the

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Speaker 1: guys who jumped him, but when they were through with him,

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Speaker 1: his face was unrecognizable. Neil's mind immediately went to Bert. Next,

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Speaker 1: at a show at the Bitter End in Greenwich Village,

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Speaker 1: a smoke bomb went off in the middle of neils set.

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Speaker 1: Neil had the microphone in one hand, eyes closed tight

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Speaker 1: to make sure he hit the right note at the

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Speaker 1: right time. He was singing Cherry Cherry, and he knew

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Speaker 1: he had the ears in the room, right where he

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Speaker 1: wanted them. His other hand was outstretched towards the crowd,

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Speaker 1: that universal attempt at connection from singer to audience. But

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Speaker 1: when he opened his eyes, he couldn't see anyone. Didn't

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Speaker 1: matter how hard he tried to connect. The whole room

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Speaker 1: was full of thick, gray smoke. People were choking on it.

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Speaker 1: The smoke plumed and blew around the room as people

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Speaker 1: scattered from wall to wall, desperately trying to find the exit.

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Speaker 1: It was chaos. Neil thought it was burnt. So Neil

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Speaker 1: borrowed the thirty eight. He packed up his wife and

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Speaker 1: kid and moved them from their new place in Manhattan

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Speaker 1: now to Long Island. It was like they were in hiding.

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Speaker 1: And Bert didn't cop the mugging or to the bitter

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Speaker 1: end bombing. He pleaded ignorance, and he kept on writing.

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Speaker 1: He didn't realize it, but one of the last songs

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Speaker 1: he would ever write would be one of his most personal.

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Speaker 1: He went back to the thing that had defined him

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Speaker 1: most of his life, the thing that made him vulnerable

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Speaker 1: but also that made him tough, the thing that allowed

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Speaker 1: him to fear and love life simultaneously. His heart. Bert

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Speaker 1: wrote piece of My Heart with Jerry Ragavoy for Irma Franklin,

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Speaker 1: who is looking for her own hit to break out

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Speaker 1: of her sister's shadow. Irma was the oldest of three girls,

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Speaker 1: but her younger sister, Aretha, the middle child, got all

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Speaker 1: the attention. In nineteen sixty seven, all eyes were on Aretha,

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Speaker 1: a k A soul sister number one in ven Aretha

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Speaker 1: sent a slew of singles straight to number one on

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Speaker 1: the R and B and pop charts. Irma was there

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Speaker 1: for every step of Aretha's success, and despite being four

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Speaker 1: years older and a great singer in her own right,

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Speaker 1: Irma was often relegated to a hard to see spot

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Speaker 1: beyond the spotlight. She stood behind Aresa, She sang backup,

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Speaker 1: She played a supporting role. Now, Piece of My Heart,

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Speaker 1: that was all Irma. That was her song, the song

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Speaker 1: of an Underdog. The song was moving up the charts

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Speaker 1: in late nineteen sixty seven. When Bert's heart finally gave out.

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Speaker 1: He was just thirty eight years old. Those who worked

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Speaker 1: closest with him didn't want anything to do with his legacy.

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Speaker 1: They resented the way he had pushed them all around

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Speaker 1: and made them feel threatened. Jerry Wexler had no idea

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Speaker 1: where Burt was buried, but said if he knew, he

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Speaker 1: would visit simply so he could piss on his grave.

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Speaker 1: In a two thousand and eleven compilation of his Seminal

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Speaker 1: Years on Bang Records, Neil Diamond made no mention of

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Speaker 1: Burt Burns in the liner notes. It wasn't long after

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Speaker 1: Bert's death that Jack Cassidy, bass player for the Jefferson Airplane,

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Speaker 1: heard Piece of My Heart on ks O L or

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Speaker 1: Katie i A or one of the Bay Area radio

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Speaker 1: stations playing R and B hits. Irma Franklin single had

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Speaker 1: made it to number ten on the R and B charts.

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Speaker 1: It was early night when Cassidy heard Theresa, Franklin's older

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Speaker 1: supporting role sister, heard the ache in her vocal, the

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Speaker 1: way the lyric pushed her voice to the brink of collapse,

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Speaker 1: the pleading come on, come on, Come on, Come on.

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Speaker 1: He knew that this song could be the anthem for

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Speaker 1: his scenes little sister. It could be pure gold in

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Speaker 1: the hands and voice of Janis Joplin. Janice had shared

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Speaker 1: some of her original material with Big Brother in the

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Speaker 1: Holding Company, songs like Turtle Blues, but like many iconic

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Speaker 1: performers before and after her, and she was a singer first,

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Speaker 1: she was an interpreter of material. It's a fallacy to

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Speaker 1: say that the best quote unquote artists are the ones

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Speaker 1: who write their own material, interpreting material, making someone else's

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Speaker 1: song your own, whether you're a Wreatha ripping on otis

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Speaker 1: or Johnny Cash remaking Trent Resner. That's our two Piece

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Speaker 1: of My Heart would be one of Janice's earliest and

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Speaker 1: best known signature songs, the one that would introduce her

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Speaker 1: band to the world beyond the Bay Area scene, the

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Speaker 1: one that would break them into the cities that had

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Speaker 1: given them the cold shoulder in the past. But it

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Speaker 1: was also the song that gave Janice a glimpse of

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Speaker 1: life after Big Brother. It put her up front. She

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Speaker 1: was stepping out from the band's unified front, the unified

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Speaker 1: front of power. Democratic songs like combination of the Two

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Speaker 1: Piece of My Heart was a vehicle for Janice's voice

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Speaker 1: in Janice's career, and people noticed. Mama cast noticed, Albert

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Speaker 1: Grossman noticed, Clive Davis noticed. Most importantly, Piece of My

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Speaker 1: Heart gave Janice Joplin the opportunit you need to make

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Speaker 1: that climb to the top to serve a big brother

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Speaker 1: and everyone else is They remained far far below, an

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Speaker 1: opportunity that was all the sweeter because only a few

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Speaker 1: years earlier she had found herself at the very pit

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Speaker 1: of human despair Spring, San Francisco. It was late and

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Speaker 1: the only light outside the anxious ASP came from the

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Speaker 1: club's neon signed that buzzed above the sidewalk. She had

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Speaker 1: a hard time making out the faces of the men

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Speaker 1: who were walking towards her. She leaned against the outside

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Speaker 1: wall of the ASP, a cigarette slowly burning between her fingers.

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Speaker 1: She didn't know these guys by sight, didn't know them

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Speaker 1: by name, but she knew them in her gut. She

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Speaker 1: had a queasy feeling deep down while they were walking

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Speaker 1: towards her, and they were saying her name out loud.

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Speaker 1: You Janice, one of the guys asked. She heard knuckles crack.

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Speaker 1: One of them held a thumb up to a nostril

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Speaker 1: and blue snot from his nose. She tried to make

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Speaker 1: out their features from what little light the neon sign offered,

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Speaker 1: but they remained mostly in the shadows. She nervously looked

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Speaker 1: up and down the street, hoping to spot a random

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Speaker 1: pass her by, or better yet, a group of people

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Speaker 1: out for an evening stroll between night spots. But no luck.

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Speaker 1: She was on her own, and she was made. Janice

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Speaker 1: nervously flicked the cigarette into the middle of Green Street

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Speaker 1: and bought herself a few more seconds by letting the

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Speaker 1: cigarette smoke booze from the corner of her mouth before

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Speaker 1: she answered, Who's asking? She shot back, she had to

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Speaker 1: act tough. At least she knew this. She knew survival is,

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Speaker 1: she knew self preservation. She also knew these two guys

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Speaker 1: are there about the money, the money for the drugs.

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Speaker 1: She just knew it. She could see their denim jackets,

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Speaker 1: now saw their scraggly beards, tattoos. She knew they were bikers.

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Speaker 1: She didn't know if there were angels or from another club,

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Speaker 1: but she knew they were there to collect. She had

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Speaker 1: debts that had gone unpaid. And that's all. She had. Debts,

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Speaker 1: dats and a drink waiting for her on the bar

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Speaker 1: and side, and a spent butts slowly burning out in

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Speaker 1: the middle of Green Street, and a jones for a

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Speaker 1: fix like you read about. What Janice didn't have was

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Speaker 1: their money. She knew these guys were going to hurt her.

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Speaker 1: Her hands started shake. She thought about making a run

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Speaker 1: for it, just tall, ask down the steep incline of

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Speaker 1: Green Street, bang right on Stockton, maybe hide out in

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Speaker 1: Washington Square. And she sized up the two guys, did

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Speaker 1: some rudimentary math in her head and wondered if she

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Speaker 1: could outrun them. You got that money, you owis, the

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Speaker 1: other biker asked. They were right in front of her,

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Speaker 1: now so close that she could smell them bikers, smell

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Speaker 1: their gasoline and cheap beer. She wasn't going anywhere. She

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Speaker 1: knew what was about to happen. She'd tell them that

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Speaker 1: she didn't have their money, that she used the money

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Speaker 1: she made from slinging their dope to get her own fixed,

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Speaker 1: but that she had a plan for how she get

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Speaker 1: the money back. She just needed a little more time.

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Speaker 1: And then the two bikers would probably look at each other.

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Speaker 1: One would say to the other, she just needs a

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Speaker 1: little more time, and they'd laugh, And then they'd stopped laughing,

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Speaker 1: and they turned their heads back to face hers, And

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Speaker 1: then she knew what would happen next. One of the

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Speaker 1: bikers would hold her against the wall, the anxious ass

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Speaker 1: while the other one beat the ship out. In the

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Speaker 1: spring of sixty five, Janis had been in San Francisco

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Speaker 1: for two years after hitching west from Port Arthur with

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Speaker 1: her friends at Helms in January n It was her

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Speaker 1: second attempt at hanging out in San Francisco. At that point,

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Speaker 1: she was twenty years old. She dragged an autoharp around

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Speaker 1: local clubs and cafes. She played songs by Bessie Smith

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Speaker 1: and b Rainy, along with some of her own originals.

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Speaker 1: For some scratch. She played as a duo with a

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Speaker 1: cat named Jerema, who would go on to play with

246
00:14:03,480 --> 00:14:06,920
Speaker 1: Jefferson Airplane in Hot Tuna. She rubbed elbows with Bay

247
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Speaker 1: Area bluegrass groups like the Pine Valley Boys, the Liberty

248
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Speaker 1: Hill Aristocrats, and the Wildwood Boys, the latter which featured

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00:14:14,160 --> 00:14:18,200
Speaker 1: a young Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter. When she needed

250
00:14:18,200 --> 00:14:21,640
Speaker 1: more money, she'd panhandle on the street. She'd even sling dope.

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00:14:22,000 --> 00:14:25,120
Speaker 1: She got into slinging dope by doing dope. First, her

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00:14:25,200 --> 00:14:28,360
Speaker 1: drinking had gotten worse. Then the pills came to balance

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Speaker 1: out the lows of the alcohol, and then it was

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00:14:30,960 --> 00:14:33,760
Speaker 1: matta amphetamine to keep the buzzed feeling all the time,

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00:14:34,160 --> 00:14:36,920
Speaker 1: and also to stay up late and stay alert for hours.

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00:14:37,360 --> 00:14:40,240
Speaker 1: It gave her enough energy to write, rehearse, create, It

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00:14:40,360 --> 00:14:45,360
Speaker 1: gave her false confidence that she was in control. She

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00:14:45,480 --> 00:14:47,840
Speaker 1: left San Francisco to haunt the Lower East Side of

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Speaker 1: New York City for a few months. It was a

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Speaker 1: drug fueled boondoggle. She hung out with the Aad. She

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00:14:53,360 --> 00:14:56,480
Speaker 1: shot speed, she shot mess, she shot pool. Singing took

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00:14:56,480 --> 00:14:59,400
Speaker 1: a back seat back in the Bay Area. She missed

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00:14:59,400 --> 00:15:02,280
Speaker 1: a gig at Top of the Tangent paul Ato, she

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00:15:02,360 --> 00:15:04,960
Speaker 1: didn't show for her slot at the State College Music

265
00:15:04,960 --> 00:15:08,760
Speaker 1: Folk Festival, and by her twenty second birthday, her addiction

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00:15:08,880 --> 00:15:11,640
Speaker 1: was all consuming. She would later look back on that

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Speaker 1: time of her life and say, I wanted to smoke dope,

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Speaker 1: take dope, lick dope, suck dope, fuck dope. Anything I

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00:15:16,680 --> 00:15:18,680
Speaker 1: could lay my hands on, I wanted to do it.

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00:15:19,400 --> 00:15:23,119
Speaker 1: And the venues she frequented got wise Coffee and Confusion,

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Speaker 1: the Cafe, and North Beach, where Janice played off and

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00:15:25,800 --> 00:15:29,160
Speaker 1: got burned one too many times. A typical night would

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Speaker 1: involve Janice showing up asking for her in advance on

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Speaker 1: that night's show, and then she'd bail halfway through her set.

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Speaker 1: She'd be found out at the Amp Palace or the

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00:15:37,360 --> 00:15:39,800
Speaker 1: Anxious Ass looking for her next score with the money

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00:15:39,840 --> 00:15:43,480
Speaker 1: she just pocketed. Staff at Coffee and Confusion put their

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00:15:43,480 --> 00:15:46,000
Speaker 1: foot down. They put up a sign. It read, anyone

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Speaker 1: giving Janice drop of money before the end of her

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Speaker 1: set will be fired. At the Anxious Asp, Janice could

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Speaker 1: hide out with like minded freaks. Formerly a cabaret, they asked,

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00:15:56,280 --> 00:15:59,960
Speaker 1: catered to the queer bohemian crowd. They played Charlie Parker

283
00:16:00,080 --> 00:16:02,880
Speaker 1: on the High Five and plastered the Kinsey Report all

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00:16:02,920 --> 00:16:05,760
Speaker 1: over the bathroom walls. At the ASP, you could get

285
00:16:05,760 --> 00:16:07,840
Speaker 1: a drink and be who you wanted, flirt with who

286
00:16:07,840 --> 00:16:10,080
Speaker 1: you wanted, no judgment. You could shoot pool or go

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00:16:10,120 --> 00:16:13,280
Speaker 1: to the bathroom stall and shoot other things, but still

288
00:16:13,320 --> 00:16:17,880
Speaker 1: no judgment. No judgment suited Janice Joplin just fine. It's

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00:16:17,920 --> 00:16:20,320
Speaker 1: what she loved about San Francisco and also what she

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00:16:20,440 --> 00:16:24,040
Speaker 1: hated about Texas. She'd been judged her whole life. She

291
00:16:24,080 --> 00:16:26,680
Speaker 1: wasn't pretty enough, she wasn't girly enough. She was too tough,

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00:16:26,760 --> 00:16:30,520
Speaker 1: too vulgar. She was an outsiders, outsider. The ASP was

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00:16:30,720 --> 00:16:35,400
Speaker 1: all outsiders, all people who didn't belong somewhere else. But

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00:16:35,560 --> 00:16:38,640
Speaker 1: once she stepped outside the ASP, she was no longer safe.

295
00:16:38,880 --> 00:16:41,560
Speaker 1: She was an easy target, leaned up against the wall

296
00:16:41,600 --> 00:16:44,520
Speaker 1: on Green Street to those who were looking for people

297
00:16:44,560 --> 00:16:47,320
Speaker 1: like these two bikers here to collect on debts. Ode

298
00:16:47,640 --> 00:16:50,000
Speaker 1: Then the bikers stuffed their fists into her stomach until

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00:16:50,040 --> 00:16:52,160
Speaker 1: she fell onto the pavement. But when she was on

300
00:16:52,200 --> 00:16:54,480
Speaker 1: the ground, curled in a fetal position with her eyes

301
00:16:54,480 --> 00:16:58,000
Speaker 1: shut tight and her emaciated arms covering her acting's card face,

302
00:16:58,040 --> 00:16:59,960
Speaker 1: they kicked her in the ribs until they felt sad

303
00:17:00,040 --> 00:17:04,480
Speaker 1: us five. Janice limp tone bruised and bloodied. That night,

304
00:17:04,960 --> 00:17:07,720
Speaker 1: she was out of it Gonzo. Whether she was high

305
00:17:07,800 --> 00:17:10,159
Speaker 1: on math or low on a Jones, she could barely

306
00:17:10,160 --> 00:17:13,560
Speaker 1: think straight. She had stopped performing. She weighed less than

307
00:17:13,600 --> 00:17:16,880
Speaker 1: a hundred pounds and was still shedding lbs. The one

308
00:17:16,920 --> 00:17:18,840
Speaker 1: thing she did know was that things had gone from

309
00:17:18,840 --> 00:17:21,040
Speaker 1: bad to worse. You know. She didn't get the hell

310
00:17:21,080 --> 00:17:23,119
Speaker 1: out of town and back into some sort of stability,

311
00:17:23,440 --> 00:17:25,920
Speaker 1: then San Francisco would be the death of her. She'd

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00:17:25,920 --> 00:17:28,520
Speaker 1: waste away to nothing and no one would be the wiser.

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00:17:28,840 --> 00:17:31,480
Speaker 1: Her friends rallied, They emptied their pockets, bought her a

314
00:17:31,520 --> 00:17:35,360
Speaker 1: one way ticket on a Greyhound bus headed east. Janice

315
00:17:35,359 --> 00:17:37,399
Speaker 1: took her seat against the window near the back of

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00:17:37,400 --> 00:17:40,520
Speaker 1: the bus, leaned her head against the glass, and knotted off.

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00:17:41,560 --> 00:17:46,080
Speaker 1: When she woke up, she'd be home, back in Port Arthur, Texas, skinny,

318
00:17:46,359 --> 00:17:52,720
Speaker 1: strung out and ready to admit defeat. We'll be right

319
00:17:52,760 --> 00:18:01,240
Speaker 1: back after this world word world. Jannis Joplin felt like

320
00:18:01,320 --> 00:18:03,760
Speaker 1: she had been put in Texas at birth by mistake,

321
00:18:04,359 --> 00:18:07,320
Speaker 1: like it was some kind of cosmic joke, just to

322
00:18:07,440 --> 00:18:10,960
Speaker 1: think Janice, so free spirit and free thinker, hitting away

323
00:18:11,040 --> 00:18:13,920
Speaker 1: in an oppressive pocket of America, way down at the

324
00:18:14,040 --> 00:18:17,399
Speaker 1: very bottom of the map, so far down that you

325
00:18:17,480 --> 00:18:19,920
Speaker 1: didn't even know it was there. Nobody knew where the

326
00:18:20,000 --> 00:18:23,480
Speaker 1: fuck Port Arthur was, and nobody cared either. And sure

327
00:18:23,600 --> 00:18:26,240
Speaker 1: her destiny would take her out west Transformer into a

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00:18:26,359 --> 00:18:29,159
Speaker 1: pre eminent beat neck and a trailblazing rock and roller,

329
00:18:29,400 --> 00:18:32,680
Speaker 1: a liberator of women of peace signed tossing freak flag waiver.

330
00:18:33,320 --> 00:18:36,320
Speaker 1: But first she would have to navigate through her adolescence

331
00:18:36,440 --> 00:18:40,679
Speaker 1: in an upside down place in Texas. And if Texas

332
00:18:40,760 --> 00:18:44,200
Speaker 1: wasn't bad enough, Port Arthur was even worse. Sure ship

333
00:18:44,359 --> 00:18:48,119
Speaker 1: wasn't Austin. Janice just didn't belong there. She felt it

334
00:18:48,240 --> 00:18:51,360
Speaker 1: in her bones. Port Arthur knew it to Port Arthur

335
00:18:51,440 --> 00:18:53,960
Speaker 1: had her in its clutches. It knew she was different

336
00:18:54,200 --> 00:18:56,920
Speaker 1: and that she hated it. And for those reasons, it

337
00:18:57,040 --> 00:18:59,720
Speaker 1: wasn't gonna let go over so easily. Janice would have

338
00:18:59,760 --> 00:19:02,200
Speaker 1: tore herself strong as she ever was going to free

339
00:19:02,240 --> 00:19:05,320
Speaker 1: herself from her hometown and not just get free, but

340
00:19:05,720 --> 00:19:10,159
Speaker 1: stay free. Port Arthur was an oil town. In nineteen

341
00:19:10,240 --> 00:19:13,399
Speaker 1: o one, the spindle Top well in nearby Beaumont struck

342
00:19:13,440 --> 00:19:17,000
Speaker 1: black gold and gushed for nine days straight. In nineteen

343
00:19:17,000 --> 00:19:19,560
Speaker 1: o two, the oil refinery and Port Arthur opened and

344
00:19:19,680 --> 00:19:22,800
Speaker 1: quickly became one of the largest in the country. Oil

345
00:19:22,840 --> 00:19:26,520
Speaker 1: brought Janice's parents to town. Seth and Dorothy Joplin came

346
00:19:26,560 --> 00:19:29,520
Speaker 1: from Amarillo. In the nineteen thirties. When Seth landed a

347
00:19:29,600 --> 00:19:32,800
Speaker 1: job at a Texas company which would later become Texico,

348
00:19:33,400 --> 00:19:36,480
Speaker 1: he managed a factory that made shipping containers for petroleum.

349
00:19:37,000 --> 00:19:41,760
Speaker 1: Janie arrived on January nine, the first of three children.

350
00:19:42,400 --> 00:19:45,480
Speaker 1: As she grew up, she proved herself different in every turn.

351
00:19:47,800 --> 00:19:50,119
Speaker 1: She was a tomboy when the other local girls were

352
00:19:50,160 --> 00:19:53,719
Speaker 1: consumed with beauty pageant standards. She cursed when the other

353
00:19:53,800 --> 00:19:56,840
Speaker 1: girls spoke proper. She skipped school while the other girls

354
00:19:56,880 --> 00:19:58,960
Speaker 1: sat at their desks all day and listened to chalk

355
00:19:59,080 --> 00:20:03,119
Speaker 1: scraped down the black board. She championed inclusion and acceptance

356
00:20:03,119 --> 00:20:07,840
Speaker 1: while the city practiced strict segregation. She didn't dress provocatively.

357
00:20:08,080 --> 00:20:10,600
Speaker 1: She had bad acne. She was teased and bullied and

358
00:20:10,680 --> 00:20:12,959
Speaker 1: made to feel less than less than all the other

359
00:20:13,040 --> 00:20:15,600
Speaker 1: girls who dressed the same, spoke the same, sat at

360
00:20:15,600 --> 00:20:18,919
Speaker 1: their desks the same. She gravitated towards the boys who

361
00:20:19,000 --> 00:20:21,240
Speaker 1: accepted her as one of their own, whether that was

362
00:20:21,320 --> 00:20:23,600
Speaker 1: a sister, a fellow dude, or just an outside or

363
00:20:23,640 --> 00:20:28,040
Speaker 1: looking for refuge. Whatever she was, Janice was not conventional.

364
00:20:28,600 --> 00:20:32,679
Speaker 1: Fuck that ship. Conventional was boring, it was row. Conventional

365
00:20:32,800 --> 00:20:35,440
Speaker 1: was expected, It's what you were supposed to be, and

366
00:20:35,520 --> 00:20:37,359
Speaker 1: she didn't want to be when anyone wanted her to be.

367
00:20:38,080 --> 00:20:41,119
Speaker 1: Port Arthur obviously couldn't offer what she wanted. In high school,

368
00:20:41,160 --> 00:20:43,800
Speaker 1: she jumped the Louisiana border with other thrills, seeking friends,

369
00:20:43,840 --> 00:20:46,280
Speaker 1: and hung out of joints like Busters, lou Anne's and

370
00:20:46,320 --> 00:20:48,600
Speaker 1: the Big Oak, where R and B bands played loud

371
00:20:49,320 --> 00:20:51,440
Speaker 1: and the scene was packed. It was rowdy. It wasn't

372
00:20:51,480 --> 00:20:55,159
Speaker 1: uncommon for fists to be thrown around. In nineteen sixty,

373
00:20:55,400 --> 00:20:58,399
Speaker 1: when Janice turned seventeen and was a senior in high school,

374
00:20:58,680 --> 00:21:01,199
Speaker 1: she decided that she had to go farther. She had

375
00:21:01,240 --> 00:21:03,720
Speaker 1: a push, not just the little ways beyond Port Arthur's

376
00:21:03,800 --> 00:21:06,440
Speaker 1: bawn trees, not just hopped the border to nestle into

377
00:21:06,520 --> 00:21:10,280
Speaker 1: some forbidden jew joint. She wanted to feel real free,

378
00:21:10,640 --> 00:21:15,119
Speaker 1: more free than ever before, and freedom was four hours

379
00:21:15,160 --> 00:21:18,920
Speaker 1: away in New Orleans. She put together a posse of

380
00:21:19,000 --> 00:21:22,719
Speaker 1: guys who shared in her wanderlust, Jim Langdon, a trombone

381
00:21:22,760 --> 00:21:26,000
Speaker 1: player two years her senior, Dale Guthea of the local

382
00:21:26,040 --> 00:21:29,679
Speaker 1: blues band the booge Kings, and fellow classmate Clyde Wade.

383
00:21:30,240 --> 00:21:32,120
Speaker 1: She told her folks that she was spending the night

384
00:21:32,200 --> 00:21:35,280
Speaker 1: at her friend Carline Bennett's house, and then they bought

385
00:21:35,359 --> 00:21:38,280
Speaker 1: some beers, piled into her father's nineteen fifty three sedan,

386
00:21:38,400 --> 00:21:41,080
Speaker 1: and hit the road for the big Easy. New Orleans

387
00:21:41,160 --> 00:21:45,000
Speaker 1: served up mouth watering plates of liberation, the booze, the music,

388
00:21:45,119 --> 00:21:47,680
Speaker 1: the sex. It all spilled from the nightclubs and the

389
00:21:47,760 --> 00:21:50,480
Speaker 1: second floor walk ups, and oozed out onto the street.

390
00:21:50,880 --> 00:21:55,800
Speaker 1: Everywhere Janice turned, there was excitement, temptation, vice. Conservative Southern

391
00:21:55,880 --> 00:21:58,800
Speaker 1: values were turned upside down on their heads, and there

392
00:21:58,880 --> 00:22:01,000
Speaker 1: was life beyond Port Arthur, and it hit out in

393
00:22:01,040 --> 00:22:04,399
Speaker 1: the open in places like New Orleans. The trip was brief.

394
00:22:04,840 --> 00:22:06,760
Speaker 1: Janis had to have the car back by the morning

395
00:22:06,840 --> 00:22:09,520
Speaker 1: so that she didn't blow a cover story about the sleepover.

396
00:22:09,960 --> 00:22:12,200
Speaker 1: Her crew piled back into the car before the sun

397
00:22:12,359 --> 00:22:14,080
Speaker 1: rose so that they can make good time on the

398
00:22:14,160 --> 00:22:16,920
Speaker 1: four hour trip back to Port Arthur. And they took

399
00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:20,880
Speaker 1: Highway sixty one, the Blues Highway, the same highway where

400
00:22:20,920 --> 00:22:24,600
Speaker 1: a Mississippi Blue singer named Robert Johnson supposedly made a

401
00:22:24,680 --> 00:22:27,440
Speaker 1: deal with the devil right there at the crossroads of

402
00:22:27,520 --> 00:22:31,200
Speaker 1: sixty one and Highway forty nine, a faustian bargain that

403
00:22:31,320 --> 00:22:35,160
Speaker 1: imbued Johnson with hellishly good talent in exchange for his soul.

404
00:22:35,800 --> 00:22:38,359
Speaker 1: Johnson went on down to the crossroads, tried to flag

405
00:22:38,400 --> 00:22:40,720
Speaker 1: a ride, and there was no one else on that road.

406
00:22:41,119 --> 00:22:43,880
Speaker 1: It was just the devil of Mr Johnson. The devil

407
00:22:43,960 --> 00:22:46,600
Speaker 1: has to see his guitar, and Johnson held it up.

408
00:22:46,960 --> 00:22:49,640
Speaker 1: The devil was taller than Johnson. His hands were about

409
00:22:49,680 --> 00:22:53,159
Speaker 1: twice the bluesman's size. The devil held Johnson's Gibson L

410
00:22:53,240 --> 00:22:55,919
Speaker 1: one flat top like it was a child's three quarter model,

411
00:22:56,119 --> 00:22:58,680
Speaker 1: turned it around in his hands. He strummed a NIS

412
00:22:58,760 --> 00:23:01,399
Speaker 1: seven chord. The beasts dring was flat, the high e

413
00:23:01,680 --> 00:23:04,000
Speaker 1: was sharp. He put his big hands on the tuners,

414
00:23:04,040 --> 00:23:07,480
Speaker 1: brought the acoustic back. The E seven sounded rich, full,

415
00:23:07,960 --> 00:23:11,760
Speaker 1: pure evil. He handed the guitar back to Johnson and

416
00:23:11,920 --> 00:23:14,720
Speaker 1: was on his way. And then the devil came for

417
00:23:14,840 --> 00:23:20,879
Speaker 1: Johnson's soul when he was only seven. If Janis had

418
00:23:20,880 --> 00:23:22,679
Speaker 1: been told that the devil was out on the highway

419
00:23:22,720 --> 00:23:24,760
Speaker 1: the night that she drove her crew back from New Orleans,

420
00:23:25,040 --> 00:23:27,439
Speaker 1: she might have believed it. And they were barely outside

421
00:23:27,440 --> 00:23:29,639
Speaker 1: of New Orleans and the rain started. It hit the

422
00:23:29,640 --> 00:23:33,120
Speaker 1: windshield and fat droplets. They splattered and spun out into

423
00:23:33,200 --> 00:23:36,480
Speaker 1: formless shapes that fucked with their sleep deprived, beer infused eyes.

424
00:23:36,880 --> 00:23:39,560
Speaker 1: The blobby rain splatters turned the whole windshield into an

425
00:23:39,600 --> 00:23:42,639
Speaker 1: impressionist painting that Janice was in no mood to code.

426
00:23:43,200 --> 00:23:46,359
Speaker 1: The wipers struggled to keep up, and the horizon was

427
00:23:46,440 --> 00:23:49,880
Speaker 1: full of undefined shadows and figures and structures. They raced

428
00:23:49,920 --> 00:23:51,800
Speaker 1: past a man standing on the side of the road

429
00:23:51,920 --> 00:23:54,159
Speaker 1: thumb extended could have been the devil himself. For all

430
00:23:54,280 --> 00:23:58,000
Speaker 1: Janis knew. The headlights of oncoming cars became smears of white.

431
00:23:58,280 --> 00:24:00,600
Speaker 1: It was hard to tell when tail lights were superseded

432
00:24:00,640 --> 00:24:03,480
Speaker 1: by brake lights. Janice was attempting to make sense of

433
00:24:03,520 --> 00:24:05,600
Speaker 1: it all through half masted eyes. When she realized that

434
00:24:05,640 --> 00:24:07,960
Speaker 1: the car in front of her, a newer Chevy, had stopped.

435
00:24:08,200 --> 00:24:10,600
Speaker 1: She slammed on the brakes, but it was too late.

436
00:24:14,440 --> 00:24:16,400
Speaker 1: The man and the Chevy stumbled out of the car,

437
00:24:16,840 --> 00:24:20,160
Speaker 1: his hand at his neck. Janice was cursing a blue street.

438
00:24:20,400 --> 00:24:23,360
Speaker 1: They all were, all four of them inside Seth Joplin's car,

439
00:24:23,640 --> 00:24:25,560
Speaker 1: which was jammed up the ass hand to some poor

440
00:24:25,720 --> 00:24:28,600
Speaker 1: s obs goddamn Chevy on Highway sixty one just outside

441
00:24:28,640 --> 00:24:32,159
Speaker 1: New Orleans, and the cops gave Janice the benefit of

442
00:24:32,200 --> 00:24:35,040
Speaker 1: the doubt, since the weather was so shitty in the

443
00:24:35,119 --> 00:24:37,560
Speaker 1: accident wasn't all that bad, honestly, and the guy who

444
00:24:37,640 --> 00:24:40,240
Speaker 1: got rammed in the Chevy was probably milking it anyway.

445
00:24:41,160 --> 00:24:44,720
Speaker 1: The bigger issue was Janie's age. Dale and Jim were older.

446
00:24:45,040 --> 00:24:48,160
Speaker 1: They had driven across state lines with a minor, didn't matter.

447
00:24:48,359 --> 00:24:51,200
Speaker 1: She was actually driving the car, and the cops started

448
00:24:51,240 --> 00:24:53,960
Speaker 1: talking about the man, acts started talking about felonies, about

449
00:24:54,000 --> 00:24:57,600
Speaker 1: men praying on women, about jail time. Dale and Jim freaked.

450
00:24:57,840 --> 00:25:00,440
Speaker 1: Janice stayed calm on the outside, but on the inside

451
00:25:00,680 --> 00:25:03,680
Speaker 1: she freaked too. She knew she could clear the whole

452
00:25:03,760 --> 00:25:05,800
Speaker 1: thing up. All she had to do was call her

453
00:25:05,880 --> 00:25:08,000
Speaker 1: parents and port Arthur so they could explain to the

454
00:25:08,040 --> 00:25:10,119
Speaker 1: cops that the guy she was with were good friends

455
00:25:10,200 --> 00:25:13,719
Speaker 1: and pose no threats. But the ruse would be up,

456
00:25:14,320 --> 00:25:17,000
Speaker 1: her lie would be uncovered, the punishment would come down,

457
00:25:17,080 --> 00:25:19,760
Speaker 1: the judgment would come down too, and it wasn't just

458
00:25:19,880 --> 00:25:23,080
Speaker 1: her parents doing the judging. Back at school, the whispers

459
00:25:23,119 --> 00:25:26,080
Speaker 1: and rumors about Janie got Juice. Here, the bullying got

460
00:25:26,160 --> 00:25:28,960
Speaker 1: more personal. They said that Janie slept around, that she

461
00:25:29,119 --> 00:25:31,080
Speaker 1: was loose, that Janice took three guys with her to

462
00:25:31,160 --> 00:25:33,520
Speaker 1: New Orleans and had a full on, freaky dicky good time.

463
00:25:34,400 --> 00:25:36,760
Speaker 1: And the more Janice angled for liberation, the more she

464
00:25:36,920 --> 00:25:41,240
Speaker 1: was pigeonholed by the conventional Texas establishment. College life wasn't

465
00:25:41,280 --> 00:25:44,400
Speaker 1: any better. Later that year, she enrolled at Lamar State

466
00:25:44,480 --> 00:25:48,399
Speaker 1: College and Technology, and her parents insistence for her parents

467
00:25:48,480 --> 00:25:51,120
Speaker 1: it was a local and cheap option, something to keep

468
00:25:51,160 --> 00:25:53,359
Speaker 1: her close and give her a trade to fall back on.

469
00:25:54,000 --> 00:25:56,399
Speaker 1: For Janice, it was just another way for her folks

470
00:25:56,480 --> 00:25:58,520
Speaker 1: in the great State of Texas to hold her back.

471
00:25:59,480 --> 00:26:02,360
Speaker 1: One night, she embarked on another world trip, this one

472
00:26:02,440 --> 00:26:05,119
Speaker 1: to Houston, and she knocked back handfuls of pills with

473
00:26:05,200 --> 00:26:07,920
Speaker 1: copious amounts of wine and wound up in the hospital.

474
00:26:08,640 --> 00:26:11,800
Speaker 1: When she came to in bed back home in Port Arthur,

475
00:26:12,240 --> 00:26:15,240
Speaker 1: her parents seemed to finally be realizing the truism that

476
00:26:15,359 --> 00:26:18,840
Speaker 1: Janie had known all along. And there was Texas, and

477
00:26:18,920 --> 00:26:44,160
Speaker 1: there was Janice, and never the twain shall me. Jim

478
00:26:44,240 --> 00:26:46,760
Speaker 1: Morrison may have been the golden God of Venice Beach,

479
00:26:46,880 --> 00:26:49,359
Speaker 1: but Janis Joplin beat him to the scene by about

480
00:26:49,440 --> 00:26:52,359
Speaker 1: four years, and by the time Janie got there, the

481
00:26:52,440 --> 00:26:55,119
Speaker 1: scene was on its way out. But Janie didn't know

482
00:26:55,320 --> 00:26:59,400
Speaker 1: scene from Shinola. All she knew was California from Texas.

483
00:27:00,040 --> 00:27:01,639
Speaker 1: It could have been a wannabe scene, could have been

484
00:27:01,640 --> 00:27:04,199
Speaker 1: a moldy oldie scene, and she still would have signed up.

485
00:27:04,920 --> 00:27:07,840
Speaker 1: True to its name. Venice and Los Angeles was modeled

486
00:27:07,880 --> 00:27:11,040
Speaker 1: after Venice and Italy by a McKinney, a developer who

487
00:27:11,080 --> 00:27:14,000
Speaker 1: dug miles of canals to create a seaside resort town

488
00:27:14,080 --> 00:27:18,360
Speaker 1: replete with quaint cottages and palazzo buildings. Around nineteen ten,

489
00:27:18,560 --> 00:27:22,280
Speaker 1: boardwalk games and rides turned it into an amusement park destination,

490
00:27:23,280 --> 00:27:26,480
Speaker 1: but l a neglected venice, and by the nineteen fifties

491
00:27:26,920 --> 00:27:29,080
Speaker 1: the Coney Island of the west to become the Slam

492
00:27:29,240 --> 00:27:32,960
Speaker 1: by the Sea. Buildings were falling in canals, once flowing

493
00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:36,200
Speaker 1: with life, were full of concrete. The palazzo's, once home

494
00:27:36,240 --> 00:27:39,160
Speaker 1: to high end retail and bingo parlors, were now shelters

495
00:27:39,240 --> 00:27:43,040
Speaker 1: for homeless squatters. The rundown field of the neighborhood had

496
00:27:43,080 --> 00:27:45,960
Speaker 1: its own outsider charm, not to mention the charm of

497
00:27:46,040 --> 00:27:48,840
Speaker 1: its cheap rents, and it soon became a hot spot

498
00:27:48,960 --> 00:27:52,879
Speaker 1: for Southern California poets, writers and musicians, the fringe people

499
00:27:53,200 --> 00:27:56,840
Speaker 1: the way Gone Daddy O's. It was also ground zero

500
00:27:57,000 --> 00:27:59,880
Speaker 1: for a criminal and drug adult element which came out

501
00:28:00,040 --> 00:28:02,560
Speaker 1: under the blanket of night and haunted the funky stretch

502
00:28:02,600 --> 00:28:05,760
Speaker 1: of coastline. These were the shadow people, looking for an

503
00:28:05,800 --> 00:28:08,919
Speaker 1: easy target, a quick fix, a lucky score. But there

504
00:28:08,960 --> 00:28:12,000
Speaker 1: had always been a shady element in Venice. Illegal gambling

505
00:28:12,119 --> 00:28:15,760
Speaker 1: was rife throughout the decades, the business of sketch ragmed supreme.

506
00:28:16,760 --> 00:28:19,440
Speaker 1: Janice knew she was getting into some weird ship in Venice,

507
00:28:19,560 --> 00:28:23,040
Speaker 1: but weird was good. Weird was exactly what the doctor ordered.

508
00:28:23,400 --> 00:28:26,600
Speaker 1: The less it reminded her of home, the better. She

509
00:28:26,720 --> 00:28:29,159
Speaker 1: wound up in Venice in the summer of nineteen sixty

510
00:28:29,200 --> 00:28:32,280
Speaker 1: one via Brentwood, specifically the homes of her aunt's Mimi

511
00:28:32,359 --> 00:28:35,480
Speaker 1: and Barbara. Following her wine and pills fueled trip to

512
00:28:35,520 --> 00:28:38,680
Speaker 1: the hospital in Houston, she dropped out of Lamar. Her

513
00:28:38,720 --> 00:28:40,720
Speaker 1: mother wasn't sure what to do with her anymore. She

514
00:28:40,840 --> 00:28:44,200
Speaker 1: was always running off, getting loaded and neglecting school. Dorothy's

515
00:28:44,200 --> 00:28:46,400
Speaker 1: solution was to put her on a bus to California,

516
00:28:46,480 --> 00:28:48,160
Speaker 1: where she lived with her aunts and worked at the

517
00:28:48,200 --> 00:28:51,720
Speaker 1: General Telephone Company in Santa Monica as a key punch operator,

518
00:28:52,000 --> 00:28:55,400
Speaker 1: a now defunct job that was as monotonous as it sounds,

519
00:28:55,920 --> 00:28:59,440
Speaker 1: but out of sight, out of mind. First, Janice lived

520
00:28:59,480 --> 00:29:02,160
Speaker 1: without me me, and she soon got her own apartment

521
00:29:02,280 --> 00:29:04,920
Speaker 1: by paying the rent on time wasn't really her style.

522
00:29:05,440 --> 00:29:07,920
Speaker 1: She moved in with Barbara's daughter, but she never felt

523
00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:11,720
Speaker 1: like she fit in, and then she stumbled onto Venice,

524
00:29:12,000 --> 00:29:15,080
Speaker 1: just a long distance stroll down the coast from Santa Monica.

525
00:29:15,920 --> 00:29:19,200
Speaker 1: Venice was certainly not Poort Arthur. Venice was well rolled,

526
00:29:19,320 --> 00:29:22,520
Speaker 1: joints and barbiturates scattered in the sand. Venice was the

527
00:29:22,560 --> 00:29:25,880
Speaker 1: place to watch the Pacific deep blue. It's dull roar,

528
00:29:26,080 --> 00:29:29,360
Speaker 1: white noise for the soul. The rundown stretch of amusement

529
00:29:29,440 --> 00:29:32,680
Speaker 1: park attractions decaying like a faded postcard of some once

530
00:29:32,760 --> 00:29:36,480
Speaker 1: great sight of fabled Americana, cast off with neglect and

531
00:29:36,560 --> 00:29:39,680
Speaker 1: perverted by the underbelly that's scurried inside the husk like

532
00:29:39,760 --> 00:29:42,880
Speaker 1: a hermit crab. Those underbelly types supposed a threat to

533
00:29:42,960 --> 00:29:45,680
Speaker 1: the status quo. The thinkers, the talkers, the poets, and

534
00:29:45,760 --> 00:29:49,080
Speaker 1: the artists and the singers. They were too strange, even

535
00:29:49,160 --> 00:29:53,520
Speaker 1: for California. Janice sniffed out the strange. Beaten nix filled

536
00:29:53,560 --> 00:29:56,320
Speaker 1: the seats at the gas House, the main hangout for

537
00:29:56,400 --> 00:29:59,720
Speaker 1: the outsider community, were fringe figures like Eric Big Daddy

538
00:29:59,760 --> 00:30:02,720
Speaker 1: nor had hung out. The cops took aim at the

539
00:30:02,800 --> 00:30:06,280
Speaker 1: counterculture and at the gas House in general, even sending

540
00:30:06,320 --> 00:30:08,360
Speaker 1: in one of their own undercover to drink their beer

541
00:30:08,480 --> 00:30:11,560
Speaker 1: and sip their wine and infiltrate their status quote. Defying

542
00:30:11,640 --> 00:30:15,200
Speaker 1: group think, Janice settled into a squalid garage apartment at

543
00:30:15,240 --> 00:30:18,040
Speaker 1: twenty five and a half Brooks Avenue, just a block

544
00:30:18,120 --> 00:30:20,920
Speaker 1: from the beach. She sought out any of the Beatnicks

545
00:30:20,920 --> 00:30:24,040
Speaker 1: who were still hanging around, but mostly she found the

546
00:30:24,120 --> 00:30:27,640
Speaker 1: sketchy human detritus, those who have been left behind, those

547
00:30:27,680 --> 00:30:30,000
Speaker 1: who had burned out and were working on fading away,

548
00:30:30,080 --> 00:30:32,120
Speaker 1: those who had learned to lurk in the shadows and

549
00:30:32,160 --> 00:30:36,920
Speaker 1: the sunken cottages and crumbling plassos, and the shadow people

550
00:30:36,960 --> 00:30:40,840
Speaker 1: were everywhere, especially at night. Janice would let up a

551
00:30:40,920 --> 00:30:43,640
Speaker 1: joint and suddenly they would be there. The flame from

552
00:30:43,680 --> 00:30:45,720
Speaker 1: her match would illuminate a face that had been next

553
00:30:45,760 --> 00:30:48,520
Speaker 1: to her all along. In the dark, She'd sense a

554
00:30:48,560 --> 00:30:51,960
Speaker 1: shadow creep over her shoulder. The shadows had weight in Venice.

555
00:30:52,200 --> 00:30:54,560
Speaker 1: The wind tore through the broken windows of the broke

556
00:30:54,600 --> 00:30:57,960
Speaker 1: down palace, the ways of the Pacific crash to block away,

557
00:30:58,280 --> 00:31:01,480
Speaker 1: and those sounds of a once viber Seaside community ushered

558
00:31:01,480 --> 00:31:05,440
Speaker 1: in a spectral form. Sensing the encroaching shadow, Janice would

559
00:31:05,480 --> 00:31:07,680
Speaker 1: turn around and there would be one too, maybe three

560
00:31:07,760 --> 00:31:10,000
Speaker 1: of the Shadow People, maybe someone she had seen a

561
00:31:10,080 --> 00:31:12,680
Speaker 1: few nights before, maybe someone new. They had asked her

562
00:31:12,720 --> 00:31:14,560
Speaker 1: for a hit, ask her for money, asked what she

563
00:31:14,680 --> 00:31:17,960
Speaker 1: was doing later, and they brought around harder stuff, darker stuff,

564
00:31:18,000 --> 00:31:20,280
Speaker 1: the sorts of highs she'd only heard about, the sorts

565
00:31:20,280 --> 00:31:24,160
Speaker 1: of highs that she worried lead to dangerous lows. They

566
00:31:24,280 --> 00:31:26,840
Speaker 1: left the same way they came in, carried by the

567
00:31:26,960 --> 00:31:29,120
Speaker 1: sound of the sea. At the moment that Janice closed

568
00:31:29,160 --> 00:31:31,560
Speaker 1: her eyes and took a hit, she would open her

569
00:31:31,600 --> 00:31:34,680
Speaker 1: eyes and something would be missing. A few bucks, a jackets,

570
00:31:34,720 --> 00:31:38,040
Speaker 1: some sunglasses, and the shadow People did their grifting under

571
00:31:38,080 --> 00:31:40,640
Speaker 1: the cover of the night. And the more time Janice

572
00:31:40,680 --> 00:31:43,040
Speaker 1: spent in Venice, the more she felt like she was

573
00:31:43,200 --> 00:31:46,680
Speaker 1: chasing some elusive enlightenment that was no longer there, but

574
00:31:46,800 --> 00:31:50,160
Speaker 1: it was a gateway and education. Things weren't always what

575
00:31:50,280 --> 00:31:52,920
Speaker 1: they seemed, people weren't always who they said they were.

576
00:31:53,400 --> 00:31:56,640
Speaker 1: Life out west really was wild, like they said, but

577
00:31:56,800 --> 00:32:01,080
Speaker 1: wild can be dangerous, wild can be dead. Janice Is

578
00:32:01,120 --> 00:32:03,720
Speaker 1: first real time spent in California was the beginning to

579
00:32:03,840 --> 00:32:07,720
Speaker 1: other moments in our life, moments that would lead to addiction, deception,

580
00:32:07,920 --> 00:32:11,280
Speaker 1: and even the Paranoid, Watchful Eye of the Real Big Brother,

581
00:32:12,120 --> 00:32:18,040
Speaker 1: the FBI. I'm Jake Brennan, and this is the seven Club,

582
00:32:30,000 --> 00:32:32,440
Speaker 1: all right. This episode of The Seven Club is brought

583
00:32:32,480 --> 00:32:34,880
Speaker 1: to you by disgrace Land, the award winning music and

584
00:32:34,920 --> 00:32:38,320
Speaker 1: true crime podcast that I also host. Disgrace Land is

585
00:32:38,320 --> 00:32:40,840
Speaker 1: available only on the free Amazon Music app. To hear

586
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Speaker 1: tons of insane stories about your favorite musicians getting away

587
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Speaker 1: with murder and behaving very badly. Nirvana, Prince, Jerry Lee Lewis,

588
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Speaker 1: The Grateful Dead, The Rolling Stones, Cardi B and many

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Speaker 1: many more. Go to Amazon dot com slash disgrace Land,

590
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Speaker 1: or if you have an Echo device, just say hey

591
00:32:56,200 --> 00:33:00,480
Speaker 1: Alexa play. The disgrace Land podcast of the Club is

592
00:33:00,520 --> 00:33:03,840
Speaker 1: hosted and co written by me Jake Brennan. Zeth Landi

593
00:33:03,960 --> 00:33:06,960
Speaker 1: is the lead writer and co producer. Not voting mixes

594
00:33:07,040 --> 00:33:10,400
Speaker 1: the show. Additional music and score elements by Ryan Spraaker

595
00:33:10,480 --> 00:33:13,200
Speaker 1: and Henry Anna. The twenty seven Club is produced by

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Speaker 1: myself for Double Elvis and partnership with I Heart Radio.

597
00:33:16,800 --> 00:33:19,800
Speaker 1: Sources for this episode are available at double Elvis dot

598
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Speaker 1: com on the twenty seven Club series page weekly every Thursday.

599
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Speaker 1: Our previous season's on Jimmie Hendricks and Jim Morrison are

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