Janis: Little Girl Blue

---

1

I sing.

Why do you sing?

Well, because,

um, I get to experience

a lot of feelings.

It's really a lot of fun.

You get to feel

all kinds of things

that you could hardly find if

you went to parties all year

round and made it with

everyone you ever wanted to

because you get to feel things

that are in your imagination

and another end of truth.

That's why I like music

because it's created from

and as it's happening

creates feelings.

What could I feel if I

attended your concert tonight?

I'd like you

to feel like standing up

and jump up and down

in time with the music

and get sweaty and

just go with the music.

Just go with it.

Like, rock and

roll's very rhythmic.

That's what it's all about.

You know, it's 1,2, 3, 4.

Yeah, you thought you had

found yourself a good

girl, one who would love

you and give you the world.

Then you find, hun, that

you've been misused.

Look at me, honey.

I'll do what you choose.

I want you to, well,

tell Mama all about it.

Yeah, tell Mama.

What do you need?

Tell your Mama, babe.

What you want?

Tell your Mama, babe.

What do you need?

What do you want?

What do you need?

What do you want?

I'll make everything all right.

I'll tell ya.

When you get lonely... and I

figure everybody does, now,

because as a matter of

fact, everybody does... I'll

tell you what you need, baby.

When you get those strange

thoughts in your head,

you don't know where

they came from,

man, you've got those

strange little weirdness

that's happening to you.

You don't know what they are.

I'll tell you what you need.

You need a sweet-loving

mama, baby.

Hun, a sweet-talking

mama, babe, you

know, someone to listen to you,

someone to want you, someone

to hold you, someone to need

you, someone to use you,

someone to want you, someone

that needs you, someone

to hold you.

You need a mama, mama, mama,

babe, a mama, ma, ma, ma.

Yeah, mama, mama, mama, ma mama.

Tell Mama all about it.

Tell Mama all about it.

What do you need?

What do you want?

Anything I can do,

anything I can do,

I'll be your mama, babe,

yeah, your mama, babe,

oh, mama, babe, oh, mama, babe,

oh, mama, babe, oh, mama, babe.

I'll make everything all right.

Dear family, I managed

to pass my 27th birthday

without really feeling it.

Oh, it's such a funny game.

Two years ago, I didn't

even want to be it.

No, that's not true.

I've been looking around,

and I've noticed something.

After you reach a certain level

of talent... and quite a few

have that talent...

The deciding factor

is ambition or, as I see it,

how much you really need,

need to be loved and need

to be proud of yourself.

And I guess that's

what ambition is.

It's not all a depraved

quest for position or money.

Maybe it's for love,

lots of love, ha, Janice.

Port Arthur, to a lot of people,

it was a really good

town to grow up in.

I never thought so.

Janice never thought

so, and she couldn't

figure out how to make

herself like everybody else,

thank goodness.

Our parents,

I'm not exactly sure

how they actually

met, but they started

dating after Mother had gone

away to college and come back

and started working.

Daddy was a mechanical

engineer, but he

was able to get a job

because at that time,

so many people

were away fighting.

So he got a job at

Texaco, and he stayed

there his entire working life.

And he came home from work

one day and told mother,

let's do something

for posterity.

So that's Janis

being born in 1943.

So that's Janis

being born in 1943.

She joined the choir,

and they kicked her

out of the choir.

She wouldn't follow directions,

and they said, you're out.

Like most women, Janis

wanted to be beautiful

and curvaceous and skinny

like the pictures that

she saw in magazines.

And she saw herself, you know,

gain weight and get chunky.

Her skin broke out,

and her features

weren't that fine, beautiful,

female thing that we

see pictures everywhere.

And so she had

questions about her own,

you know, desirability.

She demanded to be different.

You know, our parents had

given us permission to do it

and then weren't aware of what

would happen if you did it.

Janis was the first one in

our family to find that out,

that if you were rocking the

boat, you might get noticed.

And she rocked the boat

as often as she could.

She liked rocking the boat.

The world was changing,

and I think that Janis's

interpretation of what being

good was included things that

a lot of people in the South

weren't yet ready to include.

She said, I think immigration

is the right thing to do.

Well, our hometown had

an active KKK chapter.

And what happened

was she was harassed

by some guys in her class.

They threw pennies at her.

They called her names,

and she became a target

for the last three

years of high school.

She started dressing

differently, wearing loafers

without socks and tight skirts.

Her hair was becoming

more, like, beatnik,

and still there was an

aspect of her sexuality

and her personality

that was at odds.

Where does she go?

What does she do?

She was pushing the

limits, and women

weren't supposed to swear.

And women were

supposed to be demure

and not know that anything

existed below their waistlines.

And I met her in high school,

and she wouldn't go away.

She was always calling us

up, one of us or the other,

and say, what are

you doing tonight'?

Where are we going?

She was a lot of trouble.

We went to Louisiana, and

she would start fights which

we didn't want started

because the Cajuns

were known, good fighters.

But she got a kick out of it,

just playing the bad girl.

She wasn't a bad girl.

I mean, she just

liked to bait the men.

You know, we would deny

all knowledge of her

and barely escape

with our lives.

That made her real

dangerous to take to a bar.

I mean, she was amusing, so we

took her to the beach with us.

She borrowed some records

which were obscure.

One of them was a

record by Odetta.

All of a sudden, she busted into

a perfect imitation of Odetta

on the record, and

everybody was just

stunned... this little,

troublesome kid, you know,

could sing that well.

This particular

night Janis said,

let's go see this

wonderful Austin

you're always talking about.

So we pulled in at

five thirty in the morning,

and you could hear music.

And it wasn't recorded music.

It was live music.

And Janis grabbed my

arm, and she said,

Jack, I am going

to like it here.

On accident, I discovered

I had an incredibly loud voice.

So I started singing blues

because that was always

what I liked, and, you know,

I got in a bluegrass band,

played hillbilly music in

Austin, Texas for free beer.

I used to sing at folk

clubs just for a goof.

We call ourselves

the Waller Creek Boys,

and instantly Janis

became one of the boys.

People just stared

open mouthed, and she

was not ever accepted, really,

except by the folk community.

Growing up, her peers picked

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes