Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin. Now, they are so subtle, they can milk you with two notes. They can make you feel like they told you the whole universe. But I don't know that yet. All I got now is strength. Maybe if I keep singing, maybe I'll get it.
Interpretation
The power of music lies in its ability to convey deep emotions despite simplicity.
Janis Joplin reflects on the profound impact that musicians like Billie Holiday and Aretha Franklin have on listeners through their subtle yet powerful melodies. She acknowledges her own journey in understanding music's depth and expresses a determination to keep singing as a means to uncover greater insights and strength within herself.
In practice
In a speech about overcoming challenges, one might say, 'Like Janis Joplin, perhaps if I keep pushing forward, I will find my strength.'
I gotta go on doin' it the way I see it...I got no choice but to take it like I see it. I'm here to have a party while I'm on this earth...I'm gettin' it now, today. I don't even know where I'm gonna be twenty years from now, so I'm just gonna keep on rockin', cause if I start saving up bits and pieces of me...man, there ain't gonna be nothing left for Janis.
When I sing, I feel like when you're first in love. It's more than sex. It's that point two people can get to they call love, when you really touch someone for the first time, but it's gigantic, multiplied by the whole audience. I feel chills.
Like most girls I'm always really self-conscious about do I look fat, if my legs are short, if I'm weird shaped, but when I go on stage, man, it never occurs to me. I think I look beautiful.
I won't quit to become someone's old lady.
Audiences like their blues singers to be miserable.
You can feel all things at once, so why not wear all things at once?
I owe very, very much to Mozart; and if one studies, for instance, the way in which I write for string quartet, then one cannot deny that I have learned this directly from Mozart. And I am proud of it!
When I sang my father's songs in concert, that was all people wanted to hear. I was always asking myself, 'Can I measure up?'
I get a thrill meeting kids who are into alternative music.
When you're a Chicago artist, to play Lollapalooza, that's not a normal thing. It's artists on a path to a certain place that do that. Chief Keef did it; Kids These Days did it; Cool Kids did it. And I'm the next Cool-Kids-Chief, if you will.
We don't want to be Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones. That type of thing wasn't what we were after. It was most important for each of us to be equal in input and output - each of us has to pull the same amount, musically, in composition and in every sense of being in the band.
When you start your first band and it has an impact on the rest of the world you go through a lot with those guys and you become very protective of that legacy.
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