- Steve Banks Photographer -
Santa Monica Canyon, 1998
REMEMBERS   Janis Joplin

- Steve Banks Photographer -
Santa Monica Canyon, 1998
REMEMBERS   Janis Joplin

Friday evening, December 19, 1969, Janis hit the stage full speed.
A live firebelching lady blues singer from Port Arthur, Texas,
splattering her energy all over the Garden audience.
I was totally transfixed and amazed with what was taking place on
stage! We would connect for a moment, zap, zap, zap. Then back
she'd come for more, hair flying, the mouth in a full-on scream.
It was all I could do to not stop shooting and just stand there,
my eyes bugging out of my head mesmerized with her complete and
total command of the stage. She would move with a mix and grace of
pure classical ballet and martial arts gyrations. She never let
up. Just when I thought she'd shown her full deck of tricks, back
she'd come, as if to say, "You think you've seen it all...well
check this out, sucker!" Off she'd go, letting loose with another
encore of pure movement and energy. I kept on loading and shooting
as fast as I could. A few times she looked straight at me; our
eyes locked as I attempted to load another roll of film. Then just
as I took aim, off she'd go as if to say in her Joplin style,
"You've got to be quicker than that, fucker!!"

On and on she went, all evening long. Where this woman found the
strength was beyond me. After all, she wasn't exactly in training!
Pop music stars weren't working with their personal trainers back
then. Some would report this energy came from a combination of
drugs and booze, but it had to be more than that. Was she
possessed or controlled by a spirit or another force? Haunted?
Maybe. I was hypnotized by the spell she was weaving over her
audience. About 15 minutes before she would leave the stage and 13
rolls of Tri-X film later, I snapped back to attention. Meanwhile,
after having realized that her audience was ready to consume her
with a mad rush for the stage, my assistant and I took our leave
of the evening, ducking under the stage and working our way out
into the cold reality of New York's Seventh Avenue. 

Since Janis left us in 1970, a lot of women have become pop music
superstars. Music tastes have changed, and the way we see and hear
the artists has been revolutionized as well. There was no MTV
then. What seemed so wild, new and special on that Friday night in
1969 might be considered old news today. I went on to photograph
hundreds of other performers under every conceivable circumstance,
but to this day I'm hard pressed to remember anyone who so
completely captivated me the way Janis did during our musical
rendezvous that night. I've seen many try. Some came close. But in
the end, there was Janis and only Janis who took all the marbles
with her when she left the stage for good.

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