What “pained” Nina Simone about Janis Joplin
Both Nina Simone and Janis Joplin have made stunning contributions to music, each woman an emotive powerhouse. But they also shared a darkness that manifested in their music, both battling through addiction at the peak of their fame. Their mercurial, melancholy songs have had a lasting impact and will continue to be enjoyed for generations more.
In Simone’s 1976 set at the Montreux Jazz Festival, she nodded to Joplin’s talents in her reimagining of Janis Ian’s ‘Stars’, where Joplin’s abilities are described as being of the same calibre as not only hers, but Billie Holiday’s: “I’m trying to tell my story / Janis Ian told it very well / Janis Joplin told it even better / Billie Holiday even told it even better.”
Joplin, who had passed away six years earlier from a heroin overdose, was hugely inspired by the jazz singer, once saying her voice could “milk you” with only two notes. She was enraptured by Holiday and Aretha Franklin, saying they could go no farther than “from A to B, and they can make you feel like they told you the whole universe.” When Joplin moved to San Francisco to pursue music, she took only two books, and Holiday’s autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues, came with her, becoming something of a bible to her.
In the same Montreux set, Simone took another opportunity to talk about the late singer. She’d seen a documentary about Joplin’s life and was struck by her experiences. Being told they were too bolshy and unattractive to make it in music was something the two shared, and Simone seemed deeply moved by her struggles to break into an industry that didn’t seem ready for her.
The singer looked to the crowd as she reflected on the film. “You know I’ve made 35 albums, but they bootlegged 70,” she said. “Everybody took a chunk of me. Yesterday, I went to see Janis Joplin’s film, and what distressed me the most – I started to write a song about it, but I decided you weren’t worth it because I figured most of you are here for the festival,” the singer said.
“Anyway, the point is that it pained me to see how hard she worked because she got hooked into a feeling, and it wasn’t on drugs – she got hooked into a feeling, and she played to corpses, if you know what I mean,” Simone said. The crowd didn’t seem to absorb her point at all, laughing along as she spoke.
The thing both were hooked on was the intensity of their music. After years spent trying to break into the industry, the sudden influx of fans after near-constant rejection and the subsequent struggle to adjust to that newfound fame was something Simone understood better than most.
