Library Rock's Backpages

Union Jack Blues

Geoffrey Cannon, The Guardian, 21 October 1969

MEETING JANIS Joplin a few months ago, before her Albert Hall concert, I was staggered to feel how nervous she was. Then she explained. She is blues singer; and Britain was the home of blues, she said. The Negro blues singers got their first and best appreciation in Britain, she reckoned. Judgment here was clearer; sharper. She implied that if the audience was cold, she was prepared to own that they were right and she was wrong. She said: this is like my very first date.

Total word count of piece: 458

Subscribe

Becoming a member is easy. Membership gives you access to all the thousands of articles in the library.

Click here to go to Subscribe page.

Click here for academic and other group subscriptions.