Javier’s English Corner

No-one can deny that Janis Joplin is one of the greatest rock icons of the 60s. Whenever she is mentioned on any radio or TV show, her drug and alcohol problems are always highlighted, but I would rather remember her as one of the most powerful and passionate female singers in the history of popular music.

She started singing as a teenager and was early influenced by blues singers such as Big Mama Thornton. She had a short but intense career. From 1966 to 1968 she was the leading vocalist of Big Brother and The Holding Company, during which period she gained her reputation as “the most staggering leading woman in rock”.

The last two years in her career and life were marked by constant highs and lows. She changed bands a couple of times and although she had some clean spells with no drug abuse, she relapsed again and died of a drug overdose at the age of 27.

Janis Joplin has left us some unforgettable songs and one of my favourites is “Cry Baby”, from her album “Pearl”, which she recorded with the Full Tilt Boogie Band . She covered this song in her characteristic bluesy style.

For some people this may sound a bit weird, but if I ever had to choose the one movie I would be allowed to keep, that would be “Paris, Texas”. I am sure most of you are familiar with its soundtrack, even if you have not seen the film, as it was, and I think it still is, the score for the TV documentary show “Documentos TV”.

I first heard about “Paris, Texas” because of the very especial music by Ry Cooder that perfectly matched the story of Travis, a man lost in his own private hell. Presumed dead for four years, he reappears from the desert on the Mexico border, world-weary and an amnesiac.
He traces his brother Walt who is bringing up Hunter, his seven-year-old son, his ex-wife Jane having abandoned him at Walt’s door several years before.

This film boasts superb performances by Harry Dean Stanton as Travis and Natassja Kinski as Jane. I would like you now to listen to a memorable scene where Travis is talking to Jane, who cannot see him because they are separated by a glass panel, as she works in a kind of peep-show. At first, she doesn’t know it’s him, but as Travis finally comes to terms with everything that made their relationship fall to pieces, she finds out he is back to make sure Jane and Hunter, their son, are reunited.