How did Janis Joplin become exposed to this song? She was raised in Texas (Port Arthur) in the Church of Christ, but I'm not sure of that denomination's musical heritage. She also came of age in the Folk-Blues revival of the early 60s, so it was likely she learned it that way, through oral tradition, handed down to the people re-discovering these tunes in her age group. It was unlikely that she had heard a recorded version of this song, unless she knew someone with an extensive 78 collection. She definitely had the genius to seize upon the sentiment in this song and arrange it in the psych-blues style for Big Brother And The Holding Company, and alter the lyrics to suit the thrust of her personal and emotional delivery. This is a '67 live performance. She has yet to master microphone technique and the electric stage presence that would soon explode onto the scene. I'm not sure if this is pre or post-Monterey Pop:
I first heard the Eddie Head original version from a CD [Chimpin' The Blues] issued from the recording of a radio talk/music show featuring Robert Crumb and his Blues 78 collection, disseminating music with his buddy Jerry Zolten. Robert Crumb (cartoonist with Zap Comix) was part of the San Francisco hippy scene of the 60s, arriving in early '67 around the time of Janis' earliest gigs with Big Brother. Was Crumb friends with Janis at this time? Did they talk music? A year later Crumb did the album cover for [Cheap Thrills] at Joplin's request, so there was at least an artistic association:
Did R. Crumb have this song in his music collection and introduce it to Janis? Or did Janis know the song and Crumb later added it to his collection because of his collaboration with her. Funny enough he doesn't mention anything other than Janis covering this song in the introduction on the CD. He does go into some detail about his relationship to Janis in this interview (24:00-30:00) and it sounds like he didn't share any music affiliation with her, so he probably didn't introduce the song to her and collected it later.
