Dick Cavett Tv Interview (1970) lyrics

Song information

Artist: Janis Joplin
Album: From The Soundtrack Of The Motion Picture Janis

Lyrics

Janis it's a shame you couldn't do an up tune for us but I liked that one

Later in the show

Yeah, maybe later we'll be talking too. you're really shot after, after a number, let alone a whole evening I would think

Yeah, yeah

You tell me you kind of collapse after a show ?

Well, I'm used to it because I'm so turned on by doing one that it's hard to do, it's hard to stop after one to tell you the truth, because it just makes you wanna do more

Your engine is revved up ?

Yeah, sort of!

I know all the hip expressions, you see. your engine is revved up

You're a real swinger, I can tell by your shoes, man!

Wait a minute, janis, janis. these were good enough for my grand-father, they're good enough for me

I had a lot of trouble, last week i, er, it wasn't that tune, we opened with another tune and I tore a muscle

I heard about this. you tore a mussel somewhere near maryland. er ..

It was closer to home than that!

Well, er ..

But I played forty minutes, man! I did forty minutes!

Yeah, but how do you, how do you tear a muscle singing, was it from the exhaustion or ..

No, I went ... like that

You actually, literally tore a muscle ... I mean like that ..

Every time, it hurt

Could you feel it go ?

Yeah

Phew!

Yeah

What do they do, do they set a muscle or do they tape you up or something ?

They told me to keep still

Janis you wrote that tune that you were just singing like we just agreed to ask about. you er, you wrote the first tune, right ?

I wrote the first tune. it's, er, yes I did, it's about men

It's about men. it's a little hard to tell what it was about 'cause I was standing over there where the sound is a little distorted

Well in my story that's what it is anyway

Yeah

D'you ever see those mule carts ?

Yeah

They, er, there's a dumb mule on there right and a long stick with a string and a carrot, and it hangs over the mule's nose, and it runs after it all day long. some ..

Who is the man in this, in this parable, the mule, or the person holding the carrot ?

No, the woman is the, is the mule. chasing something that somebody's holds her way

Constantly chasing her man ..

Yeah

... who always eludes her

Well, they always hold something more than they're prepared to give

I have to defend my entire sex, ladies and gentlemen! the burden of the defense

Go right ahead!

Well, one-arm wrestling I can take you two out of three

I hope so

Do you, er, do you actually sit down when you get up in the morning and, and write out a song, or do you . . . when you say you write it, you compose it you write it on a paper

You just make it up, I don't write songs, I make them up

They don't exist on paper your songs, don't they ?

Sometimes I just write down the words so I don't forget 'em, but I mean I don't write songs, that's a whole different concept. I just make 'em up

Yeah. did you ever get back to port arthur, texas ?

No, but I'm going back next in august, man. and guess what I'm doin' ?

I don't know

I'm going to my 10th annual high school reunion

Oh! oh! take movies and bring 'em back to show us, will you ?

Hey would you like to go ?

Well, I don't remember, I don't have any friends in your high school class

I don't either. I don't either, believe me

You don't either ?

It's hard going, man!

Weren't you a kind of a, weren't you kind of a business administration major or something in high school. no, it's something in your past. you were ..

No, I worked

Yeah

But a high school major in art does have plenty of time

Yeah. and do you think you'll have a lot to say to your old high-school classmates ?

I'm gonna laugh alot man

You were not surrounded by friends in high school ?

They laughed me out of class, out of town, and out of state, man

Hmm ..

Somethin' goin' on

Thank you

Thank you