I begged for mercy. I prayed for rain.

Paul Rothchild on Janis Joplin and PEARL and BURIED IN THE BLUES, in conversation with Bob Hamilton of RADIO REPORT

I found this gem while researching something else – like sitting down to lunch and finding a pearl buried in the folds of my oyster. It's too good not to share.

Bob Hamilton of the RADIO REPORT

In January of 1971, the BOB HAMILTON RADIO REPORT celebrated its one-year birthday. The RADIO REPORT was a well-respected industry rag that kept folks who worked in radio and the record business looped in on what their friends and colleagues were up to. Today, the RADIO REPORT might be classified as a zine, given its production values. The typewritten paste-up is apparent on its pages, the lead headline sits above the dateline, and none of the columns are aligned. An abundance of back issues have been archived by the good people at WorldRadioHistory.com.

On the occasion of the Report’s first birthday, publisher (and sole creator, as far as I can tell, because there is no masthead) Bob Hamilton, published his conversation with record producer Paul Rothchild about his latest album, Janis Joplin’s PEARL. No headline introduces the interview on page five — Bob just carries on, as if continuing his train of thought from page four. My dad worked with both Hamilton and Rothchild in different phases of his working life during those small-world days of the record business, and this conversation, as published here, has the familiar vibe of the endless long-distance conversations he often had with his colleagues over the phone, punctuated by deep smoky drags.

Rothchild produced Janis Joplin’s PEARL, which hit the stores the same week in January that RADIO REPORT celebrated its birthday, and PEARL is the chief topic of this interview. The chief subject, however, is Joplin herself, who died, too soon, three months before, that October.

“We talked quietly,” Hamilton notes of his phone interview with Rothchild, “as if the subject matter demanded that respect.” Which, of course, it did. But his “as if” plucks at my brain. I want to believe that it’s simply a careless turn of phrase, and let’s say it was, but I also know that Joplin was not treated with full respect after her death by the industry that she so powerfully contributed to. Radio DJ Ron Middag shared with me that her label, Columbia Records, had delivered her premiere solo album to the radio station in a hearse that same January. “I thought that was in such poor taste,” he said when we spoke over the phone. I could hear the horror of the offense in his voice.

I haven’t been able to find a reference to this interview elsewhere, and so I’ve shared it in its entirety here, with all of Bob’s expressive and elongated ellipses, in the hope that it will be more easily indexed and, in time, found. In posting I’m also sharing my gratitude to Mr. Hamilton for knocking out the RADIO REPORT all those years, and to WorldRadioHistory.com for archiving all that they could.

The interview contains an account of Janis’ reaction to the instrumental track for BURIED ALIVE IN THE BLUES, and her plans to celebrate the album that night before returning to lay down the vocals the next morning. The album was just about complete, and this was expected to be the second to last track they would record — she hadn’t yet shared what the final track would be.

But she didn’t return to record the vocals, of course, because she died that night. The track was released, posthumously, as an instrumental.

But those lyrics are here too in the interview, on page six, offered as almost a footnote, a ghost of what BURIED ALIVE IN THE BLUES might have been, had Janis returned that next morning, or maybe that next afternoon after a sleep-in and a late start, and belted them out at the height of her power.

BOB HAMILTON RADIO REPORT nameplate, lead headline, and dateline for the one-year anniversary issue

18 January 1971

BOB HAMILTON RADIO REPORT
PAGE 5

Recorded several weeks ago the last Janis Joplin album was released this week. No one was closer than to what happened during those days of recording than producer Paul Rothchild....also producer of such people as the Doors, John Sebastian and many others. Contacted at his home the day the album was released...we talked quietly.... as if the subject matter demanded that respect.

Bob: I want to get the time sequence right. How long did it take you to record that album?

Paul: The actual recording took approximately four weeks. That wasn't an everyday situation but, it occupied most of those weeks.

Bob: You laid the track first?

Paul: Yes, but, Janis always sang...and we went over the arrangements.

Bob: Did you finish all the cuts on the album that you were planning on?

Paul: Yes, we finished all the cuts that we recorded. That's not as weird as it sounds. When she died we were recording Nick Gravenites tune, Buried Alive In The Blues which was going to the tenth tune. We were making plans for an eleventh song. ...we never even discovered what that song was going to be. It would have taken us four days to wrap the album up...with the eleventh tune. As it stands now there are ten tunes on the album...one of them is just the instrumental track...that's the one that never got the vocal on it.

Bob: Give me your impressions of Janis Joplin and tell me both personally and professionally what kind of person she was?

Paul: Well, first, Janis was a dear friend. I use the word friend rarely in talking about people I deal with...very few people I refer to as friend...but, she was a fine and good friend. I enjoyed her company and she enjoyed mine. She was a lady who enjoyed her friends and her life...she was full of excitement in life...especially during the months preceding and during the recording of the album she was just so excited by what she was into and by the people around her. Things were going fantastically.. it was a shock to all of us to find out that she had died...During the recording of the album she was vastly interested. .incredibly excited and turned on by her band and the people connected with the album. There were times when she was a little unhappy that the material for the album wasn't coming as quickly as possible but, we all understood that we were trying to get the best possible songs. She was more up than any of us ever remember her being. She filled me with joy and excitement and I'm usually happy as it is but, she really bounced me up beyond that. Besides the professional thing of looking forward to making a record with her, every time I found myself in the studio I would say to myself what a joy it was just to be around this chick.

Janis Joplin and Paul Rothchild, Producer

Bob: Was there a particular theme on this album? What direction was this album supposed to take?

Paul: Most albums that I do work on, there is a concern....a theme...either in the words or in the music. The only concept or theme of this album was Janis Joplin. It was an attempt to give Janis a stage as an legitimate singer, rather than the gutty San Francisco chick she had been referred as so many times. She wanted very much for the world to know she could sing. That was my main interest in recording the album...although previous albums were really good. We were trying to give Janis, a bit of a new life that wasn't the psychedelic ranger. We were trying to make it simpler than that....just...Janis Joplin, the singer.

Bob: Can you tell me why each of these particular songs were selected... .maybe you can give me a little more insight into that.

Paul: Well...on Cry...that gets down to a very interesting point that Janis discovered while we were researching the songs. We researched by the way over four or five thousand songs, to put this album together. Both Janis and I called on every single writer of quality that we knew and asked to hear their entire catalog. We sat down in my house and this went on for weeks before the album and as the album continued. As we were going through we realized there was one writer t who seemed almost to be born to help Janis sing. It was J. Ragavoy. There were about three other songs on the album, that Jerry wrote...with Bert Burns. If you'll notice there are three Ragovoy songs on the album...which is the only writer on the album besides Janis that is represented by more than one song. We started looking at it almost as if it were going to be a problem...that every one of those songs was going to be one of Janis's favorites. It seems as if everything about them...the words, the tempo, and the rhythms lent themselves to Janis's style and what she wanted to say to people...songs with deep personal meaning...put in simple terms. She liked that a lot. All of the songs on the album have that thing about them. The other songs on it... Move Over...which Janis wrote. She opened many shows with it...that's why it was the number one song on the album. Buried Alive In The Blues was a song that N. Gravenites wrote. We came down to it we were looking for final tunes...we were stuck...and he came down from San Francisco to LA with a bunch of new songs he had written. She died the night we cut the track. Janis had gone out to get a pair of pants. Not more than 20 minutes after we had the track down on tape, Janis walked in...we sat her down...and turned the tape on. We were about 10 or 15 seconds into it...she jumped up from her chair and started dancing, jumping up and down...laughing and clapping her hands. It was really a joy. She was so completely knocked out with the band and the way the song was done. It was beyond anything she ever thought the band would be into...and we said. ."Janis are you ready to put the words to it?” and she said, "Hell, no, I'm going to go out and have myself a good time tonight... go to the bar and have a drink and see some of the boys and tomorrow I'll come in and cut the vocal.." she did go to the bar....and nobody knows really what happened…..

== Continued on next page ==

BOB HAMILTON RADIO REPORT
PAGE 6

== Continued from previous page ==

BURIED ALIVE IN THE BLUES

Wórds & Music by Nick Gravenites*

All caught up in a landslide,
Bad luck pressing in from all sides,
Got bucked out of my easy ride,
Buried alive in the blues.

Sunday morning everybody's in bed,
I'm on the streets talking out of my head.
This ole brick wall ain't heard a word that I've said.
Buried alive in the blues.

Buried Alive. Hey, hey, hey, in the blues.
Buried Alive. Hey, hey, hey, in the blues.

I begged for mercy. I prayed for rain.
I can't be the one to accept all the blame.
Something here trying to pollute my brain.
Buried alive in the blues.

A million people hey. Walk on by.
Can't make 'em laugh, can't make 'em cry,
It ain't no use 'cause they know that I
I'm buried alive in the blues.

Buried alive by your conversation,
Buried alive by your intimidation,
Buried alive and it's worse than jail,
Buried alive and there ain't no bail,
Buried alive, it's a weird sensation,
Buried alive, it's a bad condition.
Buried alive, hey, hey, hey, in the blues.

*Copyright 1971 Heavy Gravy Music 75 E. 55th Street, New York 10022

PEARL by Janis Joplin, released posthumously in January 1971