Mother's Day

The strangest request ever from my Mom came this weekend. I was sitting in the living room with Mom and my sister.

Mom said, "Who was Janis Joplin?"

I told her, "She is one of the few to share a statue with Jimmy Johnson at the Port Arthur, Texas, high school. For her music in the sixties."

Mom asked, "What was she like?"

"Well, Mom, she was one of those pioneers of rock and roll in the sixties who got too caught up in the drug scene and died a terrible death at too terrible a young age," said I.

Mom then asked if there was anything she could hear.

I grabbed her computer and googled around and found the studio version of "Take Another Piece of My Heart." My favorite.

She was less impressed with Janis than she was with the interweb's ability to find it so fast. Mom grew up in the purely classicist vein but was never opposed to the Dorseys or Sinatra types. We then googled an artist from the good ol' days (of whom I'd never heard--Nellie Lutcher, from Louisiana) and found her very quickly. We listened and Mom was starting to get it. Mom was born about 20 years too early.

Guess I'll try "Somebody to Love" or "White Rabbit" next.

Once upon a time I played her some Yes tunes to which she had a less violent reaction.