Description
Janis Joplin is often described as a nymphomaniac but nothing so accusatory is levelled at her occasional lover Leonard Cohen. Male rock stars are often revered for their conquests whereas any woman displaying the same behaviour is damaged goods.
Her version of Kris Kristofferson’s Me and Bobby McGee was so cinematic that we imagined her all spread out with the song’s subject in the Salinas desert with a thousand harmonicas playing.
We don’t evocate the same images when listening its own author’s version. So we should talk less about nymphomania and more about passion and dedication, which she had in abundance.