Monday, December 23, 2013

Freedom's Just Another Word...


I can't honestly recall whether Sixty Grit likes or dislikes Janis Joplin -- whether he'd call her a skank or an artist.  Kris Kristofferson gave her her best song (though I'm sure he collected royalties like Willie did from Patsy Cline's "Crazy").  I picked this song tonight because I can really really relate to the lyrics.

7 comments:

Chip Ahoy said...

Lem too on account of the windshield wipers slapping time. Like this: whippa-whappa whippa-whappa whippa-whappa.

The Dude said...

I thought the world of Janis, but she apparently liked heroin more than life.

Couldn't have been easy being her, that's for sure.

Thank goodness for people like Kris Kristofferson - he was able to put into words what many of us could only live. Not bad for an Army Ranger and Rhodes Scholar.

Fr Martin Fox said...

I actually quote this famous line from this song a lot:

"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose."

It serves to illustrate something important about the spiritual life: the way that stuff and prestige and appetite and ego all constrain us; whereas simplifying our lives, saying no to appetite, and humility, give us the freedom to go wherever God may lead us.

This is what so many ascetics, from Saint Anthony of Egypt, to Saint Francis of Assisi, to Blessed Theresa of Calcutta, among others, figured out.

Aridog said...

Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose,...

That phrase meant something different to soldiers and Marines, however, to some extent it rigs true to me as simple statement well. Most of us adored Janis and knew Kristofferson was one of us and had a clue. The whole era had its irony, such as the genuine affection many of us had for Country Joe...whose "Fish Cheer" in essence re-iterated the phrase above. We dared was the take of many of us. We dared.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Even Steve Martin almost falls victim to twitter race histeria.

Trooper York said...

You can be both a skank and an artist.

Look at artist through history.

Mae West.
Billie Holliday.
Marilyn Monroe.
Madonna.
Lady Gaga.
Palladian.

Both skanks and artists. Not mutually exclusive at all!

bagoh20 said...

I think "skank" implies in addition to a slutiness, a low level of personal hygiene, and I think I read somewhere that Palladian is hosed down regularly. I'm just trying to keep the info here tightly accurate.