I Need a Man to Love

Joplin has the ain't-got-no-man blues in this psychedelic rock tune she co-wrote with Big Brother & The Holding Company's lead guitarist, Sam Andrew. He recalled to Goldmine in 1998: "'I Need A Man To Love' we wrote in about five minutes, backstage on a tuning amplifier. And that was a real sort of 'mission statement' from Janis, lyrically. And for me, it just popped out - it was a real kind of common riff, except for the bridge. We played it in A minor, and then it goes to the bridge, which is in F sharp minor. And there's a lot of chromaticism in there, so for me it was a departure that way."

In a 1998 Gadfly interview, Andrew said the intro was based on Albert King's guitar riff from the 1976 blues song "Born Under A Bad Sign."

Joplin found it difficult to put her pain on display for an indifferent crowd, especially in her early days. She explained: "I had a couple of shows where I played the whole show really into it, completely giving all I had, man, and I was doing a freeform thing, talking, bring it all out, let it all go, man. Just talked about Janis and all the men that hurt her, and all the men that maybe she let down, and everything that you got to say, man, all of a sudden it starts coming out of your mouth, and you didn't even intend it to, and all of a sudden I heard them speak, I heard them talkin' in the middle of my f--kin' s--t, man, and I stopped and I waited to see if they'd quit. They didn't quit, and I grabbed the microphone and said, I ain't cryin' my ass off for you man. I put the microphone down and walked off the stage. I blew my contract and all that s--t, but f--k that, man, I ain't gonna get out there and cry my soul out for people that are talking about 'How's your brother, did you get laid on Thursday, that's a cute dress.' I'm up there talking about my pain, f--k you, man." (source: International Times, 1972)