This week Lady Gaga caused quite the stir, showing up at a graduation at her former  high school  in a characteristically eccentric get up. Complete in beekeeper hat and see-through lace pants, many cried foul that Gaga was trying to once again upstage the rest of attendees.

But Gaga would be the first to refute accusations of cheap attention ploys. Formerly  Stefani Germanotta, Gaga maintains that fashion is an expression of identity, and a full embrace of her true inner freak. The odd style of dress is a protest of conformity, as well as the standards and conventions regularly impressed upon free thinking in school days.

Lady Gaga in Highschool

When coming across these eye-popping images of Gaga, I couldn’t help but draw comparison to Janis Joplin, who pulled a similar stunt some 40 years ago.

Though she did not attend a ritzy private school for Manhattan elite, like Gaga, Joplin’s adolescence was very much defined by an outsider status. Her feeling of pain, rejection, alienation and damning heartbreak would come to define her music. Joplin reflected on her high school days as some of the darkest in her life, exclaiming that she had been “laughed out of class, out of school, out of town, out of the state”.

And indeed, Joplin would leave her small Texas town and seek liberation in the colorful Haight-Ashbury of San Francisco. In 1963, at the age of 20, the Joplin’s lost soul would encounter vibrant waves of Hippism and Blues. Unfettered in an atmosphere of freedom and love, Joplin would channel her sensitivity and torment into song.

Joplin in High School

Eventually gaining both critical and commercial success in the incredibly competitive record industry, Joplin re-visited the Texan town of Port Author for her ten year high school reunion. Like Gaga, Joplin was a spectacle, dressed in flamboyant garb and followed by cameras. Yet despite her popular following, Joplin was received coldly by her former classmates. Her own family rejected her, refusing to even acknowledge the advent of her visit. Rather than an opportunity to boast at former bullies, Joplin’s visit to her former high school was yet another display of her outsider status. Joplin’s chronic history of emotional pain and isolation eventually lead to her demise, as she would die, alone, through drug overdose.

There is no mistake that Gaga and Joplin are two very different characters in music. Gaga may have felt freakish in her adolescent years, but it is safe to say that it was Joplin who suffered severe internal devastation, coming from family and peers alike.

Nevertheless, at their former high schools both Gaga and Joplin took the opportunity to live out a popular fantasy. Being able to gloat at former naysayers is a victorious moment that one may often hope to experience, with some of us even eagerly practicing potential scenarios in daily life.

While some of us may never get to enjoy this kind of glory, or feel it as we would have imagined, it is no question that adversity powers great music.  The woe of the freak will continue to fuel our most cherished art, regardless of what popular views may govern.

Tags: Music

Rock n’ Roll top 100 lists are obviously arbitrary. If you do a quick search on Google you can find links to the top 100 guitarists, vocalists, bassists, roadies (okay, maybe not roadies) of all time. And, in a crunched list of only 100, there are sure to be a list of snubs that will make people angry. But, take these top 100 lists for what they are. An effort to appease the masses searching for a top 100 list so they can see where their favorite lands and then…well…probably complain. Now, it can be misconstrued that this is what I will be doing in this post, but please do not misinterpret. I am simply asking the question, does Mitch Mitchell deserve a better spot than 23 on the list of top drummers of all time?

Mitch Mitchell is an often forgotten about drummer. He may not have  had the flare of a Keith Moon (The Who) or the skill of Neil Peart (Rush) or John Bonham (Led Zeppelin), but, when you enter the realm of fusion drumming, Mitchell must be placed up there with the best of them. We will get into the fusion style in a little bit. Mitchell is best known for his library of work with Jimi Hendrix and his Experience (Noel Redding and Mitchell). Mitchell actually won the drummer position on a coin flip, beating out Aynsley Dunbar (who according to Experience manager Chas Chandler, was their other choice). Dunbar’s career did not take much of a hit from the decision. He flourished into an accomplished drummer and has played with a tremendous list of diverse rock acts. In case you were wondering, he is 27th on the rock n’ roll drummers top 100 list.

Mitchell=23 and Dunbar=27; I bet you are wondering who is smacked in the middle of these skilled drummers. Well, none other than Michael Shrieve, who, at 20 years old, took the stage with Santana on day two of the Woodstock music festival (Mitch Mitchell would come on to close out the festival with Jimi less than two days later) and blasted through a drum solo during an extended version of “Soul Sacrifice,” which, may just be one of the greatest solos of all time. For those that think differently, one must look at the circumstances. Similar to DeWayne Wise’s catch to save Mark Buehrle’s perfect game in the ninth, Shrieve’s drum solo was incredibly clutch. He was an inexperienced drummer who, because of the performance, may have very well propelled a lesser known Santana into the spotlight.

Like Shrieve's solo...Awesome!

I got sidetracked. Let’s move on. With the Experience, Mitchell released several albums and recorded numerous impressive drum tracks that provided the classic Hendrix blues/psychedelic sound a large boost. Mitchell, in 1969, played with the one-off collaboration of The Dirty Mac, who I talked about yesterday. He also performed with the short-lived Jack Bruce and Friends band which featured Mitchell, Bruce, keyboardist Mike Mandel and frontman Larry Coryell.

Demonstrating his devotion to Hendrix’s work, Mitchell helped with the posthumous releases of both The Cry of Love and Rainbow Bridge. He then went on to form an unsuccesful, but ambitious act named Ramatam, with guitarists Mike Pinera (Iron Butterfly) and April Lawton (who some consider to be the female Jimi Hendrix). Ramatam actually opened for Emerson, Lake & Palmer. When ELP was forming Mitchell and Hendrix were offered spots in the supergroup that Keith Emerson and Greg Lake were creating, but this never came to fruition. Wow, if Hendrix stayed alive and Mitchell and Hendrix ended up combining with Emerson and Lake, oh my goodness what a band. But, Carl Palmer – who is one of the greatest drummers of all time (ranked 4th on the ultimate list) – ended up receiving the spot.

Mitchell continued performing through the years, and passed away after the 2008 Experience Hendrix Tour. He died on November 12, 2008. Yet, Mitchell’s incredible sound lives on through his sensational performances with the Experience.

Mitchell blended jazz and rock drumming styles (fusion) and successfully developed an interesting interplay with Hendrix’s lead guitar, thereby creating “lead drums,” a rare concept in an emerging rock scene. Lead drums, of course, was not a new concept in the world of jazz. Mitchell, a jazz drummer at heart,  was inspired by the work of Elvin Jones, Joe Morello and Max Roach, all famous jazz percussionists. Mitchells drumming, consistent with the jazz style of making a melody with the drums, made heavy use of jazz patterns, fast rolls and snare rudiments. Now, all of these drumming terms may confuse anyone who does not play or know the drums well (I am raising my hand at this as well). So, the best way to learn is through hearing and seeing. For that, I am going to take you out to Woodstock in 1969. Listen here for the rudiment-heavy fills in “Hey Joe” and think, does Mitch Mitchell deserve a higher spot on the top 100 drummers list?

Tags: Music