"Kozmic Blues" is a song from American singer-songwriter Janis Joplin's I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama! album, her first after departing Big Brother and the Holding Company. It was a part of Joplin's set at the Woodstock Festival in 1969.
This song is about hope and trying to see the good in situations, but always seeming to come up short - something that is a common blues theme. Said Joplin: "'Kozmic Blues' just means that no matter what you do, man, you get shot down anyway."
Joplin didn't write that many songs, but she composed this one with her producer, Gabriel Mekler. She explained that she needed to be in a state of trauma and duress in order to write a song, and that's exactly the state she found herself in when she came up with "Kozmic Blues," which described her condition at the time. "I can't write a song unless I'm really traumatic, emotional, and I've gone through a few changes, I'm very down," she said in Rolling Stone. "No one's ever gonna love you any better and no one's gonna love you right."
This is one of the tracks that showcased Joplin's powerful vocals and her ability to lose herself in a song. She would sometimes enter an almost trance-like state when performing it, as she summoned up the pain that led her to write the song.
Lyrics
Time keeps moving on,
Friends they turn away, Lordy Lord.
Well, I keep moving on
But I never found out why
I keep pushing so hard a dream,
I keep trying to make it right
Through another lonely day.
Whoa don't discover it lasts
Honey, time keeps a-moving on, hey yeah, yeah yeah.
Well, I'm twenty-five years older now
So I know it can't be right
And I'm no better baby and I can't help you no more
Than I did when I was just a girl. Yeah!
But it don't make no difference baby, no, no,
Cause I know that I could always try.
There's a fire inside of everyone of us, huh-uh,
I'm gonna need it now,
I'm gonna hold it yeah,
I'm gonna use it till the day I die.
Don't, honey, don't you expect any answers, dear,
Ah, I know they don't come with ease, no, no, no, no.
Hey, I ain't never gonna love you any better baby
Cause I'm never gonna love you right
So you better take it now, I said right yes now, yeah.
But it don't make no difference baby, no, no,
Cause I know that I could always try.
There's a fire inside of everyone of us, huh-uh,
I'm gonna need it now,
I'm gonna use it yeah,
I'm gonna hold it till the day I die.
Don't make no difference babe, no, no, no,
Honey, I hate to be the one.
I said you're gonna live your life
And you're gonna love, love, love your life.
I'm gonna need it now,
I'm gonna hold it yeah,
I'm gonna use it, say, whoa
Don't make no difference, baby, no, no, no,
Honey, I hate, I hate to be the one.
I said every time you're gonna want to love somebody,
Every time you're gonna want to need somebody,
You're gonna want to turn around, I'm gonna be there.
No no no no no, no no no no no, no no no no.
When you're gonna put out your hand,
All your want is some kind of lovin' man,
He ain't gonna be there, I said, not here.
No no no no, no no no no, no no no no,
No no no, no no no, no no no no,
No no no no, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa
Whoa, wah wah, whoa,
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa
Honey when I want to reach out my hand
I said darling all I ever wanted
Was for you to understand me now, whoa
Ah baby, I want to sing about me Lord, honey, every day yeah!
Songwriters: Janis Joplin / Gabriel Mekler
Kozmic Blues lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
