Love her or hate her but you can’t deny her

because deep down you knew she was the free spirit

you secretly wanted to be.

Maybe your mama didn’t like her and your daddy

called her white trash,

but on that stage, she had a presence

that couldn’t be denied.

Maybe you got high and maybe you didn’t

but you grooved right there with her and you

became her and she you because Baby, Baby,

when those bluesy notes rose up from her throat

you wanted to jump up on that stage and bawl

your eyeballs out right there with her.

Love her or hate her but you can’t deny her.

When she sang the blues, you felt her pain right

down to your pretty pink painted toenails.

Talk about love, how it catches you on fire

and turns you inside out, well Janis wrote the

book on love Baby!

Whether that love was Southern Comfort or

Bobby McGee her emotions were out there

for everyone to see, with no apologies or pretenses, 

writhing and wailing on stage

till’ you’d take that piece of her heart,

that ball and chain, just to relieve her pain,

because she shone brighter than any stars in your sky.

Love her or hate her but you can’t deny her.

When she was on that stage, she was bigger than life itself.

She made love to that microphone and her deep, raspy voice

reached clear down to your soul.

And you didn’t care about her looks or bad habits or

sexual preferences.

It only mattered that she sing, and keep on singing

because when you got a little jolt of that starshine

you knew, it didn’t get any better than this!

Love her or hate her but you can’t deny her,

no more than she could deny herself.