Make Up Your Mind

Janis Joplin wrote ‘Move Over’ and recorded it on her second and final solo studio album Pearl that was released in 1971, three months after her death on October 4, 1970.  This was the only album she recorded with the Full Tilt Boogie Band, her final touring unit.  It peaked at #1 on the Billboard 200, and held that spot for nine weeks.  It has been certified quadruple platinum by the RIAA.  The Pearl album was listed at #122 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.  The Full Tilt Boogie Band were the musicians who accompanied her on the Festival Express, a concert tour by train of Canada, in the summer of 1970.  Many of the songs on this album were recorded on the concert stage in Canada two months before Joplin and the band started their Los Angeles recording sessions.  The band also appeared twice on The Dick Cavett Show.  They also played many American cities, both before and after Festival Express, although no recordings of those concerts have been officially released.

Janis said that she wrote this song about men, specifically the guy who tells you your relationship is over, but he won’t move on, because this guy is holding on to love the way that one would dangle a carrot in front of a mule.  Janis was a sensitive person and she felt the condemnation of being an outcast, and the pain that was inflicted on her by the men that she loved, the ones who could never seem to stick around, and this made her believe like she was missing out on something.  Janis Joplin’s relationships became legendary, as she dated both men and women at a time when society had a much narrower view on this type of behavior, even in the hippie time of free love.  Despite living a regretfully short, drug-stunted life, Joplin became romantically entangled with several people.  Janis used this song to take a swipe at her problematic ex, and air the personal issues that she was dealing with at the time.  Janis used her music to turn her turbulent personal struggles into something beautiful.

Clive Davis had never signed anybody before he watched Janis perform at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival.  He had this spine-tingling feeling that he was witnessing a musical, cultural and social revolution.  He had nothing whatsoever to do with causing the revolution, but he was fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time.  He felt like he had to act on this opportunity, and that this epiphany would change his life forever.  This first signing gave him the confidence that he could do well in a world that was new to him and he was finally getting comfortable in the record industry.  At the time, the band was signed to Mainstream Records, but he bought their contract for $200,000.

You say that it’s over baby, Lord
You say that it’s over now
But still you hang around me, come on
Won’t you move over

You know that I need a man, honey Lord
You know that I need a man
But when I ask you to you just tell me
That maybe you can

Please don’t you do it to me babe, no!
Please don’t you do it to me baby
Either take this love I offer
Or just let me be

I ain’t quite a ready for walking, no no no no
I ain’t quite a ready for walking
And what you gonna do with your life
Life all just dangling?

Oh yeah
Make up your mind, honey
You’re playing with me, hey hey hey
Make up your mind, darling
You’re playing with me, come on now
Now either be my loving man
I said-a, let me honey, let me be, yeah

You say that it’s over, baby, no
You say that it’s over now
But still you hang around me, come on
Won’t you move over

You know that I need a man, honey, I told you so
You know that I need a man
But when I ask you to you just tell me
That maybe you can

Hey! Please don’t you do it to me, babe, no
Please don’t you do it to me baby
Either take this love I offer
Honey let me be

I said won’t you, won’t you let me be
Honey, you’re teasing me
Yeah, you’re playing with my heart, dear
I believe you’re toying with my affections, honey

I can’t take it no more baby
And furthermore, I don’t intend to
I’m just tired of hanging from the end of a string, honey
You expect me to fight like a goddamned mule
Wah, wah, wah, wah, honey

Written for Song Lyric Sunday where the theme is Clive Davis Day.