[The Secret Life of J. Eddy Fink is] a real down. It's pretty awful, despite containing some interesting elements. There are only three truly good songs on it: Friends, Misery and Son; I include the latter on the basis of some rich, imagistic lyrics.

Friends is delightful, a loving parody of Dylan's c&w-tinged stuff, performed with exactly the right balance between mockery and conviction (except when Janis breaks up at one point). The words aren't parodic, for the most part, though they catch the flavor of Dylan in early songs like Don't Think Twice and All I Really Wanna Do. And I Did, Ma, on Janis' second album, was pure comedy, and can't be listened to very often; Friends invites rehearing.

Misery is one of the few hard rock things Janis has tried, and it works pretty well: good words…. (p. 19)

[Psycho] is really a shame: it's...