Big Mama Thornton died on this day thirty years ago. Here she is in one of her last performances, singing the song she wrote but that Janis Joplin made famous, “Ball ‘n’ Chain.”

Ed Kilgore

Ed Kilgore is a political columnist for New York and managing editor at the Democratic Strategist website. He was a contributing writer at the Washington Monthly from January 2012 until November 2015, and was the principal contributor to the Political Animal blog.