BIG MAMA THORNTON

WHEN Big Mama Thornton took the stage in 1977, she was struggling. Despite pioneering rock, blues and R&B in the 1950s, she’d been largely forgotten except as someone whose songs were covered and whose style was copped by Elvis and Janis Joplin, among others. Influence, however, doesn’t pay the bills. She toured continuously to survive, despite being so physically weak that she had to be helped onstage. Alcoholism hastened her decline and ravaged