Janis Joplin
Janis Lyn Joplin (
January 19,
1943 –
October 4,
1970) was an
American blues-influenced
rock singer and occasional
songwriter with a distinctive voice. Joplin released four
albums as the frontwoman for several bands from
1967 to a
posthumous release in
1971.
Early Life
Joplin was born at St. Mary Hospital in
Port Arthur,
Texas. The daughter of Seth Joplin, a worker at
Texaco, she had two younger siblings, Michael and Laura. She grew up listening to
blues musicians such as
Bessie Smith,
Odetta, and
Big Mama Thornton and singing in the local
choir. While at
Thomas Jefferson High School, she was mostly shunned. Primarily a painter, it was in high school that she first began singing blues and
folk music with friends. Joplin graduated in
1960 and attended the
University of Texas in
Austin, though she never attained a
degree. One persistent story is of her being voted the winner of a Fraternity contest "The Ugliest Man on Campus."
Cultivating a rebellious manner that could be viewed as "liberated" — the
women's liberation movement was still in its infancy at this time — Joplin styled herself in part after her female blues heroines, and in part after the
beat poets. She left Texas for
San Francisco in
1963, lived in
North Beach and in
Haight-Ashbury as well as
Corte Madera. Around this time her drug use began to increase, and she acquired a reputation as a "
speed freak" and occasional
heroin user. She also used other
intoxicants. She was a
heavy drinker throughout her career, and her trademark beverage was
Southern Comfort.
Like many other female singers of the era, Joplin's feisty public image was at odds with her real personality. The book
Love, Janis, written by her sister, has done much to further the reassessment of her life and work and reveals the private Joplin to have been a highly intelligent, articulate, shy and sensitive woman who was devoted to her family.
Big Brother and the Holding Company
Joplin again moved to San Francisco in
1966, where her bluesy vocal style saw her join
Big Brother and The Holding Company, a band that was gaining some renown among the nascent
hippie community in
Haight-Ashbury. The band signed a deal with independent
Mainstream Records and recorded an eponymously titled album in
1967. However, the lack of success of their early singles led to the album being withheld until after their subsequent success.
The band's big break came with their performance at the
Monterey Pop Festival, which included a version of
Big Mama Thornton's "
Ball and Chain" and featured a barnstorming vocal by Joplin. (The
D.A. Pennebaker documentary
Monterey Pop captured
Cass Elliot in the crowd silently mouthing "Wow, that's really heavy" during Joplin's performance.) Their
1968 album
Cheap Thrills featured more raw emotional performances and together with the Monterey performance, it made Joplin into one of the leading musical stars of the late Sixties. It also produced Joplin's breakthrough hit single, "
Piece of My Heart", whose chorus would be borrowed two years later by
Alive N Kickin''s
one-hit wonder "Tighter, Tighter".
|
Janis Joplin singing, from the cover of the posthumous album Super Hits |
Solo career and Woodstock
After splitting from Big Brother, she formed a new backup group, modelled on the classic soul revue bands, named the
Kozmic Blues Band, which backed her on
I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama! (
1969: the year she played at
Woodstock). That group was indifferently received and soon broke up, and Joplin then formed what is arguably her best backing group, The
Full Tilt Boogie Band. The result was the posthumously released
Pearl (
1971). It became the biggest selling album of her short career and featured her biggest hit single, the definitive version of
Kris Kristofferson's "
Me and Bobby McGee", as well as the wry social commentary of the
a cappella "
Mercedes-Benz", written by Joplin and beat poet
Michael McClure.
Among her last public appearances were two broadcasts of
The Dick Cavett Show on
June 25 and
August 3,
1970. On the June 25 show she announced that she would attend her ten-year
high school Class reunion, although she admitted that when in high school she had been "laughed out of class, out of school, out of town, out of the state". She made it there, but it would be one of the last decisions of her life and it reportedly proved to be a rather unhappy experience for her.
During the fall
1970 recording sessions for the
Pearl album with
The Doors and
Phil Ochs producer
Paul A. Rothchild, Joplin
died, aged 27, of an
overdose of unusually pure
heroin (probably because her dealer didn't cut it) and
alcohol, after being off drugs for a period of time. This occurred on
October 4,
1970, in Room 105 of the
Landmark Motor Hotel, located at 7047 Franklin Avenue in
Hollywood, California. The last recordings she completed were "
Mercedes-Benz" and a birthday greeting for
John Lennon on
October 1,
1970; Lennon later told
Dick Cavett that her taped greeting arrived at his
New York home after her death.
She was
cremated in the
Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in
Westwood, California, and her ashes were scattered into the
Pacific Ocean. The album
Pearl, released six weeks after her death, included a version of
Nick Gravenites' song "Buried Alive In The Blues", which was left as an instrumental because Joplin had died before she was able to record her vocal over the backing track.
Not recognized by her hometown during her life, she was remembered much later. In 1988, her life and achievements were showcased and recognized in
Port Arthur by the dedication of the Janis Joplin Memorial, with an original bronze, multi-image sculpture of Joplin by
Douglas Clark.
The 1979 film
The Rose was loosely based on Joplin's life. The lead role earned
Bette Midler an Academy Award nomination as Best Actress. In the late 1990s, a musical based on "Love, Janis," was launched, with an aim to take it to
Off-Broadway. Opening there in the summer of 2001 and scheduled for only a few weeks of performances, the show won acclaim and packed houses and was held over several times, the demanding role of the singing Janis attracting rock vocalists from relative unknowns to pop stars
Laura Branigan and
Beth Hart. A national tour followed.
Joplin is now remembered best for her powerful, sexy and distinctive voice — her rasping,
overtone-rich sound was significantly divergent from the soft
folk and
jazz-influenced styles that were common among white artists at the time — as well as for her lyrical themes of pain and loss. To many she personified that period of the Sixties when the San Francisco sound, along with (then considered) outlandish dress and life style jolted the country. Few forget her appearance on the Dick Cavett show with an obviously delighted Dick Cavett.
*Website by the Joplin estate
*Janis Joplin's Kozmic Blues - janisjoplin.net
*"Joplin, Janis Lyn" in The Handbook of Texas Online
*Janis Joplin at Find-A-Grave
*Tribute to Janis Joplin; Germany
*Southern Comfort Blues Band - A Janis Joplin Tribute (US)
*Spotlight on Janis Joplin - Taking a Piece of Her Heart
*Janis Joplin Yahoo-Music Website (incl. biography by Richie Unterberger)
