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.

Related Topics:
January 19 - 1943 - October 4 - 1970 - American - Blues - Rock - Songwriter - Album - 1967 - 1971

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Joplin was born at St. Mary's Hospital in Port Arthur, Texas. She grew up listening to blues musicians such as Bessie Smith and Big Mama Thornton and singing in the local choir. Joplin graduated from Jefferson High School in Port Arthur in 1960 and went to college at the University of Texas in Austin, though she never completed a degree. There, she began singing blues and folk music with friends.

Related Topics:
Port Arthur - Texas - Blues - Bessie Smith - Big Mama Thornton - Choir - Jefferson High School - 1960 - University of Texas - Austin - Folk music

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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. For a while she worked occasionally as a folk singer. 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.

Related Topics:
Women's liberation - Beat poet - San Francisco - 1963 - North Beach - Haight-Ashbury - Folk singer - Speed - Heroin - Intoxicants - Drinker - Southern Comfort

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After a return to Port Arthur to recuperate, she 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.

Related Topics:
1966 - Big Brother and The Holding Company - Hippie - Haight-Ashbury - Mainstream Records - 1967

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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.

Related Topics:
Monterey Pop Festival - Big Mama Thornton - D.A. Pennebaker - Monterey Pop - Cass Elliot - 1968 - Cheap Thrills

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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 cover version of Kris Kristofferson's "Me and Bobby McGee", as well as the wry social commentary of the a capella "Mercedes-Benz", written by beat poet Michael McClure.

Related Topics:
I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama! - 1969 - Woodstock - Full Tilt Boogie Band - Pearl - 1971 - Kris Kristofferson - Me and Bobby McGee - Mercedes-Benz - Michael McClure

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One of her last public appearances was on The Dick Cavett Show on June 25, 1970, where she announced that she would attend her ten-year high school 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.

Related Topics:
The Dick Cavett Show - June 25 - 1970

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Shortly thereafter, during the September 1970 recording sessions for the Pearl album with Doors producer Paul A. Rothchild, Joplin died of an overdose of unusually pure heroin on October 4, 1970 in a Los Angeles motel room, aged only 27.

Related Topics:
Pearl - Doors - Paul A. Rothchild - Overdose - Heroin - October 4 - 1970 - Los Angeles

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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.

Related Topics:
Cremated - Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery - Westwood, California - Pacific Ocean - Nick Gravenites

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