Janis Joplin

Janis Lyn Joplin (January 19, 1943 – October 4, 1970) was an American singer, songwriter and music arranger. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist. Rolling Stone magazine ranked Joplin number 46 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time in 2004, and number 28 on its 2008 list of 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.

Early life: 1943–1965

As a teenager, she befriended a group of outcasts, one of whom had albums by African-American blues artists Bessie Smith and Leadbelly, whom Joplin later credited with influencing her decision to become a singer. She began singing in the local choir and expanded her listening to blues singers such as Odetta and Big Mama Thornton.

Primarily a painter while still in school, she first began singing blues and folk music with friends. While at Thomas Jefferson High School, she stated that she was mostly shunned. The campus newspaper ran a profile of her in 1962 headlined "She Dares To Be Different." She left Texas for San Francisco in January 1963, living in North Beach and later Haight-Ashbury. In 1964, Joplin and future Jefferson Airplane guitarist Jorma Kaukonen recorded a number of blues standards, further accompanied by Margareta Kaukonen on typewriter (as percussion instrument). This session included seven tracks: "Typewriter Talk," "Trouble In Mind," "Kansas City Blues," "Hesitation Blues", "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out", "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy" and "Long Black Train Blues," and was later released as the bootleg album The Typewriter Tape.

Around this time her drug use increased, and she acquired a reputation as a "speed freak" and occasional heroin user. She also used other psychoactive drugs and was a heavy drinker throughout her career; her favorite beverage was Southern Comfort.

In the spring of 1965, Joplin's friends, noticing the physical effects of her amphetamine habit (she was described as "skeletal" Her first public performance with them was at the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco. Due to persistent persuading by keyboardist and close friend Stephen Ryder, Joplin avoided drug use for several weeks, enjoining bandmate Dave Getz to promise that using needles would not be allowed in their rehearsal space or in the communal apartment where they lived. during a four week engagement in Chicago, the group signed a deal with independent label Mainstream Records.

In early 1967, Joplin met Country Joe McDonald of the group Country Joe and the Fish. The pair lived together as a couple for a few months. the group began its first East Coast tour in Philadelphia, and the following day gave their first performance in New York City at the Anderson Theater.

Cheap Thrills, which gave the band a breakthrough hit single, "Piece of My Heart", reached the number one spot on the Billboard charts eight weeks after its release, remaining for eight (nonconsecutive) weeks.

Full Tilt Boogie Band

Joplin attended the reunion on August 14, accompanied by fellow musician and friend Bob Neuwirth, road manager John Cooke, and her sister Laura, but it reportedly proved to be an unhappy experience for her. Joplin held a press conference in Port Arthur during her reunion visit. Interviewed by Rolling Stone journalist Chet Flippo, she was reported to wear enough jewelry for a "Babylonian whore." Also included was the social commentary of the a cappella "Mercedes Benz", written by Joplin, close friend and song writer Bob Neuwirth and beat poet Michael McClure. In 2003, Pearl was ranked #122 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

During the recording sessions for Pearl, Joplin began seeing Seth Morgan, a 21 year-old Berkeley student, cocaine dealer and future novelist; He saw Joplin's psychedelically painted Porsche still in the parking lot. Upon entering her room, he found her dead on the floor. The official cause of death was an overdose of heroin, possibly combined with the effects of alcohol. Cooke believes that Joplin had accidentally been given heroin which was much more potent than normal, as several of her dealer's other customers also overdosed that week.

Joplin was cremated in the Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Mortuary in Los Angeles; her ashes were scattered from a plane into the Pacific Ocean and along Stinson Beach. The only funeral service was a private affair held at Pierce Brothers and attended by Joplin's parents and maternal aunt.

Joplin's will funded $2,500 to throw a wake party in the event of her demise. The party, which took place October 26, 1970, at the Lion's Share, located in San Anselmo California, was attended by her sister Laura and Joplin's close friends, that included tattoo artist Lyle Tuttle; Joplin's fiancé Seth Morgan; Bob Gordon; and her road manager, John Cooke. Brownies laced with hashish were unknowingly passed around. Her death at age 27 has caused her to be included in a phenomenon rock historians call the 27 Club.

Legacy

Joplin's death in October, 1970 at the age of 27 stunned her fans and shocked the music world. Her death was coupled with the fact that another rock icon Jimi Hendrix had died earlier in September. Music historian Tom Moon wrote that Joplin had "a devastatingly original voice." Music columnist Jon Pareles of the New York Times wrote Joplin as an artist was "overpowering and deeply vulnerable." Author Megan Terry claimed the Joplin was the female version of Elvis Presley in the ability to captivate an audience.

Joplin's extraordinary success as a pioneer in a male-dominated rock industry of the late 1960s was unprecedented. Joplin, along with Grace Slick of the Jefferson Airplane, opened opportunities into the rock music business for future female singers. Stevie Nicks commented that after seeing Joplin perform, "I knew that a little bit of my destiny had changed. I would search to find that connection that I had seen between Janis and her audience. In a blink of an eye she changed my life."

Joplin's body decoration, with a wristlet and a small heart on her left breast, by the San Francisco tattoo artist Lyle Tuttle, is taken as a seminal moment in the tattoo revolution and was an early moment in the popular culture's acceptance of tattoos as art. Another trademark was her flamboyant hair styles, often including colored streaks and accessories such as scarves, beads and feathers.

Leonard Cohen's 1974 song "Chelsea Hotel #2" is about Joplin. Likewise, lyricist Robert Hunter has commented that Jerry Garcia's "Birdsong" from his first solo album, Garcia, is about Joplin and the end of her suffering through death. Mimi Fariña's song "In the Quiet Morning" is about Joplin's death.

The 1979 film The Rose was loosely based on Joplin's life. Originally titled Pearl, after Joplin's nickname, and the title of her last album, it was fictionalized after her family declined to allow the producers the rights to her story. Bette Midler earned a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance.

In 1988, the Janis Joplin Memorial, with an original bronze, multi-image sculpture of Joplin by Douglas Clark, was dedicated in Port Arthur, Texas.

Joplin was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995, and was given a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005. In November 2009, the Hall of Fame and museum honored her as part of its annual American Music Masters Series. Among the artifacts at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum Exhibition are Joplin's scarf and necklaces, her 1965 Porsche 356 Cabriolet with psychedelically designed painting, and a sheet of LSD blotting paper designed by Robert Crumb, designer of the Cheap Thrills cover. She was the honoree at the Rock Hall's American Music Master concert and lecture series for 2009.

In the late 1990s, the musical play Love, Janis was created with input from Janis's younger sister Laura plus Big Brother guitarist Sam Andrew, with an aim to take it to Off Broadway. Opening 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.

At the 2009 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Janis, a one-woman show by Nicola Haydn, which imagined the last hour of Joplin's life, gained its first substantial run. It was nominated for 'Best Solo Performance' in The Stage Awards for Acting Excellence. The production tour bus also used a recreation of Joplin's Porsche by Brighton graffiti artist Req — on a VW Polo for budgetary reasons.

There have been many attempts at making a film about Joplin. On June 13, 2010, producer Wyck Godfrey said Amy Adams starred in director Fernando Meirelles' biographical drama, titled Janis Joplin: Get It While You Can.

Discography

; Kozmic Blues Band {| class="wikitable" |- ! Title !! Release date !! Label !! Notes |- | I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama! | 1969 | Columbia | Platinum RIAA |- | I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama! | 1969, CD 1999 | Legacy CK65785 | Contains 3 extra tracks |}

; Full Tilt Boogie {| class="wikitable" |- ! Title !! Release date !! Label !! Notes |- | Pearl | 1971 | Columbia | posthumous, 4x Multi-Platinum RIAA |- | Pearl | 1971, CD unknown date | Columbia CD64188 | |- | Pearl | 1971, CD 1999 | Legacy CK65786 | Contains 4 extra tracks |- | Pearl | 1971, 2CD 2005 | Legacy COL 515134 2 | CD1 – 6 other extra tracks
CD2 – full selection from The Festival Express Tour, 3 venues |}

; Big Brother & the Holding Company / Full Tilt Boogie {| class="wikitable" |- ! Title !! Release date !! Label !! Notes |- | In Concert | 1972 | Legacy CK65786 | ASIN: B0000024Y7 |}

; Later collections {| class="wikitable" |- ! Title !! Release date !! Label !! Notes |- | Janis Joplin's Greatest Hits | 1973 | Columbia | ASIN B00000K2W1, 7x Multi-Platinum RIAA |- | Janis | 1975 | CBS | 2 discs, Gold RIAA |- | Anthology | 1980 | | 2 discs |- | Farewell Song | 1983 | Columbia Records | ASIN: B000W44S8E |- | Cheaper Thrills | 1984 | Fan Club | ASIN: B000LYA9X8 |- | Janis | 1993 | Columbia Legacy | 3 discs – ASIN: B00000286P |- | 18 Essential Songs | 1995 | Columbia Legacy | ASIN: B000002B1A, Gold RIAA |- | The Collection | 1995 | 3 Discs | ASIN: B000BM6ATW |- | Live at Woodstock: August 19, 1969 | 1999 | | |- | Box of Pearls | 1999 | Sony Legacy | 5 Discs – ASIN: B0009YNSK6 |- | Super Hits | 2000 | Sony | ASIN: B00004T1E6 |- | Love, Janis | 2001 | Sony | ASIN: B00005EBIN |- | Essential Janis Joplin | 2003 | Sony | ASIN: B00007MB6Y |- | Very Best of Janis Joplin | 2007 | Import | ASIN: B000026A35 |- | The Woodstock Experience | 2009 | Legacy Recordings | |}

References

Further reading

External links

Category:1943 births Category:1970 deaths Category:American blues singers Category:American child singers Category:American female singers Category:American rhythm and blues singers Category:American rock singers Category:American soul musicians Category:Big Brother and the Holding Company members Category:1960s singers Category:1970s singers Category:Burials at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery Category:Deaths by heroin overdose in California Category:Female rock singers Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:Musicians from Texas Category:People from Austin, Texas Category:People from Beaumont, Texas Category:People from Port Arthur, Texas Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees‎ Category:University of Texas at Austin alumni