Singer Janis Joplin was perhaps the premier blues-influenced singer of
the '60s, and certainly one of the biggest female stars of her time.
Even before her death, Janis Joplin tough blues-mama image only barely
covered her vulnerability. The publicity concerning Janis Joplin's sex
life and problems with alcohol and drugs made her something of a
legend. In recent years, periodic attempts to recast her life and work
within the context of feminism have met with mixed results, and of her
deceased contemporaries (Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, et al.), she is
perhaps the least well known to younger audiences.
Born into a comfortable middle-class family, Joplin was a loner by her
early teens, developing a taste for blues and folk music; soon she
retreated into poetry and painting. She ran away from home at age 17
and began singing in clubs in Houston and Austin, Texas, to earn money
to finance a trip to California. By 1965, she was singing folk and
blues in bars in San Francisco and Venice, California; had dropped out
of several colleges; and was drawing unemployment checks. She returned
to Austin in 1966 to sing in a country & western band, but within a
few months a friend of San Francisco impresario Chet Helms told her
about a new band, Big Brother and the Holding Company [see entry],
which needed a singer in San Francisco. She returned to California and
joined Big Brother.
Joplin and Big Brother stopped the show at the 1967 Monterey Pop
Festival; Albert Grossman agreed to manage them, and Joplin was on her
way to becoming a superstar. After a fairly successful first LP in 1967
with Big Brother, Columbia Records signed the unit; and Cheap Thrills,
with the hit single “Piece of My Heart” (#12, 1968), became a gold #1
album. Within a year Joplin had come to overshadow her backing band,
and she left Big Brother (though she appears, uncredited, on a few
tracks on the group’s 1971 Be a Brother LP), taking only guitarist Sam Andrew with her to form the Kozmic Blues Band.
Joplin toured constantly and made television appearances as a guest with Dick Cavett, Tom Jones, and Ed Sullivan. Finally the Kozmic Blues
LP appeared, with gutsy blues-rock tracks like “Try (Just a Little Bit
Harder).” During this time she became increasingly involved with
alcohol and drugs, eventually succumbing to heroin addiction. Yet her
life seemed to be taking a turn for the better with the recording of Pearl. She was engaged to be married and was pleased with the Full Tilt Boogie Band she’d formed for the Pearl
album (Pearl was her nickname). On October 4, 1970, her body was found
in her room at Hollywood’s Landmark Hotel, face down with fresh
puncture marks in her arm. The death was ruled an accidental heroin
overdose.
The posthumous Pearl LP (#1, 1971) yielded
her #1 hit version of former lover Kris Kristofferson’s “Me and Bobby
McGee” and was released with one track, “Buried Alive in the Blues,”
missing the vocals Joplin didn’t live to complete. Several more
posthumous collections have been released, as well as the 1974
documentary Janis. The 1979 film The Rose, starring
Bette Midler, was a thinly veiled account of Joplin’s career. She has
since been the subject of several biographies, including Love, Janis, penned by her therapist sister, Laura, and Alice Echols’ 1999 work, Scars of Sweet Paradise. Joplin’s former residence in San Francisco’s Haight district was converted into a drug rehab center in 1999.
from The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Simon & Schuster, 2001)
the '60s, and certainly one of the biggest female stars of her time.
Even before her death, Janis Joplin tough blues-mama image only barely
covered her vulnerability. The publicity concerning Janis Joplin's sex
life and problems with alcohol and drugs made her something of a
legend. In recent years, periodic attempts to recast her life and work
within the context of feminism have met with mixed results, and of her
deceased contemporaries (Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, et al.), she is
perhaps the least well known to younger audiences.
Born into a comfortable middle-class family, Joplin was a loner by her
early teens, developing a taste for blues and folk music; soon she
retreated into poetry and painting. She ran away from home at age 17
and began singing in clubs in Houston and Austin, Texas, to earn money
to finance a trip to California. By 1965, she was singing folk and
blues in bars in San Francisco and Venice, California; had dropped out
of several colleges; and was drawing unemployment checks. She returned
to Austin in 1966 to sing in a country & western band, but within a
few months a friend of San Francisco impresario Chet Helms told her
about a new band, Big Brother and the Holding Company [see entry],
which needed a singer in San Francisco. She returned to California and
joined Big Brother.
Joplin and Big Brother stopped the show at the 1967 Monterey Pop
Festival; Albert Grossman agreed to manage them, and Joplin was on her
way to becoming a superstar. After a fairly successful first LP in 1967
with Big Brother, Columbia Records signed the unit; and Cheap Thrills,
with the hit single “Piece of My Heart” (#12, 1968), became a gold #1
album. Within a year Joplin had come to overshadow her backing band,
and she left Big Brother (though she appears, uncredited, on a few
tracks on the group’s 1971 Be a Brother LP), taking only guitarist Sam Andrew with her to form the Kozmic Blues Band.
Joplin toured constantly and made television appearances as a guest with Dick Cavett, Tom Jones, and Ed Sullivan. Finally the Kozmic Blues
LP appeared, with gutsy blues-rock tracks like “Try (Just a Little Bit
Harder).” During this time she became increasingly involved with
alcohol and drugs, eventually succumbing to heroin addiction. Yet her
life seemed to be taking a turn for the better with the recording of Pearl. She was engaged to be married and was pleased with the Full Tilt Boogie Band she’d formed for the Pearl
album (Pearl was her nickname). On October 4, 1970, her body was found
in her room at Hollywood’s Landmark Hotel, face down with fresh
puncture marks in her arm. The death was ruled an accidental heroin
overdose.
The posthumous Pearl LP (#1, 1971) yielded
her #1 hit version of former lover Kris Kristofferson’s “Me and Bobby
McGee” and was released with one track, “Buried Alive in the Blues,”
missing the vocals Joplin didn’t live to complete. Several more
posthumous collections have been released, as well as the 1974
documentary Janis. The 1979 film The Rose, starring
Bette Midler, was a thinly veiled account of Joplin’s career. She has
since been the subject of several biographies, including Love, Janis, penned by her therapist sister, Laura, and Alice Echols’ 1999 work, Scars of Sweet Paradise. Joplin’s former residence in San Francisco’s Haight district was converted into a drug rehab center in 1999.
from The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Simon & Schuster, 2001)
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