ladyislingering
retired
In honour of Janis Lyn Joplin
January 19th, 1943 - October 4th, 1970
Official Janis Joplin Website
Janis Joplin
Janis Joplin on Wikipedia
January 19th, 1943 - October 4th, 1970
Official Janis Joplin Website
Janis Joplin
Janis Joplin on Wikipedia
Before becoming one of rock's most influential and legendary female musicians, Janis Joplin was a taunted outcast at her high school, who struggled with finding acceptance and credibility from anyone who crossed her path. Born to Seth (a petrol engineer) and Dorothy (a college registrar) Joplin in Port Arthur, Texas, Janis came into this world in early 1943. Within her Christian family, she grew up with two younger siblings: a sister (Laura), and a brother (Michael).
Her parents noticed her charisma at an early age; Janis seemed to require a little more attention and recognition than other children, despite being called names like "pig" in school for being overweight, or "creep" for her unfortunate complexion during her teenage years. It would later be recognized that her appearance meant the world to her; she often took note of recent clothing purchases in letters to her family while she was being acquainted with the music business.
Though Janis was different from her peers, she found her social niche in a group of beatniks; despite this generalization of a term, these kids were writers, painters, thinkers, and genuinely especially unusual. Janis was soon introduced to the likes of gritty, raw, rich blues performers; she would later cite artists such as Odetta, Bessie Smith, and Big Mama Thornton as some of her greatest influences.
After graduating from high school in spring of 1960, Janis pursued higher education at the Lamar State College of Technology (Beaumont, TX); for a short time, but without completion, she also attended Austin's University of Texas in 1962. During this time, the school's newspaper dedicated a page to the unusual Miss Joplin, interviewing the someday-superstar and entitling it, "She Dares to be Different". Within the same year, she recorded her first song, "What Good Can Drinkin' Do".
The following year, Janis left Texas for the trendy city of San Francisco, California. Once finding her home within an equally trendy social circle, Janis met future Jefferson Airplane guitarist Jorma Kaukonen in 1964, and cut a session with a typewriter operated by a relative of Kaukonen's; this tape would later be popularly referred to by fans as The Typewriter Tape, containing seven songs accompanied by the machine then used as a musical instrument.
Within a year Janis became very ill; she regularly used psychoactive drugs, often with the consumption of her favourite drink - Southern Comfort. She developed an amphetamine habit that altered her appearance to the point where she would be described as "emaciated". Her friends in San Francisco were able to pool together enough for her to return to her home in Port Arthur, in order to become healthy again; in 1965 Janis worked to change her tune, avoiding drugs and alcohol to spare her life and enrolling in Lamar University as a sociology major.
Janis continued to perform, often by herself, and traveling to Austin every now and then for such purposes. She became engaged to a frequent visitor; sadly the relationship didn't last. This would prove to be an unfortunate trend in Janis' life.
In 1966 she was discovered by Chet Helms, who was managing Big Brother and the Holding Company. She agreed to relocate to the hip neighbourhood of Haight-Ashbury (San Francisco) and proudly avoided drugs for several weeks, requesting that needles would not be allowed in her workspace. Within just a few months the band was in financial straits, and moved into a house with members of The Grateful Dead in Lagunitas, California.
It was then that Janis was swallowed up into drugs once more; despite the release of the first Big Brother & The Holding Company album in 1967, nothing would compare to the breakthrough success of their appearance at the Monterey Pop Festival shortly thereafter. With unrivaled energy and emotion, Janis delivered "Ball and Chain" which (according to the film) made songstress Mama Cass Elliot say "Wow, that's really heavy!"
At the height of Janis' success with Big Brother & The Holding company, they appeared at a concert especially in honour of Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968, and also appeared on ABC's variety hour, "The Dick Cavett Show". In December of 1968, shortly after the release of their second LP, "Cheap Thrills", Janis performed with Big Brother for the last time before embarking on a rollicking solo career.
"Cheap Thrills" turned out one hit single that has been covered dozens of times by several different artists hailing from a wide array of genres to this day, and would remain one of Janis' most well-known vocal performances. It reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed there for eight consecutive weeks.
When Janis organized the Kozmic Blues Band, her sound changed for the likes of a brassier, funkier, and more soulful feel, a style that was found on many singles released under the Stax record label. Janis developed a heroin addiction that was costing her nearly 200 dollars a day by the beginning of 1969 despite her efforts to remain clean to record, "I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again, Mama!". The producer of this record, Gabriel Mekler, took Janis under his wing (and under his roof) to keep her away from drugs. Though this album was not as successful as "Cheap Thrills" (and was slammed by many critics) Janis still had an established fan base that was receptive to the seduction of her musical prowess.
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