Janis joplin wiki. Good Music: Janis Joplin

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Janis Joplin (Janis Joplin, English: Janis Lyn Joplin; January 19, 1943, Port Arthur, Texas - October 4, 1970, Los Angeles) - vocalist who worked with a number of bands in the genres of blues rock and psychedelic rock. Considered by many to be the greatest vocalist in the history of rock music.

Early years

Janis Lyn Joplin was born on January 19, 1943 in Port Arthur, Texas, the daughter of Seth Joplin, a Texaco worker (with his brother and sister, Michael and Laura). At school (Thomas Jefferson High School, Port Arthur), Janice was an exemplary student, exhibited her own drawings in the local library and generally conformed to the norms of public expectations. However, she had no friends: she communicated exclusively with guys. One of them, a football player named Grant Lyons, introduced her to Leadbelly's work, making her a passionate fan of this music. Soon Janice began performing the blues herself. Psychological problems(related mainly to overweight) began in adolescence: Janice had a hard time being bullied by her classmates and suffered from hatred of herself and the world around her. During these years, the explosive character of Janis Joplin was formed, who “stylized” herself after her blues heroines (Bessie Smith, Big Mama Thornton, Odetta).

In 1960, after graduating from high school, Janice entered Lamar College (Beaumont, Texas); She spent the summer of 1961 in Venice (Los Angeles area) among the beatniks, and in the fall, returning to Texas, she entered the university, where she appeared on stage for the first time, demonstrating expressive vocals with a three-octave operating range.

Janis Joplin's first band was the Waller Creek Boys, featuring R. Powell St. John, who wrote songs for the 13th Floor Elevators (and later founded Mother Earth). Here the first hoarseness appeared in her voice, which later grew to incredible proportions. The break with the student environment occurred in January '63. After one of the university newspapers awarded her the title of “the scariest of the guys,” Janice packed her things and hitched a ride with a friend named Chet Helms to San Francisco, where she quickly became a popular figure on the “coffee” scene performing with Jorma Kaukonen (later guitarist for Jefferson Airplane).

On June 25, 1964, the duo recorded seven blues standards ("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"), which were later released as a bootleg ("The Typewriter Tape"). A typewriter, on which Margarita Kaukonen played, was used as percussion.

The first experiments with amphetamines initially helped the singer get rid of both depression and excess weight, but after two years she found herself in a rehabilitation clinic, exhausted and devastated.

In the spring of 1966, old acquaintance Chet Helms invited Joplin to Big Brother & the Holding Company, a group whose affairs he himself managed. Helms, one of the leaders of the hippie commune Family Dog, owned the Avalon Ballroom concert hall: here the ensemble settled as residents: Sam Andrew (vocals, guitar), James Gurley (guitar), Peter Albin (bass), David Getz ( drums) and Janis Joplin (vocals).

On June 10, 1966, the first performance of the new band took place at Avalon. The singer instantly established contact with the audience and immediately became a local star. Two months later, Big Brother signed a contract with independent label Mainstream Records and went into the studio to record their debut, which was released only a year later, after Janis Joplin made a splash at the Monterey Festival (June 1967), where she "attracted attention with her unusually strong and rich hoarse voice, nervously energetic style of singing.” Her performance of "Ball and Chain" became the central episode of the film "Monterey Pop", which is still considered a masterpiece of rock documentary.

After the festival, new manager Albert Grossman (who also managed Bob Dylan's affairs) secured a contract with Columbia Records for the group. Mainstream Records did release the stale (but not entirely finished) debut of Big Brother & the Holding Company, which appeared at #60 on Billboard in August ’67 (Columbia later bought the rights to the record and made it a hit) .

On February 16, 1968, the band began their first East Coast tour, which ended on April 7 with a large Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial concert in New York City, which also featured Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Guy, Richie Havens, Paul Butterfield, and Alvin Bishop.

Janice cannot be called a beauty in the usual sense of the word, but she is undoubtedly a sex symbol, albeit in a somewhat unexpected “packaging”. Her voice combines the soul of Bessie Smith, the brilliance of Aretha Franklin, the drive of James Brown... Soaring to the heavens, this voice knows no boundaries and seems to generate within itself a divine polyphony. - Village Voice, February 22, 1968, about the band's concert at New York's Anderson Theater.

In March '68, the group began work on their second album, Cheap Thrills (the original title: "Dope, Sex and Cheap Thrills" had to be cut for obvious reasons). On October 12 of the same year, the record, the cover of which was designed by the famous underground cartoonist Robert Crumb, topped the Billboard lists and stayed at the top for 8 weeks. The hit Piece Of My Heart also contributed to the group's chart success. Live at Winterland '68, recorded at the Winterland Ballroom on April 12-13, 1968, also received rave reviews from the press.

As soon as the album gave way to Jimi Hendrix (“Electric Ladyland”), Joplin and guitarist Sam Andrew left Big Brother and formed their own ensemble, Janis & the Joplinaires, soon renamed Janis Joplin & Her Kozmic Blues Band. This constantly changing line-up lasted a year, but managed to conduct a European tour, ending with a triumphant concert at London's Albert Hall on April 21, 1969. In the summer, the group performed at a series of festivals (Newport, Atlanta, New Orleans, Woodstock), and was seen by more than a million spectators.

In October 1969, I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama! entered the top five of the Billboard 200 and soon went gold. Overall, however, the group was less well received than Big Brother. She gave her last concert on December 21, 1969 at New York's Madison Square Garden.

After disbanding the band, Joplin assembled The Full Tilt Boogie Band - mainly from Canadian musicians (bassist John Campbell, ex-Pauper, guitarist John Till, pianist Richard Bell, organist Ken Pearson, drummer Clark Pearson). In April, the group gathered for the first rehearsal, and in May they gave their first performances (in San Rafael, California). Before beginning a summer tour with The Full Tilt Boogie Band, Janice performed in a reunion concert with Big Brother & The Holding Company at the Fillmore West in San Francisco on April 4, 1970.

In the summer of 1970, Joplin and The Full Tilt Boogie Band took part in a superstar Canadian tour with The Band and The Grateful Dead. Due to financial troubles, the tour had to be suspended. Documentary film footage of Joplin's performances were made public only thirty years after her death.

In September, Janis Joplin and the band began working on the Pearl album, inviting producer Paul A. Rothschild, famous for his work with The Doors, into the studio. By this time, she was already sliding down an inclined plane, driven by heroin and alcohol, which only worsened her growing depression. On October 4, 1970, after drinking at the Barneys Binery on Santa Monica Boulevard, Janis Joplin was found dead in her room at the Landmark Hotel - the same day she was scheduled to record vocals for the album's final track, "Buried Alive in the Blues." "(literally: "buried alive in the blues"). She was only 27 years old. The cause of death was clearly indicated by traces of fresh injections. Her last recordings were “Mercedes Benz” and an audio greeting to John Lennon on his birthday on October 1, which arrived to him on the day of the singer’s death. Janice's remains were cremated and her ashes were scattered along the California coast.

Shortly after Janis Joplin's death, the album Pearl was released. On February 27, 1971, the album topped the Billboard 200 and stayed at the top for 9 weeks. This is also where Janis Joplin’s only chart-topper on the Billboard Hot 100 came from – Kris Kristofferson’s composition “Me and Bobby McGee” (March 20, 1971), final chord a rapid and vibrant creative life that left an indelible mark on the history of rock music.

In 1979, Joplin's favorite actress, Bette Midler, played the singer in the film Rose and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress for her role. In the 1990s, one of the most popular Broadway musicals was Love, Janis, based on the biographical book of Janis's sister. A new action film about her fate, “The Gospel According to Janice,” is planned for 2008.

Discography:
Janis Joplin & Jorma Kaukonen:
The Typewriter Tape (1964)
Big Brother and the Holding Company:
Big Brother & the Holding Company (1967)
Cheap Thrills (1968)
Live at Winterland '68 (1998)
Kozmic Blues Band:
I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama! (1969)
Full Tilt Boogie Band
Pearl (1971, posthumous)
In Concert (1972)

JOPLIN, JANICE (1943–1970), American rock singer, considered by critics to be the embodiment of 1960s rock culture. Born in Texas on January 19, 1943 into a prosperous family. At the age of 17, she left home and, in the hope of becoming a singer, went to California. In the mid-1960s, she performed in small clubs in San Francisco, performing things from the repertoire of her idols - folksingers and blues performers. She attracted attention with her unusually strong and rich hoarse voice and nervously energetic style of singing. At this time, the Big Brother and Holding Company group was looking for a vocalist, and someone remembered an amazing singer from Texas. Janice returned to San Francisco and became the lead singer of the group. Her first success came in 1967 at the Monterey rock festival, where she amazed listeners with piercingly energetic rock versions of blues and country ballads. Joplin did not sing, but shouted out lines of songs, conveying all the bitterness, pain and suffering of blues compositions. At the beginning of 1968, Janice's first tour of New York took place. The Columbia studio quickly recognized a promising talent in the lead singer of Big Brother, and the group received a contract. The album Cheap Thrills (1968) almost immediately became a bestseller. However, Janice decided to leave the group for solo career. Her debut album Again I was overcome by this universal melancholy, Mama (I Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again Mama!), which combined the styles of blues, soul and rock, was released in 1969 and immediately hit the charts. In the fall of 1970, Janice went to Los Angeles to work on recordings for the next album, but did not have time to finish the work. Joplin died in Los Angeles on October 3, 1970. The posthumously released album Pearl (1971) sold a million copies, and the single Me and Bobby McGee topped the Billboard chart. In the 1980s, two albums were released with previously unreleased recordings of the singer from the 1960s - Farewell Song (1982) and Big Brother and Holding Company Live (1985). A film was made about Joplin's life and work, The Rose, starring Bette Midler, and several biographies have been published, including Buried Alive by Myra Friedman. From the creative cauldron of Haight-Ashbury also came Big Brother and the Holding Company, with which the most interesting singer of that period, Janis Joplin, performed. Like many musicians who grew up in the California Bay Area, she was raised on blues and folk. But in the summer of '67, reworkings of blues numbers were increasingly interspersed with the sunny fantasies of soft rock, and then the music became heavier, more edgy. Jeremy Pascall, “The illustrated history of rock music,” Chapter 4. The Rock Era: 1967 - 1970. Musically, Janice gave rock very little: she left behind only a few records. Its significance lies elsewhere: it proved that women can sing rock music no worse than men. She was a broken girl: she drank a lot, took drugs, and there are many legends about her sexual conquests. On stage she was inimitable: powerful voice, absolute relaxedness, personal magnetism. She screamed her blues the way she felt them. Not an easy life pain and hatred burst into her songs. The public loved her, loved her passionately and lustfully. She was happy on stage, but not off stage. She once admitted: “On stage I make love to 25 thousand people, and then I go home alone.”
She died on October 4, 1970 in a Hollywood hotel room. Jeremy Pascall “The illustrated history of rock music”, Chapter 5. The fractured seventies.

Do you remember Janis Joplin?
Do you remember how she asked you to come back? How did she love? Janice and love are alike electric charge. Have you ever seen stars light up in the sky? This is how one of them lit up...
Little Janice Lyn was born at 9:45 on January 19, 1943 in Port Arthur, Texas. Well isn't this the beginning for good fairy tale? Fairy tales with sad endings...
Janice has been in love since childhood. One of her first boys was a boy with the simple name Jack Smith. Together they read books, including the Gospel. Childhood was still going on: one day Janice came to Jack so that he would invite her to the film “The 10 Commandments”. The poor boy didn't have any best idea than to break a piggy bank and come to the cinema with all this little change. While he dealt with the usherette, Jen stood aside. “Sorry, I lost money in a bet with a friend,” he said. Patting him on the shoulder, the girl laughed: “You don’t have to lie if you’re going to watch a film about God...”
As she approached the age of 14, she began to change. According to her sister Laura, wars broke out in the house if her mother thought about washing Janice’s clothes (“They weren’t dirty enough!”). She tried to be “one of” among the boy group. They were older, but they allowed her to become the same ragamuffin they were. Together they listened to Odette and Leadbelly, read Kerouac and dreamed of the romance of the highway.
Jenny was a funny and sweet kid. When the company was discussing who would drive the car in once again, she shouted: “The one with the biggest balls drives” and, laughing, got behind the wheel. Perhaps the feeling of being a girl-boy is what led Janice to free love late 60s.
After the first trip to San Francisco, Janice's company threw a party. Now every friend of hers had a girlfriend or wife. It weighed on her: “There’s Jack and Nova, Jim and Ray, Adrian and Gloria, this one and that one, but there’s always only Janis Joplin.”
Soon she had a friend, Sett, who asked for her hand in marriage. The wedding was planned for a few months after Christmas. It seemed that the little girl had found what she needed. One evening Jenny said to her sister, “I wish I had long, beautiful hair. During the day I would put it away, but every evening I would undo my hair in front of my husband. Strand by strand."
They corresponded, but soon he stopped writing completely. There was no more talk about the wedding.
In her book “Buried Alive,” Mira Friedman says that Janice’s inner emotional world was too small to worry about people and try to bring them joy. She liked it better when someone cared about her, loved her...
Another point of hers was that she loved to spread all sorts of stories about herself. She preferred to talk about the beginning of her fame like this: “I was fucked into being in Big Brother” (untranslatable play on words...). Now it is already difficult and, probably, there is no need to find out whether this was so or not.
They say that all of the Big Brothers were close to Janice in one way or another, they say that one-night stands were commonplace for her (but not the main thing, for sure), they say that among her men were Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix.
Believe it or not, Janice met Jim only once, and that time was unsuccessful. Paul Rothschild (producer of Janice and the Doors) hosted the press night. Between sips of her favorite whiskey, Janice pointed at Morrison and said, “I want that piece of meat.” When he tried to get into her car and be as close as possible, she began to resist and started empty bottle to his head. I must say, Jim was crazy about such women. He loved violence.
In an interview, she said: “I’m ready to give up everything I have if a person appears in my life who can love me.”
Probably, “the one” should have been David Niehaus, whom Janice met during the carnival in Rio, in February 1970. The acquaintance itself was peculiar:
- Hey, you remind me of some rock star. Joplin or something...
- I am Janis Joplin!
Despite her fame and vanity, David saw a person, not an icon. They felt good when they were together. And when they had to separate for a couple of days, her old “friend” Peggy Caserta came to Jen.
What can I say... the main thing in Janis Joplin's life was always music. She ran away from her to her lovers, but after all, “an hour of performing on stage is like a hundred orgasms at once,” because “you can leave everything, leave your house and friends, children and friends, old people and friends, anything that is in this world, except for music."
It is impossible to be Janis Joplin and not suffer from a stone on your neck, nicknamed the ephemeral word “love”. She passed all her passions through her creativity and let them go.
And you left, slamming the door.
And she left, saying only: “I’ve got a secret.”

Janis Joplin is an American rock singer, considered the best white blues singer and one of the greatest vocalists in the history of rock music.

She was born in Texas and was raised in an atmosphere of classical music and intellectual books. Her father Seth worked in a trading company, but at home he read books and listened to classical operas. Dorothy's mother devoted her life to raising children, although in her youth she was repeatedly offered to start a professional singing career.

Janice to school age She was intellectually precocious, which is why she regularly had conflicts with her classmates. What further aggravated the attitude of her peers towards her was the fact that Joplin had anti-racist views, which was something extraordinary at that time.

The girl’s creativity also showed up early. At first she became interested in painting and often painted pictures of biblical subjects. Later, Janice joined a semi-underground youth circle that studied modern literature, blues and folk music, and radical forms of art. It was there that the girl began to sing for the first time.

In 1960, Janis Joplin entered Lamar University in Texas, where she studied for only 3 years and eventually dropped out in order to completely go into the musical environment. By the way, from the first days at the university, rumors began to circulate about the outrageous girl.

How could it be otherwise if she came to lectures in jeans, which shocked people at that time? Moreover, Janice often walked the streets barefoot and carried with her everywhere string instrument zither As the student newspaper wrote about her:

“How dare she be different?”

Music

She began singing on stage while still in university, demonstrating to listeners her amazing vocals with three full-length octaves. The first song Janis Joplin recorded in the studio was the blues “What Good Can Drinking Do.” Later, with the support of friends, she released the album “The Typewriter Tape”.

After moving to California, the singer performed in numerous clubs and bars. She most often sang her own compositions - “Trouble In Mind”, “Kansas City Blues”, “Long Black Train Blues” and others. In 1966, Joplin joined the group Big Brother and the Holding Company. The talent of the new vocalist, as well as her charisma, brought the group to the forefront of the American scene, and Janice herself for the first time understood what it was like to bask in the rays of admiration.

Janis Joplin recorded two albums with the group, the second of which, Cheap Thrills, is considered one of the best records of the 60s. But at the peak of her popularity, the singer leaves the team because she wants to develop creatively.

Then there were the Kozmic Blues Band and the Full Tilt Boogie Band. But no matter what the groups were called, it was clear to everyone that the audience was going to a Janis Joplin concert. For the world community, she was at the same unattainable heights as the Rolling Stones.

Janis Joplin was the first white singer to act so freely on stage. She was completely immersed in the music she performed and disconnected from the real world.

Also before her, only black blues singers allowed their vocals to take on a life of their own. Joplin's performances were not just expressive, but truly aggressive. As one of the singer’s colleagues said, Janice’s concerts are reminiscent of a boxing match.

During her life, Janis Joplin did not record many studio albums, but she went down in history as a legend of rock music of the generation of beatniks and hippies. Last job there was a record in the studio called “Pearl”, which was released posthumously.

Also later, recordings of live performances “In Concert” and the collection “Janis” were published. There were many previously unreleased songs included, including the soulful and lyrical compositions “Mercedes Benz” and “Me and Bobby McGee.”

Personal life

Despite her openness and emphasized sexuality on stage, as well as the presence of many lovers, Janis Joplin always felt lonely. Among the men with whom the singer had close relationships are well known legendary musicians and Country Joe McDonald, lead singer of The Doors, as well as country singer Kris Kristofferson.

Many of Janice's acquaintances claimed that she sometimes had periods of excessive love, when Joplin even became bisexual. One of her more or less constant “friends” was Peggy Casserta.

Joplin's last lover was local rowdy Seth Morgan, whom she even planned to marry.

Death

Janis Joplin died on October 4, 1970, in a room at the Landmark Motor Hotel in Los Angeles. She's been on drugs for years varying degrees gravity, including purified heroin, which was found in her blood during the autopsy.

According to official information, the singer died from an unintentional drug overdose. But for a long time There were rumors of suicide among the public, since the young woman, despite worldwide fame and a seemingly improving personal life, was deeply unhappy and felt lonely and exhausted.

Also, for some time, the version of murder was considered due to the fact that no drugs were found in the room. In addition, Joplin's room was unnaturally tidy for her.

The remains of the rock musician were cremated, after which her ashes were scattered over the waters of the Pacific Ocean along the California coast. The last recording of Janis Joplin's voice was her audio congratulations to another legend of rock music -. The cassette was delivered to the recipient after the singer had passed away.

Discography

1964 - “The Typewriter Tape”
1967 - "Big Brother & the Holding Company"
1968 - "Cheap Thrills"
1969 - “I Got Dem Ol" Kozmic Blues Again Mama!"
1971 - "Pearl"
1972 - “In Concert”
1975 - "Janis"

Janis Lyn Joplin was born on January 19, 1943, and died on October 4, 1970, but during her short life, thanks to her emotional songwriting and volcanic performances, she managed to win millions of hearts around the world and leave an indelible mark on the history of rock. The singer spent her childhood in the small Texas town of Port Arthur. WITH early years the girl, known among her peers as an “ugly duckling,” was interested in literature and drawing, and most of all she was attracted to music. As a teenager, Janice became involved with the beatniks, in whose circles folk, jazz and blues were popular. Joplin really liked the blues, and she began to copy the style of such performers of the genre as Bessie Smith. At first, Janice performed in small Texas coffee houses, and then, together with the beatniks, began to wander around other states. This free life led the singer to become acquainted with alcohol and drugs, with which she now inextricably linked music.

Having traveled a fair amount, Janice returned home, but it was not interesting to sit in one place, and she went to California. The reason for this voyage was the offer of an old friend Chet Helms to audition for one group. Upon arrival in San Francisco, Joplin quickly disappeared among the hippie commune and became a member of the ensemble "".

This band, performing psychedelic blues, toured the California coast and was not very well known outside the region. "Big Brother" signed a contract with Mainstream Records and released one album and two singles on this company. However, since the label was small and practically did not promote discs, the first releases had almost no effect. When the "summer of love" arrived, Big Brother And The Holding Company performed at the Monterey International Pop Festival, and it turned out to be their finest hour. A stunning performance of the song "Ball And Chain" attracted a lot of attention to the group, and famous manager Albert Grossman immediately got down to business. He moved Big Brother from Mainstream to Columbia Records, where Cheap Thrills was released in August 1968.

The album has already won gold status for pre-orders, and such hits as “Piece Of My Heart” and “Summertime” brought the team to large stages. By the way, since the lion's share of success belonged to Janis Joplin, the group was now introduced as "Janis Joplin With Big Brother And Holding Company". The musicians' incomes jumped sharply, and they turned to expensive drugs. Against the backdrop of what was happening, relationships in the team began to deteriorate, and the group soon broke up.

Janice began a solo career and, taking guitarist Sam Andrew from the “holding”, recruited a new accompanying line-up, “Kozmic Blues Band”. Since she was now the sovereign mistress, the singer returned from psychedelics to her favorite soul-blues. The change in direction, indicated on the 1969 album "I Got Dem Ol" Kozmic Blues Again Mama!", caused a mixed reaction in the States, but Europe was choked with delight. Meanwhile, Janice's passion for alcohol and drugs continued, but one day the singer tried to break out of the vicious circle and reduced her consumption of speed. Having assembled a new team, “Full Tilt Boogie Band,” Joplin began recording her second solo album. On “Pearl,” the singer finally formed her vision of white blues and was very happy with this music. Unfortunately, during the sessions. Janice turned to heroin again, and this turned out to be the end of her. At one far from perfect moment, she miscalculated the dose and died.

"Pearl" with the hits "Me And Bobby McGee" and "Mercedes Benz" was released after the singer's death. Subsequently, all sorts of live albums and compilations were published, many of which were certified platinum and tended to be present on the Billboard charts. In 1995, Janice's name appeared in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and 10 years later she was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Last update 02/07/15

Joplin was one of the main ideologists of the hippie sexual revolution... She was imbued with its ideas even somehow “too much.”

She can safely be called the first lady of rock and one of the first real implementers of hippie ideas in life. Her voice tore at my ears and heart. It was she who once proclaimed: “My music is designed to awaken in you only one desire - to have sex!” Her life was short, bright, stormy and tragic. We are, of course, talking about Janis Joplin.

Janis Lyn Joplin was born on January 19, 1943 in the oil-industrial town of Port Arthur, Texas. She was the first-born child of Sethi and Dorothy Joplin. His father worked at a cannery, his mother was a secretary at a business college. The family was prosperous and quite prosperous, and early childhood Janice is quite cloudless. She was very pretty when she was little, and adults actively admired both her charming appearance and her drawing abilities.

And then her appearance began to change... Janice became very fat, her previously smooth skin became covered with acne, and her facial features became rough and expressionless. Her classmates teased her and called her a “pig.” And not only classmates. The town was small, and, as they say, there was nowhere to retreat. The girl hated mirrors and developed complexes.

The only thing she loved was to sing, secluded in some secluded corner. She got a good voice from her mother, who at one time successfully performed on the amateur stage.

Such a life could not help but develop in Janice a manner of active protest and opposition to everything and everyone. She began to learn to defend herself, creating a reputation for herself as a person who “doesn’t give a damn.” This position will have an impact on the rest of her life.

At the same time, in the family, environment, in the city, and indeed in the state, there was a strict code of traditions that had to be observed. It was all the more difficult for Janice, who risked advocating for blacks in racist Texas, wearing trousers and a shirt, swearing and not making any compromises. All this alienated her classmates even more.

When the hated school finally ended, Joplin performed for some time in Texas bars and restaurants, often for free or for treating her to dinner. Then she had already discovered the blues and found an idol in Bessie Smith. Along the way, the girl traveled to neighboring Louisiana, where she became addicted to alcohol. The age limit there, unlike Texas, was 18 years. And Janice enjoyed hanging out in Louisiana nightclubs.

Joplin studied at the University of Texas for some time, but even there she had to endure ridicule. She even earned the title of "ugliest girl on campus." Moreover, she strictly followed the “codes” of the hippie image, which were still excessively exotic for the conservative American South. She had already firmly grasped the postulates of her gurus Kerouac and Ginsberg: although the world may be imperfect, no one can change it, so today we will have fun full program.

Joplin eventually fled to San Francisco. This city enchanted her even during her first youth trip. And so it began! Her life in the city was marked by a continuous series of events: street concerts, an arrest for petty shoplifting, alcohol, as a result of which she was once hospitalized with a diagnosis of a kidney infection, and then drugs. And it would be okay if there was more weed, but soon Joplin tried mescaline, and then more hard drugs like LSD and Seconal. Sometimes she would lose control of herself, running out into the street in the middle of the night and throwing herself in front of cars or banging her head against walls. And after euphoria there was always depression.

However, along with this there were also creative successes. Joplin joined one group, with which she even recorded her first disc. But things didn’t work out with my personal life. Her friend, in whose apartment Janice, in love, lived for some time, simply threw her out onto the street. She cried and begged, but her lover was adamant. Since then, Joplin has decided never to succumb to such humiliation again. And – I fell into “free love in full”, without any restrictions. “Back then I could sleep with anyone or even anything... That’s what I did. I slept, sucked, licked, kissed, smoked, took drugs and fell in love,” Joplin later said.

At some point, she tried to escape from all this and even returned to her native Port Arthur, where she tried to become a respectable lady and marry the “right” man. He was a pharmacist and had the appearance of a decent gentleman, wearing a suit and tie and a neat hairstyle. How different he was from the hippies who surrounded Joplin! But in the end, the groom did not show up for the wedding.

It is unknown what would have happened to her if not for the guys from the group Big Brother & The Holding Company, who persuaded Joplin to return to San Francisco and become their vocalist. Their representative slept with Joplin to persuade her. This turned out to be enough. Later she will always say that “they slept with her to make her the vocalist of a rock band.”

This time Joplin played the trump card. The group performed brilliantly at the famous rock festival in Monterey in 1967. That same year, Big Brother & The Holding Company released their first album of the same name, “Big Brother And The Holding Company,” which immediately topped the charts, and Janis Joplin gradually began to acquire the status of a national celebrity.

Then, at the Monterey festival, she met Jimi Hendrix. They instantly “understood each other.” Both of them had on their faces the stamp of “wasters” of life and people thirsting for sex.

They spent the night, then met several times, but broke up a month later. Joplin didn’t really like Hendrix’s style of simply… beating his partners. What Joplin had left from her connection with Hendrix was her first experience using heroin... She would continue this experience.

She also had an affair with Jim Morrison. But this connection was unique. The couple made peace only in bed, spending the rest of the time in scandals.

And how strange her meeting with Eric Clapton was. One day, in search of sexual satisfaction, Joplin ordered her secretary to bring her the first cute boy he met on the street... The boy turned out to be Eric Clapton.

Yes, Joplin was, perhaps, one of the main ideologists of the hippie sexual revolution... She was imbued with her ideas, even somehow “too much.”

In addition to numerous love affairs with men, sometimes Janice enjoyed sex with ladies, and sometimes resorted to group orgies, which were attended by representatives of both sexes. Behind all this, of course, lay deep complexes and hidden reasons. Once she said in anger: “I’m such a star, but no one even wants to sleep with me.”

In fact, this was not entirely true... It’s just that, despite the huge number of partners, most of them happened “one-time” in her life. She also had many sexual fears - Joplin was terribly afraid of rejection, afraid of excessive intimacy, for fear that her partner would use her for profit... And in any case, she imitated a strong orgasm, believing that the absence of it was only her personal problem and fault...

She tried to hide her complexes behind bright, public and funny stories about her sexual adventures and victories. For example, after a long train ride, Joplin told the public that there were 365 men on the train, but she only managed to sleep with 65 of them. However, there were also serious connections. For example, serious romance novel with country singer Joe Mac Donald lasted for 4 months.

Joplin used alcohol and drugs as openly as she talked about her sexual pleasures. She even insisted that one of the companies producing alcoholic drinks, gave her a fur coat for free advertising of their products. And when she was urged not to abuse drugs, she boldly answered: “Anyway, I will never live to see 30.”

But she was incredibly talented and climbed higher and higher on the ladder of fame, which sometimes leads to no one knows where. In September 1968, the group released a new album, Cheap Trills, considered the group's best album.

Janice left Big Brother and began her solo career. She created a new group, Kozmic Blues, which was initially lukewarmly received in the USA and very warmly received in Europe. The group released the successful album “I Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again Mama!”, and in August 1969 took part in the famous rock festival in Woodstock. Then Joplin created a new group, the Full Tilt Boogie Band, with which she began actively working on a new album.

Then, at the very end of the 1960s, something began to inevitably change in her. Suddenly she felt that she did not really like the image of a groovy and wild drug addict. Suddenly she started talking about the dangers of heroin. And here she found herself hostage to her own image: the public was accustomed to seeing her as they were accustomed to seeing her, and expected from her the same “burning” and complete “exposure” on stage, and for this Joplin had to take the same doping. She even believed that only heroin helped her stay in shape at concerts and rehearsals.

During this same period, another change happened to Janice. She said that she dreams of a quiet family life. She even started a serious romance. True, she did not choose a very suitable candidate.

Seth Morgan was the dealer. He met Joplin when he delivered cocaine to her. She believed that it was with him that she would find happiness and dreamed of a bright new life, in which they would both forget about drugs, and she would break with rock and roll. True, Morgan was in no hurry to get married. The story with him occupied all of Janice’s thoughts; she did not even attend a single lesson in the dramatic arts course, where she immediately enrolled after director Jack Nicholson offered her a role in the film. But she dreamed so much about cinema!

And then Morgan got into a motorcycle accident. He survived, but the accident revealed one unpleasant detail to Joplin - there was another girl on the trip with her fiancé...

And yet, Janice continued to work and managed to complete her last album, Pearl, “Pearl,” named after the nickname given, contrary to all her previous offensive school and college nicknames, by one of her friends. This was the swan song.

On October 4, 1970, Janis Joplin's body was found at the Landmark Motor Hotel in Hollywood. She was lying face down on the carpet. They say that that evening she bought heroin from an unknown drug dealer, but did not calculate the dose. However, this is just one version. The investigator claimed that it was suicide, and the singer’s friends strongly rejected this version.

She was 27 years old... She never lived to see 30, as she predicted. However, even for so short term she managed to do a lot, leaving her huge mark on the history of world rock.

Joplin's ashes were scattered over California. And work on the album was completed by members of her group. The album Pearl was released in January 1971.

Janis Lyn Joplin was born on January 19, 1943 in Port Arthur, Texas, into the family of Seth Joplin, a Texaco worker (since... Read all

Janis Lyn Joplin was born on January 19, 1943 in Port Arthur, Texas, the daughter of Seth Joplin, a Texaco worker (with his brother and sister, Michael and Laura). At school (Thomas Jefferson High School, Port Arthur), Janice was an exemplary student, exhibited her own drawings in the local library and generally conformed to the norms of public expectations. However, she had no friends: she communicated exclusively with guys. One of them, a football player named Grant Lyons, introduced her to Leadbelly's work, making her a passionate fan of this music. Soon Janice began performing the blues herself. Psychological problems (associated mainly with excess weight) began in adolescence: Janice had a hard time being bullied by her classmates and suffered from hatred of herself and the world around her. During these years, the explosive character of Janis Joplin was formed, who “stylized” herself after her blues heroines (Bessie Smith, Big Mama Thornton, Odetta).

Shortly after Janis Joplin's death, the album Pearl was released. On February 27, 1971, the album topped the Billboard 200 and stayed at the top for 9 weeks. This is also where Janis Joplin’s only chart-topper on the Billboard Hot 100 came from – Kris Kristofferson’s composition “Me and Bobby McGee” (March 20, 1971), the final chord of a rapid and vibrant creative life that left an indelible mark on the history of rock music.

Janis Joplin
JOPLIN, JANICE (1943–1970), American rock singer, considered by critics to be the embodiment of 1960s rock culture. Born in Texas on January 19, 1943 into a prosperous family. At the age of 17, she left home and, in the hope of becoming a singer, went to California. In the mid-1960s, she performed in small clubs in San Francisco, performing things from the repertoire of her idols - folksingers and blues performers. She attracted attention with her unusually strong and rich hoarse voice and nervously energetic style of singing. At this time, the Big Brother and Holding Company group was looking for a vocalist, and someone remembered an amazing singer from Texas. Janice returned to San Francisco and became the lead singer of the group. Her first success came in 1967 at the Monterey rock festival, where she amazed listeners with piercingly energetic rock versions of blues and country ballads. Joplin did not sing, but shouted out lines of songs, conveying all the bitterness, pain and suffering of blues compositions. At the beginning of 1968, Janice's first tour of New York took place. The Columbia studio quickly recognized a promising talent in the lead singer of Big Brother, and the group received a contract. The album Cheap Thrills (1968) almost immediately became a bestseller. However, Janice decided to leave the group for a solo career. Her debut album Again I was overcome by this universal melancholy, Mama (I Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again Mama!), which combined the styles of blues, soul and rock, was released in 1969 and immediately hit the charts. In the fall of 1970, Janice went to Los Angeles to work on recordings for the next album, but did not have time to finish the work. Joplin died in Los Angeles on October 3, 1970. The posthumously released album Pearl (1971) sold a million copies, and the single Me and Bobby McGee topped the Billboard chart. In the 1980s, two albums were released with previously unreleased recordings of the singer from the 1960s - Farewell Song (1982) and Big Brother and Holding Company Live (1985). A film was made about Joplin's life and work, The Rose, starring Bette Midler, and several biographies have been published, including Buried Alive by Myra Friedman. From the creative cauldron of Haight-Ashbury also came Big Brother and the Holding Company, with which the most interesting singer of that period, Janis Joplin, performed. Like many musicians who grew up in the California Bay Area, she was raised on blues and folk. But in the summer of '67, reworkings of blues numbers were increasingly interspersed with sunny fantasies of soft rock, and then the music became heavier, more edgy. Jeremy Pascall “The illustrated history of rock music”, Chapter 4. The era of rock: 1967 - 1970. Musically, Janice gave very little to rock: she left behind only a few records. Its significance lies elsewhere: it proved that women can sing rock music no worse than men. She was a broken girl: she drank a lot, took drugs, and there are many legends about her sexual conquests. On stage she was inimitable: powerful voice, absolute relaxedness, personal magnetism. She screamed her blues the way she felt them. A difficult life of pain and hatred burst into her songs. The public loved her, loved her passionately and lustfully. She was happy on stage, but not off stage. She once admitted: “On stage I make love to 25 thousand people, and then I go home alone.”
She died on October 4, 1970 in a Hollywood hotel room. Jeremy Pascall “The illustrated history of rock music”, Chapter 5. The fractured seventies.

Do you remember Janis Joplin?
Do you remember how she asked you to come back? How did she love? Janice and love are like an electric charge. Have you ever seen stars light up in the sky? This is how one of them lit up...
Little Janice Lyn was born at 9:45 on January 19, 1943 in Port Arthur, Texas. Well, isn't this the beginning of a good fairy tale? Fairy tales with sad endings...
Janice has been in love since childhood. One of her first boys was a boy with the simple name Jack Smith. Together they read books, including the Gospel. Childhood was still going on: one day Janice came to Jack so that he would invite her to the film “The 10 Commandments”. The poor boy had no better idea than to break the piggy bank and come to the cinema with all this change. While he dealt with the usherette, Jen stood aside. “Sorry, I lost money in a bet with a friend,” he said. Patting him on the shoulder, the girl laughed: “You don’t have to lie if you’re going to watch a film about God...”
As she approached the age of 14, she began to change. According to her sister Laura, wars broke out in the house if her mother thought about washing Janice’s clothes (“They weren’t dirty enough!”). She tried to be “one of” among the boy group. They were older, but they allowed her to become the same ragamuffin they were. Together they listened to Odette and Leadbelly, read Kerouac and dreamed of the romance of the highway.
Jenny was a funny and sweet kid. When the group was discussing who would drive the car next time, she shouted: “The one with the biggest balls will drive” and, laughing, got behind the wheel. Perhaps the feeling of being a girl-boy is what led Janice to the free love of the late 60s.
After the first trip to San Francisco, Janice's company threw a party. Now every friend of hers had a girlfriend or wife. It weighed on her: “There’s Jack and Nova, Jim and Ray, Adrian and Gloria, this one and that one, but there’s always only Janis Joplin.”
Soon she had a friend, Sett, who asked for her hand in marriage. The wedding was planned for a few months after Christmas. It seemed that the little girl had found what she needed. One evening Jenny said to her sister, “I wish I had long, beautiful hair. During the day I would put it away, but every evening I would undo my hair in front of my husband. Strand by strand."
They corresponded, but soon he stopped writing completely. There was no more talk about the wedding.
In her book “Buried Alive,” Mira Friedman says that Janice’s inner emotional world was too small to worry about people and try to bring them joy. She liked it better when someone cared about her, loved her...
Another point of hers was that she loved to spread all sorts of stories about herself. She preferred to talk about the beginning of her fame like this: “I was fucked into being in Big Brother” (untranslatable play on words...). Now it is already difficult and, probably, there is no need to find out whether this was so or not.
They say that all of the Big Brothers were close to Janice in one way or another, they say that one-night stands were commonplace for her (but not the main thing, for sure), they say that among her men were Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix.
Believe it or not, Janice met Jim only once, and that time was unsuccessful. Paul Rothschild (producer of Janice and the Doors) hosted the press night. Between sips of her favorite whiskey, Janice pointed at Morrison and said, “I want that piece of meat.” When he tried to get into her car and be as close as possible, she began to resist and threw an empty bottle at his head. I must say, Jim was crazy about such women. He loved violence.
In an interview, she said: “I’m ready to give up everything I have if a person appears in my life who can love me.”
Probably, “the one” should have been David Niehaus, whom Janice met during the carnival in Rio, in February 1970. The acquaintance itself was peculiar:
- Hey, you remind me of some rock star. Joplin or something...
- I am Janis Joplin!
Despite her fame and vanity, David saw a person, not an icon. They felt good when they were together. And when they had to separate for a couple of days, her old “friend” Peggy Caserta came to Jen.
What can I say... the main thing in Janis Joplin's life was always music. She ran away from her to her lovers, but after all, “an hour of performing on stage is like a hundred orgasms at once,” because “you can leave everything, leave your house and friends, children and friends, old people and friends, anything that is in this world, except for music."
It is impossible to be Janis Joplin and not suffer from a stone on your neck, nicknamed the ephemeral word “love”. She passed all her passions through her creativity and let them go.
And you left, slamming the door.
And she left, saying only: “I’ve got a secret.”