Joplin name. Janis Joplin - rock queen

Janis Lyn Joplin was born on January 19, 1943, and died on October 4, 1970, but in her short life, thanks to the emotional performance of songs 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's childhood passed in the small Texas town of Port Arthur. From an early age, a girl who was heard among her peers " ugly duckling", was interested in literature and drawing, and most of all she was attracted to music. In adolescence Janice got into the beatnik environment, in whose circles folk, jazz and blues were popular. Joplin really liked the blues, and she began to copy the manner of such performers of the genre as Bessie Smith. At first, Janice performed in small Texas coffee houses, and then, together with the beatniks, she began to roam around other states. This free life led the singer to an acquaintance with alcohol and drugs, with which she now inextricably linked music.

Having traveled a lot, 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 in one group. Upon arrival in San Francisco, Joplin quickly disappeared among the hippie community and became a member of the ensemble "".

This psychedelic blues band toured the California coast and was not 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 didn't do much promotion, 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. The stunning performance of the song "Ball And Chain" attracted a lot of attention to the group, and well-known manager Albert Grossman immediately took over. He transferred "Big Brother" from "Mainstream" to "Columbia Records", where in August 1968 the album "Cheap Thrills" was released.

The record has already won gold status on pre-orders, and such hits as "Piece Of My Heart" and "Summertime" brought the team to large venues. By the way, since the lion's share of success belonged to Janis Joplin, the group was now presented as "Janis Joplin With Big Brother And Holding Company". The income of the musicians jumped sharply, and they switched to expensive drugs. Against the backdrop of what was happening, relations in the team began to deteriorate, and the group soon broke up.

Janice began a solo career and, having taken guitarist Sam Andrew from the "holding", she recruited a new accompanying line-up of the "Kozmic Blues Band". Since she was now the sovereign mistress, the singer returned from psychedelia to her favorite soul blues. The change of direction, indicated on the 1969 album "I Got Dem Ol" Kozmic Blues Again Mama!, caused a mixed reaction in the States, but Europe 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 went back to heroin, and that was 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 death of the singer. Subsequently, all sorts of live albums and compilations were published, many of which were platinum status and tended to be in the Billboard charts. In 1995 Janice was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and 10 years later she was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Text: Alice Taiga

BEAT FILM FESTIVAL BEGINS ON THURSDAY. Among others, the movie "Janice: The Little Girl Is Sad" about the fate of rock icon Janis Joplin will be shown. Four albums, three bands and death at the fatal age of 27. Although the singer's dependence on alcohol and drugs has been discussed for several decades, few people managed to get closer to Janice's personal history: instead, the name Joplin became a household name, personifying the rebels of the 60s. Alisa Tayozhnaya tells what is behind this image.

Documentary trailer
"Janice: The little girl is sad"

Joplin died of an accidental heroin overdose in the fall of 1970 - the same night several more people died from a large dose of an unexpectedly pure drug that was brought to Los Angeles. Her last album, named "Pearl" after the alter ego of singer Pearl, remained at number one on the Billboard chart for three months after Joplin's death. Almost half a century later, her records continue to sell successfully: the tragic ending, as often happens, added demand to her undeniable achievements. A few dozen songs with a voice bursting into the sky are all that remains as a message from a generation of smart and courageous women from the second half of the 60s.

“Women are the losers, and men seem to always come out as winners,” Janice sings and tells reporters about this more than once in response to a frequent question about the status of the only female rock star. It was not easy for the entire generation of beatniks and the hippies who followed them, but today it is clear how masculine the culture of easy riders and wild-hearted musicians was. "I don't give a fuck" was accepted with a bang from the guys, but it was perceived differently from the lips of the girl. Of the writers of that time, we were left with hundreds of male names, and a few female ones: one could be considered a talented dunce, but no one wanted to live with the stigma of a whore, which often accompanied a girl's independent life in subcultural circles. That is why driving with guys to another state, sleeping together, playing in a group where you are the only girl, only those who were no strangers to a bad reputation could with a pure heart.

Janis Joplin's first group, Big Brother and the Holding Company, was a boy gang in which Janis was her own to the board. They were equally alien to both aggressive masculinity and girlish sobs of wandering fangirls. Performing in bars in San Francisco, Janice looked like a stray cat, ready to release her claws: prickly and twitchy. It was the first group in which she felt appropriate that became her support and the reason for an impressive performance at the Monterey Festival in 1967 - after which Janice began to be carried on her hands. How could you not wear it? Young, in gold overalls, singing like a wild bird, dancing and screaming the blues, pushing herself in front of an audience - she was white, but not Nico, not Grace Slick, and not Marianne Faithfull. Hearts fiery motor.

"Why do so few girls do what you do?" - the presenter will ask evening American TV show Dick Cavett to his guest Janis Joplin, who obviously likes him with her eccentric manner, habit of joking about everything and a wide smile. “Few of them think of going deep into the music, and not just soaring on the top,” says Janice with disheveled hair, clearly not prepared for answers, in a relaxed pose in which the neighbors sit down for tea.

Young, in a golden jumpsuit, singing like a wild bird and screaming the blues, she squeezed herself in public

In her spontaneity there is work for the public: here I am, a simple girl from Texas, saying what I think. Janice always smiles when she hears approval and applause in response to the remarks of the "ordinary girl". But even more in this pose of personal relationship: the singer chose to be herself, without apologizing for her appearance, her tastes and opinions. Joplin was living proof that a talented woman who cannot be ignored is not necessarily a canonical beauty with a Hollywood smile, exploiting her appearance and sex appeal.

"Here is my blood, here is what I sing - what more can I do?" Janice says with every scream and flash. Whether it will be other people's songs "Summertime" or "Bobbie McGee", we will hear in them not just a singer and interpreter, but a living person with persistent requests for love and unconditional acceptance. Stay, don't go, spend this evening with me, spend your whole life with me, I'm waiting for you. A howl, in the sense in which the beatniks used the word, a roar into the void and the hope of escaping the loneliness that Joplin spoke about in almost every interview, can plow anyone who turned on her songs at full volume. Rebelliousness is usually spoken of as a narcissistic game, but in the case of Janice, it is definitely a vulnerable, anxious and confused person who was wanted to be heard in stadiums, but avoided in her own home.

In Almost Famous, a film about the rock 'n' roll era, based on the director's true teenage story, there's the classic line of an older sister arguing with her mom over every little thing, from dating a guy to being able to listen to Simon & Garfunkel's plasticity. “I’m a“ Yes ”person and you are trying to raise us in a“ No ”environment,” she will tell her mother and, with the end of school, will be carried away with relief to adulthood, forgetting about her parents' house like a nightmare. Janice could have said something similar to her parents, with whom she had not found understanding since adolescence.

The late 50s and early 60s in racist and sexist Texas are not a pound of raisins: girls better have fun with girls, go home after school, no "Negro music" and dubious companies. Janice's mother hoped that her daughter would become a school teacher and marry a nice guy. At some point, the singer will even try to realize this unusual scenario: she will get engaged to a guy in a suit and with a diplomat, put her hair in a high hairstyle and set a date for the wedding. Peace will reign at home, but not for long: the groom will simply disappear from the radar, so there will be no wedding. Joplin will return to San Francisco - a city where she performs a lot, communicates with like-minded people and sits on speeds, dangerously losing weight to 40 kilograms. Then friends chipped in for a ticket for Janice to Texas, but from the rehab with their parents they quickly wanted to fly back: San Francisco is an interrupted life on stage and among their own, and Texas is a farmer's hell.

At an early fourteen, overweight Janice with acne became a household name for her school. At that time, the only way to get away from the provincial sadists was to drive your friends to Louisiana - for the blues, "black bars" and talk about freedom. The phrase that the blues is "when good man bad," instantly sunk into her soul. За эти поездки её обзывали «nigger lover» и за ней закрепилась репутация отчаявшейся и доступной девчонки, готовой переспать с каждым, потому что она «слишком страшная», хотя, конечно же, в этих слухах не было и доли правды.

Living in the era of Marilyn Monroe is a test for any woman with an appearance that is far from doll-like. After Monroe, there will be Twiggy and Jane Birkin - already different, but the same unattainable standards of beauty for a Texas girl with large features, unruly hair and a non-model figure. Janice was one of the first to refuse to wear a bra in college and became for those around her that "terrible feminist", horror stories about which still exist. When school days already seemed to have passed and life began with clean slate, at the University of Austin, one of the student fraternities chose Joplin as "the scariest guy on campus." A childhood friend will later say on camera that Janice has never seen such a crushed woman.

A few months before her death, Joplin decides to visit her family in Port Arthur, where she will meet all the same: former classmates who don’t care about flares, feathers and Janice songs, and parents who believe that their daughter’s legs have gone the wrong way. “They drove me out of school, out of town and even out of state with their ridicule,” Janice jokes in an interview, chuckling nervously. Journalists feel the tremor in their voices and instantly react: “Did you go to prom?” "I wasn't invited," Joplin replies, and starts shaking his head nervously. In the history of idols, there were many triumphant trips of stars to their homes - take the same Elvis or James Dean. But Janice's arrival in Port Arthur was not the long-awaited arrival of a sex symbol, but the sudden return of the white crow, that strange girl with whom no one wanted to get close. There was no home, and there is none, which means that there is nowhere to return.

“I make love to 27,000 people at a concert, and then I return to my loneliness,” a reality in which the singer lived almost the entire time of the tour and recordings. Everyone had a couple, but Janice, despite several short romances, usually slept alone. What can she say about relationships? "Men always promise more than they're willing to give." "Love is a losing game" - how to sing decades later, just as quickly finished Amy's life Winehouse. “I don’t want to sleep alone” and the eternal slander “baby, baby, baby” oozes from half of her songs about living alone, where someone else's manifestation of affection and care is the only light for which it is worth waiting for a new day.

Good reviews, applause, letters
from the fans, Janice was happy as a child. Crush the guitar, send the audience away - this she could not

Good reviews, applause, letters from fans, Janice was happy as a child: in her smiles during interviews and speeches, that gratitude to the audience that her contemporaries did not show is striking. To crush the guitar, to send the audience away - she could not and never did this. The dose after each concert as a reward for good work, the naive hope of strong genetics despite several overdoses, and the self-confidence of every abusing person that he knows his limit - all this does not happen on empty place. You can talk about the heroine, which the singer threw several times, about hobbies with Southern Comfort liquor, but "Piece of My Heart" or "All of Loneliness" put an end to Janice's accusations of intemperance. When someone screams about love, it's impossible not to notice point-blank that these are not just songs.

“Freedom is just another word that means that there is nothing to lose,” comes from the posthumous Janis Joplin album in a song about a love that was interrupted against her will. In this song, there is an aching longing for the beatnik journey and the glorious Bobby, with whom it was so good to sing in chorus and lie next to. “I'll give all my tomorrows for just one yesterday,” Joplin sang about the best times she experienced in the arms of those who accepted her as she was. “It's easy to be the smartest and look at Janis Joplin's life as a story that would have ended badly anyway. But I can easily see her old, happy and poisonous tales of youth right now, ”says one of Janice’s friends in an interview.

In Joplin's death, there are indeed more offensive inconsistencies and unpleasant accidents: many got it at school, many lived for years with broken hearted and were at odds with their parents - and they survived. Another thing is to be a pioneer and live with an open soul, when you are vulnerable, unsure of yourself, you hear from your own family “it would be better if you never were born.” You can leave Texas, but getting out of this hell was not so easy for a sad little girl. She didn’t get out, but she remained in history the way she once found herself: impetuous, strong-willed and vital, showing several generations of women how to sing and breathe with all their might.

At school ( Thomas Jefferson High School, Port Arthur) Janice was an exemplary student who exhibited her own drawings in the local library and at first lived up to social expectations. However, she didn’t have any girlfriends: she talked exclusively with guys. According to Sister Laura, it soon became clear that Janice was intellectually far superior to her peers. In addition, she always frankly expressed everything that she thinks, and since (in her own expression) “did not hate the nigers”, immediately became an outcast at the school, where racist views were considered the norm. This was the time when Martin Luther King Jr. was just beginning his campaign for racial integration, and it was unthinkable for a white Texas girl to openly support his views.

The father later said:

She mostly talked to herself. She had a hard time at school. She persisted in being different from those around her in clothes and behavior, and for this she was hated there. There was not a single person with whom she could find at least something in common, to talk. She was one of the first representatives of the revolutionary youth in Port Arthur, of which there are many now.

original text(English)

She mostly kept to herself. She had a pretty rough time of it in high school. She insisted on dressing and acting differently and they hated her for it. There were no people she could relate to, talk to. As far as Port Arthur was concerned, she was one of the first revolutionary youth. There's lots of them now.

Gradually, Janice began to make friends outside the school environment: it was a semi-underground circle of young people who were fond of new literature, poetry of the beat generation, blues and folk music, radical types contemporary art. One of them, a football player named Grant Lyons, introduced Janice to the work of Leadbelly, making her a lifelong blues fan. Soon she began to secretly sing the blues herself.

It is generally accepted that psychological problems (mainly related to being overweight) began for Janice in her teens: she was very upset by peer bullying (in a city where she was, as she later recalled, “weird among stupid ones”) and suffered from self-loathing and the world around. During these years, the explosive character of Janis Joplin was formed, who “stylized” herself as her favorite blues performers (Bessie Smith, Big Mama Thornton, Odette), as well as beat poets.

Stage debut

Since then, Janis Joplin began to perform regularly on the university stage, demonstrating expressive vocals with a three-octave working range. Her first own song recorded on tape was the blues "What Good Can Drinking Do", styled in the style of Bessie Smith. "Janice was influenced by the vaudeville blues of the '20s and identified with its stars," says rock critic Lucy O'Brien. “It was this kind of overly expressive soul blues that allowed her to hear her own inner voice, to understand the depths of her soul.”

It was in Louisiana, among friends, that Janice sang the blues for the first time and amazed the audience by perfectly copying Odette's vocal style. From time to time to the stage in this or that roadside club, she very quickly began to acquire the skills of a professional blues performer. , rhythm, emotional spectrum of the blues - everything down to the smallest nuances.

1963-1965

In 1963, Janis Joplin and a friend named Jack Smith left Port Arthur and headed for Austin, where they settled in an apartment building of folk and beatniks known as Ghetto. In the fall, Janice, now a student at the University of Texas at Austin, began performing with a local bluegrass band. Waller Creek Boys, where R. Powell St. John played, later writing songs for the 13th Floor Elevators and founding Mother Earth (the third member of the ensemble was bass guitarist Larry Wiggins). The trio played at the local union house on Sundays and also at Threadgill's bar. Bar & Grill(Wednesday nights) playing Leadbelly, Bessie Smith, Gina Ricci, Rosie Maddox, and bluegrass standards. At this time, Janice was already seriously addicted to "grass" and took alcohol in large doses (with a bottle of Southern Comfort in her hand, she later became a kind of symbol of this drink) and the drug Seconal.

It is generally accepted that it was here, under the influence of alcohol, that a hoarseness appeared in Joplin's voice, which then grew and made her famous. However, according to Lucy O'Brien, “... Janice had two completely different voices at the same time: a clear bright soprano and a powerful blues rattle. For some time she hesitated, not knowing which one to prefer, and then she made a choice in favor of the second of them.

Moving to San Francisco

Janis Joplin broke with the student milieu in January 1963 after one of the university newspapers (jokingly) awarded her the title of "the scariest of the guys." Just about this time, Chet Helms, an old Austin buddy, returned from San Francisco with stories about the local post-Beat scene.

Janice spent the first half of 1963 living on small wages. During the summer, she performed at the Monterey Folk Festival; by this time she had had a motorcycle accident, a street fight, and jail time for petty shoplifting. In the fall of 1963, Janice made her first radio appearance, live San Francisco radio station KPFA performing midnight special to the accompaniment of one Rod "Pigpen" McKiernan. .

First entries

In 1964, Janis Joplin spent some time in New York's Lower East Side; here she spent most of her time reading Hesse and Nietzsche, occasionally appearing on the stage at Slug's.

Upon her return to San Francisco on June 25, 1964 with Jorma Kaukonen, she 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 was used as percussion here, on which Margarita Kaukonen pounded.

At the same time, Janice was already regularly taking drugs: crystal methedrine, sometimes heroin, with which she tried to get rid of depression and excess weight. In the spring of 1965, friends, concerned about her emaciated appearance, persuaded Janice to return to her parents in Port Arthur. She arrived frightened and depressed; she was ashamed of herself and never showed herself in front of her mother in short sleeves so that she would not see traces of syringes.

In 1965, Janice entered the department of sociology at Lamar Technological University (Beaumont, Texas), where she studied for a year, occasionally traveling to Austin for concert performances. At the same time, Joplin led a reserved and conservative lifestyle. As longtime friend, folk singer Bob Newmark, recalled, Janice returned to San Francisco changed: "She gave the impression of a young woman who was determined to start a new life."

1966-1967

In 1965 in San Francisco, Peter Albin, his brother Rodney (both ex-Liberty Hill Aristocrats), and Jim Gurley ("Weird" Jim Gurley) set out to form a new band with a harder sound. The first train (called Blue Yard Hill) settled at 1090 Page Street, which Rodney rented out (with the permission of his uncle, who was waiting for permission from the authorities, to demolish the structure and erect a nursing home in its place). Mostly hippies lived here - in particular, Chet Helms (by that time - a member of the Family Dog commune), who took up the organization of the Jazz house in the basements, which soon became a place of attraction for local youth.

After the addition of drummer Chuck Jones and guitarist Sam Andrew, a student at the University of San Francisco, the quintet began to play regularly at parties held in the basement of the house. The sixth member of the band was guitarist David Eskeson, whom manager Paul Ferraz (aka Beck) found from a newspaper ad. The main songwriter of the band was Peter Albin, who started out in bluegrass (on the same stage in San Jose, where Paul Kantner and Jorma Kaukonen played), but soon began to write "songs that resembled Rolling stone s, but much weirder."

The name of the new team was formed by combining the two options considered: Big Brother & the Holding Company. His mission was proclaimed - "To speak with the children of the whole world in their language."

Chuck Jones was soon replaced by Dave Getz, who taught at the Art Institute during the day and worked part-time at a spaghetti factory in the evenings. With him, the band began to play local clubs, playing blues, bluegrass, Bob Dylan and Rolling Stones covers, as well as folk-rock numbers such as "I Know You, Rider".

Shortly after the band's official live debut (January 22, 1966 at the first Trips Festival at Longhorman's Hall), Helms, who knew Gurley from Family Dog, signed the band and became its manager. Through him, Big Brother became residents of the famous Avalon Ballroom club in the city, where he also worked as a manager. As Jack Cassidy (later a member of Jefferson Airplane) recalled, “They didn’t have any blanks, so sometimes they managed to create things on stage that would never have occurred to anyone ... Then people scratched their heads: Well, and in what it was played the key?

The success of two local bands - Jefferson Airplane (then with Signe Anderson) and Great Society (with Grace Slick) - made Helms think of his old acquaintance. He sent a mutual friend Travis Rivers to Texas solely for the purpose of getting Janis Joplin out of there.

Arrival Joplin

The musicians of the group recalled that the new singer instantly established contact with the audience and within a few days became a local star. These days, Joplin almost did not take drugs: at the insistence of the keyboardist (and close friend at the time) Stephen Ryder, she made an agreement with bandmate David Getz to outlaw syringes in the apartment they rented. According to Sam Andrew, Janice "was smart, determined, and possessed an amazing feeling for a provincial woman. dignity". The band's summer San Francisco concert was recorded and later included on the album. Cheaper Thrills (1984).

With the arrival of Joplin, Big Brother & the Holding Company's repertoire quickly changed from a free-form fusion to an ultra-dynamic fusion of pop psychedelia and blues. Joplin brought new songs to the ensemble's repertoire: "Women Is Losers" and "Maybe"; with Albin they began to sing a duet "Let The Good Times Roll" and "High Heel Sneakers". The improvisational component remained dominant. “We are not dispassionate professionals,” Joplin said. “We are emotional and sloppy.” But, as Albin recalled, the group still had to turn down the volume: even such a loud-voiced singer as Joplin's ligaments could not cope with such a level. Having yielded to the requests of the singer, the musicians soon acquired new equipment, first of all, better amplifiers.

Extraordinary artistic charisma new vocalist brought the group to the forefront of the San Francisco scene. Not being overly sophisticated musicians, the members of Big Brother were (in the words of Sam Andrew) "creative individuals who followed a path of organic artistic self-exploration". Janis Joplin recalled her first impressions after arriving:

All my life I dreamed of being a beatnik, dating heavies, pounding, fucking and having fun: that's all I wanted from life. At the same time, I knew that my voice was good: with it I would always earn myself a couple of beers. And suddenly someone seemed to have thrown me into this rock band. Well, they dumped these musicians on me - the sound went from behind, charging<энергией>bass - and I realized: this is it! I never dreamed of anything else! And from this went buzz - cleaner than with any man. Maybe that was the problem...

original text(English)

All my life I just wanted to be a beatnik, meet all the heavies, get stoned, get laid, have a good time, that"s all I ever wanted, except I kenw I had a good voice and I could always get a couple of beers off of it. All of a sudden someone threw me into this rock band. They threw these musicians at me, man, and the sound was coming from behind, the bass was charging me, and I decided then and there that was it , I never wanted to do anything else. It was better than it had been with any man, you know. Maybe that's the trouble...

Meanwhile, after their first concerts in the updated line-up, Big Brother and the Holding Company also felt a negative reaction from the audience. “You guys are losing your abnormality, becoming more and more like the rest ... Get rid of the girl!”, - such, according to Albin's recollections, was the general reaction of local fans.

Voice changes

The new alliance, Andrew recalled, played a decisive role in Joplin's creative development. The singer, seemingly accustomed to public rejection, now bathed in rays of attention and admiration. In addition, “…Big Brother allowed Janice to develop. We never forced her to sing in any particular style, this approach was important and typical for San Francisco bands, ”recalled the band's guitarist.

At the same time (as Albin admitted), the quality of Joplin's vocals has changed - perhaps not for the better:

After all, she started as a singer for acoustic accompaniment, and her voice was juicy, folk. In Big Brother, he became less coloratura. At low volumes, Janice had a fantastic range, but she had to force vocals to the limit to compete with the band's sound. A year later, she developed polyps, which made every note sound like a chord, complete with semitones. - Peter Albin

However, Joplin herself did not at all consider these changes as degradation: moreover, she claimed that it was only after joining the group that she “realized that she had never really sung until now.” She just had to give up on imitating Bessie Smith (“... She took open notes, in the context of the simplest phraseology, but you can’t count on it when you have a rock band behind you ...”) and learn from Otis Reading “the art of pushing a song forward instead of in order to slide freely on its surface.

At the same time, Joplin herself said:

I have three voices: a scream, a guttural hoarseness, and a high-pitched howl. When impersonating a nightclub singer, I use huskyness. This is what my mom likes. She says: Janice, why are you squealing like that when you have such a beautiful voice?

original text(English)

I have three voices,” she explains. “the shouter; the husky, guttural chick; and the high wailer. When I turn into a nightclub singer, I'll probably use my husky voice. That's the one my mother likes. She says, “Janis, why do you scream like that when you’ve got such a pretty voice?”

Contract with Mainstream Records

The band had to record their debut album in studios in Chicago and Los Angeles. Shad, who took on the role of producer, didn't even allow the musicians to be in the studio when he did the final mixing. At the same time, he did not allow the group to record each song more than 13 times, believing that this would "bring bad luck." The poorly recorded, half-baked album was released only a year later, after the band's triumphant performance at the Monterey Festival. The Mainstream label did absolutely nothing to promote the album, except for the fact that they released two singles from it: "Blindman" and "All Is Loneliness".

Janis Joplin said of the first record in 1968:

The album turned out to be weak, because we were young and naive, the producer was bad, we had neither a manager nor a person in general who could advise something. We did not understand what we were doing, and we were simply taken advantage of. We were given three days to record the entire album and it was hinted that if we allowed ourselves some creative liberties in the studio, we would be thrown out immediately.

In early October 1966, the group's new manager, Julius Karpen, nevertheless brought the group back to San Francisco. Here she performed at several major concerts - in particular, at the Love Pageant Rally (in Golden Gate Park), as well as at the New Year's Wail / Whale - along with the Grateful Dead and Orkustra. This event, organized by the Hells Angels, was dedicated to celebrating the release of Chocolate George, one of the members of the gang; the hippie commune of Hythe Ashbury played a prominent role in this.

During concerts at the Golden Sheaf Bakery, which took place on February 11, 1967, Janice met Country Joe McDonald. Soon they settled together, renting an apartment for two.

According to rock critic Lucy O'Brien, Joplin's performance was breathtakingly spontaneous and exuded a powerful charge of lively energy: the audience was amazed because "... never before had a white singer behaved in such a way on stage and did not use the possibilities of her voice in such a way." Her performance with "Ball and Chain" was the centerpiece of Penebaker's "Monterey Pop," which is still considered a fine rock documentary to this day.

Impressario Bill Graham recalled that Janice and her band sounded "wild and furious" at the festival.

I don't think Janice was consciously trying to "be black". It seems to me that she sang exactly like a girl who arrived from Texas and rubbed herself in San Francisco: it was her own voice, her own interpretation of the songs. She sang the blues, and in her own way... You know, when a person creates his own own style, it's very difficult to make comparisons... I keep coming back to Hendrix. Hendrix was a guitar innovator and it's hard to copy him. Similarly, Janice was an innovator in the new style, the bearer of a gigantic, original, creative talent, and it was impossible to imitate her. — Bill Graham

original text(English)

I don't think Janis tried to be black. I think Janis sang as a young person coming out of Texas and having kicked around San Francisco, and her voice was her voice and that was her interpretation of the songs. She sang blues. And in her own way… you know, when someone is a stylist or the originator of a style and… a particular style of blues, I don’t think you can compare her. And I keep coming back to Hendrix. Hendrix was an innovator on the guitar, Janis was an innovator in a certain style… very few tried to play like Hendrix - you couldn’t. Well, Janis was that: the mark of a great talent, creative talent and original talent is also in its difficulty to copy that talent.

More importantly, Clive Davis, an executive at Columbia Records, became interested in the band. Immediately signed to a three-studio album deal with Big Brother, he immediately joined Grossman in a hasty effort to free himself from his old contract. In the summer of 1967, the stale (but not quite finalized) debut came out on Mainstream Records. Big Brother & the Holding Company, which rose to #60 on the Billboard charts in August 1967 (Columbia later bought the rights to the record and made it a hit).

1968-1970

Almost immediately, Big Brother & the Holding Company (through Grossman) signed a three-album deal with Columbia Records and continued touring in Boston, Cambridge, Providence and Chicago. On March 1, the band's concert at Detroit's Grande Ballroom was taped and later included on the live compilation. Janis Live.

Cheap Thrills

In the meantime, the tour continued: on April 7, Big Brother & the Holding Company ended it with a big concert in New York in memory of Martin Luther King, where Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Guy, Richie Havens, Paul Butterfield and Alvin Bishop also performed. During the tour (April 12-13) a (later released) live Live at Winterland"68.

The release of the studio album was delayed: the producer rejected almost all the material (about 200 bobbins) offered by the group. But pre-orders for the record were such that it was certified gold before release. Columbia president Clive Davis demanded an immediate release, and Cheap Thrills, the cover of which was designed by the famous underground cartoonist Robert Crumb, was released in August 1968, just in time for the band's performance at the Newport Folk Festival, Rhode Island, where an 18,000-strong audience gave the group a standing ovation and did not let go of the stage until one night.

Freed from the pop conformism imposed by Bobby Shed, the group created in Cheap Thrills(as columnist John McDermott wrote in 1994), his "...masterpiece: an eclectic collection of exuberant studio and live experimentation that made a strong artistic statement and fully reflected the power of the ensemble." “After Janice arrived, it took us about a year concert activity to understand who we are, - said Sam Andrew. - Before starting work on Cheap Thrills we had time to hone our repertoire on tour, and that decided the whole thing." .

In addition, like most blues artists of her time, Joplin was strong, more in the interpretation of the finished material than in the author's art. However, just at this moment, being at the peak of inspiration, she wrote some strong songs. Sam Andrew said:

Janice had a pronounced talent as an author, especially in the texts. She did a lot, but still it was "Turtle Blues" that became a thing that is significant for all her work. In general, writing at Big Brother was a very democratic process. Someone had an idea, the rest commented on it. I used to carry a more or less finished composition to the group. Then, having played it for several months, we painted the arrangement. This went for all the songs, including "Piece of My Heart" which we got from Jack Cassidy, who brought it to us after hearing Irma Franklin sing it. We made it completely different: there was such grace! - and we recorded a manic, furious version of the white guy. Another example of the same kind is "Summertime", which we have been working on for a very long time.

original text(English)

Janis especially definitely had a talent for writing, lyrics," states Andrew. "She wrote a lot of things, but "Turtle Blues" is a representative example of her writing. Songwriting for Big Brother was a very democratic process. Someone would come up with an idea, and we would all comment on it. I usually would bring in a song more or less finished. Then, after a few months of playing it with the band, we would have the arrangement done. That was so for whatever song we did, including "Piece Of My Heart," which we got from Jack Casady. Jack had heard Irma Franklin's rendition, and he brought it to the band. We did it completely different from Irma's version. She did it with such delicacy. We did a white kid"s frantic and manic version of it. "Summertime" was another example. We worked and worked on that for a long time.

A month after the release, the album sold a million copies, on October 12 it topped the lists. “However, reviews of the album in the United States were restrained: many noted that Joplin completely overshadowed the group with her performance, especially on Ball & Chain and Summertime.

Among those who came to Big Brother's defense was Richard Goldstein, a columnist for the Village Voice:

Yes, it has become customary to ridicule the musicians of the group, who<будто бы>do not match her magic, but they are not so helpless. Her voice is so limitless that any accompaniment is capable of scoring, except, perhaps, a bazooka, but when Big Brother is behind her ... the difference between vocals and music is erased, the overall sound remains. If you call it "the sound of Janis Joplin," then you judge the fire by the smoke, because you see it first.

original text(English)

True, it's chic to deride the group as being unworthy of her magic, but they are certainly not lame companions. Her voice is vast enough to overwhelm any accompaniment less raucous than a bazooka, but with Big Brother behind her, freaking out like country cousins, there is no difference between voice and music---just “Sound.” Call that the sound of Janis Joplin and you might as well identify a fire by its smoke just because that's what hits you first.

Breakup of Big Brother

Despite the huge success of the album, constant touring and nervous overstrain hampered the development of the group. Wrested from the fertile soil of the San Francisco scene, Big Brother (as J. McDermott noted), "with difficulty kept afloat." Until recently, the energy of the group, which seemed inexhaustible due to drugs and petty squabbles, began to evaporate rapidly. Gradually, personal and creative ties in the composition began to disintegrate. At the same time, it became more and more obvious that of all the members of the team, only Joplin after his collapse could not only survive, but also succeed as a solo artist. Grossman, understanding this better than others, did nothing to prevent the collapse.

In September 1968 (as soon as the album gave way to the top Electric Ladyland Jimi Hendrix's manager announced Janis Joplin and Big Brother's "friendly breakup". On November 15, Joplin gave her last concert with the old line-up - in Manhattan's Hunter College (Hunter College). Grossman protected Joplin from outside aggression, but everyone in San Francisco was outraged by the breakup of the group: many openly said that the manager destroyed the group in order to lure the singer to him.

After 25 years, Sam Andrew admitted that the public most likely overestimated the influence of Grossman: “Big Brother was mired in problems, launched a business ... Although, of course, it was a mistake for her to leave at such a moment. We were at the very peak, the album came out on top - it was impossible to squander this success like that. At the same time, Joplin's decision did not take anyone by surprise: it had been brewing for several months, and Andrew himself admitted that Janice "buzzed his ears" about her intentions to leave the group.

...Moreover, I myself advised her to find a better guitarist to replace me. I recommended talking to Jerry Miller of Moby Grape about this. But in the end, I followed her myself. For me<её уход>was not a surprise, but the rest of the band, especially Peter Albin, were shocked.

original text(English)

In fact, I was suggesting that she call different guitar players to replace me. I told her to contact Jerry Miller from Moby Grape, but, in the end, I went with her. It wasn't a surprise to me, but it was like a total shock to the rest of the band, particularly Peter Albin.

Cama Joplin was very worried about her departure from the group. “I loved these guys more than anything in the world, but I understood: if I’m serious about music, I need to leave ... We worked six days a week for two years, playing the same songs, we invested ourselves completely in them and simply exhausted herself,” she recalled in September 1970.

Kozmic Blues Band

Grossman and Mike Bloomfield and Nick Gravenights, who were called to help them, took on the formation of a new line-up (the backbone of which was Joplin and Andrew). On December 18, 1968, the musicians gathered for the first time for a rehearsal and from many name options ( Janis Joplin & the Joplinaires, Janis Joplin Review) chose - Kozmic Blues Band. The group, in addition to Joplin and Andrew, included saxophonist Terry Clements (Terry Clements), drummer Roy Markowitz, trumpeter Terry Hensley, organist Richard Kermode, bassist Keith Cherry (ex-Pauper), who was later replaced by Brad Campbell.

The first performance of the new, poorly played group took place in the show "Yuletide Thing". 21 December Kozmic Blues Band performed at the Mid South Coliseum in Memphis along with several highly professional soul bands and were received very coolly. The February report in Rolling Stone ("Memphis Debut," Stanley Booth) was somewhat sympathetic, but the long March 15, 1969 article headlined: "Janice: Judy Garland in Rock?" (author - Paul Nelson) was almost devastating. The San Francisco Chronicle suggested that Janice return to Big Brother ("... if they're willing to accept her").

The European tour that followed was more successful. After concerts in Frankfurt (filmed by German TV), Stockholm, Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Paris, the band performed at London's Royal Albert Hall on 21 April 1969 and received rave reviews in Disc, Melody Maker, Dayly Telegraph and other publications. However, in general, the new band disappointed specialists and fans.

According to Sam Andrew, the problem was that if the Big Brothers were a group of like-minded people who lived as one family, the Kozmic Blues Band was an accompaniment group whose members served as "employees, nothing more."

While individually the Kozmic Blues Band were stronger than the members of Big Brother, they could not even come close to the creative power of the latter. The first were professional musicians from nightclubs, the second were artists and artists ... There were moments, especially on tour in Europe, when we had a good time, but basically there was complete confusion, no one understood anything: neither Janice nor the ensemble. — Sam Andrew

In June 1969, the band began work on the album at Hollywood Studios with producer Gabriel Mekler, best known for his work with

While in the studio, the band played the three-day Newport Pop Festival (Devonshire Downs in Northridge, California) and the Atlanta Pop Festival. The Woodstock performance on August 16 was Sam Andrew's last, replaced by John Till.

Album I Got Dem Ol" Kozmic Blues Again Mama! rose to #5 on the Billboard 200 in October 1969 and was soon certified gold. In the American press, he was greeted coolly (the European, on the contrary, reacted almost enthusiastically). Many reviewers noted that in places the material of the album does not reach the level of Joplin, in places she herself pulls it up to her level.

A superstar is able to salvage hopeless things, while a mediocre singer kills the best... "One Good Man" is only a good song, but superstar Janis Joplin raises it to his level, her voice sounds like a tocsin in a jungle of emotions. An even more extreme example is the Rodgers and Hart classic "Little Girl Blue". Many generations of indifferent performers have worn it down to holes, so we stopped expecting something from it, and now it became clear how good this thing is! - Peter Riley, Stereo Review, January 1, 1970.

The Full Tilt Boogie Band

Left without an ensemble, Joplin recorded "One Night Stand" at Columbia Studios in Los Angeles in March 1970 with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and producer Todd Rundgren. The song remained unreleased until 1982 (when it was finally included on the compilation Farewell Song; alternative version also included in the collection Janis). In April 1970, Joplin temporarily returned to Big Brother & the Holding Company and took the band to the Fillmore West stage. A week later they performed together again in Winterland. The best fragments of these concerts were included in Joplin In Concert (1972).

By the early summer of 1970, Janis Joplin had assembled a new group Full Tilt Boogie Band, which included Canadian musicians: bass guitarist John Campbell (ex-Pauper), guitarist John Till, pianist Richard Bell, organist Ken Pearson, drummer Clark Pearson. In April the band got together for their first rehearsal, and in May they gave their first performances (in San Rafael, California). In May, the Full Tilt Boogie Band played their first show - on the same program with Big Brother and their new frontman Nick Gravenights (the show was titled Be a Brother).

In September, already with the Full Tilt Boogie Band, Janis Joplin began work on the album in Los Angeles, inviting producer Paul A. Rothschild, known for his work with The Doors. The latter accepted the invitation not without doubts, but soon he was completely delighted with his new ward:

After this mess with the Kozmic Blues Band, which, in my opinion, almost ruined her career, I spoke with Janice, made sure that she was really healthy and agreed to accompany the band on tour to see how she looks on stage. Janice was great!

The band began work at Sunset Sound Studios, the same studio where Rothschild had recently recorded two The Doors albums. Joplin attended every session, went deeply into the work and clearly enjoyed it. Creating a more creative, receptive atmosphere, Rothschild believed, promised to be the key to the success of the album. For his part, he discussed with Columbia the best studio conditions and collected a huge amount of song material, from which only the best and organically fitting into the singer's style was selected.

I have never seen her so happy as during these sessions. She was at the peak of her form and enjoyed life. Again and again she talked about how good she was in the studio. After all, until now, the recording process had only been associated with friction and quarrels ... - Paul A. Rothschild

original text(English)

During the sessions, I had never seen her happier. She was at the top of her form, having a great time. She said over and over again that this was the most fun she had ever had in a recording studio. Before, recording had always meant a lot of tension and fighting.

The sister of the singer adhered to the same point of view. Laura Joplin said that the dealer George, from whom Janice bought the product, always tested the product in advance with a local pharmacist. On that fateful evening, the pharmacist was not on site, and Joplin received heroin almost 10 times stronger than usual. “I consider her death a terrible mistake. She had neither depression nor frustrations. She made plans and looked to the future with hope. She even got her hair done!” Laura Joplin recalled.

Sam Andrew believed that Janice was the victim of an unbridled addiction to drugs. Tim Appelo (in 1992) took a different view: he wrote that Joplin was killed not so much by the desire for pleasure as by workaholism (“Only heroin kept her fresh the next day, and that was the main thing for her.”)

As Arthur Cooper later wrote (Newsweek, 1973), Joplin's death might have seemed like a cruel joke of fate, because it happened at the moment when the previously chaotic life of the singer began to improve: she was going to marry (to Seth Morgan), and for five months did not use heroin. However, it is known that Joplin still felt lonely (on the night of her death, Morgan had fun in the billiard room of a strip club in San Francisco). Joplin's newfound prosperity was apparent, she repeatedly admitted to friends that she was unhappy. “I don’t get better,” she confessed to Kris Kristofferson. “I’m sure I’ll sit on the needle again.” Assuming that Joplin's death was the result of an accident, biographer Myra Friedman believes that the word "accident" here should be understood only in its most general sense, and that "unconscious suicide" took place here.

Immediately after the death of Janis Joplin, Rolling Stone magazine dedicated her memory special issue. Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia wrote:

She chose the best time to die. There are people who can only live on the rise, and Janice was just such a rocket girl ... If we assume that a person has the opportunity to paint the script of his life, then I would say that she got a good script, with the right ending.

Joplin's remains were cremated at Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood Village, California. Her ashes were scattered over the waters of the Pacific Ocean along the California coast. Her last recordings were "Mercedes Benz" and an audio birthday greeting to John Lennon on October 1, which, as he later told Dick Cavett, was delivered to his apartment in New York after her death.

Pearl

The news of the death of Janis Joplin was a terrible blow to everyone involved in the work on the record. The album was almost complete, and Rothschild found himself in a dilemma: complete the work himself, or publish the record as an unfinished document. Clive Davis gave the producer the final say. He ultimately decided to finish the album, dedicating this work to the memory of the singer. “It was selfless, emotionally draining work. But I am grateful to fate that we decided to complete the album. I'm very proud of this record," he said.

Released in February 1971, Pearl according to most critics, became the most balanced and organic work of Janis Joplin. He reflected her increased vocal prowess, combining the former emotionality and effective restraint in polished arrangements. The song "Buried Alive In The Blues" by Nick Gravenights, to which Joplin did not manage to record a vocal part, was decided to be included in the album as an instrumental track.

Appearance and image

It is known that Janis Joplin from early youth was extremely critical of her appearance and considered herself "ugly". In reality, on the stage and in life, she looked different, and on the people who communicated with her, she invariably made the most favorable impression. Michael Thomas (in Ramparts Magazine), referring to Joplin on stage as a "rock 'n' roll banshee" and noting her "psychopathic" performance style, remarked: "She<на сцене>was - one cannot say that she was beautiful, but extremely, defiantly erotic. At the same time, after a personal meeting, he described his impressions of Joplin's appearance as follows:

Her face is pale as chalk, but she looks like she spends a lot of time outdoors. A slightly wrinkled forehead, full cheeks, a shock of disheveled hair - anyone who undertakes to draw "Orphan Annie" will pay attention to such a face. But Janice's gaze is wandering, hard at times. With her bunches of beads, she looks like a charming barmaid ...

"Janice had a friendly warm smile, so rare these days, and she gave it generously to everyone," recalled Yoko Ono.

According to her sister, Janice, who passionately aspired to stardom, having barely reached it, was disappointed in her, and most importantly, in her own image of "a fiery woman who burns life and sings the blues." "She considered her stage image a cheap wrapper for sale," Laura Joplin claimed.

Character features

Close friend Chet Helms believed that the character of Janis Joplin was largely determined by her childhood experiences and conflicts. At the same time, childhood in the Texas outback, he believed, not only painfully traumatized Joplin's psyche, but also formed a strong, creative character:

In the 60s, the moral oppression in Texas was such that in order to escape you had to create a bright inner world. Therefore, it is from Texas that strong individuals with a vivid imagination come out, really creative people who managed to break out of this realm of reaction and not go crazy. I will always feel a strong spiritual connection with people who managed to escape from Texas. - Chet Helms

The singer's sister Laura Joplin believed that the defiant image was in direct conflict with the real character of Janice: she was an intelligent, shy and sensitive woman. At the same time, she (according to her sister) was not characterized by aggressiveness. “It is customary to perceive Janice as a tragic figure, because she was a victim of drugs. But everyone forgets how much fun it was to be around her. She was a very cheerful, lively person,” Laura said. A writer in Time (1968) noted that even Joplin's "alcoholism was buoyant: she always smiled with a bottle of Southern Comfort and joked, 'Maybe one day I'll own the company!'

Schulatti and Shay note in their book that Joplin had periods of surprising peace, such as when the group settled in Lagunites, in a house at the end of a highway near the forest. “Janice was given a sunny room, which she decorated with lots of plants. Like her room, she became unusually calm and beautiful these days,” David Goetz recalled.

Friedman admits that behind the superficial aggressiveness was a lonely, sensitive and vulnerable woman. In her opinion, the singer tried to make up for the inner emptiness caused by loneliness with alcohol and drugs. Joplin herself indirectly confirmed this when she said: "On stage, I make love to 25,000 people, and then ... I go home alone."

Joplin's dangerous personality imbalance was written about by Paul Nelson in an article entitled "The Judy Garland of Rock?" (Rolling Stone, 1969). As the main feature of the character of the singer, he noted her strange self-doubt. “It's hard to imagine Dylan or Lennon nervously telling themselves during an interview: Hey, really, I sang great? Do you think I can sing better? Well, I swear by Jesus, I really began to sing better, trust me! .. "

Nelson concludes:

Janice is the rare type who is completely devoid of the ability to distance herself from a reporter in the name of self-defense, an ability that a singer of her stature simply cannot afford not to have... One has the unsettling feeling that - if Joplin's life is so connected to success in the music scene, - she needs a bit of honest cynicism: only with her help will she be able to survive in this crush, forced by the media. If there is this cynicism in her, it is hidden too deeply under an extremely attractive but dangerous naivety that borders on an unacceptable lack of self-confidence.

Grace Slick confirmed the same: "Janice ... was open and spontaneous and because of this they trampled on her heart ...", recalled the vocalist of Jefferson Airplane. At the same time, she noted Janice's delicacy: "... At times she seemed to be holding something with her - something that, as she probably thought I would not want to hear - like adults do with children ..." Slick said that Janice was always ready to help advice and treated her like a "wise grandmother". Patti Smith also spoke about how Janice supported her in her creative endeavors: “You definitely have to continue; we need poets, the world needs poets!” she said. Deborah Harry, who worked as a waitress at Max's Kansas City, once brought Joplin a steak. “She was very quiet and polite. I didn’t eat my steak, but left a five dollar tip, ”recalled the vocalist

life philosophy

In opposition to a hostile environment, Joplin developed a philosophy of life close to that of the beatniks. “Hippies believe that the world can get better. The beatniks know that nothing will get better and they say - let this world go to hell, we will come off and have a good time, ”she said. In part, this philosophy was embodied in her stage image.

Whether Joplin sang blues, rhythm and blues, or the band's original compositions (such as Dave Getz's "Harry" or the epic "Gutra's Garden" yodel), she took everything to emotional extremes with her gruff, husky voice... Leaning over the microphone, her fingers clasped, her hair covering her face, she was clearly out of the "flowery utopia" of the psychedelic scene. There was a certain fatal tension in her voice. - Gene Sculatti and David Shaye, San Francisco Nights: The Psychedelic Music Trip 1965-1968.

Biographer Myra Friedman believed that Joplin's character was based on sexual conflict, and that the singer "deliberately cast herself into the role of Aphrodite", imbuing her performances with raw eroticism combined with an outrageous "male lexicon". Friedman claimed that off stage she was just as sexually aggressive: "chasing every man (and woman, too) for whom she could kindle a passion ... She became an exciting Earth-mother for a whole generation of tender dreamers."

Of all the rock stars, Janis Joplin is perhaps the only one whose fate was especially tragic. Her life is full of love failures, excesses, drunkenness, drugs. And behind all this unsightly facade, there is only one desire: to love and be loved.

Janis Joplin was born in 1943 in Texas. In her family and environment, traditions were observed with the utmost strictness. And she will very soon rise up against them, already in the lyceum she declares herself as a rebellious person.

Texas at that time was a racist state, and her comrades did not understand how she dared to speak out in defense of blacks.

Janice was not attractive, and besides, she had weight problems. Out of a sense of contradiction, and also because her appearance did not allow her to play the card of femininity, she rushes to the other extreme and pretends to be a girl with boyish manners: she dresses only in trousers and a shirt, does not make up, swears and does not go to any compromises.

“For these reasons,” recalls one of her comrades, “the other students bullied and persecuted her. She behaved like a rebel at a time when even adults got into serious trouble if they tried to break the established order. And this was a girl.”

At the age of 18, Janice goes to Los Angeles for a few days and ends up in the quarter where the hippie colony has settled. From there she returns delighted. "I finally met people like me," she tells her friends.

At that time, the hippie movement in the United States was gaining more and more weight. The hippies protested the Vietnam War and rejected all the values ​​of a capitalist society.

Janice immediately joined this movement, accepting not only the views of the hippies, but also their exorbitant passion for drugs and sex. “For a long time,” recalls one of her friends, “Janice was very shy in the presence of boys. I think she was complex because of her appearance. She communicated with them, but refused any rapprochement. Then, starting to smoke marijuana, she felt liberated herself and began to give herself to anyone who wore trousers. It seems to me that in this way she took revenge on other girls who had boyfriends for a long time, while no one even approached her. "

Her sexual exploits became the talk of the town in the small town, where even now people remember one evening when Janice gave herself to all the members of the local football team in honor of their victory.

Janice began singing with a local band and taking more and more drugs. She smoked marijuana, took LSD, and ate massive amounts of seconal. “Some nights,” recalls Julie Paul, “under the influence of drugs, she completely lost control of herself. She ran out into the street in the middle of the night and threw herself under cars or banged her head against walls.” When the euphoria passed, Janice invariably fell into the worst depressions, since nothing in the world could hide the truth: she was rejected by everyone. She was alone.

Without any regret, she leaves Texas and goes to San Francisco. For Janice, it was heaven on earth.

After all, the city was undergoing a cultural social revolution. Young people who came here from all over the world tried to build a new society, the motto of which would be "Love and Peace." Guys wore long hair, girls - long colorful skirts. Sex and drugs were perceived more calmly here than in Texas. In addition, it was the center of music.

Janice immediately felt at home. She joined a band and began performing in local clubs until a manager noticed her and recorded her first CD.

“Janice was incredibly talented,” recalls one of her guitarists. “The only problem was that she saw life as a never-ending celebration. She only thought about drinking and making love. Sometimes she was great on stage, and sometimes - perfect zero. The audience never knew if Janice could sing or not."

But in 1965, Janice suddenly realizes that she is physically degrading. She decides to leave this "paradise", return to Texas and get married. She met a young Canadian who introduced himself as a pharmacist (he started a drug import company just to be able to get drugs). WITH short hair, in a suit and tie, he was the opposite of a long-haired hippie. Therefore, he seemed to Janice as a savior sent to get her out of the hell she lived in. Janice spent a year in Port Arthur preparing for her marriage.

The groom visited her several times, the date had already been set. Janice's mother made her wedding dress, but on the day of the ceremony, the groom did not appear at church.

For Janice, it was a terrible blow. She, who deep down yearned for a normal life, reacted with the frightening vehemence of a suicide. She decided that life is a complete lie, and plunged headlong into the search for entertainment. She returned to San Francisco, became a regular in lesbian establishments, and switched to hard drugs.

In professional terms, she was lucky. She signed a contract, and her first album immediately put her on a par with the biggest stars. Powerful, disturbingly hoarse voice of Janice fascinated the audience.

The money that she began to receive, she spent on alcohol and drugs. At the Monters festival, where she was a star, she met Jimi Hendrix. "They instantly recognized each other," recalls her drummer. "They burned their lives the same way and, in addition, both experienced sexual hunger." Jimmy and Janice spent the night together and met a few more times. They could have started a real love affair, but after three weeks, Janice decided to break up with Hendrix due to his cruelty; he liked to beat his partners. Jimmy could even be dangerous, and on several occasions had to pay large sums to his random mistresses to keep them from suing him. It was with Jimmy that Janice discovered and fell in love with heroin.

After Hendrix, Janice had another love affair with rock star Jim Morrison. “Jim and Janice slept together, although they couldn’t stand each other,” says the owner of the club where they met. “They fought endlessly.”

Janice and the orchestra went on tour for many months. Every evening after the concert, she went to some nightclub and looked for a lover or mistress for the night. Often her searches were unsuccessful, and she became envious of her comrades, who had no shortage of choices. Once in an Italian restaurant in New York, she exploded: "This is not fair, guys! You always have the girls you want, and I have to hang around to find a guy who is not afraid to fuck me." She turned to her secretary and ordered, "Come on, go outside and bring me the first nice boy you meet."

A quarter of an hour later, the secretary returned with a long-haired guy dressed in an African coat and speaking with a British accent. Janice looked him up and down. "Not bad," she said approvingly. "Sit down, handsome. You know who I am? Janis Joplin. Who are you?" The guy said, "Eric Clapton."

Beginning in 1969, Janice's entourage began to seriously worry about her. She drank more and more. Performances had to be canceled regularly as she was unable to get on stage.

In 1970, Janice met a man who offered her a hand and a heart. His name was Seth Morgan, he was a dealer, and they met when he brought her cocaine. Janice fell in love with him and began to make plans: they would give up drugs, get married, she would break with the world of rock and roll. She was interested in cinema, and at that moment a young artist, director Jack Nicholson offered her a role in the film. Janice signed up for the course dramatic skill but never showed up there. Her relationship with Seth was taking an undesirable turn for her. He was away all the time, and she finally realized that he was not going to marry her.

The 4th of October In 1970, after a recording session at Sunset Sound in Los Angeles, she locked herself in her room and injected a huge dose of heroin. Janice died quickly, but she was not found until eighteen hours later. The investigator stated that death was the result of an overdose. "The dose is so huge that it's obviously suicidal," he said.

Janice quotes:
Being an intellectual means asking yourself a lot of questions without finding an answer to them. You can dedicate your whole life to some idea and still come home alone...

Being free is hard, but it's worth it!

Hippies believe that the world can get better. The beatniks know that it will not get better, and they say: let this world go to hell, we will have fun and have a good time

On stage, I make love to 25,000 people, and I return home all alone ...

Why do I live? What am I for? What is the meaning of my existence

I think I think too much. That's why I drink!

What a star I am! After the concert, broken, I come to the dressing room, my hair is tousled, my clothes are dirty, my underwear is torn ... I have a terrible migraine, I cannot find a second shoe. I have no one to return home to, and, tipsy, I beg my manager to give me a lift to an empty apartment. Is this the case with stars?

Janis Lyn Joplin was born January 19, 1943 in Port Arthur, Texas, to Seth Joplin, a Texaco worker (from ... Read all

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

Janis Lyn Joplin was born January 19, 1943 in Port Arthur, Texas, to Seth Joplin, a Texaco worker (with 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 lived up to social expectations. However, she had no girlfriends: she talked exclusively with guys. One of them, a football player named Grant Lyons, introduced her to the work of Leadbelly, making her a passionate fan of this music. Janice soon began to play the blues herself. Psychological problems(associated mainly with being overweight) began in adolescence: Janice was very upset by the bullying of 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 as her blues heroines (Bessie Smith, Big Mama Thornton, Odette).

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 went on stage for the first time to the microphone, demonstrating expressive vocals with a three-octave working range.

Janis Joplin's first band was the Waller Creek Boys, with R. Powell St. John, who wrote songs for the 13th Floor Elevators (and later founded Mother Earth). Here, in her voice, the first hoarseness appeared, which later grew to incredible proportions. The break with the student environment occurred in January 1963. After one of the university newspapers awarded her the title of "the scariest of the guys", Janice packed up and with a friend named Chet Helms hitched a ride to San Francisco, where she quickly became a popular figure in 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 was used as percussion here, on which Margarita Kaukonen pounded.

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

In the spring of 1966, an old acquaintance, Chet Helms, invited Joplin to Big Brother & the Holding Company, a group that he himself managed. Helms, one of the leaders of the Family Dog hippie commune, owned the Avalon Ballroom concert hall: an ensemble consisting of 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 line-up of the group took place at Avalon. The singer instantly established contact with the audience and immediately became a local star. Two months later, Big Brother signed to the independent label Mainstream Records and went into the studio to record their debut, which was not released until 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, nervous-energetic manner of singing. Her performance with "Ball and Chain" was the centerpiece of Monterey Pop, which is still considered a rock documentary masterpiece to this day.

After the festival, new manager Albert Grossman (who also handled Bob Dylan's business) secured the band a contract with Columbia Records. Mainstream Records still released the stale (but not quite finished) debut of Big Brother & the Holding Company, which in August 67 appeared at number 60 on the Billboard lists (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, culminating on April 7 with a big New York Tribute to Martin Luther King, which also featured Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Guy, Richie Havens, Paul Butterfield, and Alvin Bishop.

Janice is not a beauty in the usual sense words, but she is undoubtedly a sex symbol, albeit in a somewhat unexpected “package”. Her voice combined 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 a divine polyphony in itself. — Village Voice, February 22, 1968, about the band's concert at New York's Anderson Theatre.

In March '68, the band 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. Contributed to the success of the group in the charts and the hit Piece Of My Heart. Live at Winterland '68, recorded at the Winterland Ballroom April 12-13, 1968, also garnered rave reviews from the press.

As soon as the album gave way to Jimi Hendrix ("Electric Ladyland"), Joplin left Big Brother with guitarist Sam Andrew and formed her own ensemble, Janis & the Joplinaires, soon renamed Janis Joplin & Her Kozmic Blues Band. This constantly changing line-up lasted a year, but managed to hold a European tour, culminating in a triumphant concert at London's Albert Hall on April 21, 1969. During the summer, the band performed at a series of festivals (Newport, Atlanta, New Orleans, Woodstock), and saw more than a million viewers.

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

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

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

Shortly after the death of Janis Joplin, the Pearl album was released. On February 27, 1971, the album topped the Billboard 200 and stayed at the top for 9 weeks. From here came Janis Joplin's only chart-topper on the Billboard Hot 100 - Kris Kristofferson's composition "Me and Bobby McGee" (March 20, 1971), the final chord of a fast-paced 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 Rose and was nominated for the Oscar for Best Actress for that role. In the 1990s, one of the most popular Broadway musicals was Love, Janis, based on the biographical book of Janice's sister. In 2008, the release of a new action movie about her fate - "The Gospel According to Janice" - is planned.

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, posthumously)
In Concert (1972)

Janis Joplin
JOPLIN, JANIS (1943–1970), American rock singer, criticized as the epitome of 1960s rock culture. Born in Texas on January 19, 1943 in a prosperous family. At the age of 17, she left home and, hoping to become 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, nervous-energetic manner of singing. At this time, the Big Brother and Holding Company group was looking for a vocalist, and someone remembered 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 wowed the audience with poignant 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. In early 1968 Janice's first tour of New York took place. Columbia Studio quickly recognized the promising talent in the lead singer of Big Brother, and the group received a contract. Album Cheap passions (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 seized by this universal longing, mother (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 (Pearl, 1971) sold a million copies, and the single I and Bobby McGee (Me and Bobby McGee) topped the Billboard magazine hit parade. In the 1980s, two albums were released with previously unreleased recordings by the singer of the 1960s - Farewell Song (1982) and Big Brother and Holding Company Live (1985). About the life and work of Joplin, the film Rose (The Rose) with Bette Midler in the title role was shot, several biographies were published, in particular Buried Alive by Myra Friedman. Big Brother and the Holding Company also came out of the Haight-Ashbury creative cauldron, with which the most interesting singer of that period, Janis Joplin, performed. Like many musicians who grew up in the Gulf of California, she was brought up on the blues and folk. But in the summer of '67, reworkings of blues numbers were increasingly interspersed with sunny soft rock fantasies, and then the music became heavier, more edgy. gave rock very little: she left behind only a few records. Her meaning is different: she proved that women can sing rock without worse than men. It was a broken girl: she drank a lot, took drugs, there are many legends about her sexual victories. On stage, she was inimitable: a powerful voice, absolute looseness, personal magnetism. She screamed her blues the way she felt them. A difficult life burst into her songs with pain and hatred. The public loved her, loved her passionately and lustfully. She was happy on stage, not off stage. Once she confessed: "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 the stars light up in the sky? This is how one of them lit up ...
Little Janice Lin was born at 9:45 am on January 19, 1943 in Port Arthur, Texas. Well, isn't that the beginning of a good fairy tale? Tales with sad endings...
Janice has been in love since childhood. One of her first boys was a boy with a simple name Jack Smith. Together they read books, among which was the Gospel. Childhood was still going on: once Janice came to Jack to invite her to the film "10 Commandments". The poor boy had no better idea than to smash the piggy bank and go to the movies with all that little change. While he dealt with the usher, Jen stood to the side. “Sorry, I lost money in a bet with a friend,” he said. Patting his shoulder, the girl laughed, "Don't lie if you're going to see a movie about god..."
Around the age of 14, she began to change. According to her sister Laura, military battles broke out in the house if it occurred to her mother to wash Janice's clothes ("They weren't in a dirty condition!"). She tried to be "one of" among the boy company. They were older, but they let her be as ragged as they were. Together they listened to Odette and Leadbelly, read Kerouac and dreamed of the romance of the highways.
Jenny was a funny and sweet kid. When the company discussed who would drive the car next time, she shouted: “The one with the biggest balls is driving” and, laughing, got behind the wheel. Perhaps feeling like a girl-boy led Janice to free love in 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: "Jack and Nova are here, Jim and Ray, Adrian and Gloria, this and that, but there is always one Janis Joplin."
Soon she had a friend, Sett, who asked for her hand and heart. The wedding was planned a few months after Christmas. The little girl seemed to have found what she needed. One evening, Jenny said to her sister, “I wish I had long, beautiful hair. During the day I would clean them, but every evening I would undo my hair in front of my husband. Strand by strand."
They corresponded, but soon he stopped writing altogether. There was no more talk of the wedding.
In her book Buried Alive, Mira Friedman says that the inner emotional world Janice was too young to worry about people, to try to bring them joy. She liked it better when someone cared for her, loved her ...
Another of her fads 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” (an untranslatable pun ...). Now it is already difficult and, probably, it is not necessary to find out whether it was so or not.
They say that all the "Big Brothers" were one way or another close to Janice, they say that one-night stands were common for her (but not the main thing, for sure), they say that Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix were among her men.
Believe it or not, Janice met Jim only once and this time was unsuccessful. Paul Rothschild (producer for Janice and the Doors) hosted a press night. Between sips of her favorite whiskey, Janice pointed her finger at Morrison and said, "I want this piece of meat." When he tried to get into her car and get as close as possible to her, she began to resist and launched an empty bottle at his head. I must say, Jim was crazy about such women. He loved violence.
In an interview, she said: “I am ready to give up everything that I have if a person appears in my life who is able to love me.”
Probably, David Niehaus, whom Janice met during the carnival in Rio, in February 1970, was supposed to be “the one”. The acquaintance itself was peculiar:
- Hey, you remind me of some rock star. Joplin is...
I am Janis Joplin!
Despite her fame and vanity, David saw a person, not an icon. They were good when they were together. And when they had to leave for a couple of days, her old "friend" Peggy Caserta came to Jen.
What can I say ... the main thing in the life of Janis Joplin has always been 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 home 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 the neck, nicknamed by the ephemeral word "love". She passed all her passions through her work and let them go.
And you left, slamming the door.
And she left, saying only: "I've got a secret."