Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Janis Joplin
Janis Joplin
ELEV:
PROFESOR COORDONATOR:
LAURA OANCEA
ANCA BARBU
IRIMIA MARIAALEXANDRA
INTRODUCTION
Janis Lyn Joplin, born on January 19, 1943 and death on October 4, 1970, was a US singersongwriter who first rose to fame in the late 1960s as the
lead singer of the psychedelic/acid rock band Big Brother
and the Holding Company, and later as a solo artist with her
own backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full
Tilt Boogie Band. Her first ever large scale public
performance was at the Monterey Pop Festival; this led her
to becoming very popular and one of the major attractions at
the Woodstock festival and the Festival Express train tour.
Joplin charted five singles; other popular songs include:
"Summertime"; "Piece of My Heart"; "Ball 'n' Chain";
"Maybe"; "To Love Somebody"; "Kozmic Blues";"Cry Baby"; and her only number one hit,
"Me and Bobby McGee".
Known for her powerful, blues-inspired vocals, Joplin released her first solo effort, I Got Dem
Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama!, in 1969. The album received mixed reviews, but her second
project, Pearl (1971), released after Joplin's death, was a huge success.Joplin was well known
for her performing ability and was a multi instrumentalist. Her fans referred to her stage
presence as "electric"; at the height of her career, she was known as "The Queen of
Psychedelic Soul". Known as "Pearl" among her friends, she was also a painter, dancer and
music arranger. Rolling Stone ranked Joplin number 46 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists
of All Time in 2004 and number 28 on its 2008 list of 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. She
was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995. Joplin remains one of the topselling musicians in the United States, with Recording Industry Association of
America certifications of 15.5 million albums sold in the USA.
De Blanc, a year and ten months her junior, was a well-educated New Yorker. Shortly after he
and Joplin both moved away from San Francisco and their beatnik lifestyle, De Blanc was
hired by IBM to work with computers at the company's location in East Fishkill, New York,
and Joplin's letters reached him at his New York home.
Back in Port Arthur in the spring of 1965, Joplin changed her lifestyle. She avoided drugs and
alcohol, adopted a beehive hairdo, and enrolled as an anthropology major at Lamar University
in nearby Beaumont, Texas. During her time at Lamar University, she commuted to Austin to
perform solo, accompanying herself on guitar. One of her performances was at a benefit by
local musicians for Texas bluesman, Mance Lipscomb, who was suffering from major health
problems. Another of her performances was reviewed in the Austin American-Statesman.
Joplin became engaged to Peter de Blanc in the fall of 1965. Now living in New York where
he worked with IBM computers, he visited her, wearing a blue serge suit, to ask her father for
her hand in marriage. Joplin and her mother began planning the wedding. De Blanc, who
traveled frequently, terminated plans for the marriage soon afterwards. Just prior to joining
Big Brother and the Holding Company, Joplin recorded seven studio tracks in 1965. Among
the songs she recorded was her original composition for her song "Turtle Blues" and an
alternate version of "Codine" by Buffy Sainte-Marie. These tracks were later issued as a new
album in 1995 entitled This is Janis Joplin 1965 by James Gurley.
10
11
12
13