As Eric Clapton said, “The blues is the song of a man who doesn’t have a woman, or whose woman has left him.” In the case of Janis Joplin, the blues turned into a real frantic emotional striptease of a hopelessly in love woman.
In her performance, it was not just a song with repeated vocal parts. It was a constantly changing tracing of emotional experiences, when plaintive pleas passed from quiet sobs to a hoarse desperate cry. The mossy banality of “Love is pain” acquired such authenticity and frankness in Janice’s performance that it literally chilled the listener to the bone.
Even if you're not a traditional blues fan (like me), hearing Joplin sing is hard to ignore. I don’t know about falling in love, but you can’t ignore it. As they say, frankness is for frankness.
D. Joplin:
“It all depends on those feelings that are already inside you, but which you are trying to destroy because it is not customary to talk about them or something like that. But if only you let them come out... In general, this the only reason, which makes me sing. I get up on stage and let my emotions run free.
...On stage I make love to 25 thousand people, and then I go home alone.”
At first, hardly anyone suspected that a white girl from the cowboy state of Texas would become one of the best blues performers. Moreover, being far from beautiful, Joplin will remain in memory as the standard girl of the hippie era - starting from crazy outfits, as if collected at flea markets (baubles, huge glasses, fur hats) and ending with immoderation and promiscuity, as in sexual connections, and in alcohol and drugs.
However, this smart, lively girl showed her independent character back in school, where she described her stay in the pithy phrase: “A stranger among the stupid.” She had to look for friends on the side - in the company of beatniks, where Janice was introduced to the blues and something else - not so harmless. The first will bring her glory, the second will bring her to the grave...
Although Janice began singing even then, she did not immediately decide on life priorities. Graduated from several higher educational institutions and even broke with the vicious environment for some time, trying to heal normal life"middle class".
However, as soon as the young group from San Francisco BIG BROTHER AND THE HOLDING COMPANY called her into their ranks, she happily abandoned the hateful Texas and rushed into all troubles.
D. Joplin:
“...I knew that I had a good voice, it would always earn me a couple of beers. And suddenly someone seemed to throw me into a rock band. Listen, they threw these musicians at me! The sound came from behind me: an energizing bass, and I realized - this is it! I have never dreamed of anything else! And this gave me a buzz, a buzz - purer than with any man!..”
The group's first album did not go well right away. Perhaps it would have been collecting dust on the shelf if BIG BROTHER had not performed in June 1967 at the famous festival in Monterey. At first, the little-known group was shoved into the daytime program for a one-time performance. But Joplin sang so well that BIG BROTHER was immediately included the next day - and even in the evening “prime time”<см. исполнение «Ball And Chain» на Monterey Pop Festival 1967>.
Joplin and BIG BROTHER at the Monterey Festival.
That's where it all started. The album sold out, and the group itself came under the wing of the powerful CBS label.
D. Joplin, from a letter to his parents:
“Magazines are vying with each other to ask me for interviews and photo shoots, and I won’t refuse anyone. Wow, I'm so happy! The lost child was hanging around so much... - and then this happened. The main thing is that it looks like I’ll really succeed this time.”
Well, now about the songs...
"Summertime" (1968)
Repenting to all jazz lovers and feeling a slight sense of shame, I admit that I learned about the famous work of George Gershwin from Joplin. I probably heard it before, but didn’t pay attention.
However, attention was paid to Gershwin’s 1935 opera “Porgy and Bess” only after the author’s death - in the 1950s. A song called “Summertime” gained particular popularity, where Gershwin adapted the motives of the Ukrainian lullaby “A dream walks past the window” (i.e. “A dream walks past the windows”). The composer heard it at a concert of the choir of Alexander Koshits, an emigrant from Ukraine and a promoter of the songs of his homeland.
The motives of the original source in Gershwin’s “Summertime” are, of course, guessable. The form of the lullaby is also preserved - in the opera Clara sings it to her child. But with all this, it cannot be denied that the composer created on the basis folk song a brilliant original piece.
After Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong performed “Summertime” in 1957, the song was finally “bronzed” and acquired the status of a jazz standard.
What they did with the song BIG BROTHER and Joplin, of course, cannot be called a standard. In the touching beautiful lullaby, anxiety and drama immediately appeared, pumped up by Janice’s voice and expressive electric guitars. Of all the non-standard performances of Clara’s aria, this is probably the most interesting and emotional.
By the way, “Summertime” was the last song that Joplin performed in public. This will happen at Harvard on August 12, 1970. But before that...
"Piece of My Heart" (1968)
Before this, there were two more albums by the singer, filled with beautiful songs. Most of them are covers recorded before Janice, but it was she who breathed into these songs new life and brought them popularity. For example, “Ball and Chain” - a song by Big Mama Thornton - with which BIG BROTHER captivated the audience at the Monterey Festival. Or “Maybe,” first performed in the doo-wop style by the CHANTELS back in 1957.
But, probably, the most famous “alien-friend” song for Joplin was “Piece of My Heart” (“Piece of My Heart”). It was written by the creative tandem of Jerry Ragovoy and Bertney Burns for Aretha Franklin’s older sister, Erma. Erma's version was released in 1967 and reached No. 62 on the US national chart.
BIG BROTHER was introduced to the song by their rock colleague from JEFFERSON AIRPLANE, Jack Cassidy. Janis Joplin's performance and guitarist Sam Andrew's psychedelic rock arrangement changed the source material so much that when Erma Franklin heard new version“Piece of My Heart” came on the radio, but at first I didn’t recognize my song. As critic Ellen Willis wrote, unlike Erma, Janice uses the blues not to overcome pain, but to declare its existence.
Sam Andrew:
“We made it completely differently: there was such grace! “And we recorded a manic, furious white guy version.”
Didn't you feel like you were the only one with me?
Didn't I give you almost everything?
What can a woman give?
Honey, you know I did it all!
And every time I tell myself
That I've had enough
But I'll show you, baby
That a woman can be tough.Come, come, come,
Come and...
Take another piece of my heart, right now!
Oh, break it!
Although "Piece of My Heart" became the biggest hit of Erma's entire career, BIG BROTHER's version was much more successful. It would reach number 12 on the US charts, and the 1968 album Cheap Thrills would be certified gold before its release. This song will be covered by many famous performers (Dusty Springfield, Bonnie Tyler, etc.), but it will be associated primarily with Joplin.
"Kozmic Blues" (1969)
It quickly became clear that the main “pearl” of BIG BROTHER was Janice’s voice, so, as often happens, the singer left the group to create a new one - KOZMIC BLUES BAND. The name of the group was given by the song of the same name “Cosmic Blues” - this time written by Joplin herself with the help of producer Gabriel Meckler.
It was another beautiful and sensual song about love and disappointment. The singer herself tells the best story about her.
D. Joplin (from D. Dolten’s book “Piece of My Heart”):
“...I can’t write a song until I actually experience all this trauma, this emotional outburst; I've been through a series of reckonings and I'm seriously devastated. No one will ever love you better, no one will ever love you the way you should.
...Anyway, at the end of this song I have a memory-analogy of a mule pulling a cart with a long stick from which something dangles, you know, a carrot dangles, it is held in front of his nose, encouraging the mule to move forward towards the unattainable goals.
...one day, sitting in a bar, I realized that there is no such path, you know, nothing will ever fall into place. It will just take your whole life. You’ll never reach that f...ing carrot, listen, that’s when the “Space Blues” comes when you realize that you’ll never achieve what you want.”
Artificially assembled, KOZMIC BLUES BAND lasted even less than BIG BROTHER. As a result, Janice made the only right decision and went on a solo voyage. Unfortunately, it turned out to be even shorter...
"Me and Bobby McGee" (1971)
In 1970, nothing foreshadowed the tragedy. On the contrary, Janice once again tried to quit drugs, and her chaotic personal life began to find solid ground. Paul Rothschild, who became famous for his work with DOORS, volunteered to produce the first solo album, and the work proceeded with great enthusiasm.
P. Rothschild:
“I have never seen her as happy as during these sessions. She was at the top of her game and enjoying life."
In the new album, the singer no longer limits herself to the blues. In addition to blues (“Cry Baby”), her baggage also included typical rock compositions (like “Move Over”), and even country music.
D. Joplin:
“I wouldn’t say country right away. More like down to earth blues... plus some slide guitar. Let's call it loud electric funk country blues."
I, of course, am not American, so I don’t really understand why Joplin’s most successful hit was a country song called “Me and Bobby McGee.” But it’s impossible not to write about her.
This Joplin song comes directly from its author - country singer and former lover - Kris Kristofferson. Subsequently, Christofferson will say that although the song is not about Janice, it is partially connected with her - for example, the line “One day, near Salinas, I let her slip away.”.
Interestingly, Christofferson heard Joplin's version after her death. Before that, he gave his song exclusively to men - Roger Miller and Gordon Lightfoot. The fact is that initially “Bobby” in the song was a woman’s name, and the text, accordingly, was sung from a man’s perspective.
Well, Janice remade him for herself, and Bobby became a man.
...I would exchange all my “tomorrows” for one single “yesterday” -
If only Bobby had been with me in this “yesterday.”Freedom is just a beautiful word
meaning that there is nothing left to lose;
Nothing - that's all Bobby left me.
But, God, we felt so good when we sang the blues together,
And that was quite enough for me, oh yeah...
...For me and for my Bobby McGee.
Joplin's version became not only her most successful song, but also, rare in pop music history, a posthumous No. 1 hit (only Otis Redding has ever had that happen).
"Mercedes Benz" (1971)
On October 1, 1970, Janice appeared in the studio, asked to turn on the tape recorder to record, walked up to the microphone and with a smile announced that she would now perform the song "of enormous political and social importance". Then in complete silence she began to say:
Oh God, would you like to buy me a Mercedes Benz?
My friends all drive Porsches, but I feel somehow uncomfortable.
I've worked hard all my life and there's no help from anyone,
So, God, would you like to buy me a Mercedes Benz?
Then the singer mentions in the text the TV program “Dialing for Dollars,” where valuable prizes were awarded, and asks the Lord to send her a color TV and even pay for night parties. I think there is no need to explain that the meaning of the song is completely ironic, and its hippie needles are directed directly towards the consumer society, which, as we know, still won, and then ruined everything.
By the way, Joplin herself preferred to drive a Porsche, painted in cheerful psychedelic colors.
D. Joplin:
“It is the desire to have something that makes you sad. What makes you unhappy is not the lack of something, but the desire to get something.”
Joplin composed this impromptu based on a song by Michael McClure, which actually contained the line “God, buy me a Mercedes-Benz.” When the singer finalized her version, she immediately showed it to McClure, but he said that he liked his own better. As a result, Joplin and McClure were listed on the record sleeve as co-authors.
"Mercedes Benz" turned out to be the last song Janice performed. On October 4, she didn't show up at the airport to meet her fiancé, Seth Morgan. She also did not appear in the studio. When the door to the singer's room was broken down, they found her dead, lying on the floor and clutching $4.50 in her hand. As it turned out, death occurred as a result of a large amount of opiates introduced into the blood. Suicide was extremely unlikely, but the version of murder had some basis - no drugs were found in the house, and the room looked suspiciously cleaned. However, suspicions remained suspicions...
The album “Pearl” (“Pearl” is Joplin’s nickname) was released posthumously and very quickly topped the US hit parade. Two compositions remained unfinished on it: the instrumental “Buried Alive In The Blues” (“Buried Alive in the Blues”), for which the singer did not have time to record vocals, and “Mercedes Benz”, which they decided to leave in an a cappella performance. The Mercedes version with the added instrument lining will be released only in 2003.
As for the message contained in the song, money-hungry relatives will manage to ruin it. So in the 1990s, Joplin’s sister would allow the use of this composition in Mercedes advertising. The song will also be used as anti-advertising. In a commercial for BMW cars, the driver plays a Joplin song, frowns at the word “Mercedes”, and after mentioning “Porsche” he completely throws the tape out the window.
Such is the bitter fate of art in the world of purity. :)
January 2014G.
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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.
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 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 Family Dog hippie commune, owned concert hall Avalon Ballroom: the ensemble consisting of Sam Andrew (vocals, guitar), James Gurley (guitar), Peter Albin (bass), David Getz (drums) and Janis Joplin (vocals) settled here as residents.
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 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 finally released the stale (but not entirely finished) debut of Big Brother & the Holding Company, which appeared at No. 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 concert in New York City in memory of Martin Luther King, 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), the final chord of 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)
Janis Joplin
JOPLIN, JANICE (1943–1970) American rock singer, according to critics, is the embodiment of rock culture of the 1960s. 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). The film The Rose with Bette Midler was made about the life and work of Joplin. leading role, several biographies have been published, in particular 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 period Janis Joplin. 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 Era of Rock: 1967 - 1970.B musically Janice gave very little to rock: she left behind only a few records. Her significance lies elsewhere: she proved that women can sing rock without 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 the 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 would break out in the house if her mother decided to wash 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 feeling like 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, with the exception of 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 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. From an early age, 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 choking 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 the consumption of "speed". 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 that 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 02/07/15At school ( Thomas Jefferson High School, Port Arthur) Janice was an exemplary student, exhibited her own drawings in the local library and at first conformed to the norms of public expectations. However, she had no friends: she communicated exclusively with guys. According to sister Laura, it soon became clear that Janice was far superior to her peers intellectually. 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. It was a time when Martin Luther King was just beginning his campaign for racial integration, and it was unthinkable for a white Texas girl to openly support his views.
Later my father said:
She mostly talked to herself. She had a hard time at school. She insisted on being different from those around her in clothing and behavior, and for this they hated her there. There was not a single person with whom she could find at least something in common or talk. She was one of the first representatives of 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 interested in new literature, poetry of the beat generation, blues and folk music, and radical forms of modern art. One of them, a football player named Grant Lyons, introduced Janice to the work of Leadbelly, making her a passionate fan of the blues for the rest of her life. Soon she began to sing the blues herself, secretly from everyone.
It is generally accepted that psychological problems (associated mainly with excess weight) began for Janice in adolescence: she had a hard time being bullied by her peers (in a city where she was, as she later recalled, “the strange one among the stupid”) and suffered from self-loathing and the surrounding world. During these years, the explosive character of Janis Joplin was formed, who “styled” herself after her favorite blues performers (Bessie Smith, Big Mama Thornton, Odetta), as well as beat poets.
Stage debut
From then on, Janis Joplin began performing regularly on the university stage, demonstrating expressive vocals with a three-octave operating range. Her first song of her own recorded on tape was the blues "What Good Can Drinking Do", styled after Bessie Smith. “Janice was influenced by the vaudeville blues of the 20s and identified herself with its stars,” says rock critic Lucy O’Brien. “It was this kind of hyper-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. Appearing on stage from time to time in one or another roadside club, she very quickly began to acquire the skills of a professional blues performer. Janice did not know musical notation, but (as biographer Richard B. Hughes noted) had a unique sensitivity: this allowed her to absorb the phraseology, 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 to Austin, where they lived in the folk-beatnik tenement known as Ghetto. That fall, Janice, now a student at the University of Texas at Austin, began performing with a local bluegrass band. Waller Creek Boys, which featured R. Powell St. John, who later wrote songs for the 13th Floor Elevators and founded Mother Earth (the third member of the ensemble was bassist Larry Wiggins). The trio played at the local union house on Sundays and also at Threadgill's bar Bar & Grill(Wednesday evenings), performing songs by Leadbelly, Bessie Smith, Gene Ricci, Rosie Maddox, and bluegrass standards. At this time, Janice was already seriously interested in “weed” and took large doses of alcohol (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 possessed two completely different voices at the same time: a clear, bright soprano and a powerful blues rasp. She hesitated for some time, not knowing which one to give preference to, and then she made a choice in favor of the second of them.”
Moving to San Francisco
Janis Joplin broke with the student community in January 1963 after one of the university newspapers (with an evil joke) awarded her the title of “the worst of the kids.” Just then, Chet Helms, an old friend from Austin, returned from San Francisco with stories about the local post-Beat scene.
Janice spent the first half of 1963 doing small jobs. Over the summer, she performed at the Monterey Folk Festival; By this time, she had been involved in a motorcycle accident, got involved in a street fight, and ended up in jail for petty shoplifting. In the fall of 1963, Janice made her first radio appearance, performing live on San Francisco radio station KPFA. Midnight Special to the accompaniment of a certain Rod "Pigpen" McKiernan. .
First recordings
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 stage at the Slug’s club.
Upon returning 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, on which Margarita Kaukonen played, was used as percussion.
At the same time, Janice was already regularly taking drugs: crystal methedrine, sometimes heroin, with the help of 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 with short sleeves, so that she would not see the marks from the syringes.
In 1965, Janice entered the sociology department 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 about forming a new group with a harder sound. The first train (called Blue Yard Hill) settled at 1090 Page Street, which Rodney rented (with the permission of his uncle, who was awaiting government approval to demolish the structure and build 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 began organizing jazz bands in the basements of the house, which soon became a place of attraction for local youth.
After recruiting drummer Chuck Jones and guitarist Sam Andrew, a student at the University of San Francisco, the quintet began playing regularly at basement parties. The sixth member of the group was guitarist David Eskeson, whom manager Paul Ferraz (aka Beck) found through a newspaper ad. The band's main writer was Peter Albin, who started out in bluegrass (on the same stage in San Jose as Paul Kantner and Jorma Kaukonen) but soon began writing "songs that were reminiscent of the Rolling Stones, but much weirder."
The name of the new team was formed by combining two options under consideration: Big Brother & the Holding Company. Its mission was declared: “To speak to children around the world in their language.”
Chuck Jones was soon replaced by Dave Getz, who daytime He taught at the Art Institute, and in the evenings he worked part-time at a spaghetti factory. With him, the group began performing in local clubs, playing blues, bluegrass, covers of Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones, as well as folk-rock numbers such as "I Know You, Rider".
Shortly after the group's official concert debut (it was a performance on January 22, 1966 at the first Trips Festival at Longshoreman's Hall), Helms, who knew Gurley from the Family Dog commune, signed a contract with the group and became its manager. With his help, 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 preparations, so sometimes they managed to create things on stage that would never have occurred to anyone... Then people scratched their heads: Well, what was it like? played in the key?
Success of two local groups- Jefferson Airplane (then with Signe Anderson) and Great Society (with Grace Slick) - made Helms remember his old friend. He sent a mutual friend, Travis Rivers, to Texas for the sole purpose of getting Janis Joplin out of there.
Arrival Joplin
The band's musicians recalled that the new singer instantly established contact with the audience and within a few days became a local star. These days, Joplin took almost no drugs: at the insistence of keyboardist (and close friend at the time) Stephen Ryder, she made an agreement with bandmate David Getz to outlaw syringes in the apartment they were renting. According to Sam Andrew, Janice “was smart, determined and had a sense of self-esteem that was amazing for a provincial girl.” The band's summer San Francisco concert was recorded and later included on the album. Cheaper Thrills (1984).
With the arrival of Joplin, the repertoire of Big Brother & the Holding Company quickly changed: from free-form fusion to a hyper-dynamic synthesis 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 of “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 messy.” But, as Albin recalled, the group still had to turn down the volume: the vocal cords of even such a loud singer as Joplin could not cope with this level. Yielding to the singer’s requests, the musicians soon purchased new equipment, first of all, better amplifiers.
The extraordinary artistic charisma of the new vocalist brought the group to the forefront of the San Francisco scene. While not super-sophisticated musicians, the Big Brother contestants were (in Sam Andrew's words) "creative people following 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, banging, fucking and having fun: that’s all I wanted from life. At the same time, I knew that I had a good voice: with it I would always earn myself a couple of beers. And suddenly someone seemed to throw me into this rock band. Well, they dumped these musicians on me - the sound came from behind, charging<энергией>bass - and I realized: this is it! - I never dreamed of anything else! And this gave me a buzz - purer than with any man. Perhaps that was the whole 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 beer 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 composed of Big Brother and the Holding Company also felt a negative reaction from the audience. “You guys are losing your abnormality, you are becoming more and more like the rest... Get rid of the girl!” - this, according to Albin’s recollections, was the general reaction of local fans.
Changes in voice
The new alliance, as Andrew recalled, played a decisive role in Joplin's creative development. The singer, seemingly accustomed to public rejection, was now basking in the 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 characteristic of San Francisco groups,” 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:
She started out as an acoustic accompaniment singer, and her voice was rich and folky. On Big Brother he became less coloratura. At low volumes, Janice showed fantastic range, but she had to push her vocals to the limit to compete with the band's sound. Within a year, she developed polyps, which made each note sound like a chord, complete with halftones. - Peter Albin
However, Joplin herself did not at all view these changes as degradation: moreover, she claimed that only after joining the group “I realized that I had never really sung before.” She just had to give up imitating Bessie Smith (“...She hit open notes, in the context of the simplest phraseology, but you can’t count on that when you have a rock band behind you...”) and learned from Otis Reading “the art of pushing a song forward instead of in order to glide freely over its surface.”
At the same time, Joplin herself said:
I have three voices: a scream, a guttural hoarseness and a high-pitched howl. When I take on the role of a nightclub singer, I use huskiness. This is what my mom likes. She says: Janice, why do you squeal 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 group was forced to record their debut album in studios in Chicago and Los Angeles. Shed, who took on the role of producer, did not even allow the musicians in the studio when he did the final mixing. However, he did not allow the group to record each song more than 13 times, believing that this would “bring misfortune.” 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 releasing two singles from it: “Blindman” and “All Is Loneliness.”
Janis Joplin said this about the first record in 1968:
The album turned out to be weak because we were young and naive, the producer was bad, we didn’t have a manager, or even a person who could advise us on anything. We didn't understand what we were doing, and they simply took advantage of us. They gave us three days to record the entire album and hinted that if we took any creative liberties in the studio, we would be thrown out immediately.
In early October 1966, the group's new manager, Julius Karpen, finally returned the group 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 gang members; The hippie commune of Haight Ashbury played a prominent role in this.
During concerts at the Golden Sheaf Bakery on February 11, 1967, Janice met Country Joe McDonald. Soon they moved in together, renting an apartment for two.
According to rock critic Lucy O'Brien, Joplin's performance was characterized by exciting spontaneity 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 used the power of her voice in such a way." Her performance of "Ball and Chain" became the central episode of Penebaker's film "Monterey Pop", which is still considered an example of high-quality rock documentary.
Impresario 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 came from Texas and lived in San Francisco: it was her own voice, her own interpretation of the songs. She sang the blues, and in a very unique way... You know, when a person creates his own style, it is very difficult to make comparisons... I keep coming back to Hendrix. Hendrix was a guitar innovator and it's hard to copy him. Likewise, Janice was an innovator in a 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 been 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.
Even more important, Clive Davis, head of Columbia Records, became interested in the group. Immediately signing a three-album deal with Big Brother, he immediately joined Grossman in a rush to free himself from his old contract. In the summer of 1967, the stale (but not entirely finalized) debut was released on Mainstream Records. Big Brother & the Holding Company, which peaked at #60 on Billboard 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 contract with Columbia Records to release three albums and continued touring in Boston, Cambridge, Providence and Chicago. On March 1, the band's concert at Detroit's Grande Ballroom was recorded on tape and later included in the concert compilation. Janis Live.
Cheap Thrills
Meanwhile, the tour continued: On April 7, Big Brother & the Holding Company ended it with a large concert in New York City 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 live concert was recorded (later released) at the Winterland Ballroom. Live at Winterland "68.
The release of the studio album was delayed: the producer rejected almost all the material (about 200 bobbins) proposed by the group. But advance requests for the record turned out to be such that it received gold status even before release. Columbia President Clive Davis demanded an immediate release, and Cheap Thrills, whose cover was designed by the famous underground cartoonist Robert Crumb, was released in August 1968, just in time for the group's performance at the folk festival in Newport (Rhode Island), where the audience of 18,000 gave the group a standing ovation and did not leave the stage until an hour nights.
Freed from the pop conformism imposed by Bobby Shead, the group created Cheap Thrills(as reviewer John McDermott wrote in 1994), his "...masterpiece: an eclectic collection of exuberant studio and live experimentation that made a powerful artistic statement and fully reflected the power of the ensemble." “After Janice arrived, it took us about a year of concert activity to understand who we were,” Sam Andrew said. - Before starting work on Cheap Thrills We had time to hone our repertoire on tour, and that decided the whole matter.” .
In addition, like most blues performers of her time, Joplin was strong in her interpretations of ready-made material rather than in her original art. However, just at this moment, being at the peak of inspiration, she wrote several strong songs. Sam Andrew said:
Janice had a pronounced talent as an author, especially when it came to texts. She did a lot, but still it was “Turtle Blues” that became a thing that was iconic for all of her work. In general, authoring in Big Brother was a very democratic process. Someone had an idea, the rest commented on it. I usually brought a more or less completed composition to the group. Then, after playing it for several months, we wrote out the arrangement. This was true of all the songs, including “Piece of My Heart,” which we got from Jack Cassidy, who brought it to us after hearing Irma Franklin perform it. We made it completely differently: there was such grace! - and we recorded a manic, furious white guy version. Another example of the same kind is “Summertime”, which we worked on for a very long time.
Original text(English)
Janis definitely had a talent for writing, especially 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 its release, the album sold a million copies, topping the list on October 12. However, reviews of the album in the United States were muted: many noted that Joplin completely overshadowed the group with her performance, especially in “Ball & Chain” and “Summertime.”
Among those who came to Big Brother's defense was Village Voice columnist Richard Goldstein:
Yes, it has become customary to make fun of the musicians of the group who<будто бы>don't match her magic, but they're not that helpless. Her voice is so limitless that it is capable of killing any accompaniment, with the exception, perhaps, of a bazooka, but when Big Brother is behind her... the difference between vocals and music is erased, what remains is the overall sound. If you call it the Janis Joplin sound, you're judging the fire by the smoke because that's what you see 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.
Big Brother Breakup
Despite the enormous success of the album, constant touring and nervous stress slowed down the development of the group. Plucked from the fertile soil of the San Francisco scene, Big Brother (as J. McDermott noted) "had a hard time staying afloat." Until recently, the seemingly inexhaustible energy of the group began to rapidly evaporate due to drugs and petty squabbles. Gradually, personal and creative ties within the lineup began to disintegrate. At the same time, it became increasingly obvious that of all the members of the group, only Joplin, after its collapse, could not only survive, but also achieve success as a solo performer. Grossman, understanding this better than anyone, did nothing to prevent the breakup.
In September 1968 (the album had just lost its place at the top Electric Ladyland Jimi Hendrix's manager announced an "amicable separation" between Janis Joplin and Big Brother. On November 15, Joplin gave her last concert with the old lineup - at Manhattan's 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 himself.
25 years later, Sam Andrew admitted that the public most likely overestimated Grossman’s influence: “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 went to first place - 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 from Moby Grape about this. But I ended up following her myself. For me<её уход>It wasn't 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.
Joplin herself had a hard time with her departure from the group. “I loved these guys more than anything in the world, but I understood: if I was serious about music, I needed to leave ... We worked six days a week for two years, playing the same songs, we completely invested ourselves in them and simply exhausted ourselves myself,” she recalled in September 1970.
Kozmic Blues Band
The formation of a new line-up (the core of which was Joplin and Andrew) was undertaken by Grossman and Mike Bloomfield and Nick Graveknights, who were called upon to help them. On December 18, 1968, the musicians gathered for the first time to rehearse and from many options for names ( Janis Joplin & the Joplinaires, Janis Joplin Review) chose - Kozmic Blues Band. The group, in addition to Joplin and Andrew, included saxophonist Terry Clements, drummer Roy Markowitz, trumpeter Terry Hensley, organist Richard Kermode, bass guitarist Keith Cherry (ex-Pauper), who was later replaced by Brad Campbell.
The first performance of the new, poorly played group took place in the Yuletide Thing show. 21 December Kozmic Blues Band performed at the Memphis Mid South Coliseum along with several highly professional soul groups and were received very coolly. A February report in Rolling Stone (“Memphis Debut” by Stanley Booth) was somewhat sympathetic, but a larger March 15, 1969 article headlined “Janis: Judy Garland in Rock?” (author - Paul Nelson) was almost devastating. The San Francisco Chronicle invited Janice to return to Big Brother (“...if only they want her”).
The European tour that followed was more successful. After concerts in Frankfurt (filmed by German TV), Stockholm, Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Paris, the group performed on 21 April 1969 at London's Royal Albert Hall and received rave reviews in Disc, Melody Maker, Dayly Telegraph and other publications. However, overall the new group disappointed experts and fans.
According to Sam Andrew, the problem was that while Big Brother was a group of like-minded people who lived as a family, the Kozmic Blues Band was a backing band whose members served as "hired employees, nothing more."
Despite the fact that individually the musicians of 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 performers... There were moments, especially on tour in Europe, when we had a good time, but mostly 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 Meckler, best known for his work with
While still working in the studio, the band played at the three-day Newport Pop Festival (Devonshire Downs in Northridge, California) and the Atlanta Pop Festival. The performance at Woodstock on August 16 turned out to be Sam Andrew's last: he was 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. It was greeted coolly in the American press (the European press, on the contrary, reacted almost enthusiastically). Many reviewers noted that in some places the album's material does not reach Joplin's level, in others she herself brings it to her level.
A superstar can lift up the hopeless, while a mediocre singer kills the best... "One Good Man" is just a decent song, but superstar Janis Joplin raises it to her level, her voice ringing like an alarm bell in a jungle of emotions. An even more striking example is the Rodgers and Hart classic "Little Girl Blue." Many generations of indifferent performers have worn it to pieces, so we stopped expecting anything 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; an alternative version was also included in the collection Janis). In April 1970, Joplin temporarily returned to Big Brother & the Holding Company and took the group on stage at the Fillmore West. A week later they performed together again in Winterland. The best excerpts from these concerts were included in Joplin In Concert (1972).
By the early summer of 1970, Janis Joplin had formed 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 group gathered for the first rehearsal, and in May they gave their first performances (in San Rafael, California). In May, Full Tilt Boogie Band gave their first concert - in the same program with Big Brother and their new frontman Nick Graveknights (the concert was released under the title Be a Brother).
In September, already with Janis Joplin's Full Tilt Boogie Band, they 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 doubt, but soon became completely delighted with his new ward:
After this mess with the Kozmic Blues Band, which in my opinion almost ruined her career, I talked to Janice, made sure she was really healthy and agreed to accompany the band on tour to see what she looked like on stage. Janice was great!
The group began work in the Sunset Sound studio - the same one where Rothschild had recently recorded two albums by The Doors. Joplin was present at every session, deeply involved in the work and clearly enjoying it. Creating a more creative, receptive atmosphere, Rothschild believed, promised to be the key to the album's success. For his part, he negotiated the best studio terms with Columbia and assembled great amount song material, from which only the best was selected and organically fits into the singer’s style.
I have never seen her as happy as during these sessions. She was at the peak of her form and enjoying life. Over and over again she talked about how good she felt in the studio. After all, until now she had associated the recording process only 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 singer’s sister shared the same point of view. Laura Joplin said: the dealer George, from whom Janice bought the product, always tested the latter 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 no depression or frustration. She made plans and looked to the future with hope. She even finally did her hair!” - recalled Laura Joplin.
Sam Andrew believed that Janice was the victim of an uncontrollable drug addiction. Tim Appelo (in 1992) expressed a different point of view: he wrote that it was not so much the thirst for pleasure that destroyed Joplin, but workaholism (“Only heroin allowed her to stay fresh the next day, and that was the main thing for her.”)
As Arthur Cooper later wrote (Newsweek, 1973), Joplin's death could seem like a cruel joke of fate, because it happened at a moment when the singer's previously chaotic life began to improve: she was getting married (to Seth Morgan), and for five months she had not used alcohol. heroin. However, it is known that Joplin still felt lonely (on the night of her death, Morgan was having fun in the billiard room of a strip club in San Francisco). Joplin's newfound well-being was apparent; she more than once admitted to friends that she was unhappy. “I’m not getting better,” she admitted to Kris Kristofferson. “I’ll probably end up on the needle again.” While accepting 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 it was an "unconscious suicide."
Immediately after Janis Joplin's death, Rolling Stone magazine dedicated a special issue to her memory. Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia wrote:
She chose the most to die best time. There are people who are able to live only on takeoff, and Janice was just such a rocket girl... If we assume that a person has the ability to paint the script of his life, then I would say that she turned out to be a good script, with the right ending.
Joplin's remains were cremated at the cemetery. Memorial Park 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 greeting to John Lennon on his birthday 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 Janis Joplin's death came as a terrible blow to everyone involved in the work on the record. The album was almost completed, and Rothschild was faced with a dilemma: complete the work himself, or release the record as an unfinished document. Clive Davis entrusted the producer with the final decision. 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, it became the most balanced and organic work of Janis Joplin. It reflected her increased vocal prowess, combining her former emotionality and effective restraint in polished arrangements. It was decided to include Nick Graveknights' song "Buried Alive In The Blues", for which Joplin never recorded a vocal part, as an instrumental track.
Appearance and image
It is known that from her early youth Janis Joplin was extremely critical of her appearance and considered herself “ugly.” In fact, on stage and in life she looked different and always made the most favorable impression on the people who interacted with her. Michael Thomas (in Ramparts Magazine), calling Joplin on stage a “rock and roll banshee” and noting her “psychopathic” performance style, noted: “She<на сцене>“I couldn’t say that she was beautiful, but she was extremely, defiantly erotic.” At the same time, he described his impressions of Joplin’s appearance after a personal meeting 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 takes on the task of drawing “Orphan Annie” will pay attention to such a face. But Janice’s gaze is wandering, sometimes hard. With those strings of beads, she looks like a charming barmaid...
“Janice had a friendly, warm smile, so rare these days, and she generously gave it to everyone,” recalled Yoko Ono.
According to her sister, Janice, who passionately strived for stardom, having barely achieved it, experienced disappointment in it, and most importantly, in her own image of “an incensed woman, living life and singing the blues.” “She considered her stage image to be a cheap wrapper for sale,” Laura Joplin claimed.
Character traits
Close friend Chet Helms believed that Janis Joplin's character 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, truly creative people who managed to break out of this realm of reaction without going crazy. I will always feel a strong spiritual connection with the people who escaped Texas. - Chet Helms
The singer's sister Laura Joplin believed that the defiant image was in direct conflict with Janice's real character: she was an intelligent, shy and sensitive woman. At the same time, she (as her sister claimed) was not characterized by aggressiveness. “It is common to perceive Janice as a tragic figure, because she became a victim of drugs. But everyone forgets how fun it was to be around her. She was a very cheerful, lively person,” said Laura. An article in Time (1968) noted that even Joplin's alcoholism was cheerful: she was always smiling with a bottle of Southern Comfort and joked: “I guess I'll own a company someday!”
Sculatti and Shay note in their book that Joplin had periods of amazing peace: for example, when the group settled in Lagunites, in a house located at the end of the highway near the forest. “Janice was given a sunroom which she decorated with lots of plants. Like her room, it became unusually calm and beautiful these days,” recalled David Goetz.
Friedman admits that behind the surface aggressiveness there was a lonely, sensitive and vulnerable woman. In her opinion, the singer tried to fill 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.”
Paul Nelson wrote about Joplin's dangerously imbalanced personality in an article entitled "The Judy Garland of Rock?" (Rolling Stone, 1969). As the main feature of the singer’s character, he noted her strange lack of self-confidence. “It’s hard to imagine Dylan or Lennon nervously convincing themselves during an interview: Hey, really, I sang great? Do you think I've become a better singer? Well, I swear to Jesus, I really began to sing better, believe me!..”
Nelson concludes:
Janice is that rare type who completely lacks the ability to distance herself from a reporter in the name of self-protection, an ability that a singer of her stature simply cannot afford not to have... There is an uneasy feeling that - if Joplin's life is so tied up with success on the music stage, - she needs a bit of honest cynicism: only with its help will she be able to withstand this crush whipped up by the mass media. If there is this cynicism in her, it is hidden too deeply under an extremely attractive but dangerous naivety, which borders on an unacceptable lack of self-confidence.
Grace Slick confirmed the same thing: “Janice... was open and spontaneous, and because of this, her heart was trampled on...” recalled the Jefferson Airplane vocalist. At the same time, she noted Janice’s delicacy: “...At times she seemed to be keeping something to herself - something that, as she probably thought, I would not want to hear - as adults do with children...” Slick said that Janice was always ready to help advice and treated her like a “wise grandmother.” Patti Smith also talked about how Janice supported her in her creative endeavors: “You definitely have to keep going; 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 I left a five dollar tip,” the vocalist recalled
Life philosophy
In confronting a hostile environment, Joplin developed a life philosophy close to that of the beatniks. “Hippies believe that the world can be a better place. The beatniks know that nothing will get better and they say - fuck this world, let’s have a blast and have a good time,” she said. Part of this philosophy was embodied in her stage image.
Whether Joplin sang blues, R&B, or the group's original compositions (such as Dave Getz's "Harry" or the epic yodeling "Gutra's Garden"), she took it all to emotional extremes with her rough, husky voice... Bent over the microphone, with her fingers clasped and her hair covering her face, she was clearly out of the “flower utopia” of the psychedelic scene. There was some kind of fatal tension in her voice. - Gene Sculatti and David Shay, San Francisco Nights: The Psychedelic Music Trip 1965-1968.
Biographer Myra Friedman believed that Joplin's character was rooted in sexual conflict, and that the singer "deliberately cast herself in the role of Aphrodite," infusing her performances with raw eroticism combined with an overly "masculine vocabulary." Friedman claimed that she was just as sexually aggressive off stage: “pursuing every man (and woman too) for whom she could be inflamed with passion... She became the exciting Earth Mother for a whole generation of gentle dreamers.”
Janis Joplin often said that the public only liked blues singers when they were unhappy. And so that they die young.
Even as a child, in her native Texas, Janice did not feel much joy about being born into the world. Nature has endowed her with a not very beautiful appearance, to put it mildly. His classmates laughed at the plump, pimply teenager with unruly, always tangled hair. In 1963, she ran away from college after "winning" a local competition for the title of "Ugliest Person in the Dorm."
Janice tried to avoid mirrors so as not to get upset again. And already in high school I was looking for salvation from problems in alcohol. She also locked herself in her room, plucked the strings of her guitar and endlessly listened to the greatest folk, jazz and blues performers of the 20th century. Ironically, her last day of college was the day of her first mini-triumph. Janice was sitting on the porch of a house on campus and humming to her guitar when one of the students passing by suddenly said: “Scarecrow, you sing great!” Janice looked up and asked in bewilderment, “Really? But I didn’t know.”
Just music and just sex
Joplin hitchhiked to San Francisco and got a job as a singer in a nearby bar. She spent two years among the beatniks, ardent fighters against bourgeois morality. They were close to her, because even in Texas, Janice boldly spoke out against the oppression of blacks.
However, the feeling of loneliness and uselessness did not go away. She tried drugs for the first time. Janice understood that she needed to return home, sort herself out and decide what to do next. Someone at the bar gave her money for a ticket. But I couldn’t find myself at home either. Parents encouraged their daughter's passion for music, but did not understand her at all.
Joplin became crowded in a provincial town. It was clear that if she did not return to San Francisco, she would completely lose herself. Just at that moment she received a letter from one of her friends. It said, among other things, that some group was looking for a vocalist. Janice returned to San Francisco. And I didn’t recognize the city at all, filled with hippies in bright clothes with unkempt hair. They smoked dope and listened to music endlessly. Among them was that same group - Big Brother And The Holding Company.
Popular
Less than two weeks later, Janice began an affair with one of the group members, James Gurley. For both, it was the epitome of hippie freedom and just sex. Both were not deterred by the fact that James already had a wife, Nancy, and a child. Nancy, having caught them in her bed, kicked her husband out. He lived with Joplin for two weeks, but soon left her and returned to his wife. The incident was over: Nancy and Janice became friends, the group began performing.
“The public only likes blues singers when they’re miserable. And so that they die young"
Crazy 60's Idol
At the 1967 Monterey International Music Festival, the unknown Big Brother And The Holding Company made a splash. Janice’s cutting and at the same time gentle, “some kind of velvet” voice, her madness on stage and complete dedication did their job. The recording company Mainstream signed a contract with the band.
A completely different life began: success, the release of an album, two singles, constant performances, money, as well as drinking and drugs. Janice became an idol of the youth of the sixties: they imitated her in a crazy way of dressing. She wore as many beads and bracelets on her neck and arms as she could bear, and performed in the summer in a huge fur hat and green boots, red trousers and a T-shirt.
“When I’m on stage, I make love to 25,000 people.”
“An amazing woman. Do you have her number?
During this period, Janice met the leader of The Doors, Jim Morrison. This happened at a Hollywood party in honor of Andy Warhol. Joplin was wearing something purple, had peacock feathers in her hair, and was holding the constant bottle of liquor in her hand. Jim walked up to her and unceremoniously put his arm around her waist. He asked Janice something about her life, she began to talk about her terrible university years, Jim drank his whiskey and listened.
After a while, Janice laughed at something Morrison was saying. He suddenly became offended, grabbed her by the hair and with a sharp movement pressed her head between her legs. Janice jumped up, terrified of his mother, slapped Jim in the face and walked away, humiliated. He tried to catch up with her and, when she was already getting into her psychedelically painted Porsche, he began to grab her hands and ask for forgiveness. Janice hit him on the head with a bottle. And she left. The next day Jim was walking around like crazy, repeating: “What a woman, what an amazing woman. Does anyone have her phone number?
“What a star I am to you!”
Soon, Columbia Records entered the fray for the rights to the works of Big Brother And The Holding Company. The album Cheap Thrills was released, several songs from which soared to the top of the charts. Meanwhile, the group members began to notice that the public loved and singled out only Janice. The posters said “Janis Joplin and Co.” The halls chanted: “Janice, we love you!” The newspapers screamed about the phenomenon of a white singer with a “black” voice.
At the same time, Janice managed to avoid star fever, she said to herself: “What a star I am to you! After the concert, exhausted, I come to the dressing room, my hair is disheveled, my clothes are stained, my underwear is torn. I have a terrible migraine and I can't find my other shoe. I have no one to go home to, and I, drunk, beg my manager to give me a lift to an empty apartment. Is it like that with the stars?
Trapped in your inner world
At Christmas 1968, the group played their last concert together. Janice set about recruiting new musicians. She couldn’t imagine her life without music: “When I’m on stage, I make love with 25 thousand people, and then I return home alone.”
Joplin created her own group, the Kozmic Blues Band, which began playing classic soul. It was then that Janice began to realize that she had a serious problem with drugs: “I am a prisoner of my inner world, I don't know what to do with this, I hate this feeling. I’ve already learned to make it work for me on stage, but in everyday life it depresses me.” Janice’s predecessor, her favorite jazz singer Billie Holliday, also said this. She died at the age of 37, and when before her death they predicted that she would die of alcoholism, she answered: “No. I will die of loneliness."
“I have no one to go home to, and I, drunk, beg my manager to give me a lift to an empty apartment. Is this the case with the stars?
Meeting the man of your dreams - sober
In July 1969, Joplin received news about her friend Nancy, the same one from whom she had stolen her husband for some time. Nancy was pregnant for the second time when she died of an overdose. Janice threw all the drugs out of the house.
At the same time, Joplin fell madly in love with Seth Morgan. True, he was not interested in her work and never listened to her songs, but Janice did not care. This was the first man who really meant something to her. All her previous relationships did not work out. In her loneliness, Joplin was consoled by the statement of one singer, who, after a triumph on stage, called the man who wanted to marry her into the dressing room and said: “Did you see what’s happening to the audience now? Do you think you can give me the same feeling as all these people?” So Janice repeated that no man could give her even approximately what the stage gives. I repeated it until I met Seth.
After a month of sobriety, she took the stage at the famous Woodstock rock festival along with Joe Cocker, Carlos Santana and her friend Jimi Hendrix. Her performance was seen by a record number of spectators at that time - 450 thousand. Then she performed, perhaps, her best song Work Me Lord. She sang that she looked everywhere, but could not find her man anywhere. She asked God not to leave her, because she felt so unnecessary on Earth. Let him take her with him, she may be useful.