FREE ESSAY ON JANIS JOPLIN

JANIS JOPLIN

Blues legend Janis Lyn Joplin was born on January 19th 1943, the eldest child of parents
Seth and Dorothy Joplin. Janis was born and raised in the small Southern petroleum
industry town of Port Arthur, Texas. Her father was a canning factory worker, her mother
a registrar at a local business college. Her non-abberational upbringing coupled with the
atmosphere of Port Arthur at the time; generally restrictive, intolerant, and unnurturing
must've made even Janis' early childhood difficult. By all accounts, however, Janis seems
to have been a normal and happy child, who fitted society's usual definition of pretty.
It was in Janis' adolescence that the hang-ups and hassles that were to affect the path
of the rest of her life. In a sense, her rigid upbringing played a large part in making
Janis who she was. This would never have been admitted at the time, but, predictably, the
Port Arthur ethic created a fire inside Janis (the fire which later made her so famous)
and kept it burning until her death. 
Janis' troubles began, when, as a teenager, her good looks gradually began to
disintegrate, her soft blonde hair turned into an unruly brown mane. She also developed
severe acne, which would scar her mentally as well as physically. Hence, Janis became
something of a loner, an ugly duckling- somebody who no longer fitted society's absurd
notion of pretty. She soon began avoiding mirrors, and her anxiety about her looks was
made worse by the constant taunts by peers, who rejected her and often made fun of her.
When Janis found that society had rejected her, she simply rejected it.
Janis raised on classical music and omnipresent country music back in Texas, discovered
the blues of Louisiana. Janis was soon inspired to both learn and appreciate music, and
its roots- her idols included Odettea, Leadbelly and Bessie Smith, who would have great
influence on her subsequent musical career, especially her vocal style. By the time Janis
graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School in 1960, she had already decided she wanted
to be a singer, and left home. 
At first, Janis found work in the country and western clubs of Texas, also singing folk
songs for very little money. Her ultimate goal in doing this was to raise enough money
for a bus fare to California. She played the folk circuit around Austin for a short
while, then left for San Francisco. 
In the summer of 1965, Janis returned home to Port Authur for a year to question her life
direction. Drugged-up and burned-out, she attempted, unsuccessfully, to conform to a
straight lifestyle. 
Then, ironically, a fed-up Janis headed back to Austin, where she had previously
experienced such hostility, and stayed there for a further seven months before she was on
the move again this time to San Francisco, where the next, and most important, chapter of
her life was to begin. 
By 1967, Janis had joined Big Brother and the Holding Company and hit the big time, or at
least, had established a healthy following locally. Albert Grossman, arguably the most
influential and important entertainment manager of the era, showcased them. Thanks to
him, they secured a three-record deal with Colombia Records. 
The band played at Bill Graham's Fillmore Auditorium, and, famously, at the Monterey Pop
Festival, California, where Janis gave a legendary performance.
A year later, Big Brother released their first album- Cheap Thrills (the original title:
Sex, Dope and Cheap Thrills, having been vetoed by censors). As a result of the album,
the group was now playing even larger audiences for bigger fees. Concert flyers read: Big
Brother and The Holding Company with Janis Joplin. Increasingly, it was Janis who was
singled out for critical acclaim. It was her powerful vocals on the extracted tracks
Summertime and Piece Of My Heart that propelled the album to the top end of the charts.
What is more, every Janis shriek and growl was painstakingly recorded with utmost
precision.
However, as the pressure on the hippie rockers began mounting, and they began using
stronger, more expensive drugs, the relentless hedonism began to affect their working
relationship. It was evident in Janis' performances. She began scratching her head
excessively- a side effect of excessive heroin use- and, in December of 1968, she left
Big Brother in pursuit of a solo career.
By now, Janis was a national celebrity, with an established reputation and critics
everywhere raving about her performances. Of course, her established reputation didn't
stop at her exceptional music.... She was very much a typical rock star hedonist, using
drugs and drinking excessively. Southern Comfort was her particular favorite that has
been contributed to her "raspy" whisky voice.
Janis decided against going solo and instead joined another band entitled the Kozmic
Blues Band. She appeared with them at the great Woodstock festival, and they released one
album together: I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again, Mama, released in September 1969,
which, although it showed the maturity of her sound, received mixed reviews. Rolling
Stone, in particular, slated the album. It was a somewhat different sound from Big
Brother, with more emphasis on R&B than previously. 
In 1970, while recording her first album with the Full Tilt Boogie Band (entitled Pearl
after a nickname given to her by her closest friends), Janis chanced into using heroin
once again. Ironically, it was the workaholic side of Janis that landed her with her
heroin habit. Unbelievably, despite the obvious negative effects, she believed that the
drug made her feel fresh for rehearsals and performances- the two things that added the
most pressure to her life. Like any heroin user, she was deluding herself. The slippery
slope had begun....
On Saturday October 4th 1970, Janis Joplin was staying at the Landmark Hotel in Los
Angeles, California. She had almost finished recording the album Pearl with the Full Tilt
Boogie Band and, that evening, she injected some heroin to help her to relax amid the
recording sessions that were taking place. She also used Southern Comfort, to the extent
that, if she were not actually an alcoholic at that time, she was very close to it
indeed.
Janis had bought the heroin from her usual, reliable dealer, named George. George, being
a nice drug dealer, routinely had a local chemist come to check out his stash before he
sold it onto the streets, to ensure it was cut adequately as to avoid fatalities.
However, that night, of all nights, the chemist was not in town. Hence, the heroin Janis
purchased would have been approximately 4 to 10 times stronger than normal, and she died.
The last person to speak to Janis before her death was quite probably the man off whom
she purchased a packet of cigarettes.
The truth is, no one will really ever know the exact reasons why, having been so
determined to kick her heroin habit, Janis Joplin reverted to the drug that had shown her
mercy on so many occasions but ultimately killed her. 
What can definitely assumed is that Janis is a legend, who will never be forgotten. Just
like the old blues singers whom she idolized, Janis will remain firmly etched into the
memory of all those who were there during her time at Rock's Pantheon. This memory has
also been passed down to a whole new generation, who are at last appreciating records by
an artist who could sing without state-of-the-art technology. Today, Janis' albums have
gone gold, platinum and triple platinum. Her Greatest Hits Album still tops the charts on
the American Billboard, and numerous compilation albums have been released since her
death, including the box-set Janis. She has been the subject of a feature documentary
Janis (1973), more recently VH1s Legends, and a film of her life is currently under
discussion.
Three decades on and still, few other women could've earned the nickname Pearl so well.