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Janis Joplin

• often referred to as a "white soul singer"
  • premier white blues singer of the 60s
  • one of the biggest female stars of her time
• developed a taste for blues and folk music early in her life
• born in born in Port Arthur, TX (1943)
  • ran away from home at 17
  • began singing in clubs (Houston & Austin) to save money for a trip to CA

     

  Nobody Knows When You're Down & Out

  --Threadgill's in Austin, 1962

• 1965 (5 yrs later) - she was singing folk & blues in SF and Venice, CA
• 1966 - returned to Austin to sing in C&W band
  • after a couple of months learned from promoter friend Chet Helms that Big Brother & the Holding Company needed a vocalist
• 1967 - got their big break at Monterey Pop Festival (stopped the show)
  • Albert Grossman agreed to manage them and landed them a Columbia contract ... he also managed Bob Dyla

• their 2nd album (Cheap Thrills, 1968) contained "Piece of My Heart" (#12)
• this song was Big Brother's only Top 40 single

Piece of My Heart

• "Tell Mama"

• raspy, shouting tone quality resulted from Janet's attempt to overcome the volume level of a powerful rock band

  Summertime

  w/ Big Brother & the Holding Company

• Janis overshadowed the band
• she left the group within a year after the album's release to form Kozmic Blues Band, taking only guitarist Sam Andrew
• she appears (uncredited) on several cuts of Big Brother's Be a Brother (1971)
• 1969 - released I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again

Try (Just a Little Bit Harder)

also performed at Woodstock

• soul-like vocal style
• 1970 - Janis put together a truly top-notch band Full-Tilt Boogie
• they recorded Pearl … Janis' last album (a very strong effort)
• "Pearl" was Janis' nickname
• Pearl contained Janis' only Top 40 hit, "Me and Bobby McGee" (#1, 1971)
  • a cover of former lover Kris Kristofferson's song

Me & Bobby McGee

• album was released with one track ("Buried Alive in the Blues") missing the vocals that Janis didn't live to complete

Also during 1970, Janis participated in the Festival Express tour across Canada.

• Cry Baby
• "Move Over"
• "Kozmic Blues"

• 10/4/70 - found dead in her room at Hollywood's Landmark Hotel
  • fresh needle tracks in her arm
  • ruled an "accidental" heroin overdose

My Baby

listen to soul characteristics in her vocal sound ... not bad for a white girl!!

From Chapter 9 Musical Close-up:

• improvisatory
• blue notes
• vocal interpolations
• melismatic
• wide variety of vocal timbres

from Janis Joplin's Greatest Hits:

Ball & Chain

ending chorus - blues derivation

Mercedes Benz

from Pearl ... a capella vocal solo

• 1979 - The Rose (starring Bette Midler); the narrative of the film was a thinly-veiled account of Joplin's career
  • this video is a culminating concert performance scene in the film

Other SF groups whose greatest impact came during the 70s:

The Steve Miller Band	Carlos Santana
Creedence Clearwater Revival	Sly & the Family Stone
Tower of Power

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