TIGERX.COM Memorials: Fond Farewell to Janis Joplin

Fond Farewell

Janis Joplin

January 19, 1943 - - - October 4, 1970

Singer Janis Joplin was perhaps the premier white blues singer of the sixties. The publicity of her sex life and drinking and drug problems have made her something of a legend. Born into a comfortable middle class family from Port Arthur, Texas on January 19, 1943, Joplin was a loner by her early teens. She retreated into poetry and painting and devoloped a taste for blues and folk music.
At age 17 she ran away from home and began singing in clubs in Houston to earn money to finance a trip to California. By 1965 she was singing blues and folk music in bars around San Francisco. She returned to Texas in 1966 to sing in a country western band. But within a few months a friend convinced to return to San Francisco to join a band called Big Brother and the Holding Company. Big Brother made there debut at the '67 Montery Pop Festival where they stole the show, and Albert Grossman agreed to manage them. After a successful first LP they were signed by Columbia Records and released their second LP Cheap Thrills, along with the hit single "Piece of my Heart" the album became a quick million seller. Whithin a year Joplin began to overshadow her backing band and left to form the Kosmic Blues Band. During this time she became increasingly involved with drugs and alcohol, eventually succumbing to heroin addiction. In 1970 her life seemed to be taking a turn for the better with the recording of Pearl. She was engaged to be married and she was pleased with the Full Tilt Boggie Band she had formed for the Pearl LP.
But on October 4, 1970 she was found in her hotel room dead of an accidental herion overdose. The posthumous Pearl LP yeilded a #1 hit with Kris Kristofferson "Me & Bobby McGee". The 1979 film The Rose starring Bette Midler was loosly veiled account of Joplin's career.

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