Janis Joplin

Janis Lyn Joplin (January 19, 1943 – October 4, 1970) was an American blues-influenced rock singer and occasional songwriter with a distinctive voice. Joplin performed on four albums recorded between 1966 and 1970 -- two as the lead singer of San Francisco's Big Brother and The Holding Company, and two released as a solo artist. Joplin was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995, and received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005. She was ranked #41 on VH1's The 100 Greatest Artists of Rock 'n Roll in 1998, the third highest ranking for a female (only behind Aretha Franklin and Joni Mitchell) on the list. In 1999, she was ranked #3 on VH1's The 100 Greatest Women in Rock and Roll (effectively the same position). In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Joplin #46 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Cultivating a rebellious manner that could be viewed as "liberated," Joplin styled herself in part after her female blues heroines, and in part after the Beat poets. She left Texas for San Francisco in 1963, lived in North Beach and in Haight-Ashbury as well as Corte Madera. Around this time her drug use began to increase, and she acquired a reputation as a "speed freak" and occasional heroin user. She also used other intoxicants. She was a heavy drinker throughout her career, and her trademark beverage was Southern Comfort. After splitting from Big Brother Joplin formed a new backup group, modelled on the classic soul revue bands, named the Kozmic Blues Band, which backed her on I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama! (1969: the year she played at Woodstock). Their first public performance, which clearly signalled the group's soul connections, was at the Stax-Volt Christmas Show in Memphis on 1968. During the fall 1970 recording sessions for the Pearl album Joplin was found dead at the Landmark Hotel in Hollywood on October 4, 1970, most likely due to an overdose of heroin and whiskey. She was 27. She was cremated in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood, California, and her ashes were scattered into the Pacific Ocean. The album Pearl, released six weeks after her death, included a version of Nick Gravenites' song "Buried Alive In The Blues", which was left as an instrumental because Joplin had died before she was able to record her vocal over the backing track. Both the album and the single "Me And Bobby McGee" went to #1 in the US. The way I see it, Cheap Thrills will always be one of the best blues-rock albums ever recorded and Janis will forever remain one of my favorite female singers. Find out more about her life and music at: http://www.officialjanis.com/

Research info provided by: www.wikipedia.org

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