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October 4th, 1970 - Janis Joplin dies of a drug overdose in Hollywood
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Janis Joplin
I got treated very badly in Texas. They don't treat beatniks too good in Texas. Port Arthur people thought I was a beatnik, though they'd never seen one and neither had I.
Janis Joplin was born on January 19th, 1943, in Port Arthur, Texas. An only child until the age of 6, Janis was reportedly a great student, and popular until high school.
Rebelling against the fashions and society that made up those who lived in the oil town, she choose to wear mens shirts with tights or short skirts. She gravitated towards a group of friends who shared her love of music and creative expression.
When it came to music, the group found inspiration in the sounds of blues artists like Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey and Odetta. They visited the local bars in nearby Louisiana and Joplin became known as a tough girl who drank and did outrageous things. It was around this time she started smoking weed.
After graduating and enrolling in Lamar State College, she soon dropped out to take secretarial classes, then moved to L.A. Things didn't go so well there and she returned to Port Arthur and Lamar College.
Being an intellectual creates a lot of questions and no answers.
In 1962, she left again, this time to the University of Texas in Austin. Once there, she began performing at folksings on campus and at local clubs. Her sound blew the audience away. At that point the only two well known female folk singers (Joan Baez and Judy Collins) were known for their soft and sweet music.
Joplin's forceful, blues tinged voice was new, and fascinating.
When I sing, I feel like when you're first in love. It's more than sex. It's that point two people can get to they call love, when you really touch someone for the first time, but it's gigantic, multiplied by the whole audience. I feel chills.
She moved back to California in 1966, after a stint in New York (where she developed a speed habit), and hooked up with a San Francisco group Big Brother & The Holding Company. After Joplin performed "Ball and Chain" at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, the group was given a record deal. Their second album, Cheap Thrills, was a hit and Joplin left the group to pursue a solo career.
From there, she recorded with the Kozmic Blues Band, and came out with "Try (Just a Little Bit Harder)" one of her signature hits.
During this time she was on a roller coaster of self destruction. Drugs, alcohol, and an overall volatile personality was noted along the way. Musically she was heading ever higher as she left this group and choose the Full Tilt Boogie Band to back her last album Pearl. This one produced hits like "Mercedes Benz", a social commentary, "Get It While You Can" and the softer "Me and Bobby McGee" written by Kris Kristofferson.
On October 4th, 1970, shortly before the release of Pearl, Janis Joplin was found dead in a Hollywood hotel room of a drug overdose. She was 27 years old.
Released posthumously, Pearl, and especially "Me and Bobby McGee" became her most well known legacy.
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