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The greatest white female rock singer of the 1960s, Janis Joplin was also a great blues singer, making her material her ownwith her wailing, raspy, supercharged emotional delivery. First rising to stardom as the frontwoman for San Franciscopsychedelic band Big Brother & the Holding Company, she left the group in the late '60s for a brief and uneven (thoughcommercially successful) career as a solo artist. Although she wasn't always supplied with the best material or mostsympathetic musicians, her best recordings, with both Big Brother and on her own, are some of the most excitingperformances of ...read more
The greatest white female rock singer of the 1960s, Janis Joplin was also a great blues singer, making her material her ownwith her wailing, raspy, supercharged emotional delivery. First rising to stardom as the frontwoman for San Franciscopsychedelic band Big Brother & the Holding Company, she left the group in the late '60s for a brief and uneven (thoughcommercially successful) career as a solo artist. Although she wasn't always supplied with the best material or mostsympathetic musicians, her best recordings, with both Big Brother and on her own, are some of the most excitingperformances of her era. She also did much to redefine the role of women in rock with her assertive, sexually forthrightpersona and raunchy, electrifying on-stage presence.Joplin was raised in the small town of Port Arthur, TX, and much of her subsequent personal difficulties and unhappiness hasbeen attributed to her inability to fit in with the expectations of the conservative community. She'd been singing blues andfolk music since her teens, playing on occasion in the mid-'60s with future Jefferson Airplane guitarist Jorma Kaukonen. Thereare a few live pre-Big Brother recordings (not issued until after her death), reflecting the inspiration of early blues singers likeBessie Smith, that demonstrate she was well on her way to developing a personal style before hooking up with the band. Shehad already been to California before moving there permanently in 1966, when she joined a struggling early San Franciscopsychedelic group, Big Brother & the Holding Company. Although their loose, occasionally sloppy brand of bluesy psychedeliahad some charm, there can be no doubt that Joplin -- who initially didn't even sing lead on all of the material -- was primarilyresponsible for lifting them out of the ranks of the ordinary. She made them a hit at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, whereher stunning version of "Ball and Chain" (perhaps her very best performance) was captured on film. After a debut on theMainstream label, Big Brother signed a management deal with Albert Grossman and moved on to Columbia. Their secondalbum, Cheap Thrills, topped the charts in 1968, but Joplin left the band shortly afterward, enticed by the prospects ofstardom as a solo act.Joplin's first album, I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama!, was recorded with the Kozmic Blues Band, a unit that includedhorns and retained just one of the musicians that had played with her in Big Brother (guitarist Sam Andrew). Although it wasa hit, it wasn't her best work; the new band, though more polished musically, was not nearly as sympathetic accompanists asBig Brother, purveying a soul-rock groove that could sound forced. That's not to say it was totally unsuccessful, boastingone of her signature tunes in "Try (Just a Little Bit Harder)."For years, Joplin's life had been a roller coaster of drug addiction, alcoholism, and volatile personal relationships, documentedin several biographies. Musically, however, things were on the upswing shortly before her death, as she assembled a better,more versatile backing outfit, the Full Tilt Boogie Band, for her final album, Pearl (ably produced by Paul Rothchild). Joplin wassometimes criticized for screeching at the expense of subtlety, but Pearl was solid evidence of her growth as a mature,diverse stylist who could handle blues, soul, and folk-rock. "Mercedes Benz," "Get It While You Can," and Kris Kristofferson's"Me and Bobby McGee" are some of her very best tracks. Tragically, she died before the album's release, overdosing on heroinin a Hollywood hotel in October 1970. "Me and Bobby McGee" became a posthumous number one single in 1971, and thus thesong with which she is most frequently identified. « hide |
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