Found dead of a heroin overdose on this day in 1970, Janis Joplin

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Last edited Thu Oct 4, 2018, 02:42 PM - Edit history (1)

Hat tip, ThisDayInRock: http://www.thisdayinrock.com/index.php/general/1970-janis-joplin-is-found-dead-in-a-room-at-the/

1970 – Janis Joplin is found dead in a room at the Landmark Motel in Hollywood from an accidental heroin overdose.

Janis Joplin



Joplin performing in 1969

Born Janis Lyn Joplin, January 19, 1943, Port Arthur, Texas, U.S.
Died October 4, 1970 (aged 27), Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Cause of death Heroin overdose
Resting place Ashes scattered into the Pacific Ocean

Website janisjoplin.com

Janis Lyn Joplin (January 19, 1943 – October 4, 1970), nicknamed "Pearl", was an American rock, soul and blues singer and songwriter, and one of the most successful and widely-known female rock stars of her era. After releasing three albums, she died of a heroin overdose at the age of 27. A fourth album, Pearl, was released in January 1971, just over three months after her death. It reached number one on the Billboard charts.

In 1967, Joplin rose to fame during an appearance at Monterey Pop Festival, where she was the lead singer of the then little-known San Francisco psychedelic rock band Big Brother and the Holding Company. After releasing two albums with the band, she left Big Brother to continue as a solo artist with her own backing groups, first the Kozmic Blues Band and then the Full Tilt Boogie Band. She appeared at the Woodstock festival and the Festival Express train tour. Five singles by Joplin reached the Billboard Hot 100, including a cover of the Kris Kristofferson song "Me and Bobby McGee", which reached number 1 in March 1971. Her most popular songs include her cover versions of "Piece of My Heart", "Cry Baby", "Down on Me", "Ball and Chain", and "Summertime"; and her original song "Mercedes Benz", her final recording.

Joplin, a mezzo-soprano highly respected for her charismatic performing ability, was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995. Audiences and critics alike referred to her stage presence as "electric". Rolling Stone ranked Joplin number 46 on its 2004 list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time and number 28 on its 2008 list of 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. She remains one of the top-selling musicians in the United States, with Recording Industry Association of America certifications of 15.5 million albums sold.

Here is my favorite Big Brother and the Holding Company tune. First live:

PennebakerHegedus

Published on May 24, 2012

Big Brother and the Holding Company perform "Combination of the Two" at Monterey Pop in 1967. Lead vocals: Janis Joplin. This is an outtake from D A Pennebaker's film MONTEREY POP, available from the Criterion Collection.

Now from the album, with better sound, but not much better sound:

[ghostsinthemachine]

1. The Dead and Janis, turn on your lovelight!

https://m.

&feature=share

The Dead wrote this for Janis.

[saidsimplesimon]

2. "Me and my Bobbie McGee"

"From the Kentucky coal mines to the California Sun..." I love the lyrics written by Chris Kristofferson.

[kwassa]

3. I saw her in concert 3 times.

First with Big Brother and the Holding Company, and later with the Full Tilt Boogie Band?

She was the first big-name rocker I saw, and it was a tour supporting Cheap Thrills. Opening act was Blood, Sweat, and Tears, no slouch either.

Rock was so small time then that the 13,000 seat theater was one-third full, and security was off-duty cops that had no idea what to do.

This all changed after Woodstock.

Poster for the concert. Oct 4, 1968, exactly 50 years ago today.

[SuprstitionAintthWay]

4. so that means it was also this morning in 1970 that at the front desk of that same motel

...a message --- a telegram (?), I think it was -- was waiting for her from the boyfriend, away travelling, whom she was missing so much and pining for so hard. She'd been doing well at staying off the drugs, but what was happening right then is she was getting beaten back down by sheer loneliness. Her male bandmates all went to their rooms with their wives girlfriends or groupies; she was going back to hers alone, and powerfully feeling it.

That message to her probably would have saved her life that night that she was giving in to her despair. And it missed doing that by mere hours. Was it already right there in the motel while she was still alive in her room? I don't know, but it was sooooo close to getting to her in the very nick of time.

I wasn't aware of this til seeing it in a doumentary on PBS, and that little fact in particular just stabbed me in the heart.

Btw, I also remember reading that when she was a student at UT Austin, frat men elected her and announced her to be the "Ugliest Man on Campus." Just to state a love for Janis here, anger about the anguish she suffered from others' mockery and fun, and recognize that cruel, misogynistic h.s jocks and college frat boys, some of whom become powerful and hire only women who look like models, never stop damaging women, and probably never will.