In the summer of 1966, Janis Joplin was a vagabond; four years later, she was a rock and roll legend. She had gone from a complete stranger to a generational icon thanks to a unique and breathtaking performance at the Monterey International Pop Festival in the summer of 1967, and she had followed that with three years of touring and recording that cemented her status of, according to one reviewer, “just behind Bob Dylan in importance as the creator / recorder / embodiment of the history and mythology of his generation”.
Born in Port Arthur, Texas, in 1943, Janis Joplin traveled to San Francisco in 1966, where she partnered with a local group called Big Brother and the Holding Company. It was with this group that she became famous, first thanks to her legendary performance of “Ball And Chain” in Monterey then with the 1968 album. Cheap thrills. She soon broke up to embark on a solo career, however, as her personality and voice were far too big to be contained in a group.
“I’d rather not sing than sing quietly,” she once said, comparing herself to one of her musical idols. “Billie Holliday was subtle and refined. I am going to push this power right into you, through you and you cannot refuse it. But if abandonment was Janis Joplin’s vocal hallmark, she nonetheless always combined it with a musicality and authenticity that lent her music far more soul than what the psychedelic era produced.
But it wasn’t just the music, or the passion she showed while playing it, that made Janis Joplin an icon. It was the unfailing enthusiasm with which she also lived every other aspect of her life. Far from being an empty cliché, “sex, drugs and rock and roll” was a revolutionary philosophy for many in the late 1960s, and Janis Joplin was its main female representative. His streak of romantic conquests ranged from Kris Kristofferson to Dick Cavett. His drug and alcohol use was prolific. And the rock and roll she produced was timeless, from “Piece Of My Heart”, “Get It While You Can” and “Mercedes Benz” to her biggest pop hit, “Me And My Bobby McGee.”
In the fall of 1970, Janis Joplin was in Los Angeles to put the finishing touches on the album that would prove to be the greatest success of his career, pearl. However, she didn’t live to see the album release. That day in 1970, she died of an accidental heroin overdose and was discovered in her hotel room in Los Angeles after failing to show up for a scheduled recording session. She was 27 years old.
Read more: Music legends who lived fast and died at 27
