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About Janis

"The greatest white female rock singer of the 1960s, Janis Joplin was also a great blues singer, making her material her own with her wailing, raspy, supercharged emotional delivery. First rising to stardom as the frontwoman for San Francisco psychedelic band Big Brother & the Holding Company, she left the group in the late '60s for a brief and uneven (though commercially successful) career as a solo artist. Although she wasn't always supplied with the best material or most sympathetic musicians, her best recordings, with both Big Brother and on her own, are some of the most exciting performances of her era. She also did much to redefine the role of women in rock with her assertive, sexually forthright persona and raunchy, electrifying on-stage presence.

Janis was raised in the small town of Port Arthur, TX, and much of her subsequent personal difficulties and unhappiness has been attributed to her inability to fit in with the expectations of the conservative community. She'd been singing blues and folk music since her teens, playing on occasion in the mid-'60s with future Jefferson Airplane guitarist Jorma Kaukonen. There are a few live pre-Big Brother recordings (not issued until after her death), reflecting the inspiration of early blues singers like Bessie Smith, that demonstrate she was well on her way to developing a personal style before hooking up with the band. She had already been to California before moving there permanently in 1966, when she joined a struggling early San Francisco psychedelic group, Big Brother & the Holding Company.

Big Brother's story is told in more detail in their own entry. Although their loose, occasionally sloppy brand of bluesy psychedelia had some charm, there can be no doubt that Joplin who initially didn't even sing lead on all of the material was primarily responsible for lifting them out of the ranks of the ordinary. She made them a hit at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, where her stunning version of "Ball and Chain" (perhaps her very best performance) was captured on film. After a debut on the Mainstream label, Big Brother signed a management deal with Albert Grossman, and moved on to Columbia. Their second album, Cheap Thrills, topped the charts in 1968, but Joplin left the band shortly afterward, enticed by the prospects of stardom as a solo act.

Janis' first album, I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama!, was recorded with the Kozmic Blues Band, a unit that included horns, and retained just one of the musicians that had played with her in Big Brother (guitarist Sam Andrew). Although it was a hit, it wasn't her best work; the new band, though more polished musically, was not nearly as sympathetic accompanists as Big Brother, purveying a soul-rock groove that could sound forced. That's not to say it was totally unsuccessful, boasting one of her signature tunes in "Try (Just a Little Bit Harder)." (Photo-'Pigpen and Janis')

Try (Just a Little Bit Harder)"

Try, try, try just a little bit harder
So I can love, love, love him, I tell myself
'Cause I'm gonna try, oh yeah, just a little bit harder
So I won't lose, lose, lose him to nobody else, yeah.
Hey, I don't care how long it's gonna take ya
But if it's a dream I don't want No I don't really want it
Yeah if it's a dream I don't want nobody to wake me.
Yeah I'm gonna try, oh yeah, just a little bit harder
So I can give, give, give, give him every bit of my soul.
I'm gonna try, oh yeah, just a little bit harder
So I can show, show, show him love with no control, yeah.
Hey! I don't care how long it's gonna take ya
But if it's a dream I don't want
No I don't really want it
Yeah if it's a dream I don't want nobody to wake me.

Try Lord, try, try, you ain't trying man
You're not trying out man, come up with it.
Come on, that's a wanker that listens to words, man.
Hey you gotta work all night
Hey little girl, gotta push on
You gotta need
Work a little more, hey, try a little more,
Need a little more
Yeah, work on, push on, move on, move on,
You gotta work for it, you gotta work on it
Push on, need on, move on,
Move on, hey hey hey.
Work it daddy,
Work it daddy,
Come on, work it daddy, oh
Yeah, yeah, you better try, try, try, try a little more
You ain't never gonna get any man if that's the sort of thing you can do.
Shit, there's lot more talent around than that man.

For years, Janis' life had been a roller coaster of drug addiction, alcoholism, and volatile personal relationships, documented in 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 Rothschild). Joplin was sometimes 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 heroin in a Hollywood hotel in October 1970. "Me and Bobby McGee" became a posthumous number one single in 1971, and thus the song with which she is most frequently identified."

By

Richie Unterberger © 2003

'Janis'

by Lisa Law

"Janis was rehearsing with Big Brother & The Holding Company

in a large wooden house at the end of a dirt road in Lagunitas, California, very close to where we lived in Forest Knolls.

As I walked into the house, I was totally stunned by a voice belting out from another room.

The power of her voice and the stomping of her foot shook the whole house.

That was the day I shot the flag images and later in Woodacre we did a big shoot by the barns and the tractor."

-Lisa Law-

All images © Lisa Law 2005

"In 1970 Janis visited Tom and I in Truchas, New Mexico,

where I got this great shot of her leaning up against the adobe wall with our friend Tommy Masters." -Lisa Law-

Visit Lisa Law's Guest Gallery

'Janis'

by Gil Weingourt

See Gibert Weingourt's Photo Essay on the "1967 Human Be-In"

Also Gilbert's 60's Manifestations

60s Graffiti Tribute

All Photos © Gilbert Weingourt 2004

Trust Me
Trust in me, baby, give me time, gimme time, um gimme time.
I heard somebody say, oh, "The older the grape,
Sweeter the wine, sweeter the wine."Oh, my love is like a seed, baby, just needs time to grow,
It's growing stronger day by day, yeah,
That's the price you've got to pay.Trust in me, baby, give me time, gimme time, please, a little more time.
Takes a road runner just a little bit uh-longer, dear,
Oh, to make up my mind, I gotta make up my mind.
Oh, my love is like a seed, baby, just needs time to grow,
It's growing stronger day by day,
That's the price that we both got to pay.I gotta know, know that I'm ready, oh ready to settle down,
'Cause I think too much of your loving, baby,
Yeah, I don't wanna mess your life around!So if you love me like you tell me that you're doing, dear,
You shouldn't mind paying the price, any price, any price.
Love is supposed to be that special kind of thing,
Make anybody want to sacrifice.
Oh, my love is like a seed, baby, just needs time to grow,
It's growing stronger day by day,
That's the price we both gotta pay.Trust in me baby, trust in me baby,
Trust in my love, in my heart.
Keep the faith, baby, keep the faith in me, dear, in my love.
Don't turn your face away from me, dear, oh you leave a lost girl,
Oh, don't turn your love away, no no no no no no no,
You gotta believe in me, baby, yeah, trust me dear, oh...

Photos, Posters, Books, & Music

Box of Pearls binds the 1999 remastered and expanded versions of the albums (listed below) and tosses in a five-track rarities EP entitled, appropriately enough, Rare Pearls. Box of Pearls is brilliantly produced, with a totallly psychedelic box-we love our copy and cherish it.-Lionheart-

Big Brother & the Holding Company

Cheap Thrills

I Got Them Ol' Kozmic Blues Again, Mama

1970 Pearl sessions...and lots more!!

Visit our Janis Joplin Music Store

Posters & T-shirts of Janis!

Books & Films

MORE COMING SOON

cover
covers

'Scars of Sweet Paradise: The Life and Times of Janis Joplin' by Alice Echols.

"This book is such an interesting read that it's hard to put down. Ms. Echols delves into Port Arthur in a way that is very similar to that of Mary Karr. She also looks at aspects of Janis that have not been well-contructed before this. The milieu of San Francisco and the 1960s music scene there is shown in an open and matter-of-fact way. The beginnings of the bands were more haphazard than ever realized. One cannot understand a person unless they understand the politics and atmosphere, as with this remarkable person, Janis--blues singer and sister to us all.
On the personal side, Janis was a woman who wanted what we all want- to love and be loved. Echols defines where many of us let one another down by not being honest with others when they are in too deep.
As Janis wrote "It's so sad to be alone."
I highly recommend this biography to Janis fans and folks who are interested in the culture of the 60s and one of our most famous and tragic 'spokesperson's.' (LH & Amazon)

'Love, Janis' by Laura Joplin.

"Love, Janis is an intimate, full- blooded portrait that shows both the public and the private Janis, a woman struggling to perfect her art, searching for the balance between love and stardom, and battling her addictions to alcohol and heroin. At the heart of the book are Janis's own letters home, which movingly convey her thoughts and feelings during her wild ride to rock stardom." (Amazon Review)

Another great book on Janis but more compassionate and heartfelt.