October 1970 - Janis Joplin found dead in Hollywood

MM front page Oct 10, click to expand

Three weeks after the shocking loss of Jimi Hendrix on September 18th 1970, the rock world was once again in mourning for one of its biggest stars. Janis Joplin was found dead in her Hollywood apartment on October 4th, at the age of 27.

According to the Melody Maker front page report, Janis had been recording during September with the 'Full Tilt Boogie' band, for the album that was released posthumously as Pearl, in January 1971.

An appreciation of Janis by the writer Geoffrey Cannon, said, "It's hard to sit down, a fortnight after trying to say something adequate, quickly, about Jimi Hendrix, and try to catch something of what Janis did - it's too soon."

Cannon said there was a connection between the deaths of Joplin, Hendrix and Brian Jones. "It's a question of how much you can give of yourself without being swallowed by your myth...It's as if a certain kind of star has made a racing car of their own mind and body, so that every night in performance, they slide round the chicane at 120 in a state of total concentration...

"We used to wonder how people like Jimi and Janis could stand the strain. Now we know - they couldn't."

Even though she lived life on the edge as a frequent heroin user, watching Janis Joplin perform, you were never in any doubt she was totally committed to the music and wanted to give the audience a whole-hearted experience. Sometimes she tried too hard and the results could be disheartening. Her soul revue band, that became the Kosmic Blues Band (my personal favourite of her bands) premiered at the Stax-Volt Christmas show in Memphis, going on after all the other local bands (Booker T & The MGs etc) had played, and they couldn't match up.

But watch her at work, at Monterey (with Big Brother & The Holding Company), at Woodstock (with the Kosmic Blues Band), on the Festival Express tour or singing 'To Love Somebody' on the Dick Cavett Show, she was a powerful musical force and a hell of singer.

Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham supported Janis at a gig at the San Jose Fairgrounds in 1970.

Nicks' memory of the gig is Janis yelling and swearing at her to hurry up and get off the stage. But once Janis hit the boards herself, any animosity was banished. "This woman who was screaming at me only moments before suddenly became my new hero," said Nicks.

"Janis put herself out there completely, and her voice was not only strong and soulful, it was painfully and beautifully real. She sang in the great tradition of the rhythm & blues singers that were her heroes, but she brought her own dangerous, sexy rock & roll edge to every single song."

'Full Tilt Boogie', the band that appeared on Pearl, were the musicians who accompanied her on the Festival Express train tour of Canada with The Band, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Delaney & Bonnie and the Grateful Dead in the summer of 1970. The movie of the tour is well worth watching, for the candid scenes on the train where they are just playing for their own amusement between stops on the tour.

"Next time you throw a train, invite me," she said. 

The MM story carried tributes from various musicians. Duster Bennett said, "So much of life was in her voice - the pain, despair and ecstacy. She could say it all for you."
Singer Maggie Bell said, "I'm absolutely choked. She had so much to say - the first girl who really started into hard rock."
Guitarist Stefan Grossman said, "Janis was a gentle girl and one of her last acts was to help finance the tombstone for the blues singer Bessie Smith. In her own time, Janis was the 'blues empress."

Some more highlights from her career, check out youtube.

Duetting with Tom Jones on 'Raise Your Hand', 1969

Maybe on US TV, 1969

Here's the song Move Over from Pearl, played live on the Dick Cavett Show, June 1970

Also on this blog: Jimi Hendrix - The Last Interview, September 1970