My Favorite Recording Artist


 


            Considered among the greatest artists in the 1960s and greatest female rockers of all time, holds an undying memory of her years as American singer, songwriter, and music arranger. This paper presents a historical look at the group where she became the lead singer including their accomplishments; personal assessment on her personality and its impact to her fans, fellow musicians, and people; and a sociological evaluation on how will she be remembered by the society and its people.


 


Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company: a historical perspective


 


            Vorda (1994) reports that Big Brother and the Holding Company joined together during the mid-1960s from the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco. It consists of the following members: (guitar); James Gurley (guitar);  (bass);  (drums) as the newly acquired member after replacing the old drummer. The group is identified to have numerous followers but because they are just among the estimated 1,500 rock bands in the Bay area during those years, they decided to have a female lead singer to set them apart from the bandwagon of rock bands. In a brief biographic entry written by Laura Joplin and posted in www.officialjanis.com, Janis was tempted to audition when an old friend, Chet Helms informed here about an up-and-coming local group who needed a female lead singer. Helms was the manager of the group and he suggested Joplin to join. During that time, Joplin returned back home in Texas to recover from drug addiction. She accepted the offer in June 4, 1966 and returned to San Francisco while a rumor has it that while in Texas, she had been invited to join  as co-lead singer for the legendary 13th Floor Elevators (Vorda, 1994).


It was six days after her joining to Big Brother and the Holding Company when her first performance was staged in Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco. They are constantly invited to perform in various venues in the Bay area and up and down the California coast together with other music personalities and other groups. Their emerging popularity was given a rising interest for their unique trademark of psychedelic rock. In August 23, 1966, they signed with Mainstream Records and recorded their first album the Fall of 1966. As the recording progresses, the group continuously acquires popularity as they perform in various locations around California and nearby states. The Big Brother and the Holding Company ‘s first album of the same title was released and consisted of ten (10) tracks namely: Bye, Bye Baby, Easy Rider, Intruder, Light is Faster than Sound, Call on Me, Women is Losers, Blind man, Down on Me, Caterpillar, and All Is Loneliness, wherein Blind man and All Is Loneliness became the most popular singles.  While handled by Mainstream Records, they reached #60 in the charts.


Then during the summer of 1967, the band played in a large concert, The Monterey International Pop Festival exemplifying a show stopping performance highlighted by Joplin’s frenetic singing. Janis smashed through her obscurity with Big Mama Thornton’s Ball and Chain and the world noticed. Then, the group was actively courted by Albert Grossman, known to be one of the most influential entertainment managers of the day. Through his representation, they signed a three-record recording contract with Columbia Records, who bought out Mainstream’s rights. After signing to a new recording outfit, the released another album entitled Cheap Thrills in August 1968 as it soars high on charts and soon went gold. The album has seven (7) regular tracks namely: Combination of the Two, I Need a Man to Love, Summertime, Piece of my Heart, Turtle Blues, Oh, Sweet Mary, and Ball and Chain plus four (4) bonus tracks including Road Block, Flower in the Sun, Catch Me Daddy, and Magic of Love. The hits Piece of My heart and Summertime became the most favorite tracks from the said album. The album accomplished an outstanding performance in the charts for seven weeks and it went to #1 in October where it stayed for two months. Piece of My Heart reached #12 spot at the same time as Mainstream capitalized on their fame by belatedly releasing Down On Me which reached #43 (Vordo, 1994).


With their current successful stature, the band was playing to outsized audiences with thousands and hundreds of people who wanted to see them in exchanged for significantly high fees. The billing now read as Janis Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company making Joplin the front woman for the band. They enjoyed the large earnings that they have while dealing with the mounting pressure. In the process and with all the means, the hippie rockers pampered themselves to use high-priced drugs that created negative effects resulting to poor performing and work relationships. Unbelievably, Joplin decided to leave Big Brother with her last appearance with them occurring on December 1, 1968 (Vorda, 1994). Among the identified reason of leaving is the bad publicity that the band received for not playing up to her level. In Christmas of 1968, the group played its last gig together. Big Brother released two albums after Joplin’s departure from the group before breaking up. The song Combination of the Two seems prophetic in hindsight in that neither Big Brother nor Joplin could attain the heights separately that they achieved when they were together (Vordo, 1994). A complete list of the group’s performances and concert is listed in Joplin’s Official Website – www.officialjanis.com/playdates.html.


After she left Big Brother and the Holding Company, Joplin formed a new group called Kozmic Blues Band that is oriented more toward blues and released a new album entitled I Got Dem ‘Ol Kozmic Blues Again, Mama in September of 1969. Tracks include eight (8) songs such as Try, Maybe, One Good Man, As Good as You’ve Been to This World, To Love Somebody, Kozmic Blues, Little Girl Blue, and Work Me, Lord. The new band and album released received ambivalent reaction as seen in the mixed reviews from the American audience. But in Europe, the group was welcomed with stridently enthusiastic praise. Still with the kind of lifestyle Joplin lives, she grew with greater use of drug and alcohol with the purposes of increasing both the artistic creativity and to deal with the tensions of coming down. The continuous use of drug and alcohol made Joplin realized she needed to address her dependency and quit her drug and alcohol use. To do such, she formed a third band called Full Tilt Boogie Band, which developed more professional popular sound and considered to be Joplin’s own unique style of white blues that made her happier. Her new band recorded the album entitled Pearl, which includes the tracks Move Over, Cry Baby, A Woman Left Lonely, Half Moon, Buried Alive in the Blues, My Baby, Me & Bobby McGee, Mercedes Benz, Trust Me, and Get it while You Can. As the recording progresses, she was inclined into using heroin again. Joplin played with two other bands but the chemistry seemed to be lacking from what she had with Big Brother (Vordo, 1994).


The constant used of heroin that led to accidental overdosed caused her death on October 4, 1970 in a motel room in Los Angeles at the age of 27. Her third album was released posthumously and widely acclaimed as it stayed #1 for nine weeks in early 1971, launching the popular songs Me & Bobby McGee and Mercedes Benz. After her death, all albums became gold, platinum, and triple-platinum. The Greatest Hits album still tops the charts in Billboard as several new releases have followed her death.


 


Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company: a personal perspective


 


Paolleta (2003) declares, “More than three decades after her death from a heroin overdose in a Hollywood hotel room,  remains the goddess of female rock vocalists” (pp. 45). Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company successful musical venture established a distinct reputation in their respective musical genre. The accomplishments are deemed to be a significant leap in the mid and late 1960s rock music. Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company are artists that are idolized by hundreds and thousands of people because of the musical ingenuity.


Upon her joining in Big Brother, Joplin developed the musicality that was innate on her personality. She was actually lacking in confidence during the early years (Vorda, 1994). Information from her official website states that Joplin, in her youngest years as student, broke with local social traditions during the apprehensive days of racial integration. She stood up for the rights of African Americans whose segregated status in her hometown scorched her youthful ideals. She pursued non-traditional style in arts and literature with particular importance to music. In company with fellow band beatnik-reading high school students, they gravitated to folk and jazz with Joplin especially taken with the blues. When she discovered her inborn talent to belt the blues, Joplin began to imitate the singing expertise and styles of


Joplin was the added functional human element to the musical variation of Big Brother and the Holding Company. To establish difference from more than thousand of promising bands in the Bay area, Joplin joined the group with the help of Helms, the current group’s manager. The musical characteristic of Joplin gave an extraordinary impact to the group and their music as well as performances. They spent productive years together and their chemistry is remarkable. This aspect of their rapport is a nice example of working relationship. Looking on this aspect, I am inspired by the fact that they are bonded with music as a powerful element that connects them together. Their desire to make people happy is evident on their constant performances in various venues in San Francisco and California.


Personally, the group affects me in many terms. First, they exude an idea of teamwork. They have their commitment to work for the success not only individually but as whole. The strength of the band in terms of skills is the ability to present an all-out performance whenever needed. They actually serve the raving audiences in the most immediate time and place while achieving the most possible satisfactory result. Also, the band has a communal sharing of roles and responsibilities and development of new song and musical composition to improve the group’s performance is at hand. Rather than looking to a leader to define the goal and approach, they identify and reach consensus on their common goal and approach. Most importantly, they hold their members accountable in all the things that they do.


Second, they are an epitome of genuine musical talent. The short year of being together resulted to a collection of outstanding music and song collections. Their two released albums showed the incomparable talent that Joplin and the group possessed. Talent, I believe, is innate and should be nurtured in order to flourish. This is what happened to Joplin. Through Big Brother and the Holding Company, Joplin collaborated with the other members in writing and arranging songs and other musical compositions. Working in this group harnessed the strengths of each member. The talents in music that they all have created a marked in the music industry in which the world is still singing and hearing today. It is very inspiring to know that the talent they have somewhat unite different people and giving testimony to the ability of music to heal souls. Through the years, Joplin and the group even after they separated, continuously propagated the fruit of their talents by acquiring record-breaking sales in the most popular and favored songs. Talent is a gift and at the same time, a responsibility. This is what is learned about them.


With the outstanding reputation and achievement of the group, they are overloaded with various tasks to do that often resulted to stress and their inability to cope up with mounting pressures. To deal away with the challenges of their schedules and the limelight, they resulted to the use of drug and alcohol. This is one thing that created a negative image on my part. However, I recognized the fact that most of the bands during those years or even up to now, are into drugs, alcohol, and other substances as sources of physical and emotional strength. The body tends to be exhausted and give up at times. To prevent such, drug or alcohol rise above their lives. As they are publicly described in a negative way, Joplin left the group and started anew with the pledge to do away with drug and alcohol addiction. This is another remarkable attitude that Joplin has. Even though she was popularly described by biographers, fans, and critics as heavy-drinking, hard-living, loose-loving, flamboyant, lewd, lascivious, even down-right-raunchy woman (20004), there is still wisdom in her part. She recognized the need to transform and make a difference.


Joplin means a lot for me as an iconic symbol of musical giftedness and woman of wisdom in her decisions as well as musical compositions. The personal relevance of this favored artist is rooted on my admiration of her innate talent that was honed by experiences and her desire to make a difference. In her early years, she is already aware of the injustices in the American society that she thought of changing what she thought was wrong. She came from scorned race being an African American in origin and started in her humble beginnings at school. The patience that she showed in her early years as well as the passion for music inspired me a lot.


 


Janis Joplin and her Legacy: a sociological perspective


            After her death, Joplin inspired musicians, artists, and even writers as well as performers and people in general. She is remembered by her powerful and distinctively popular voice and frenetic stage performances. In an early review of Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company, written by Ed Denson for The Berkeley Barb, Denson refers to Joplin as a “blues wailer working material from Shirley & Lee back to Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith, with the ability to scream and throw her body into the music” (Joplin, 1992, pp. 171). She was also a fashion icon where she wore bright satiny clothes and feathers in her hair (Joplin, 1992) and who can forget her psychedelic Porsche. Accordingly, she also used her innate drama and power to project her personality into her music.


            Looking on her life story as an ordinary person, Joplin is said to be a person who is troubled by anything that bothers an ordinary person. She had her difficult, problematic, and weak moments where she found comfort in the company of drug and alcohol. There are numerous things written about her that creates a negative impression. But looking deeper on her character, her ability to recognize and move towards change is admirable. She exerted effort to avoid her dependency in drug yet the truth that she is just human explicates her turning back to heroin that ultimately caused her untimely death. As an icon, she is remembered with her songs that when deciphered, they tell meaning or anything – directly or indirectly – about her life, dreams, wishes, the community she resides, and the whole American society as they reverberate internationally.


            As a young Joplin, she is admired by her liberal political and sociological (sexual) stand. The gender stereotypes are broken by Joplin as her hard-living image combined and created a completely new kind of female persona in rock and challenged dogmatic gender labeling (Echols, 1999). Her musical compositions and contributions will continuously reflect personal as well as societal relevance. Alongside with all her memories, her songs will always be heard and remind of her legendary presence. The interesting and ironically tragic life of Janis Joplin – as a liberal student, free wanderer, music genius, fashion icon, and ordinary and extraordinary talented person – do not only tell us how beautiful life is, given that freedom is absolute. It reminds us to cultivate a culture of achievement and reaching for dreams while creating a difference. Like Joplin, she lived her life to the fullest, never regretting anything up to her death. Now, she will be regarded not only as an all-time favorite and among the best female rockers of all time but also a person who is full with idealism and principle as she defined her given place in the society and field of expertise she chose to belong with. Kudos, Janis Joplin! Hail to her never-dying legacy to music and the arts.



Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com


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