Link Post - Five Things You Should Know about Janis Joplin - A Life Lived Much Too Fast

… So I can love, love, love him, I tell myself 

Well, I'm gonna try, just a little bit harder 

So I can't give, give, give, give him to nobody else. 

Well, I've been waiting for such a long time…

                                     -- Janis Joplin "Try (just a little bit harder)"

Dear Readers

In English 61, I'm developing a sixties research paper  I've chosen to write about the life and death of Janis Joplin. No one had ever seen anyone quite like her - before or since. I never knew much of her, but I do now.  Below I share important discoveries that I plan to use in my research paper.  At the end of each item, I've provided links for further reading. I hope you dig it as much as I do...

                                                         Hissie

1. Janis was bullied as a teenager – In the fifties and sixties there was so much pressure to look the same and act the same, but Janis was different. She wore her hair longer and her clothes darker.  I don’t think anyone knew what a hippie was back then, but Janis considered herself a beatnik.  The “beats” rejected conformity.  So did Janis. She loved to paint and sing.  The other kids in her all-white school didn’t like her attitude.  They hated anyone who didn’t act like they did. They called her by the N-word.

To read more about her struggles, click on "Janice Joplin Was Haunted by Self-Doubt"

2.  Her music was influenced by black blues singers -  In class, she often spoke up for integration of black and white children in public schools. In the sixties - before Martin Luther King - her teachers and classmates in Texas just didn't want to hear it.  Music became very important for her sanity. She identified with the blues.  She knew what it was like to feel sad and alone.   On week-ends Janet would pile into a car with friends to hear black musicians like Bessie Smith, Odetta, and Lead Belly in Lousiana. 

To find out more about black blues, click on Bessie Smith on Biography.com

3. In 1967, Janis broke through with Big Brother and the Holding Company – she became known as the Queen of Psychedelic Soul.  This came right about the time of the Summer of Love in San Francisco. Janis found herself right in the middle of her element.  Hippies.  Drugs.  Music.  She flew  her "Freak Flag" with pride. In Big Brother and the Holding Company, she found herself a future. She had the bold voice to match the band's instrumental genius. They took the stage at the Monterey Pop Festival in June, and the world would never be the same. 

To read more about Janis, Jimi, and the Grateful Dead, please click on "Summer of Love."

4. Janis died of a heroin overdose at age 27 - On Youtube, you can see Janis appear with television talk-show host Dick Cavett shortly before her death  She looked good, she laughed a lot, and she sang up a rock 'n' roll storm.  After her death, Cavett said, "I think there were two Janises: There was the high school girl who desperately wanted acceptance and that character she created which was the tough-talking, tough drugging, drinking rock and roll star."  Upon her death, she joined the famed 27 club. Janis, you left us way too soon...

To read more about Janis's overdose, please click on "The Day Janis Joplin Died."

 5. Newly released documentary “Little Girl Blue” tells the story of her life -  We still can't get enough of her music.  Her record Pearl came out after her death.  It is still considered one of the greatest rock albums of all time. But, "Little Girl Blue" brings out more than the music. It shares a young woman's dream and ambition.  Janis's bold, raw voice paved the way for future female rockers.  She was the Love and Passion and Blues.  You could hear it in every note of each heartbreaking song.  

To read more about Janis's documentary, please click on "Janis: Little Girl Blue"