The first group of musicians Joplin recruited to back up her solo career was dubbed the Kozmic Blues Band with them she released her first album on Columbia, I Got Dem 01 ’ Kozmic Blues Again Mama. ” With critiques like that, it is not surprising that Joplin left Big Brother to go solo in 1968, soon after the group recorded their second album, Cheap Thrills, for Columbia. The range of her earthy dynamic voice seems almost without limits. …She jumps and runs and pounces, vibrating the audience with solid sound. Increasingly, Joplin was the member of Big Brother who was singled out for critical acclaim for instance, a Village Voice reviewer lauded one of her concert performances thus: “She sure projects. Also, Joplin and the rest of the band were in demand on a national scale they toured many areas of the United States and Canada, including New York City. ”īig Brother ’s triumph at Monterey gained them a recording contract with Mainstream, a small label, with whom they released their debut album, Big Brother and the Holding Company. The Rolling Stone History of Rock and Roll, at Monterey, “Janis Joplin walked away with an afternoon blues show. Sang in various small clubs in Texas and California, c 1960-66 vocalist for Big Brother and the Holding Company, 1966-68, 1970 solo recording artist and concert performer, 1968-70.Īwards: One gold album with Big Brother and the Holding Company for Cheap Thrills two gold albums as a solo artist for I Got Dem Ol ’ Kozmic Blues Again Mama and Pearl.Īddresses: Record company -Columbia/CBS Records, 51 W. Education: Attended various colleges for short periods during the 1960s. father was a canning factory worker, and mother was a registrar at a business college. died October 3, 1970, in Hollywood, Calif. As Geoffrey Stokes reported in his portion of the book Rock of Ages: For the Record …īorn January 19, 1943, in Port Arthur, Tex. Joplin ’s performances at this festival and at Woodstock in 1969 are considered by many specialists in the music of the late 1960s to have been classic moments in the history of rock. The group quickly became popular in the San Francisco area, and by the time the Monterey International Pop Festival took place in 1967 in Monterey, California, Big Brother and the Holding Company were a featured attraction. Though Joplin had not had much previous experience singing rock music, the combination of her gravelly, bluesy voice with Big Brother ’s hard rock sound was a success. He contacted her and convinced her to return to San Francisco. The band needed a female vocalist, and Helms thought of Joplin. Ironically, a disheartened Joplin went back to Texas in early 1966, right before a friend of hers, Chet Helms, became manager of a new rock group called Big Brother and the Holding Company. She also tried living in various communes, and eventually settled in San Francisco for a few years. Joplin enrolled in several different colleges while singing folk songs for little money, but her attempts at continuing her education never lasted long. Gradually she formed the goal of saving enough money from her gigs for bus fare to California, and after a few years she accomplished this and arrived on the Pacific coast. By the time she was seventeen, she had decided to become a singer, and she left home.Īt first Joplin found work in country and western clubs in Houston and other Texas cities. Joplin ’s favorite artists included Odetta, Leadbelly, and Bessie Smith, and she was greatly influenced by them in her own vocal style. She was something of a loner, and, unlike her siblings and neighborhood peers, she listened to folk and blues music. Though her family was middle-class, as a teenager she showed signs of the unconventional woman she would become. Joplin was born January 19, 1943, in Port Arthur, Texas. ” Renowned for her performance at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, and later for her solo appearance at the Woodstock festival in 1969, Joplin nevertheless failed to achieve a chart-topping single until her rendition of country composer Kris Kristofferson ’s “Me and Bobby McGee ” was released posthumously in 1971. Compared to music greats like blues artist Bessie Smith and soul singer Aretha Franklin, most critics agree that she was the main reason for the group ’s success with songs like “Piece of My Heart ” and “Summertime. Janis Joplin, one of the most influential women singers of the late 1960s, first came to the attention of rock fans as the vocalist for the San Francisco, California-based band, Big Brother and the Holding Company.
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