The 27’s – Janis Joplin 1943 - 1970

Part 10 in a series on “The 27’s” – notable musicians who have passed away in their 27th year.

For an artist who broke down so many barriers you would think that Janis Joplin had conquered her demons. She embraced diversity, transcended traditional sexual roles and fully participated in the hippie movement of the day. Because she was so fully committed to her lifestyle it would be easy to assume that Janis was secure in her identity, but the security that she projected was simply a shunning of the traditional roles typically imposed on women that was born out of insecurity. Beneath the rock and roll persona there was a fragility that was constantly being threatened.

Janis first began to sing the blues as a teenager and although she sang with a few friends the rest of the student body mostly shunned her. Janis was quoted as saying, "I was a misfit. I read, I painted, I didn't hate niggers." She became overweight and her skin broke out so badly she was left with deep scars that required dermabrasion. Other kids at school would routinely taunt her and call her names like "pig," "freak" or "creep."

Janis graduated from high school in 1960 and attended the University of Texas at Austin. The campus newspaper ran a profile of her in 1962 headlined "She Dares To Be Different.” Janis was voted “Ugliest Man on Campus.” The result of such low-handed humiliation was that she left the University to work as a singer.

Janis began to model herself after many of the women she admired, mostly female blues singers. In December 1962 she recorded her first song, "What Good Can Drinkin' Do” at the home of a fellow student. In 1963 she left Texas for San Francisco, eventually living in Haight-Ashbury where she met future Jefferson Airplane guitarist Jorma Kaukonen. The two were joined by Margareta Kaukonen who played the typewriter as a percussion instrument and together the trio recorded a number of blues standards on what would later become known as “The Typewriter Tape.”

Through the end of 1963 and into 1964 Janis’ drug use began to increase. She became known as a speed freak, heroin user and heavy drinker, her favorite drink being Southern Comfort. By the spring of 1965 her addictions became of such concern to her friends that they raised money to buy her a bus ticket back home.

Back in Port Arthur, she changed her lifestyle. She avoided drugs and alcohol, began wearing relatively modest dresses, adopted a beehive hairdo, and enrolled as a sociology major at Lamar University in nearby Beaumont, Texas. During her year at Lamar University Janis travelled regularly to Austin to perform solo, accompanying herself on guitar.

In 1966, Joplin's bluesy vocal style attracted the attention of the psychedelic rock band Big Brother and the Holding Company. Janis was recruited to join the group by promoter Chet Helms who was managing Big Brother. Helms brought her back to San Francisco and Joplin left school to join Big Brother in 1966. In August of that year Big Brother was signed to Mainstream Records and in 1967 Columbia distributed their first album.

Janis’s career moved forward but she was never able to disassociate herself from the past. In an appearance on the Dick Cavett Show she announced that she would attend her ten-year high-school class reunion. When asked if she had been popular in school, she admitted that when in high school, her schoolmates "laughed me out of class, out of town and out of the state.” Joplin attended the reunion accompanied by fellow musician and friend Bob Neuwirth, road manager John Cooke, and her sister Laura, but it turned out to be an unhappy experience for her. When asked by a reporter during the reunion if she entertained at Thomas Jefferson High School when she was a student there, Joplin replied, "Only when I walked down the aisles."

By early 1969 Janis was again seriously addicted to heroin, allegedly shooting at least $200 worth of heroin per day. In February 1970, Joplin stopped her drug and alcohol use. She retreated to Brazil with her friend Linda Gravenites and became involved in a romance with American schoolteacher David Niehaus who was traveling around the world. They were photographed by the press at Carnival in Rio de Janeiro and appeared to be having a great time.

When the trip to Brazil ended Joplin returned to the United States where she began using heroin again. Her relationship with Niehaus soon ended because of the drugs, her relationship with Peggy Caserta and a refusal to take some time off work to travel with David. Despite picking up her old habits again, her band mates always claimed she was hard working and sober while recording. They said she would do drugs in the evening and after recording sessions for the album, “Pearl.”

By October 3, 1970, Janis was almost finished recording her new album. On that day she visited the Sunset Sound Studios in L.A. and listened to the instrumental track for “Buried Alive in the Blues,” which she was scheduled to record the vocals for the next day.

That evening when she returned to her hotel she injected herself by “skin-popping” which works slower than injecting directly into the veins. A normal IV injection sends the drug to the brain within seconds. "Popping" the heroin mixture can take as long as 90 minutes to take maximum effect. When the heroin took effect, she was caught off guard and fell to floor, hitting her head on a dresser.

Reportedly, Janis's dealer was normally a very careful person. In times past he had always used a chemist to measure the purity of the drug, but that week the chemist was out of town and rather than miss out on the sale, the dealer cut his own batch. What resulted was a batch that was 40-50% pure, too strong for most users and catching many of them off guard. Eight other users died that weekend from the bad batch.

Janis was discovered the next day, band members were concerned when Janis didn't show up for the recording session and after trying to reach her by phone, John Cooke went to the hotel and knocked the door down. He found her body facedown, wedged between the dresser and bed, dried blood from her head injury covered her face.

According to her wishes, Janis' body was cremated and her ashes strewn along the Northern California coast near Stinson Beach. Janis had also requested that money be set aside for her wake. Invitations for the event were given out to some 200 special guests and read: "Drinks are on Pearl."