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60’s Nostalgia – Janis Joplin

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Janis Joplin has no competition. She was a cuckoo’s egg hatched in a middle class Texas household and her entire life she struggled to find her place. Despite professional acclaim, she never found it and died of a drug overdose in 1970.  She is truly a child of the 60’s.

It is impossible for me to categorize Janis as an artist. Unlike other 60’s performers, she didn’t adopt a style. She didn’t evolve. She was real, raw emotion with no pretense or posturing. You either liked her or were repulsed and you knew that she didn’t care what you thought- or maybe she had just given up hoping.

Her story is a sad one. She struggled between conforming and freeing the raging forces within her. She wasn’t yet thirty when she died, burning brightly and then snuffed out.

The video clip is from 1970 just before her death. Janis defines 60’s music and barely entered the 70’s. This clip shows her style most clearly and the lyrics perhaps reveal the inner Janis. Janis truly represents the struggles of the 60’s between the rock solid American values of the 50’s and the free spirited cultural diversity of today. It was a battle she never won and America is still fighting.

{ 9 comments… add one }
  • Hansi January 6, 2011, 8:54 am

    Right On. I was lucky enough to see her twice with Big Brother and the Holding Company at the Shrine Exposition Hall in L A. She was pretty good; I was pretty stoned.

  • Bob@JuicyMaters.com January 6, 2011, 12:07 pm

    Janis was the person…on stage and off…that Michael Jackson wished he had the cajones to be.

  • John McNally@Blogging for Pleasure and Profit January 6, 2011, 3:42 pm

    I think Janis Joplin had the respect of all her peers, but didn’t receive the popularity her talent deserved. Maybe the public didn’t deserve her!

    You have to admire someone who puts their heart and soul into their art, her passion is mesmerising. I don’t think she could be anyone else but herself. She exposes herself entirely on stage, and was probably very fragile because of that.

    We have a singer over here in the UK, in a similar situation. Amy Winehouse is in danger of burning out before she gets to 30. Brilliant but tormented.

    John
    Leamington Spa, England
    John McNally@Blogging for Pleasure and Profit’s last Blog Post ..New Year’s Resolutions

    • Ralph January 6, 2011, 3:50 pm

      She was very popular among my circle but her talent was probably broader than wannabe hippies.

  • Bryan McHeyzer January 10, 2011, 2:12 pm

    Janis was one of a kind … loved her.

    Thanks for the video …She always gave all.

    Makes me want to dust off the records..yah still have heaps … the only drawback don’t have a turn table. The old one died a few years ago.

    Cheers
    Bryan

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