Janis: Little Girl Blue

     I never thought of myself as much of a real 'Janis' disciple. I knew of her, and some of her music, like 'Piece of My Heart', and that she died young. I was a 'John Lennon' disciple out of high school in the '90's. I enjoyed John's integrity, his sense of humor, and his courage.  But my mom said that I reminded her of  Janis Joplin, just a little girl, I guess, with a painful past-minus the drugs and drinking-trying to find a way to express herself. 

     This documentary of Janis' career and personality was made in 2015 by director Amy Berg shows a lot of her letters she wrote to her parents while she was away from her hometown of Port Arthur, Texas. She went back home a couple of times once she became famous and wasn't really well received, at least not in the way she was received by most of the young people of the country. She stuck out, at home, and she didn't fit in to their conservative lifestyle. Most folks in her hometown were racist, but she didn't see the point. Weren't black people struggling just like she was?

   But she had a voice, that was rough, beautiful, soulful, aching, and emotionally honest, all at once, all together. She got inspired originally by blues and old fashioned country-blues. She used to cut out and sneak out of her family home and go to New Orleans and Austin for the weekend, going to bars and singing solo occasionally. Then she decided to go to San Francisco, where she felt even more accepted than she had in Austin. And she met Chet Helms, who would one day be manager of Big Brother and The Holding Company. She did some recording, but nothing that ever became famous until after her death. She got into shooting methamphetamine and weighed less than 90 pounds. What friends she had around, gathered up money for a bus fare back to Port Austin to get healthy and straight. She did get straight and tried going to college to get a degree in anthropology. But eventually she got restless, and in 1966 she was back in San Francisco and auditioned for Big Brother and The Holding Company and blew them all the way, so they hired her.

     Janis had a lot of failed romantic relationships, which was another cause for her blues. 'Country' Joe McDonald, Peter deBlanc, whom actually asked permission from her father for her hand in marriage and then left and never saw her again. Kris Kristofferson , whom she wrote 'Me & Bobby McGee' with, Seth Morgan, whom she was engaged to when she died. All of them left her for one reason or another, in which would fuel her angry, hurt , bluesy song style.  

      But despite Janis' pain, she felt the best onstage. Onstage was where she was accepted, loved by the audience, and she loved them right back.

   She stayed with Big Brother for a year and then left. Most folks feel that was the worst mistake she ever made. I just don't think we ever would've heard 'Me & Bobby McGee' without it. During such time she took some time off and went to Brazil and met George Niehaus and she was the happiest she'd probably ever been aside from onstage. She was trying to get off heroin and she had trouble sleeping and had night sweats. George wanted to help her so he held her for two days straight until she came down. 
     But of course George left, and Janis returned to drugs again. Yet Janis understood her problem. Onstage she was great, she felt awesome, and then the concert ended and the heroin and the booze came out. She said "How come all the guys in the band go home with the girls at the bar and I come home alone?" 
    When it came time to record Pearl, she was on another health kick to kick the drugs. She still drank, but it didn't look like it would kill her anytime soon. She was doing well with this 'no drugs' period in her life, and it looked like it would work. But alas, her fiance was going to a party and Janis needed to stay home so she could be at the studio in the morning. Which meant that Janis was alone, not a good sign. Across the street from the Landmark Hotel in Los Angeles where she was staying was a park where drug dealers hung out. She got some heroin that was over 40%pure, whereas normally she took only 3 or 4% pure. She died almost instantly at 1:30 in the morning on October 4th 1970. 
          Pearl was released posthumously and went quadruple platinum.