Janis: Her Life and Music

by Holly George-Warren

Overview

This extraordinarily intimate and “gripping” (Vanity Fair) biography of Janis Joplin establishes the Queen of Rock & Roll as the rule-breaking musical trailblazer and complicated, gender-bending rebel she was.

Janis Joplin’s first transgressive act was to be a white girl who gained an early sense of the power of the blues, music you could only find on obscure records and in roadhouses along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast. But even before that, she stood out in her conservative oil town. She was a tomboy who was also intellectually curious and artistic. By the time she reached high school, she had drawn the scorn of her peers for her embrace of the Beats and her racially progressive views. Her parents doted on her in many ways, but were ultimately put off by her repeated acts of defiance.

Janis Joplin has become a legend known as a brash, impassioned soul doomed by the pain that produced one of the most extraordinary voices in rock history. But in these pages, Holly George-Warren provides a revelatory and deeply satisfying portrait of a woman who wasn’t all about suffering. Janis was a perfectionist: a passionate, erudite musician who was born with talent but also worked exceptionally hard to develop it. She was a woman who pushed the boundaries of gender and sexuality long before it was socially acceptable. She was a sensitive seeker who wanted to marry and settle down—but couldn’t, or wouldn’t. She was a Texan who yearned to flee Texas but could never quite get away—even after becoming a countercultural icon in San Francisco.

Written by one of the most highly regarded chroniclers of American music history, and based on unprecedented access to Janis Joplin’s family, friends, band mates, archives, and long-lost interviews, Janis is the “significance-establishing project Joplin appreciators have been waiting for” (The New York Times Book Review).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476793115
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	10/13/2020
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	659,131
Product dimensions:	8.20(w) x 5.40(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Holly George-Warren is a two-time Grammy nominee and the award-winning author of sixteen books, including the New York Times bestseller The Road to Woodstock (with Michael Lang) and the biographies Janis: Her Life and Music, A Man Called Destruction: The Life and Music of Alex Chilton, and Public Cowboy No. 1: The Life and Times of Gene Autry. She has written for a variety of publications, including Rolling Stone, The New York Times, The Village Voice, and Entertainment Weekly. George-Warren teaches at the State University of New York in New Paltz.

Table of Contents

Introduction xiii

Chapter 1 Pioneer Stock 1

Chapter 2 Tomboy 13

Chapter 3 Thrill Seeker 24

Chapter 4 "Beat Weeds" 36

Chapter 5 "18 and Fucked Up" 51

Chapter 6 Hell Raiser 66

Chapter 7 Waller Creek Boy 72

Chapter 8 Blues Singer 89

Chapter 9 Meth Freak and the Saturday Night Swindle 102

Chapter 10 Texas Coed 115

Chapter 11 Big Brother's Chick Singer 136

Chapter 12 "The Idol of My Generation" 157

Chapter 13 "Haight-Ashbury's First Pinup" 175

Chapter 14 Woman on the Verge 204

Chapter 15 "Rock Star Born on Second Avenue" 224

Chapter 16 Kozmic Blues 250

Chapter 17 Pearl 280

Acknowledgments 317

Notes 323

Bibliography 349

Index 353

Lyrics Credits 379

Editorial Reviews

I’ve been waiting for the right person to write the definitive biography of Janis Joplin! All fans should be grateful it’s finally here. Janis lives and breathes freedom and soul, and Holly George-Warren captures that spirit perfectly.”
— Rosanne Cash, four-time Grammy Award winner

“The definitive portrait of one of pop culture’s most misunderstood martyrs... In dwelling so sympathetically on her tangle of talents, contradictions, and mythology, Janis brings one of rock’s most enduring legends down to earth while holding her justly up to the light.”
— NPR.org

“Gripping.”
— Vanity Fair

“Revelatory.”
— Bustle

“Performs a service by stripping away a lot of the noise around Joplin... telling her story simply and well, with some of the tone and flavor of a good novel.”
— New York Times Book Review

“By far and away the most comprehensive and best-researched Joplin biography. It’s an extraordinary life, set to a legendary rock death arc, but the triumph of Janis is that George-Warren understands that the evolution of Joplin’s artistry is what matters most. Janis blossoms as she finds her voice onstage, and her act becomes something of great beauty. So too does George-Warren’s book.”
— Charles R. Cross, New York Times bestselling author of Room Full of Mirrors: A Biography of Jimi Hendrix

“Impressive... Like Joplin herself, Janis delivers the most thrilling sort of pathos.”
— Texas Observer

“Empathetic and thrilling. Like an investigative reporter, George-Warren has tracked down every detail of Janis’s young life and influences, and with loving care she has given us rare insight into this genius musician.”
— Kate Pierson, The B-52s

“Exceptional.”
— No Depression

“Illuminating... A top-notch biography of one of the greatest performers to emerge from a brilliant era.”
— Kirkus (starred review)

“This superb biography captures singer Janis Joplin’s complex essence... Anyone who enjoys a good biography will appreciate this exceptional work.”
— Library Journal (starred review)

"Masterfully researched...the significance-establishing project Joplin appreciators have been waiting for."
— New York Times Book Review

From the Publisher

…[Janis] performs a service by stripping away a lot of the noise around Joplin—cackling and bawdy, she was America's first female rock star and Haight-Ashbury's self-destructive pinup girl—and telling her story simply and well, with some of the tone and flavor of a good novel.

The New York Times - Dwight Garner

★ 06/03/2019

In this excellent biography, George-Warren (A Man Called Destruction: The Life and Music of Alex Chilton) paints a complex portrait of singer Janis Joplin (1943–1970). Drawing on archival materials as well as interviews with Joplin’s friends, family, and bandmates, George-Warren begins with Joplin’s life, stretching back to her childhood in Port Arthur, Tex., where she would “publicly flaunt her individuality.” She was an outsider in high school and, in 1961, moved to Austin, where she attended the University of Texas and sang black music in a segregated folk music bar. Two years later she moved to San Francisco and immersed herself into the psychedelic rock scene, where she developed an addiction to heroin—on which she would overdose in 1970. George-Warren explores Joplin’s evolution as a singer, including her early incorporation of Otis Redding’s vocal techniques into her own performances, as well as her moments of impulsive brilliance, such as her first time singing “Bobby McGee”—live in Nashville in 1969, having just learned it—which she would record only a few days before her death. Indeed, as the author points out, a lonely Joplin spent the last year of her life “trying to find a way to reconcile her ambitions as a singer with her desire for some kind of loving attachment.” George-Warren beautifully tells a moving story of a woman whose life and music inspired a generation. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Author, Grammy nominee, and college professor Holly George-Warren offers an incisive and compelling portrait of musical legend Janis Joplin. Actress Nina Arianda’s narration is effective, though her phrasing is frequently stilted. Her weakest efforts are her unsuccessful attempts to voice interviewees in direct quotes and to re-create Joplin’s singing. This well-researched biography of the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company, who was also a solo artist, does not offer much that is revelatory. The late Joplin remains a modern master of the style of black female blues singers such as Bessie Smith, with a peppering of rock swagger added. Arianda presents the chronology of Joplin’s life without much flair. Loneliness, suffering, and pain are themes from her childhood onward. W.A.G. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

MARCH 2020 - AudioFile

Author, Grammy nominee, and college professor Holly George-Warren offers an incisive and compelling portrait of musical legend Janis Joplin. Actress Nina Arianda’s narration is effective, though her phrasing is frequently stilted. Her weakest efforts are her unsuccessful attempts to voice interviewees in direct quotes and to re-create Joplin’s singing. This well-researched biography of the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company, who was also a solo artist, does not offer much that is revelatory. The late Joplin remains a modern master of the style of black female blues singers such as Bessie Smith, with a peppering of rock swagger added. Arianda presents the chronology of Joplin’s life without much flair. Loneliness, suffering, and pain are themes from her childhood onward. W.A.G. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

MARCH 2020 - AudioFile

★ 2019-07-28
A richly detailed, affectionate portrait of the legendary singer.

George-Warren (A Man Called Destruction: The Life and Music of Alex Chilton, From Box Tops to Big Star to Backdoor Man, 2014, etc.) builds this illuminating biography of Janis Joplin (1943-1970) from interviews with surviving members of her family, band mates, and friends from all eras of her short life. Raised in Port Arthur, Texas, where her father was a refinery engineer, Joplin was a rebel who showed a talent for art. She was an outcast in high school, especially after she began patronizing the segregated venues where she could hear black artists perform live. She had also discovered the Beats, which gave her a picture of a lifestyle she began to emulate. In college, she began to sing with traditional folk groups, showing off a voice inspired by blues legend Bessie Smith. After dropping out, she made her way to San Francisco, where she joined Big Brother and the Holding Company. The most talented of the group, she attracted a devoted following and began to indulge in the excesses of the rock 'n' roll lifestyle. The author follows her tours with the band as well as her offstage life, which was full of sex and drugs. Touchingly, she still hoped for acceptance by her conservative family, as indicated in her letters home. After two albums, she had outgrown Big Brother and signed a record contract as a single artist with a new backup band. She was as big a star as any in the business, although her erratic lifestyle occasionally caused her to cancel dates. As her last album, Pearl, demonstrated, she continued to grow as an artist, but her death from a heroin overdose at age 27 cut her promising career short. George-Warren gives her subject a sensitive yet honest treatment, showing all dimensions of Joplin's life without minimizing her self-destructive side. Filled with evocations of the San Francisco music scene at its height, the narrative will give readers new appreciation for Joplin.

A top-notch biography of one of the greatest performers to emerge from a brilliant era.

Kirkus Reviews