She would have been 70 years old today, January 19th, 2013.
Janis Lyn Joplin, Performer Artisan, (January 19, 1943 – October 4, 1970) was an American singer-songwriter. Joplin first rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of the psychedelic-acid rock band Big Brother and the Holding Company, and later as a solo artist with her more soulful and bluesy backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band. She was one of the more popular acts at the Monterey Pop Festival and later became one of the major attractions to the Woodstock festival and the Festival Express train tour. Janis Joplin charted five singles, and other popular songs from her four-year career include “Down on Me”, “Summertime”, “Piece of My Heart“, “Ball ‘n’ Chain”, “Maybe”, “To Love Somebody”, “Kozmic Blues”, “Work Me, Lord”, “Cry Baby”, “Mercedes Benz”, and her only number one hit, “Me and Bobby McGee”. Joplin was well known for her performing abilities, and her fans referred to her stage presence as “electric”. At the height of her career, she was known as “The Queen of Rock and Roll” as well as “The Queen of Psychedelic Soul,” and became known as Pearl amongst her friends. She was also a painter, dancer and music arranger. Rolling Stone magazine ranked Joplin number 46 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time in 2004, and number 28 on its 2008 list of 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995. [Wikipedia, revised]
Like A Candle in the Wind, but burning at both ends, Janis Joplin died at the age of 27, from a drug overdose.
Performers also like to live in the fast lane, and seem up on the latest fashions of dress, food, drink, and music. Lively and uninhibited, Performers are the life of the party, always trying to create in those around them a mood of eat, drink, and be merry.
The Performers’ talent for enjoying life is healthy for the most part, though it also makes them more subject to temptations than the other types. Pleasure seems to be an end in itself for them, and variety is the spice of life. And so Performers are open to trying almost anything that promises them a good time, not always giving enough thought to the consequences. [Please Understand Me II]
She died young — to be forever young.
“I’m a victim of my own insides. There was a time when I wanted to know everything. I read a lot. I guess you’d say I was pretty intellectual. It’s odd, I can’t remember when it changed. It used to make me very unhappy, all that feeling. I just didn’t know what to do with it. But now I’ve learned how to make feeling work for me. I’m full of emotion and I want a release, and if you’re on stage and if it’s really working and you’ve got the audience with you, it’s a oneness you feel. I’m into me, plus they’re into me, and everything comes together. You’re full of it. I don’t know, I just want to feel as much as I can, it’s what ‘soul’ is all about.”
“Don’t compromise yourself. It’s all you’ve got.”
Freedom just another word for nothing left to lose. — Janis Joplin (Me and Bobby Magee)
If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away. — Henry David Thoreau
Hope can be very foolish. Parents can have hopes for their children, often these aren’t what the children can meet.
Gene Krupa, Performer Artisan, was born in Chicago, the youngest of Anna (Oslowski) and Bartłomiej Krupa’s nine children. Krupa’s father, Bartłomiej, was an immigrant from Poland, and his mother, Anna, was born in Shamokin, Pennsylvania, of Polish descent. His parents were very religious and had groomed Gene for the priesthood. He spent his grammar school days at various parochial schools and upon graduation, attended St Joseph’s College for a year, but later decided it was not his vocation. [Wikipedia, revised]
No, his parents had great plans for him, but Gene had a different drum to drum.
IT WAS THE DRUMS.
Performers have the special ability, even among the Artisans, to delight those around them with their warmth, their good humor, and with their often extraordinary skills in music, comedy, and drama. Whether on the job, with friends, or with their families, Performers are exciting and full of fun, and their great social interest lies in stimulating those around them to take a break from work and worry, to lighten up and enjoy life. [Please Understand Me II]
When I speak of natural drummers I’m talking about guys that are playing with the talent God gave ’em. — Gene Krupa
Once upon a time, in the land of Oz, four characters set out on a strange and difficult journey. Each was lacking something essential in life, and each wanted to find the mighty Wizard of Oz and ask him for his help.
• Dorothy had lost her way home, and she wanted the Wizard to return her safely back to her Aunt and Uncle’s farm. “There’s no place like home,” she said.
• The Tin Woodman was stiff with rust, and he wanted the Wizard to give him a warm, loving heart beating in his chest. “No one can love who has no heart,” he sighed.
• The Scarecrow’s head was stuffed with straw, and he wanted the Wizard to give him a brain. “Brains are the only things worth having in this world,” he said.
• The Lion had lost his nerve, and he wanted the Wizard to give him back his courage. “As long as I know myself to be a coward I shall be unhappy,” he said.
It’s been a long time coming It’s going to be a long time gone And it appears to be a long Appears to be a long Appears to be a long time It’s a long, long, long, long time Before the dawn
–Crosby, Stills, and Nash