6 Reasons Why Janis Joplin Was a Badass.
When Janis Joplin exploded onto the music scene in the mid-sixties, she shook everything up.
She was a woman defined as much by her wild lifestyle as her incredible music, both inextricably linked to the tumultuous period in cultural and societal history. In fact, she affected it as much as it affected her. You cannot mention Woodstock or San Francisco in the late ’60s without conjuring up images of her throwing herself about a stage in bare feet with a frenetic mop of unkempt hair, and a deep, bluesy voice belting out across a packed auditorium.
Joplin is a staple of the decade as much as the Beatles or the Vietnam war, and her presence changed the face of the music industry, and in many ways, the world beyond.
In a nutshell, Janis Joplin was a badass, and here are just a few reasons why.
She made the front page in college
Joplin was born a Texan in Port Arthur, 1943 to fiercely conservative parents, deep in the bible belt. She had a difficult time at Thomas Jefferson High School, being routinely bullied and ostracised for suffering scarring acne and being overweight, as well as for her association with black friends. As a result, she formed friendships with a group of like-minded outcasts.
Here, listening to vinyls owned by one of her friends, she fell in love with songs of blues singers like Ma Rainey, Lead Bell and in particular, Bessie Smith. The impact of these years was far-reaching, and with these friends, she began singing blues and folk songs.
This passion persisted into college, where although she failed to complete her studies, she made quite an impression on her students and teachers, resulting in an article being written about her in the campus newspaper, The Daily Texan. Here the first inkling of the woman who would become an international icon can be seen with this opening, “She goes barefooted when she feels like it, wears Levis to class because they’re more comfortable, and carries her autoharp with her everywhere she goes so that in case she gets the urge to break into song, it will be handy. Her name is Janis Joplin.”
She was a natural non-conformist
From an early age Joplin pushed back against her conservative roots, from the way she behaved, dressed and who’s company she kept, in an area and period where racism was inescapable. As alluded to in that newspaper, her style was not just unique to her but was an antithesis to the traditional women’s’ fashion still left over from the straight-laced fifties. Joplin didn’t set out to be different, or purposefully imitate the style of men in her choice of shirts and jeans, but instead dressed however she felt. She ran counter to societal conventions and was not known for her femininity, rather for being honest and genuine in who she was. Joplin was described as being a pioneer, not just of her craft, but in challenging the idea of genders norms.
That said, she would seamlessly blend masculine and feminine qualities, described as “An unlikely sex symbol — a kinky-haired, acne-scarred, gravel-voiced shrew swilling a bottle of Southern Comfort. Most reasonable men would prefer raw liver in a greasy rubber glove. And yet, everyone who saw her perform was transfixed by her oozing sexuality upon which her bare feet slid into the spotlight.”
However, the unorthodox lifestyle that made Joplin such a fascinating and awe-inspiring persona had its roots in dark places. She was tough and outspoken, daring to confront the patriarchal constrictions, but she was plagued with insecurities and doubts, so much so that she drank heavily and used drugs regularly.
She bought a headstone for Bessie Smith
Joplin was a self-professed student of the blues, and one of her great influences was ’30s singer Bessie Smith. This Empress of the Blues was a bold, confident artist, known for dislike of the microphone, and expressing the frustrations and hopes of a generation of black Americans.
Bessie Smith died tragically in 1937 after suffering injuries in a car accident. She was taken to a Whites Only hospital where she was refused treatment, resulting in her untimely and unnecessary death. Smith was buried in Mont Lawn Cemetery in Philadelphia, in an unmarked grave; something that bothered Joplin greatly.
On August 7th 1970, Joplin bought a headstone for Bessie Smith to commemorate the women who inspired her music. However, less than three months later on 4th October, Joplin herself would pass away from a heroin overdose in her hotel room in Hollywood.
She got arrested for refusing to turn the volume down
‘Hey, mister, why are you so uptight? Did you buy a five-dollar ticket?’ Of all the words to escape Joplin's voice on the night of November 16th 1969, these were by far the cleanest. Yelling, ‘Don’t fuck with those people!’ down her microphone at the Curtis Hixon Hall in Tampa, Florida might seem in keeping with her standard MO, it was on this night directed at the police, particularly police sergeant Ed Williams.
Florida law enforcement had been called to the music venue, where three and half thousand people had crammed themselves inside after buying the aforementioned five-dollar tickets. The walls were sweaty, the music was throbbing across the coastline and five-hundred of those people were busy squeezing themselves into the aisle for a better look at the tiny, brunette hurricane making landfall on stage.
Although initially called out to deal with the noise itself, police quickly considered the event to be a serious fire hazard. When they asked Joplin to turn the music down, true to form, she refused. When police began to shout at her fans, Joplin, who had been trying to ‘build up a sensuous mood’, lost her shit and began swearing at the cops. It was here that Sergeant Williams put out a warrant for her arrest due to the ‘vulgar and indecent language’ that was described by Tribune writer Bob Fiallo as ‘a variety of spicy, inappropriate but crowd-pleasing unquotables.’
Joplin was indeed arrested on a language charge but posted $504 bond an hour later. She spent the days afterwards fishing in Tampa awaiting a trial that would be delayed a number of times until March 1970 Then, Joplin didn’t even turn up. Ultimately, she was fined $200 and the court costs. Of the incident, she said in the days following, “Old people are running scared. They’re going to lose their kids and they’re trying to get their kids back to them. All the people telling kids what to do, what to wear, where to go… that’s not going to help. It just makes us (entertainers) more attractive.”
She tried to get her own funeral guests smashed
Joplin squeezed a hell of a lot into a tragically short space of time, altering the face, not just of music, but of women in music. After hitch-hiking and ending up in San Francisco with her friend Chet Helms in ’63, she recorded an album (released after her death called The Typewriter Tapes) with future Jefferson Airplane guitarist, she would return briefly to Port Arthur in ’65. A year later she would join psychedelic rock band Big Brother and the Holding Company, and over the next few years move onto a successful solo career with backing bands Kozmic Blues Band and finally Full Tilt Boogie Band. She would play history-making gigs at Woodstock and the Festival Express alongside other icons like Jimi Hendrix and Santana, and create timeless songs like ‘Piece of my Heart’, ‘Cry Baby’ and of course, ‘Mercedez-Benz’.
But then, in October 1970, partway through recording her final album, Joplin would overdose on heroin, a substance that she had long battled her addiction to, and pass away.
However, in true Joplin style, she had one last card she wanted to play in this eventuality. In August ’69, she and Big Brother and the Holding Company performed at the wake for Hell’s Angel ‘Chocolate George’ Hendricks. After the funeral, bikers and hippies gathered in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco to basically get absolutely smashed on alcohol and drugs. Joplin was inspired by this jovial, exciting and free way to celebrate the life of someone, and wanted to have that for herself.
Joplin put $2,500 dollars aside for her funeral to be spent on entertaining her guests, and after her death, they did just that. It was attended by her old San Fran buddies as well as the from music world beyond the bay, including all the members of Kozmic Blues and Full Tilt. Booze flowed forth from the open bar, musicians played and the hash brownies went around, although Joplin's sister did not then know what she was eating.
That said, it did not, by all accounts, achieve the critical mass that Joplin would have wanted, simply because she, the life of any party, was not present.
She paved the way for female empowerment
Joplin pushed back against the established patriarchal with her music, her style, her manner and her passion. Simply being who she was and staying true to it, amidst her own personal struggles, gave women in the ’60s confidence not only in who they were but to become who they wanted to be. She bolstered new feminism in America with her lifestyle, and helped young girls see something other than the idealised archetypes that they were subjected to by mass media and advertising, “Her most universal influence came through her popularisation of naturalistic dress and hairstyles”
In place of lipstick and girdles, her hair was loose and wild, and she rocked the braless look, freely combining a multitude of clothing styles from both genders. With this came the idea of sexual liberation, something which might not seem obvious from her style at first. With loose-fitting, shapeless garments, one might be forgiven for feeling that she was not harnessing the power of her sexuality. In fact, what she was doing was taken the attention away from it, challenging the idea the woman must ‘attract’ and be pursued, and replacing it with the concept that she can choose, and be the pursuer.
“Joplin had the courage to decline to dress sexily on the one hand, yet to act sexually aggressive on the other.
“She was truly liberated.”
Here I have tried to cover some of the most interesting parts in the life of this incredible, fascinating person, but there is so much more to her than I could fit here. I encourage you to sit your ass in front of google, start typing and go down that rabbit hole. You won’t regret it.
