Alice Echols

Janis Joplins fue una cantante como pocas, cuyos miedos e inseguridades gobernaron su vida y la hicieron la artista que hoy recordamos, a pesar de que ella nunca creyó en sí misma.

Esta biografía es del tipo que me gusta, en la que se habla de la persona en cuestión pero igualmente se habla de sus tiempos, de su entorno, de lo que hizo, más allá de su obra, y de quien fue como persona. Sin buscar reivindicar a Janis, nos presenta el retrato más humano que he visto de ella en la cual, show more si bien habla de la enorme inseguridad y necesidad de amor y atención que siempre estuvo presente en su vida, también nos muestra sus ambiciones y compromiso con la música, pero principalmente nos muestra quien fue para la época y porque fue en ese momento y lugar que ella triunfo.

La labor investigativa que realiza Echols es impresionante, la cantidad de testimonios y notas (1159 en total D:) no son sólo para mostrar su habilidad como historiadora, sino para dar trasfondo a Janis, mostrar a la estrella ruda igual conocida como Pearl (alter ego de Janis), pero al mismo tiempo, representar a esa mujer que era y se sabía alcohólica, que fue un misterio para propios y extraños, que modifico su vida para hacerla más interesante y que paso a la historia pop como icono de integración y, muy a su pesar, del feminismo.

El retrato que crea Echols traspasa todas las corazas de Janis pero no porque trate de romperlas, sino que las muestra desde los ojos de quienes la vivieron: termina ambientándonos en la época, en las personas, en los eventos e incluso levemente en los manejos de la industria musical de los 60's.

La vida de Janis está plagada de sufrimiento por su imposibilidad de encajar, tanto en el tradicional mundo descendiente de los 50's como en la locura sesentera del rock n' roll y el blues, y esto se reflejó en su entorno: siempre ambivalente pero nunca estático.

Janis Joplin, artista muchas veces olvidada pero siempre referencia en el rock, el blues y el soul, aún cuando no se le menciona (Robert Plant, te estoy hablando) fue rebajada por ser mujer, por ser fea, por ser demasiado sexual y por ser demasiado libre pero, en retrospectiva, a pesar de que su grande e innegable talento, si ella hubiera aparecido en la escena musical unos años después, no habría sido ni novedosa ni controversial dado que el feminismo y el "black power" se habrían tragado su posibilidad de ser la actual y ser aquella de quien todos hablaban.

La duda de su capacidad y su sensación de ser una impostora, no sólo en la música sino en la vida, la llevaron a una vida de exceso, drogas y finalmente a su muerte, que dejo un vacío no sólo musical sino también en aquellos que la querían y cuya vida de desenfreno los hizo dudar de su propia mortalidad.

Su trabajo:

Little Girl Blue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCeZzzKAOt4

Cry Baby: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDIaDS9HhMw

A woman left lonely: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klhK_4evO5c

Mercedes Benz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iQ1tNqGwRI

Call on me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWeuT5HOy2A

Magic of love: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdMaSdWyDzc

Farewell song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEZMYf1uLPw show less

I seem to be collecting the life stories of troubled singers at the moment! A tragic member of the 27 club, Janis Joplin was an incredible natural talent, her voice a 'powerful combination of intellect and spontaneous feeling' behind songs like 'Piece of My Heart', 'Me and Bobby McGee' and 'Mercedes Benz'. She released four albums, two of them with her band Big Brother and the Holding Company, and embodied the San Francisco spirit of the 1960s, before sadly overdosing in 1970. There wouldn't show more seem to be enough of a life to write about, but Alice Echols does justice to her subject, without simpering or sniping (although her claim that 'this book is not a blow-by-blow account of Janis' every fuck and fix' is a bit of a stretch).

Like her 'chameleon's voice' - the 'gravelly Bessie Smith voice' she was known for, but also her natural 'clear and pure' tones - Janis was a woman of contrasting personas. She was the foul-mouthed, cackling star who posed naked, drank and took drugs to excess, but also the intelligent, insecure 'little girl blue' who needed a mother figure and was vulnerable and far too trusting. She loved both men and women, but only wanted to find that 'white picket' life and didn't want to be claimed as a gay role model. And even though she knew she had a good voice, she never truly believed in herself, remembering how she was tormented at high school for her different appearance rather than making the most of her sudden rise to stardom. As I say, another troubled singer, but a fantastic one! Well worth reading about, too. show less

I feel like this book was a musical education for me. By completion, I had streamed at least 33 new artists that were mentioned briefly or in-depth in the book. (My favorites, if you’re curious, would be Wanda Jackson, Janis Martin, Lead Belly, The Byrds, and Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry.) It sort of revived 60s-70s music on my playlist, and quite a few bands are now on my constant musical rotation. Not only is the amount of music mentioned mind-boggling, but the era the book takes place show more (50s-60s) is written with incredible detail. It talks about the culture, not just in terms of the counterculture, but the “squares” too, as well as gender and skin inequalities, and even pre-50s about the beginning stirrings of what would later be called rock and roll.

To be perfectly honest, I’ve never really held an opinion about Janis Joplin, other than people occasionally telling me I looked like her when I was in high school. Apparently, that was meant as a sort of insult, as people—including Janis herself—often remarked that she was unattractive. To me, though, she never looked bad. I thought she looked natural and pretty, actually. But whatever. I found myself relating hardcore to a lot of Janis’ perceptions on life and school. Growing up, I never really fit in, and even now, I find it easier to hang out with a group of dudes than women. I’ve always been supremely self-conscious, and I’m the first person to talk crap about myself to anyone who will listen. I also felt jilted by the unfair treatment of my classmates growing up, who perceived me as weird and strange. It was interesting to read about her life’s experiences, and how a lot of that isolation shaped her and made her demand that people listen to her, as she gained fame.

SPOILERS (SORT OF):
Things I learned while reading this book:
-About the first light shows and how they came about in the 60s.
-How the charming hippie lifestyle that is so waxed so poetically about was not nearly as gender equitable as people would have you believe.
-Everyone knows about Woodstock, but Monetary Pop Festival was actually the landmark festival that is known for starting off “The Summer of Love,” and inspiring Woodstock and countless other rock festivals.
-“Cheap Thrills,” with Janis and Big Brother, was made to sound like a live album—complete with staged whistling and glass-breaking. This was because it was believed their raw, unpolished sound was at its best when it was live. All those little “mistakes,” and when her voices breaks, could be simply attributed to the “live” nature of the album, not the unpolished way they actually sounded.
-Janis’ favorite liquor was Southern Comfort. Kind of funny, since that was definitely the kind of liquor everyone drank in college.

THE VERDICT:
This book is very frank, very poignant, and very well-written. It includes first-person accounts from Janis’ friends and family (through a few quotes), and writes very logically and factually about incidents that took place during her life. Of course, the author presupposes things, the way Janis might have felt about things, but she backs up a lot of these logically, so it doesn’t seem to crazy that Janis was thinking those things. I think anyone could potentially enjoy this book. It’s meticulously written, informative, fascinating, and it really immerses you in the counterculture of the 60s. As someone who never really any special interest in Janis, I am now thoroughly fascinated. show less

There are a whole bunch of biographies of Janis, including the well known 'Buried Alive', but this late comer published in 1999 appears to be the most even-handed, well-researched, and scholarly. In fact Alice Echols is a scholar of the 1960s (without any personal connection to Janis) so there is a lot of contextual information to put the period in perspective - I've probably learned more about the 1960s San Francisco scene in this book than anywhere else, it's worth reading for that reason show more alone.

This is my first "rock-star biography", a genre I have avoided because of the groaning shelves of narcissistic "tell alls". I choose Janis to be my first (something she would have loved) after seeing a couple YouTube clips: one showing her singing "Ball and Chain" live, the other a TV interview at her Texas hometown high-school reunion. In these clips I saw a deep, complicated and obviously brilliant person, her charisma on stage was memorizing and off-stage equally so. For me she became more than a raspy-kinda-scary voice on the radio from another era, and I wanted to learn more about who she was, and why she had become so famous and died so young.

Joplin's personality was a wild horse who kept on the move, never finding but always seeking a new home and greener pastures, running from her personal demons while embracing her desire for living life in the moment to the fullest. She drank heavily (Southern Comfort), fucked thousands of guys and hundreds of women, got in fights with Hells Angels, shot heroin and was a mainlining speed freak. She was a vulnerable, loving and kind child from a well-off Middle Class suburban family. She was a walking enigma. Her origins are with the beatniks and folksie scene of the early 60s, she was never fully accepted in the San Francisco scene as a hippie, yet she is widely imagined as one of its founding mothers with her "Perl" costume of boa-feathers, clunky bracelets and lots of beads.

In the end her death was no surprise even to herself, she put her body on the front-line of the cultural revolution pushing the boundaries forward on many fronts. It is unfortunate she was largely forgotten in the 70s and 80s but I think with historical reflection on the 60s her life will find more prominence - if nothing else than an archetype of a generation, but also for being ahead of her time as a woman rock star in a male dominated industry.

Echols does a good job of balancing the exterior fame with the interior truths of Joplin, a psychological profile that will remind the reader of other people they know like her, it's believable because she seems so "normal" (in a somewhat abnormal way). I came away both with an intimate understanding of Janis and a much stronger sense of the 60s having seen it through the life of a single person who was a central catalyst.

--Review by Stephen Balbach, via CoolReading (c) 2008 cc-by-nd show less