1973 Collectible Book; Back Cover Photo by Barry Levine
Joplin performing at the Woodstock Festival 1969 

Janis  in color

Janis at Woodstock

Joplin is remembered for her powerfully distinctive raspy voice and her stomping foot.  Her vocal style, her outrageous dress, her outspokenness and sense of humor, her liberated stance (politically and sexually) and her hard-living image all combined to create a unique female persona in rock which challenged familiar gender stereotypes. Her tattooed breast  was well ahead of its time. 

Janis and Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane  pioneered a new range of expression for white women in the  male-dominated world of rock.  Janis' Festival performance was cut from the Woodstock film; perhaps as an editorial statement about the quality of her work that Saturday evening.  By the time Joplin reached Woodstock, her drug use had returned.  She was described as high on heroin and alcohol and feeling powerful stage fright as did many of the performers facing 450,000 fans. Hear some of her concert. Sadly, she accidentally overdosed in California in 1970 extinguishing her bright  future.  

Her contributions are  increasingly appreciated.  Thirty years after her death, the documentary, Festival Express was finally released, depicting a 1970 tour across Canada by some of the world's biggest rock bands, including The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, and The Band.  She is now considered to be one of the best artists of the 1960s and one of the greatest female rockers of all time.  Joplin was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995.  In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Joplin #46 on their list of the 50 Greatest Artists of All Time.  She received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005.

Janis Performing

Janis