To write of Janis Joplin is to write of rock ‘n’ roll. Few people embody the genre in the way that she, the first female rock start, did. In “Janis: Her Life and Music,” Holly George-Warren encapsulates it all — the voice, the reckless spirit, the countless bottles of Southern Comfort, the vulnerability. George-Warren, a music historian, writer, and two-time Grammy nominee, provides an intensely detailed roadmap of Joplin’s life, from Port Arthur, Texas, to the Haight-Ashbury district, to international stardom.
Joplin’s early years are written about in vivid detail, which works to comprise an appropriately intricate portrait of such a complex woman. Joplin’s legacy is all too often reduced to her being characterized as exclusively unhinged. But, as George-Warren dutifully describes, Janis was much more than that, and it shows most in her early life.
One of the most striking accomplishments of “Janis” is how well it portrays the inner conflict of Joplin, the constant battle between unabashed joy and deep insecurity. Joplin was creative from an early age, first through her paintings and later through her music. George-Warren tactfully describes the way that Joplin oscillated between wanting to be a painter and then, later, wanting to be a singer, before eventually deciding on the latter. Though Joplin was a talented painter, she craved the more widespread attention that singing would bring. As is indisputably clear in almost every interaction the book describes, Joplin was desperate for approval from her peers, bandmates, lovers and family.
“Janis” enables anticipating fans to sink their teeth into fresh details about the star’s life, providing all the insights one would hope for when reading about an icon, like her isolating political views on integration of her high school — Joplin being the sole member of her class who stood in favor of the idea. “Janis” also leaves readers enamored with the rock ‘n’ roll scene of the 1960s, especially the interconnections of Joplin’s network. Whether Joplin is being avoided by a 19-year-old Bruce Springsteen, being brought onstage by Tina Turner while opening for the Rolling Stones, or brawling with Jim Morrison, it is hard not to fall for the social tapestry within which Joplin lived.
Joplin experienced several waves of addiction, interspersed with bouts of sobriety, and at times, George-Warren gets insensitively explicit. George-Warren’s constant warnings present the tale of Joplin’s premature and tragic death as a cautionary tale. But the way that these situations are written about reads as often accusatory at times, flattening the complexity of addiction by characterizing it as implicitly weak, and even careless. This leads to several moments in the book feeling disjointed in how they address Joplin’s fatal struggle.
It can at times be difficult to feel connected to someone who died 50 years ago, but “Janis” bridges this gap through its portrayals of Joplin’s captivating onstage presence. Several of the most memorable passages in “Janis” describe Joplin’s live shows. One early-60s audience member described how, “She did things with her throat and the lyrics like an abstract painter moving pigment on canvas.” Accounts of the singer’s live performances provide readers with the understanding that Joplin was not only something to be seen or heard, but something to be experienced. She was a performer audience members could, and often did, become completely absorbed in. Joplin performing live provided respite not only for audience members, but also for Janis herself. Performing became a refuge from her almost always precarious mental state, which she referred to as “the kozmic blues.”
It is a challenge not to come away from “Janis” feeling a bit deflated, longing for Joplin to have lived the decades her addiction deprived her of. The music Joplin was able to make during her too short lifetime provides respite for many from her cataclysmic end. George-Warren supplements Joplin’s songs, providing a deep dive into the life of the pioneering singer. She permits readers to experience Joplin in a new way, pulling back the curtain to reveal Janis’ most essential moments, both light and dark.
