Love,
Janis
by Laura Joplin
Paperback: 352 pages
Acid Test; ISBN: 1888358084; (April 1999)
Pearl:
The Obsessions and Passions of Janis Joplin
by Ellis Amburn
Paperback:Warner Books
ISBN: 0446395064; Reprint edition (September 1993)
Scars
of Sweet Paradise: The Life and Times of Janis Joplin
by Alice Echols
To call Janis Joplin the Judy Garland of the Woodstock set is in some
sense a fair characterization. The brassy, carnal, extravagant, and ultimately
pitiable queen of psychedelic rock is indeed a cultural icon. And while
Joplin reveled in her own ballsy, boozy legend, its needy, inebriated,
real-life equivalent was a shadow that darkened her short life and, in
the decades since her 1970 drug-induced death, has come to eclipse the
party-girl persona. To her great credit, author Alice Echols reconciles
the two faces of Joplin in this ambitious, thoroughly readable biography.
She does so by tracing Joplin from her youth as a natural-born libertine
in dreary Port Arthur, Texas, to her emergence as the sole female rock
superstar of her era--a period when beneath-the-surface sexism hampered
Joplin's progress even while women's liberation was being widely touted.
The author does not shy away from sordid sex-and-drugs episodes, and there's
plenty of raw material---the singer was promiscuous, bisexual, and, at
various times, an alcoholic, a speed freak, and a junkie. Echols, however,
elevates this biography above run-of-the-mill rock profiles by painting
her subject against an elaborate and ever-changing cultural backdrop. Here
is Joplin the aspiring folksinger, the white-picket-fence wannabe, the
wayward daughter, the hit-and-miss recording artist, and, finally, the
ill-starred spirit with nothing left to lose. --Steven Stolder - Amazon.com
Paperback: 408 pages
Owl Books; ISBN: 0805053948; (February 2000)
Buried
Alive: The Biography of Janis Joplin
by Myra Friedman
Paperback: 353 pages
Harmony Books; ISBN: 0517586509; (September 1992)
Janis
Joplin (They Died Too Young)
by Dynise Balcavage
(Library Binding - January 2001)
Janis
Joplin : A Performance Diary 1966-1970
by John Byrne Cooke (Editor), David Dalton (Introduction)
(Hardcover - September 1997)
Piece
of My Heart: A Portrait of Janis Joplin (Da Capo Paperback)
by David Dalton
(Paperback - October 1991)
For a broader understanding of the 60's:
The
Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom
Wolfe
Living
in the Dead Zone: Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison
by Gerald A. Faris, Ralph M. Faris
(Paperback)
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Movies featuring Janis Joplin
Janis
(1974) VHS
Monterey
Pop (1968) VHS
~ Grace Slick
Special order
Big Brother and the Holding Company: Ball and Chain (1967) VHS
~ Big Brother & Holding Company
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