legacy of kozmic blues
In fall 1970, Janis Joplin was touring with her Full Tilt Boogie Band and recording Pearl, her final album. She was scheduled to put down vocals for the prophetically named “Buried Alive In The Blues” on the day she was found dead in her room at Hollywood's Landmark Hotel from an accidental heroine overdose. "Buried Alive" remained an instrumental, and the world was left wondering what might have come from Joplin beyond the age of 27.
PHOTOS: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum
Pearl became her biggest selling album when it was released in 1971, sticking at #1 on the Billboard charts for nine weeks and eventually ranking #122 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. The LP's single “Me and Bobby McGee,” the bohemian love anthem written for Joplin by her former lover Kris Kristofferson, became Joplin's only Top Forty hit, topping Billboard singles for two weeks.
Joplin's Greatest Hits, which were released in 1973 and sold more than 2 million copies, compiled songs that became a necessary part of the 1960s rock canon.
Long before she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995, Joplin had become a legend for her musical legacy, influence on popular culture and a persona that captured the spirit of the 1960s. Music journalist Ellen Willis believes “Joplin belonged to that select group of pop figures who mattered as much for themselves as for their music. Among American rock performers, she was second only to Bob Dylan in importance as a creator-recorder-embodiment of her generation’s mythology. She was also the only woman to achieve that kind of stature in what was basically a male club, the only ‘60s culture hero to make visible and public, women’s experience of the quest for liberation, which was very different from mens.”
Her life inspired a number of productions outside the musical realm, including the Academy Award-nominated 1979 film The Rose, featuring Bette Midler, which was loosely based on Joplin's life. In 2001, Love, Janis, a musical based on letters Joplin sent to family members, played off-Broadway in the Village Theatre.
Joplin's body of work also continues to be recognized: The 2005 Grammy Awards honored Joplin with its Lifetime Achievement Award. Melissa Etheridge, Joplin's presenter for the 1995 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, and young soul star Joss Stone, performed a tribute that celebrated a legacy that continues to influence our music and culture to this day.