![]() ![]() The counterculture values of rejecting one’s upbringing or achieving financial wealth did not apply to her-she ached for both recognition and stability. ![]() She spoke frequently about wanting to prove her childhood bullies wrong, and she desperately craved acceptance from her parents. For most people in the counterculture, it “was not cool to be ambitious,” but Janis yearned to be successful and famous. Rather than dropping out, Janis wanted to make it big. Rather than psychedelic rock, Janis preferred blues and soul. The counterculture dictum to “turn on, tune in, drop out” did not quite capture Janis’s philosophy to “get it while you can.” Rather than taking hallucinogenic drugs to expand the mind, Janis preferred taking hard drugs to numb the pain. While it is true that Janis defied gender norms, experimented with drugs, and associated with the key musical acts of the era, her goals, music, and lifestyle did not exactly square with the overall counterculture ethos, or at least, that is, how that ethos is commonly remembered. However, painting Joplin as the counterculture’s icon is slightly misguided. Biographers of Janis labeled her the “darling of the counterculture,” calling her the “first counterculture pinup girl,” and said that her “entourage and the milieu it reflected was set operative in ambiance of common beliefs and values endemic to the counterculture mentality.” Indeed, Janis’s no-holds-barred personality appeared to embody the liberated spirit and style of Sixties youth. Dying at the young age of 27, Janis’s overdose seemed symbolic of a larger death that America experienced at the end of the Sixties-the death of the counterculture. Her death was the last in a series of events that pointed to the dark side of the hippie movement: the Manson murders, the concert at Altamont, the massacre at Kent State, the passing of Jimi Hendrix. ![]() In such a way, Joplin used blues conventions not to transcend pain, but "to scream it out of existence".In October 1970, famed singer and performer Janis Joplin died in her hotel room of a heroin overdose. Joplin seems rather to be saying, surely if I keep taking this, if I keep setting an example of love and forgiveness, surely he has to understand, change, give me back what I have given". ![]() Noted cultural writer Ellen Willis wrote of the difference: "When Franklin sings it, it is a challenge: no matter what you do to me, I will not let you destroy my ability to be human, to love. The song is also included among The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.įranklin said in an interview that when she first heard Joplin's version on the radio, she didn't recognize it because of the vocal arrangement. In 2004, the Big Brother and the Holding Company version of this song was ranked #344 on Rolling Stones list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The song has since been remade by several singers, including hit versions by Faith Hill in 1994 and Beverley Knight in 2006. The song came to greater mainstream attention when Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company covered the song in 1968 on their album Cheap Thrills and had a hit with it. Piece of My Heart is a song written by Jerry Ragovoy and Bert Berns and originally recorded by Erma Franklin in 1967. ![]()
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