Tag Archives: Janis Joplin

50 Years Ago in Rolling Stone: Issue 29

Rolling Stone issue #29 had a cover date of March 15, 1969. 32 pages. 35 cents. Cover photo of Janis Joplin by Baron Wolman.

Features: “Bob Dylan: ‘I Can’t Remember Where They Come From'” by Jann Wenner; “Janis: The Judy Garland of Rock and Roll?” by Paul Nelson; “Roller Derby: Nobody Loves Us But The Fans” by John Grissim, Jr.; “The Incredible String Band” by Michael March; “The Fool” by J.M. Rose; “Flatt & Scruggs” by David Gancher; “Forgiven” by Richard Brautigan.

News: “Lloyd and Cotton, Heat Take Fall”; “John and Yoko Slapped Hard”; “L.U.V. Movement Hits the Campus”; “Students Get Naked With Playboy”; “Two LA Stations’ History of Pop”; “Beck Fires Two, Delays Tour”; “COME Opens With All-Star Staff”; “Wanted: Hip Cops”; “James Bond + Monkees = Tomorrow”; “KMPX & KSAN Fire Three Jocks”; “Melanie’s Got A Last Name”; “EYE Trouble Plagues Hearst”; “Meher Baba Dies; Silent 43 Years”; “Gabby Hayes Is Dead at 83.”

Continue reading 50 Years Ago in Rolling Stone: Issue 29

Joplin Childhood Home Gets Marker

A house in Port Arthur, Texas that once housed a young Janis Joplin received a historical marker on Saturday, which marked the singer’s 65 birthday. According to the AP story, Joplin was 4 when her family moved into the house that now has the marker. The family moved out in 1975. Her first childhood home was torn down in 1980.

Fans still come by the house, said Alicia Sanchez, 48, who said she didn’t know anything about its former occupants.

“One day I just saw a TV crew out here shooting and I thought ‘What’s going on,'” she said. “I asked what they were doing and they told me that she (Joplin) used to live here. And then I started having people knock on my door asking to see my house.”

Who asks a perfect stranger if you can wander through their home? Fans are weird.

[Update: Added image of marker. -ed. 1/30/2017]

Rock Stars on Half-Life Plan

Live fast, die young, and leave a beautiful corpse. Clichéd, sure, but also apparently true. A recent study of 1,050 American and European music artists between 1965 and 2005 shows that rock and rollers are twice as likely to die young as the rest of us working stiffs.

While the idea that rock stars tend to die young is nothing new, this is apparently the first study to scientifically document the trend. According to the report published in Britain’s Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health (PDF), a quarter of all the musicians’ deaths registered during the study period were due to drug or alcohol abuse.

What’s interesting is the data. One hundred stars, of the 1,050 observed, died during the 40 year study. And while 27 is often thought to be the rock star’s average shelf life (See: Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain—all dead at 27), the actual average age at the time of death is 42 for American rockers and 35 for Europeans.

No word on how undead rocks stars like The Rolling Stones threw off the average.