Product Description

Forty years after her death, Janis Joplin remains among the most compelling and influential figures in rock-and-roll history. Her story—told here with depth and sensitivity by author Ann Angel—is one of a girl who struggled against rules and limitations, yet worked diligently to improve as a singer. It’s the story of an outrageous rebel who wanted to be loved, and of a wild woman who wrote long, loving letters to her mom. And finally, it’s the story of one of the most iconic female musicians in American history, who died at twenty-seven.

Janis Joplin includes more than sixty photographs, and an assortment of anecdotes from Janis’s friends and band mates. This thoroughly researched and well-illustrated biography is a must-have for all young artists, music lovers, and pop-culture enthusiasts.

Customer Reviews (1)

Pieces of Janis Joplin's heart
Reading this book brought me back to the late sixties hearing the tortured, passionate, soulful sound of Janis Joplin belting out songs like "Piece of My Heart."This was when Janis Joplin redefined what a woman in music could do with the blues-influenced songs that she sang.

In the book, we begin with Joplin's teen years in the fifties in Port Arthur, Texas, at a time and place where the norm for a woman was to graduate, marry her high school sweetheart, and settle down to raise a family. Even at that young age, Joplin knew she could never settle down.Feeling out of sync with her classmates, we follow her to Venice, California; Austin, Texas; New York City; and San Francisco. We read how even with success, each day took another piece of her heart.

Her wildness and drug use, a failed attempt to lighten the pain she carried around with her, slowly destroyed her, and led ultimately to the tragedy on that night in October 1970 when while drunk, Joplin inadvertently added that fatal needle of heroin that led to her death at twenty seven years of age.

Reviewed by Angie Mangino ... Read more

Product Description
Janis Joplin was the skyrocket chick of the sixties, the woman who broke into the boys' club of rock and out of the stifling good-girl femininity of postwar America. With her incredible wall-of-sound vocals, Joplin was the voice of a generation, and when she OD'd on heroin in October 1970, a generation's dreams crashed and burned with her. Alice Echols pushes past the legary Joplin-the red-hot mama of her own invention-as well as the familiar portrait of the screwed-up star victimized by the era she symbolized, to examine the roots of Joplin's muscianship and explore a generation's experiment with high-risk living and the terrible price it exacted.

A deeply affecting biography of one of America's most brilliant and tormented stars, Scars of Sweet Paradise is also a vivid and incisive cultural history of an era that changed the world for us all.
Amazon.com Review
To call Janis Joplin theJudy Garland of the Woodstock set is in some sense a faircharacterization. The brassy, carnal, extravagant, and ultimatelypitiable queen of psychedelic rock is indeed a cultural icon. Andwhile Joplin reveled in her own ballsy, boozy legend, its needy,inebriated, real-life equivalent was a shadow that darkened her shortlife and, in the decades since her 1970 drug-induced death, has cometo eclipse the party-girl persona.

To her great credit, author Alice Echols reconciles the two faces ofJoplin in this ambitious, thoroughly readable biography. She does soby tracing Joplin from her youth as a natural-born libertine in drearyPort Arthur, Texas, to her emergence as the sole female rock superstarof her era--a period when beneath-the-surface sexism hampered Joplin'sprogress even while women's liberation was being widely touted. Theauthor does not shy away from sordid sex-and-drugs episodes, andthere's plenty of raw material---the singer was promiscuous, bisexual,and, at various times, an alcoholic, a speed freak, and ajunkie. Echols, however, elevates this biography above run-of-the-millrock profiles by painting her subject against an elaborate andever-changing cultural backdrop. Here is Joplin the aspiringfolksinger, the white-picket-fence wannabe, the wayward daughter, thehit-and-miss recording artist, and, finally, the ill-starred spiritwith nothing left to lose. --Steven Stolder ... Read more

Customer Reviews (38)

An extraordinary piece of work
This work achieves the impossible in exploring the various facets and contradictions in Janis Joplin's life with real sympathy and understanding, a standout gem being the phrase 'context is everything.' Above all, it explains why and how she became to be the person that she was which is an achievement in itself. Most interesting are Alice Echol's exploration of the emergence of the hippie culture in which Janis Joplin is placed, rejecting eaasy stereotypes and getting away from the airbrushed version which it is too easy to accept. Quite simply, this is the best pop biography ever.

great buy
This is a great book! The seller was great and the book was shipped quickly.

Ok if you want to know the basic facts about Janis Joplin's life
This book is a very good research if you want to know the basic facts about Janis Joplin's life.But one has to say that it has a very academic thesis. Thats why it is often dry to read. But it is a great resource for people who havent read about Janis Joplin before.
Michael Spörke Author of Living with the myth of Janis Joplin. The History of Big Brother & the Holding Co.1965-2005

a good effort
Echols mainly wanted to lift Joplin's life from the mire of Friedman's unyielding and carping bleakness. She achieves this, but she is somewhat driven by a feminist/lesbian agenda that lets her down a tad. She also takes some of the gloss of Joplin family dynamics as portrayed in Laura Joplin's bio.
She is no great shakes as a musicologist, either. However, she does offer some fresh insights on a person who has been dragged over the coals, and perhaps not given proper recognition within popular music history.

avoid buried alive, read this instead
This book is amazing. I was born long after Janis' era, but fell in love with her music. This book has all of her history and that of the 1960s. I could not put the book down. Echols gave me so much insight into Janis's life, I consider her one of the best, under-recognized icons in music. Between "Love, Janis" and "Scars of Sweet Paradise" I feel like I actually knew part of Janis. ... Read more

Product Description

A revealing and intimate biography about Janis Joplin, the Queen of Classic Rock, written by her younger sister.

Janis Joplin blazed across the sixties music scene, electrifying audiences with her staggering voice and the way she seemed to pour her very soul into her music. By the time her life and artistry were cut tragically short by a heroin overdose, Joplin had become the stuff of rock–and–roll legend.

Through the eyes of her family and closest friends , we see Janis as a young girl, already rebelling against injustice, racism, and hypocrisy in society. We follow Janis as she discovers her amazing talents in the Beat hangouts of Venice and North Beach–singing in coffeehouses, shooting speed to enhance her creativity, challenging the norms of straight society. Janis truly came into her own in the fantastic, psychedelic, acid–soaked world of Haight–Asbury. At the height of her fame, Janis's life is a whirlwind of public adoration and hard living. Laura Joplin shows us not only the public Janice who could drink Jim Morrison under the table and bean him with a bottle of booze when he got fresh; she shows us the private Janis, struggling to perfect her art, searching for the balance between love and stardom, battling to overcome her alcohol addiction and heroin use in a world where substance abuse was nearly universal.

At the heart of Love, Janis is an astonishing series of letters by Janis herself that have never been previously published. In them she conveys as no one else could the wild ride from awkward small–town teenager to rock–and–roll queen. Love, Janis is the new life of Janis Joplin we have been waiting for–a celebration of the sixties' joyous experimentation and creativity, and a loving, compassionate examination of one of that era's greatest talents.

Customer Reviews (33)

In Depth and Behind-the-scenes
Most people my age do not know who Janis Joplin is, her legacy, or any of her music. Which is sad to me, but it can be expected when my age group is still in their teens and Janis has been deceased since our parents were younger.
Laura Joplin gets in-depth with the life behind-the-scenes of Janis Joplin. The Janis the United States came to know as the wild, passionate woman in the Russian lynx coat and painted Porsche. We failed to really look at what made her so special, how she became the gutsy blues singer she once was. Her sister, Laura Joplin, who is six years younger than Janis, chose to write the biography about her. Laura chooses to share with the reader even the most personal letters that Janis had written to her mother and the letters written to other family members as well. With these letters, the title of the book emerged, Janis's personal valediction at the end of each letter, Love XX Janis.
When I began the book, it took a long time for the book to get interesting. The second chapter is a full family tree of how the Joplin's (father, Seth's side) and the East's (mother, Dorothy's side) came to America, ultimately to Port Arthur, Texas and how their bloodlines eventually combined to create the Joplin family; which I didn't find particularly interesting but it was a good addition to the book. Laura Joplin goes to great lengths to explain Janis's background in terms of how she became Janis. Her childhood was thoroughly explained. This helps the reader to understand that Janis Joplin did not become Janis Joplin overnight. It was a life long journey with hardships and happy times sometimes in the same day. Laura shows the reader that Janis had to make hard decisions just like every other normal person, and that in reality Janis was a free spirit that just-so-happened to be part of one of the largest turning points of America's popular culture scene. Laura also exhibits to the reader that for a long time Janis was an outcast. Her child and adolescent years were spent during the 1950's and early 1960's before the love started to spread throughout the country. Those times were so-called "straight" times. People were supposed to be neat and cookie cutter. In truth, it appears that Laura Joplin was simply trying to show the world what Janis really was, not her public persona, but a whirlwind of emotions and inner beauty, waiting to explode in a guttural, trance-like sound. She did not once shy away from Janis's drug and alcohol abuse or her promiscuous behavior. Laura Joplin told Janis's story exactly how it happened, or at least she shared with the reader as much as she knew
When looking through reviews of the biography by fellow Amazon reviewers, many mentioned Laura's ability to write (or lack there of), a well put together biography. This is disappointing to me in a number of ways. One being, Laura Joplin was not trained to be an author, she was letting the world in on secrets only her and her family would know. I doubt she was trying to win acclaim or any award. I must agree that the book is not a challenging read, or a masterful piece of literature. Also, because Laura Joplin took her time to show readers and fans of Janis, such as myself, that press and interviews were maybe a quarter of the emotional turmoil that powered the voice behind the legacy.

Sisterly perspective
Having previously read Myra Friedman's excellent bio on Janis as well as various other books portraying some aspect of Janis's career or life, "Love, Janis" is a welcome addition, bringing more of Janis's own words in the form of her letters home, and some insights about her family.It's true that the author, Janis's sister, was not directly involved in Janis's California lifestyle and singing career, nor is she a particularly good writer.At times this book also suffers from the same fault I've seen in other books or portions of books written by the families of tragically-dead-too-young celebs, namely a tendency to whitewash its subject a bit and fight off real or perceived blame cast on the family and community for not adequately grokking and appreciating that they had a Sensitive Genius Artist in their midst.These flaws get a little annoying to the reader at times, but can generally be forgiven if one remembers that Janis's behaviors, including her independent lifestyle, wacky rockstar outfits, outwardly aggressive persona, and musical style are much more generally accepted now than they were in the early 60s, when "nice girls" just didn't DO those kinds of things, especially down in Texas. Laura Joplin comes off like the ultimate "nice girl" and one can see the pressure that was put on Janis, including by Janis herself, to be more restrained in order to fit a womanly ideal.However, Janis's letters suggest that similar pressures were placed on her (or she placed them on herself) to be a loud rock star or hippie queen, so the family doesn't seem to blame for her ultimate fate even when Laura gets defensive about that subject.

The book is worth reading to hear more of Janis's own voice, regardless of whether you find her sister's weaving of the tale to be charming, acceptable or a negative distraction.I'd suggest it be read as a complement or backup to other biographies on Janis, as an additional window on the soul of this complex artist.

Nice to hear Janis's story told by family
I'm currently reading Myra Freidman's "Buried Alive" biography of Janis, and I recently read "Love, Janis." These biographies are similar only in that they share the same subject; in every other sense, they are entirely different and tell Janis's story from two different lights. "Buried Alive" focuses on Janis's later solo career (fittingly enough, as Myra Freidman was her publicist the last three years of Janis's life) and we get to see the career-oriented side of Janis; we also get to see how Janis interacted with her friends (and "friends"), how Janis reacted to certain situations in both her career and personal life, and we get to see a very honest, truthful (and that means not always positive) portrayal of Janis as a person: her mood swings, her battles with drugs and alcohol, her constant need for reassurance. However, in "Love, Janis," we get to see more of the softer side of Janis, not to mention a much fuller history of Janis's childhood and adolescence, including letters Janis wrote home throughout her career. I think it's important to read each of these biographies because they each show different aspects of Janis, Myra's book giving us a full, well-painted portrait of who Janis really was as a person and how she felt about her career and singing -- ("What if they find out I really can't sing!" Myra quotes her saying) -- and Laura's book painting a much softer picture of Janis and focusing more on her relationship with her family. That's the biggest difference; Myra was right there with Janis when she was an international superstar and dealing with the extreme pressures of her career, while Laura only got to see small glimpses of that whenever Janis wrote home or visited; it's important to keep in mind while reading "Love, Janis" that Laura wasn't with Janis in California, wasn't on the road with her or involved in the whole hippie scene; therefore, Myra's book gives us far more insight on her career and a more personal & detailed account of Janis at that point in her life, with many many quotes and dialogue from Janis throughout the book. Laura's book's strong points are Janis's history, how she got to where she went, who she was before she became the infamous Janis Joplin, and really helps to humanize her as we see her interact with her family, which is, I believe, a very accurate and trustworthy description, seeing as Laura is family and, I think it's safe to say, knew Janis very well.

I would recommend, to new Janis fans, reading this one first, then venturing onto others, because I think it's worthwhile to learn her complex history, particularly how she got started in singing, before learning the full details of who she was as a world-famous blues queen, which is what we get in Myra's book. Her letters from home are also quite interesting to read, not only for what Janis writes home about, but we also get to see her handwriting, her exuberance in her letters, and doodles/pictures she drew in her letters. Overall, Myra's book shows Janis as an adult and singer and gives us more insight to Janis's complicated personality, whereas Laura's is more of a straightforward history of her life. Both bios are wonderful and are must-reads for Janis fans.

Interesting Book, Keeps your Attention
I enjoyed reading this book and breezed right thru it.If you have any interest in Janis or the 60's this is a good book.I saw the play first and that made me want to read the book.

Janis's sister view of Janis Joplin life.
I just got the book in the mail, haven't finished reading it yet, It was in great condition to be used. I found the pictures to be very interesting and Laura's heartbreaking first chapter was over the top. I would recommend this book. Thank you for selling it to me. I have a collection now that I am very proud of. ... Read more

Product Description
Electrifying, highly acclaimed, and intensely personal, this new and updated version of Myra Friedman's classic biography of Janis Joplin teems with dramatic insights into Joplin's genius and into the chaotic times that catapulted her to fame as the legendary queen of rock. It is a stunning panorama of the turbulent decade when Joplin's was the rallying voice of a generation that lost itself in her music and found itself in her words.

From her small hometown of Port Arthur, Texas, to San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury, from the intimate coffeehouses to the supercharged concert halls, from the glitter of worldwide fame to her tragic end in a Hollywood hotel, here is all the fire and anguish of an immortal, immensely talented, and troubled performer who devoured everything the rock scene had to offer in a fatal attempt to make peace with herself and her era. Yet, in an eloquent introduction recently written by the author, Joplin emerges from her "ugly duckling" childhood as a woman truly ahead of her time, an outrageous rebel, a defiant outcast and artist of incomparable authenticity who, almost in spite of herself, became to so many a symbol of triumph over adversity.

This edition also contains an afterword detailing the whereabouts of a large and colorful cast of characters who were part of Joplin's life, as well as "We Remember Janis," a new chapter of poignant and affectionate anecdotes told by friends.

"One of the best books about a rock figure thus far...Buried Alive is unquestionably an accomplishment and it may well be the best portrait we'll have of Janis -- and past even that, it seems a study of the motivations of stardom as true as one is likely to achieve....I'd take Buried Alive over Norman Mailer's metaphysical Marilyn any day!" -- Rolling Stone

"Brilliant, marvelous, emotionally devastating...I don't think there's anything about Janis the book leaves untouched....I can almost hear her speak and, more relevantly, hear her laugh." -- New York Daily News

"Written with a sympathetic intelligence, at times fiercely lyrical, Buried Alive is an honest book about Joplin the idol....This is the best book yet about rock...." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (30)

It's high time Myra Friedman gets outed as an angry, nutty person without drugs but with issues.She misled a lot of people.
I shall start by excerpting a review of this Janis Joplin biography that someone added to this page in 2003.
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[Myra Friedman] writes that Janis was "no musician," an "amateur" during her entire time with Big Brother, not at all spontaneous with her phrasing, "contrived," emotionally "astigmatized," "infantile," "deplorably self centered," copied other people's fashion styles and had no original fashion style of her own,(!!?) and chose to sing the blues strictly because it was more "marketable." She describes the album Cheap Thrills as "abominable." (Quote: "And I personally thought Cheap Thrills abominable.") and that Big Brother and the Holding Company were "absurd, ludicrous, daffy, impossible, a violation of every musical standard I held dear, a minstrel show."
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I shall tell you something about Myra Friedman that you will *not* find in any of the versions of "Buried Alive" that she has issued (in English and other languages) during the last 37 years.(She never published another book, and I shall show you why.) I shall excerpt a book about the 1987 criminal trial of Bernhard Goetz, whom newspapers labeled the "subway vigilante." It's an excerpt about Ms. Friedman.That's right, there are long passages about the very same Myra Friedman, 1960s rock and roll publicist, in a book about the prosecution of Mr. Goetz.He holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and nuclear engineering.Although he was just four years younger than Janis Joplin, nobody associates him with the type of person who would have said in 1969, "Hey, man, I'm with the band and I'm trying to score some smack."Why talk about a 1960s counterculture "survivor" (Ms. Friedman seems to feel she deserves a medal for having been Janis Joplin's only clean and sober friend) in a book about an electronics repairman whose life was in jeopardy on a Manhattan subway in 1984?Allow me to tell you why.The explanation helps illustrate that too many people have been advertising the negative side of Janis Joplin and her deceased friends and deceased fans for far too long.Here is the connection.

Around the time Myra Friedman got hired by rock and roll talent manager Albert Grossman (famous for signing the young Bob Dylan and for talking rudely to an English hotel clerk in the 1967 movie "Don't Look Back"), she moved into a one-bedroom apartment on Manhattan's West 14th Street.Shortly after Big Brother and the Holding Company signed with the Grossman agency in February of 1968, lead singer Janis started visiting Myra (publicist) at that apartment.Myra described some of these visits in "Buried Alive."In the last days of her life (1970), Janis, who was recording her "Pearl" album in Los Angeles, occasionally phoned Myra's home number and they talked.Myra was concerned about Janis possibly using heroin and possibly suffering from severe depression, but the publicist was not sufficiently alarmed to insist that her boss (New York-based Mr. Grossman) board a plane and visit his emotionally volatile client.Myra noticed during the early autumn of 1970 that Janis sounded less depressed and less zonked out than she had during the bleak summer.That summer had been filled with boring hotel rooms on the Full Tilt Boogie concert tour and the high school reunion where Janis sought revenge against the classmates who had taunted her ten years earlier, but all of that seemed to be water under the bridge.Now Janis seemed happy about her recording sessions. So neither Myra nor Albert Grossman contacted anyone at Columbia Records or Paul Rothchild, who was producing the "Pearl" album, to raise an alarm about substance abuse.Rothchild himself thought Janis was happy and in control of herself. They had fun racing each other while driving their cars on Sunset Blvd. near Sunset Sound Recorders.(I got that detail from biographer Ellis Amburn, one of Myra's competitors.)

As Myra Friedman told Joplin fans in the "We Remember Janis" section she penned for the 1992 version of "Buried Alive" with the deep purple cover, Myra was sleeping in her apartment in the middle of the night of October 4 / 5 (Sunday night / Monday morning) where Janis' chatter about her feelings recently had been audible.Myra was awakened by the ringing phone, and someone told her Janis was dead.Coroner Thomas Noguchi didn't announce the precise cause of death until three weeks later.Myra didn't pick up where Dr. Noguchi left off until three years later when her completed book contained her ad nauseam ponderings on whether the untimely death could have been prevented.At that time (1973), a female New York Times reviewer (this was at the height of "women's lib") praised the new hardback first edition of "Buried Alive" -- for the most part.She added, "If [Myra's] detachment fails her at times, giving a somewhat overwrought quality to the narrative, her intelligence never does."The reviewer left it at that regarding Myra.Of course, no one realized that this intelligent woman would spend the rest of her life saying the same things about Janis Joplin over and over.Rolling Stone magazine commented, "[Myra's] depiction of herself is a bit too Girl Scoutish and overweening wise for comfort -- particularly since she occasionally tends to air her own pet peeves with an unbecoming pettiness."I can add that as Myra's fixation on Janis Joplin hardened over a period of many years, this "pettiness" grew.

Later in the 1970s, Bernhard Goetz moved into Myra's building one floor below her apartment, and he began running his electronics repair business from there.At Goetz' long trial in 1987, witness Myra Friedman spent the better part of a day testifying under oath. Let's let Goetz juror Mark Lesly and his co-author Charles Shuttleworth take it from there (beginning on page 125 in a book you can find here on Amazon.com by typing either name in the Amazon search field).
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I found Friedman to be a very strange woman, like a character Lily Tomlin or Carol Burnett might invent.Part of this, I learned later, was because she had a speech impediment brought on in part by the stress of having to testify in this trial.Her chin seemed drooped and her tongue too thick; she slurred her words and slightly lisped. She made a passing reference to it right at the beginning of her testimony, and after the trial I learned [Gregory] Waples [assistant district attorney who prosecuted the case] had considered making some more specific announcement to us about it but ultimately had opted not to.I think that was a mistake, though, because I definitely feel that Friedman's voice negatively affected my impression of her testimony. Its bizarreness only heightened the strangeness of her story.

Friedman testified that eight days after the shootings, in the early afternoon on December 30 [1984], Goetz came to her apartment with a brown paper package.She said she had been aware that Goetz owned and possessed guns, but that she wasn't certain of the package's contents.

[One of Goetz's two defense attorneys Barry] Slotnick ... brought up a phone conversation [Goetz and Friedman] had had on December 29, the day before Goetz came to her apartment with the package.They talked on that occasion for over a half an hour, in the course of which Goetz revealed he was the subway gunman being sought by police. Friedman, meanwhile, recorded the conversation by switching on her phone machine.

Slotnick asked her if after the conversation she had immediately called the police to tell them she knew who the subway gunman was. Friedman answered that she had not.
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I'm one of many people who have communicated with her over a period of decades. In 1985, a search for surviving recordings of Janis' music was difficult, so I wrote to her.Shortly before I wrote, I noticed her long article in New York magazine about her interactions and telephone conversations with Bernhard Goetz, and I mentioned it in my letter.She preferred to talk by phone. Did her "phone machine" record what I said after I revealed what I knew about a Woodstock bootleg?I'll never know, but here's what really bothers me.She said she needed the 3,000 dollars that New York magazine had paid her because she was having trouble making ends meet with her occasional new paperback editions of "Buried Alive."That's the book that calls Janis Joplin "deplorably self-centered" and denigrates the way she dressed.Myra's overwrought way of talking to a stranger on the phone made me feel sorry for her.Although she kept calling herself a writer, I never suggested to her that she write about a fun subject other than Janis Joplin to make ends meet. That's because she gave me a vibe suggesting that such a comment would hurt her feelings. She seemed to know that the topic of Bernhard Goetz isn't much fun for most people, but she didn't understand that she has an obsession with Janis Joplin.

Ever since the late 1990s when Myra started giving television interviews for basic cable television documentaries on Janis Joplin such as "Intimate Portrait" on the Lifetime network without the speech impediment that baffled Goetz jurors, my disgust with her has deepened.Although she is from a pre-baby boom generation, old copies of "Buried Alive" seem to have mesmerized baby boomers who cut their hair in the 1970s and then became fixated on the words "addiction and recovery."Since 1973 the book has developed an evergreen quality that attracts anyone who ever was eligible for a 12-step program, including Alanon, and this has contributed to Americans' obsession with celebrities they don't know personally.Ms. Friedman has helped erase boundaries, and not for the good.She has weakened the boundary between a talented person's music and the personal problems of a fan of that music.So I'm putting in my two cents on Amazon to say this:Baby boomers, stop saying the same things over and over again about dead people who used narcotics in the 1960s.If you can't say something nice about a dead person, unless that person committed murder, then don't say anything.In the 1980s the TV show "thirtysomething" seemed to say everything that needed to be said about the normal behavior of Gary Shepherd the college professor versus the destructive behavior of Gary the hippie twenty years earlier.Other characters on the series echoed the late 1980s media messages that "now most baby boomers are normal, and they have learned to say the words 'addiction and recovery.' They watch the TV public service announcements about cocaine that are created by people like Michael Steadman and his advertising partner Elliot Weston."But "thirtysomething" ceased to exist in 1991. Websites have helped people move on to studying other 1960s pioneers and the legacies they left.We have learned the 1960s were not just about escaping reality.

Myra Friedman's ongoing ignorance underscores what people who are younger than the baby boomers think, which is: "Stop saying over and over that Hendrix, Joplin, Morrison, Garcia and thousands of their fans screwed up their lives.If you can't say something nice at a distance of forty years, then please spare us the self-righteous rhetoric. Stop it!Focus on the music.Don't stop the music. Stop the pseudointellectual comments about the musicians.Maybe the reason some baby boomers keep saying 'addiction and recovery' over and over is that they suspect someone they know personally has those issues right now.But that has nothing to do with what happened forty years ago when the drug scene was very different and saloons were different.There were fewer guns then.If your addicted friend has a gun, then please notify the police.Don't let Myra Friedman's naivete about hurting yourself vs. hurting others sway you.If your friend is harmless, then leaving him or her alone could be the best course of action.He or she has to take the initiative to seek help.Joplin, Hendrix and Morrison never took that initiative. It's that simple. Garcia took the initiative, but he was too late."Others in my age group share this viewpoint.

Even if you yourself once enjoyed escaping reality, your non-stop confessions are far less valuable than music.Get over yourself already, Betty Ford Center graduates.One of the creators of "thirtysomething" said ad nauseam that he was an intravenous heroin addict, and he waited until many years after the show's cancellation to do it publicly. Stop it. Music is music and chemicals are chemicals.Where are the boundaries?Today's children are growing up without boundaries.They don't know where it is appropriate to talk about music (treble clef, staccato, vibrato, audio feedback, etc.) and where it is appropriate to say a musician seems to be ill.When children find out Amy Winehouse is addicted, they think they can do something about it, and then they lose whatever concept of privacy they used to have.They miss the idea that only you are responsible for your negative behavior.Janis was responsible for Janis, Amy is responsible for Amy and you are responsible for you.Myra Friedman and the baby boomers need to stop misleading the children.You might remember that all her life Janis Joplin was angry she had been misled as a child.(That detail comes from another Friedman competitor named David Dalton.) Janis liked telling the truth.I'm trying to do that regarding Myra and the obsessive picking on dead people that she helped instigate in 1973. If you pay to read "Buried Alive," you will learn a lot about that obsessive bashing of addicts and very little about what made Janis the artist tick. Myra's competitor Ellis Amburn used the word "recitative" for the speech Janis can be heard giving in the middle of her Calgary recording of "Ball and Chain."Hmmm, I'd love to discuss whether that word is appropriate, but most of what I find about her has little to do with music.

couldn't have picked a better title
Let me say up front that I am not a Joplin fan; I don't like or dislike her. I just don't care. I only picked up this book because I like biographies of creative people, and the price was right (a buck). But I had to force myself to finish this dull, depressing and dreadful book. Lots of lay psychoanalyzing and a bizarre attempt at a substance abuse lecture combine to make for a laboriously constructed but unsatisfying bio. The author is a trained musician, but you would scarcely know it from this clunky tale. There is little to no examination of the music of Joplin, much less any real interaction with her band. Unless you are a die-hard Joplin fan, save your money and your time.

Insightful
Buried Alive is a moving and disturbing account of Janis Joplin's life. Written by her publicist, who knew Janis well, this book definitely shines a spotlight on Janis' erratic behavior and personality.

I was somewhat disappointed that the author glossed over Woodstock and Janis' participation there. However, it was well written and filled with personal observations and experiences with Janis as she traveled to stardom.

an inside view from the outside
This book is an interesting view from somebody who was close to Janis and Big Brother and the Holding Co. after they were managed by Albert Grossmann. So its an very inside view thats unique. But you can see that it was also written from somebody who had also a very critical view into the sixties culture. This is nothing bad of curse, just makes clear some point that maybe irritate otherwise. But all in one Myra Friedmann was so close to Janis at a time like just a few others and because of that this book is an very imporant view into that part of music history and into the life of Janis.
Michael Spörke, Author of Living with the myth of Janis Joplin. The History of Big Brother & the Holding Co.1965-2005

Don't bother
I didn't know much about Janis but got interested in her a few years ago when a friend turned me onto her music. AFter reading Sweet Scars of Paradise, and Love, Janis, I picked up a copy of Buried Alive and was really turned off and frankly, disappointed, by the author's self-righteous tone. This book seems really outdated with its psychoanalytic slant and negative portrayal of Janis. Seems like the author had a personal vendetta against her and the entire '60s.

If you're looking for a good book about Janis, I'd bypass this one and read the others bios instead. ... Read more

Product Description
To those who knew and loved her, she was Pearl. To an enthralled generation of youth, she was Janis Joplin, the first rock superstar of the '60s--locked into a doomed search for satisfaction. Pearl gives readers the real Janis, including never-before-known facts about her death. 16 pages of rare photos. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

Wonderful, Amaizing!
This book is absolutley great! Love it! I am so glad that I added this book to my collection!

Fanastic book
The book came in excellent condition and it was a fanastic book. Thank you for selling it to me.

Soul-Diminishing Treatise on a Lost Little Girl
I didn't enjoy this book at all.The author's writing was often circular and obtuse, not easy to comprehend.I had to read it slowly, and it gave me some anxiety that the reading wasn't smooth.Author seemed to be intent on tearing Janis down in every way.Also, the photos in the book are sparse and poor.

Points made, it becomes clear Janis was sexually confused and suffered major low self-esteem and rejection.It is like she was a lesbian from childhood, and severely repressed because of it; author makes it clear that she never felt she fit in.Alcohol addiction and lewd behaviors were pay-offs to what was otherwise a repressed life, filled with rejection.Like Jim Morrison, Janis used drugs and alcohol as a way to bust the hypocrisy around her.At least by singing, Janis was able to get some of her needs met.

She deluded herself into thinking people actually cared about her and loved her. Author implies that she was used by others, especially her manager, all the way.Author also implies that it turned her into a sort of female chauvinist in the end.If this is not the Janis you want to read about, don't buy this book.

A well-researched biography -- lots of sex too!
This biography of Janis Joplin is a well-done account of her entire life, most of her heinous activities, her good times, her multiple drug addictions, her death in 1970, and a just little on how she might have felt about herself in the brief period leading up to that tragic date.

That latter facet of Janice's story, the personalized one, might be what is lacking the most in Amburn's account. When I finished the book, I really didn't feel that I had a grasp on what drove her. Still, it's not a huge void and the work is otherwise quite detailed. In fact, I did catch myself sighing a time or two along the way and I'll have to confess that I was somewhat relieved when I closed the cover for the final time. It's a long book but I don't have any major complaints on that front either -- I just thought the script might have been a little too passive.

What I DID especially like included all the accounts of Janis's interactions with other famous period musicians and their respective peccadillos. There was also a tome of information about Janis's movements (throughout the American West mostly) and her relationships with others on the road. The account of Janis's return to her hometown for her class reunion was one of the better entries, (she mostly retrospectively despised her peers who had not treated her all that great in high school and yet she felt a compulsion to show them that she had become someone important).

Amburn does exhibit a great ear for music as he correctly noted that Janis Joplin was at her very best with Big Brother and The Holding Company. "Cheap Thrills" WAS truly a monster of raw classic rock excellence and remains one of my favorites to this very day:

Cheap Thrills


I actually acquired a used copy of this book in hardcover one day at the local junk store and I snatched it up for three bucks as it was on my reading list. It was nicely bound and it's still prominently on a shelf in my permanent library of thousands of books, so I did consider it a keeper. I shrewdly pass on lots of so-so reads.

In any case, this book is undoubtedly a must-read for Woodstockers and, excepting those folks who would be offended by reading about graphic sexual acts, the work would also appeal to many others who would enjoy absorbing a quality, well-done biography.

Pearl...Janis Joplin story
Actually I bought this for my daughter-in-law for her birthday. I can tell you she did not put it down till she conpleted it. She even took it to work with her. She loved it very much! Now I am going to read it. ... Read more

Product Description
The undisputed queen of sex, drugs and rock n' roll was also the voice of a generation who, when she overdosed on heroin at the age of twenty-seven in October 1970; became the posthumous icon of bad girl femininity for millions around the world. Drawing on hundreds of interviews Echols renders Joplin in all her complexity, revealing how this sweet-voiced girl from Texas recreated herself, first as a gravely-voiced bluesy folksinger, and then as rock n' roll's first female superstar. Echols examines the roots of her musicianship and her efforts to probe the outer limits of life; declaring herself the first white-black person and pursuing sex with men and women alike. Moving from the electric ballrooms of San Francisco to the mud-soaked fields of Woodstock, Joplin's story is also a chronicle of the revolutions of the sixties - a generation's experiment with high-risk living and the exacting price they ultimately paid for this. Written in a captivating novel-like style this is a deeply affecting biography of one of America's most talented, tormented and enduring stars. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Janis Joplin: A Performance Diary
This is the absolutely best book out there on Janis. Pictures are amazing. It was written by her road manager. I was lucky enough to hear Mr. Cooke give a talk on Janis at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. The talk was fascinating. He remembers almost everything as if it was just happening today. The book arrived in great condition. It is hard to find as it it out of print. The book came as advertised and very quickly.

Janis Joplin Book review
This book is full of the unique pics of Janis in her prime. The dates and times of her performances and is a great find.

Nice Photos, Annoying Format
Most Joplin fans will want this book for the many marvelous,unpublished photos. The diary of live performances is very interesting, but the calander format is annoying. Another book that compliments "APerformance Diary" is "Janis Garden Party", a collection ofphotos taken at Madison Square Garden in Dec. 1969 by photographer SteveBanks. The book is published by Bugiganga Press, 1998.

A miraculous picture-book!
This book has to lie on the shelf of all Janis fans, who are interestedboth in her music and personality - although the texts are not reallyinformative, so you won`t learn much about the details of her life. Butthis book is not intended to be a biography~it`s more a TRIBUTE. And shedeserved it. A beautiful collection of pictures and letters ~some in herown handwriting~ a cronological list of her performances and the summary ofthe main steps in her carreer. A VERY NICE piece of HIGH LEVEL!

Fabulous Book- A Detailed Summary of Her Performing Life
This book contains any number of beautiful photographs, it has beautifully written reflections on Janis from friends and lovers. In short it has it all. A good read. ... Read more

Product Description
To many people, Big Brother and the Holding Company has always meant Janis Joplin. Big Brother, who gave Janis a platform for success by giving her the freedom and the energy to develop her musical style, were considered amateurish and unprofessional by many reviewers. Simply put, Janis Joplin's fame and glory overshadowed the band. This book tells the band's story, how difficult it was to find an identity separate from Joplin's towering talent. Big Brother and the Holding Company were and are far more than a Janis Joplin backup band. Big Brother were the pioneers of the San Francisco sound and are among the outstanding representatives of psychedelic music. This book describes the life story of each of the members of Big Brother: where they came from, what their roots were, how they see their time with Janis Joplin, and what they experienced afterwards. It has been written with the close participation of the musicians themselves. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Big Brother And The Holding Company makes History
This is an intriguing, intelligent and well researched band bioof Big Brother & The Holding Company. One doesn't necessarily have to be an obsessed fan of the legendary group or even Janis Joplin, their female vocalistto enjoy this book. The author Michael Spoerkecleverly manages to describes the formation of the San Francisco hippy movement and the eruption ofthe Bay Area's West Coast psychedelic rock while focussing on the individual characters of Big Brother as well as on the movers and shakers of that magical musical era.

This book could have benefited from stills and an index, but the simplistic prose suitable for old and new Big Brother & The Holding Company converts,is so detailed it should definitely be part of the schools' Music History curriculum.

Telling It Like It Was . . . And Is
Many people grow up in the shadow of an older sibling or an over achieving parent and feel like they always have to measure up, or that they're being compared to, the siblings or parents.It's well known that these environments create its fair share of emotional baggage and debris.

Michael Spörke's brilliant book, "Living with the Myth of Janis Joplin", gives the low down on an inverted version of this type of environment.The book chronicles the history of Big Brother and the Holding Company that was the first band that Janis Joplin worked with and who was the catalyst for her meteoric rise to fame.

Notice that I didn't say that BBHC was her back-up band.Nothing could be further from the truth.Janis Joplin hit the hippie scene of San Francisco with dreams of being a singer.The problem was that she didn't have a band. Through some already well documented introductions, she was invited to join the already successful Big Brother and the Holding Company.

With incredible research and exhaustive interviews, Spörke has put together a definitive history of this legendary band and its members.He gives appropriate historical backgrounds of each of the members of the band and the thoughts and perspectives that each of them had of each other, of Janis joining the group, and their life after Janis dumped them.

Unlike other books that mention the band as being in the shadow of Janis, there are no lurid details that cater to certain people's prurient and voyeuristic interests.Just great, insightful information about the major players in this bands history is offered up.It's a great, clean "read".

What's also detailed very thoroughly is the schism that was caused when the band was being categorized as Joplin's "band members".While the perception is understandable, the book details why this caused the expected angst among the band and the residual effects on some of the members for years after Janis's untimely death.

The book provides what the band members have been up to from the time of Joplin's departure from BBHC to the time of the completion of the manuscript (2004).You'll finish the tome with the knowledge that each the gentlemen are multifaceted, complex and highly talented individuals who make a lasting impression wherever they go.

The book was originally published in German.What turns out to be an incredible touch and brilliant stroke of genius, Spörke worked with founding BBHC member, and expert linguist, Sam Andrew, to translate the book from German into English for publication in the U.S.Andrew's expertise with languages and the turn of an English phrase adds additional depth and insight into this must have book for BBCH and Janis Joplin fans.

If you're a Baby Boomer or just someone who loves and appreciates the music of the 60's and 70's, you'll want to buy two of these books.Why?Because, undoubtedly, you know someone who will also enjoy this incredible book.

A LOOK AT A LEGENDARY ROCK AND ROLL BAND
Big Brother and The Holding Company is one of the legendary and almost mythical rock bands that brought the San Francisco Sound to the world. They along with The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Country Joe and The Fish, and Quicksilver Messenger Service led the psychedelic tidal wave that swept the Haight Ashbury in 1967.

Michael Spoerke's book first came out in German and was aimed at German and Austrian readers and fans of Big Brother in those countries. Sam Andrew the talented linguist and guitarist in Big Brother translated Spoerke's book into English now making the book available to the English speaking audience.

This is a book any fan of Janis and Big Brother would want to add to their home library. While there have been many books on Janis this is the first to concentrate on the band the was indeed overshadowed by her huge stardom. Of course it wasn't always like that. When Janis first came to the group straight from Texas, she was just happy to be part of the band. As time went on and her star rose higher and higher she soon felt that she had outgrown the band and moved on to create other bands that would be her back up group (Kozmic Blues Band and Full Tilt Boogie).

Big Brother member James Gurley is given the credit he surely deserves as being the father of psychedelic guitar playing. James was way ahead of his time. The book introduces all the Big Brother members: James Gurley, Peter Albin, Sam Andrew, and Dave Getz and describes each in depth before joining the group, while in the group and what they have done up to today.

The band continues to perform as Big Brother and The Holding Company and recently appeared all over the USA as part of the Heroes of Woodstock tour. Only Sam played at the 1969 Woodstock then with the Kozmic Blues Band. Sam has been the glue of the band keeping them playing over the years. Sam also was the musical director for the Off Broadway show Love, Janis.

Over the years I saw Big Brother perform with Janis during those heady days of the California Hall, Avalon and Fillmore in San Francisco. I also saw them without Janis with Kathi McDonald and Nick Gravenites singing lead. I am glad they are still around 40 years later and still playing and sounding great. They always had a very unique sound and no band has ever sounded quite like Big Brother and The Holding Company.

Michael Spoerke has put a face on the band members who helped Janis reach the top - she may not have made it without them. The only thing missing from the book are photos, however I did like the one and only photo on the cover of the book.

From the author: Big Brother & the Holding Co. 1965-2005
What Mick Jagger is for the Rolling Stones, or Freddie Mercury for Queen, Janis Joplin was for Big Brother & the Holding Company. Joplin's story still determines the public view of the Band. Her passion for an intense life and her expressive singing made Janis famous. Like Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison she is one of the outstanding stars of the Rock music of her time.
To many people, Big Brother and the Holding Company has always meant Janis Joplin. Big Brother, who gave Janis a platform for success by giving her the freedom and the energy to develop her musical style, were considered as amateurish and unprofessional by many reviewers. The critics downgraded Big Brother for a long time and in the Joplin biographies the band was marginalized. Janis Joplin became the singer of Big Brother in 1966, and in that group she found the space to become one of the best white blues singers in the world. Although Big Brother & the Holding Co. were known in the Bay Area of San Francisco a year before Janis Joplin joined them and although they still play today as an active band, there has never been written a real history of Big Brother.
This fame and glory of Janis Joplin overshadowed the band. Big Brother therefore is representative of all the overshadowed bands in music history. This book tells the band's story, how difficult it is to find an identity separate from that of Janis Joplin's overshadowing talent. As David Getz, the drummer of the band, says: "The fame of Big Brother is like a Golden Albatross. It hangs around your neck like a curse. But the curse is made of gold."
Big Brother & the Holding Co. were and are far more than a Janis Joplin backup band. They are, as music photographer Bob Seidemann says, "an organic, natural phenomenon, which grew like a plant from the soil. Janis Joplin became their flower." The exclusive focus on Janis Joplin distorts the meaning of Big Brother, and, indeed, of the sixties counterculture which was not about single "stars" but about the whole constellation of community. Big Brother were the pioneers of the San Francisco sound and belong to the outstanding representatives of the psychedelic music. Guitarist James Gurley was regarded as "the Father of psychedelic Music." The music journalist and publisher of the famous Haight Ashbury magazine Mojo Navigator, Greg Shaw, called him a "psychedelic Hero of the sixties."
Spörke's biography narrates, from the beginning in 1965, each Big Brother member's life story. Where they each came from? What are their roots? How they see their time with Janis Joplin? What they experienced after their Janis time?

The Book is based on Interviews with the following Persons:
Peter Albin, Bill Andrew, Sam Andrew, Ed Bogas, Todd Bolton, John Byrne Cooke, Peter Coyote, Ed Denson, Joe McDonald, Kathie McDonald, Dave Eskesen, Bob Flurie, Myra Friedman, David Getz, Mic Gillette, Nick Gravenites, Wavy Gravy, Richard Green, Richard Greene, James Gurley, Dan Hicks, Chet Helms, Julius Karpen, Bill Laymon, Lisa Law, Taj Mahal, Barry Melton, Stanley Mouse, Tim Murphy, Muruga, Mark Naftalin, David Nelson, Tary Owen, Cathy Richardson, David Schallock, Bob Seidemann, Greg Shaw, John Simon, Gregg Simpson, David Smith, Mike Somavilla, Jay Thelin, Linda Waldron, Peter Walsh, Baron Wolman

Praise about the book:
"I read from cover to cover your wonderful book. I couldn't put it down. You did a masterful job. I really became immersed in your book." Robert Altmann (Chief-photographer for Rolling Stone magazine. A leader in embracing digital photography, his recent work appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Mojo, The New York Times, People, San Fran cisco Chronicle, and San Francisco Examiner.)
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"Although the author was born after Big Brother and the Holding Company had splintered and its most famous member, Janis Joplin, had died, the affection that Michael Spoerke has for the band and the San Francisco counterculture from whence it emerged has fueled a tremendous project.Interviewing a host of participants and with full cooperation of the band's gentlemen, he has written a detailed, well-researched, sympathetic and well-reasoned account.It covers the entire history, from the formative years of the members to the band's inception, evolution, stardom, tribulations, disintegration, and reformation, all the way to the present."Craig Morrison (Canadian ethnomusicologist and author of American Popular Music: Rock and Roll)

"This is the only existing work on this seminal band, covering in depth their history before, during and after Janis Joplin. Based on countless interviews and the full cooperation of all surviving band members, and written by a longtime music expert." Greg Shaw(Founder of theMojo-Navigator magazine, www.bomp.com)
... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Wasn't worth the $, here's why
This book has very little info {unfortunately} regarding Janis' history in terms of her career as a singer. There's 'some' interesting details in there. However overall, it's just repetitive sexual experiences her lover describe/writes about her and Janis Joplin. If it had been a book about her male lovers that would've been far more interesting. I was hoping to get more about her background as a professional singer + her roots/upbringing in the south.
If your a lesbie, you may want this crazy book.
But I wasted my $$$. Oh dawg gonnit. ... Read more

Product Description
This amazing collection contains note-for-note transcriptions of 18 supercharged classics by this blues-influenced legend. Includes: Ball and Chain * Cry Baby * I Need a Man to Love * Kozmic Blues * Maybe * Me and Bobby McGee * Mercedes Benz * One Good Man * Piece of My Heart * Summertime * To Love Somebody * What Good Can Drinkin' Do? * more. Features photos and a foreword by Laura Joplin, Janis' sister. ... Read more

Product Description
A collection of 16 Joplin classics as performed live and on records from 1963-70: MeAnd Bobby McGee * Piece Of My Heart * Mercedes Benz * Tell Mama * Get It While You Can * many others. Includes bandw photographs. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

(Psst, hey, its really just 12 classics folks.)
I have always LOVED Janis Joplin, and its not just the voice, but her choice in material as well. Big Mama Thorton, George Gerswin, Richard Rogers, all the way to Kris Kristofferson and Nick Gravenites, she showed such range, for a woman who only sang on four albums during her short life. So, here we have 16 songs, and only 12 of them matter? I'll let you in on a secret. "WALK RIGHT IN" she sang in 1962 with some country band back in Port Arthor Texas. It tells us NOTHING about her personality, nor her own budding composistional talents. Not only that, the version of that song with Janis singing, has been out of print for YEARS. "SAN FRANSESCO BAY BLUES" hails from the same out of print movie soundtrack, and is from her early 60s folk act. "TROUBLE IN MIND" she sang on the "typewriter tapes", a demo with Jorma back in 1965, that only appears on her JANIS boxset. Even tho Gerswin's "SUMMERTIME" is a signature song for her, it appears here in the original 1935 Operatic version. BIG BROTHER totally reworked the song, changed the chord structure, so it might have been nice to include their arrangement, so it WOULD be a Janis song. Here, it's not.

I dont mind that when a music collection has filler, but what if you bought a book of BEST OF BEATLES, and found songs like "AINT SHE SWEET" or "TIL THERE WAS YOU" from the MUSIC MAN, instead of "LUCY IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS" or "HEY JUDE"? So, that's the downside here. Also, why would you want to include "MERCEDES BENZ" in a book of sheet music for piano and guitar, when its a solo piece for voice? However, what is left over, is fantastic. Most of the songs only work on piano, tho, for you singers without a band. Some appear in EVERY 60s BEST OF book in the world, like PIECE OF MY HEART, so you wont grab new material there.For those who like to sing and play piano, or want to arrange some of these pieces for jazz ensemble, there exists enough material to make the book worth a purchase. KOZMIC BLUES is my favorite, MAYBE works well in here too. MOVE OVER has a strange arrangement, with only the bass part written for most of the song, consisting of two notes, E and D Sharp. Again, why arrange a song thats mostly vocals vamped over a drum and bass arrangement? If you only have 16 songs to tell her story, I would have liked to have heard a few more songs either JANIS wrote, or BIG BROTHER. Janis only worked her composistional (well, probibly lyrical skills) on three songs here, and that's a pity.

Bottom line, there's just very little JANIS JOPLIN music folios out there, so GET IT WHILE YOU CAN.It's a cheap price, but I would have paid a few more dollars, for a few more songs she had a hand in writing. I knocked my review down a star, cos of the poor selection of titles.

Great Pictures. Brand New condition, 16 songs I wish I could play
It was a song book with 16 songs with music notes. Great pictures of Janis,(black and white) driver license.. great investment.

janis joplin
great luv it! would recommend to every one! if u are jj fan u will luv this book! read it! it is awsome!!! debi old hippie!!! ... Read more

Product Description
El amante de Janis Joplin: Desde que David Valenzuela mato a uno de los hermanos Castro, conocidos narcotraficantes de Sinaloa, su vida se ha convertido en una huida llena de golpes de suerte. Durante esta conoce a los mas variopintos personajes: contacta con la guerrilla; es testigo del oscuro proceder de la policia; viaja con un equipo de beisbol a Los angeles, donde estan a punto de ficharlo los Dodgers y donde se enamora de Janis Joplin tras un inaudito encuentro; y afianza su amistad con el Cholo, un humilde pero ambicioso narco. A partir de entonces, obsesionado con volver a ver a «la Janis», sorteara toda clase de obstaculos. «elmer Mendoza es mi amigo y mi maestro. La Reina del Sur, nacio de las cantinas, del narcocorrido y de sus novelas.» ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A good first-effort by a good person.
I am a cousin of the author. She also died before her time. Although the book never received the recognition that other versions received, it was a well thought out and presented version of the life and death of an icon. ... Read more