Janis Joplin: Her Final Hours
Janis Joplin is the undisputed queen of rock and roll. It's a fact that there had been no female superstar of rock before Janis came along. Her rule of thumb was if it feels good do it.
Janis also hides her self-destructive, darker side. She was a very troubled girl and a genius and at the same time she was looking for some kind of relief to not have to be Janis.
A blast of nearly pure heroin will end her short, dazzling career. This is the analysis on the life and death of Janis Joplin, the undisputed queen of rock and roll.
This riveting documentary (which plays out almost like a detective story) painstakingly unravels the still-disputed events which brought down the queen of rock 'n' roll.
You'll revisit Janis's early life and meteoric rise to fame, then discover how her out-of-control drug addiction and a cut of nearly pure heroin ended it all.
I live in Hollywood, about 15 years ago I was headed up Orange Dr and made a right on Franklyn. Stuck in traffic I looked around and saw an empty bottle of Southern Comfort
sitting on a park bench across the street from the a motel. I just thought someone had just left it there.
A few years later I was driving down the same street and saw the empty bottle of Southern Comfort sitting on the same park bench again. Then I got really curious and told a friend about it. He said WOW Janice Joplin died at that motel! I finally put it together and realized its probably a big time fan/ friend (who could be famous) that knew her in the old days.
So October 4 is near and I gonna head down there to get a few pics and maybe leave something small on that bench! Has anybody known about this?
I just want to know whether late prince liked janis was he in anyway influenced by her music as a child
I was born in 1960 so I remember her a little, I don't remember her death. Since then her music has surfaced now and then in my travels (read napster). And last week I ran across the Dick Cavet interview on youtube, I was blown away how young she appeared, I until then remembered her as a crude overweight 35 year old. I think I developed this crazy view from the black and white snowy TV signal back in the day. Now I have seen most of the video that is out there and listened to her albums, I almost weep about thinking about her life. If I could go back in time, as I am today, and I would become her guardian angel. I would praise her as a beautiful woman she IS.
this is not riveting- as described- but it is a wee look into her life. There is so much more to know and learn about this wonderful woman. Her siblings are head of her "estate" and take control of what the media and what we see and hear . But,,,,,,this aint bad. The real story has been told by Myra Freeman and we have yet to see a TRUE film about Janis. Her good and her bad times. The whole truth- which is what she would most likely want us to see and know.
Completely overrated and again another immortal when dead
she is never EVER over-rated. EVER! Ok??
A very sad lonely spirit so much talent. I felt for her in this well done documentary !Her parents were just awful. The high school Sean scared her for life.Dammed Heroin. Good bye RIP Janis !!
She was the first real female Rock star in a mans world. A true artist.
This is why the war on drugs has to stop and substance use has to be legalized. If Janis KNEW what dose she was getting or even if the antidote was available that can reverse the OD in minutes we get disasters like this. That banks launder the cartel money the cia helps in both directions-Stop the nonesense stop the war on our brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers.
Not that it matters, I suppose, but I have a good friend that was actually staying at the Landmark when Janis died. He and some of his friends had spoken to her earlier in the day, when she came down to the pool ---lonely, needing people to talk with. I was told she was quite friendly, funny and very kind. When her body was found hours later, everyone there was in shock---to say the very least.
If not for drugs Janis would not have been the 'persona' that she was. Drugs allowed her to be 'free and uninhibited' on stage, and everyone was mesmerised. The sad part is that it was also what made her an Icon by her romantic young death. Drugs didn't just kill Janis, they helped give birth to her legend.
That's a load of crap. She recorded most of Pearl straight and had long periods when she wasn't using.
...both alcohol and drugs. It's not the same. Alcohol is not drugs. It could have been like 10 minutes shorter when they didn't repeat that last hour throughout the whole thing but hey, it supports the title. Making the difference with the lifestory. Overdosed... because it was pure. Things like that won't happen when it's legally available.
I saw Janis with Big Brother in California. I was 15. I will never forget.
Very sad & tragic that after all the deaths & loss of brilliance in the past that there are still young, talented people chasing the dragon & all these young artists who think they can touch that dragon & not get bit. You are never gonna catch him, but he's gonna catch & eat you.
RIP: all those fabulously talented musicians, singers, song writers, poets, comedians, actors, authors & icons of every generation lost to this false, wonderful, euphoric feeling of a warm security blanket. It's a death shroud not a warm fuzzy blanket.
To the brilliant, talented, young & vulnerable in this moment; it WILL take over your life & all that is good in you. All the while you're thinking it is only enhancing your abilities. Stop! Look to the past & all the great & wonderful peolpe lost to it's cold embrace. There is no glamour in dying young. Only heart ache & loss for those you leave behind.
Janis Joplin rocked & kicked @ss! She was a fabulous talent & great at what she did on stage & the few recordings we have of her entertaining thousands. She would have been far greater & much more accomplished had she lived longer & had a chance to expand her portfolio & touch many more lives over the years with her gift.
I could name many who went too soon because of addiction & the result of the grip of drugs. D@mm!t, this world would be so much better if most of these great artists were still around today imparting their wisdom, comedy, drama & fantastic music in our lives.
Very, very well said. I can't think of anything I would like to add to or take away. Only one exception........RIP Janis and all the great Artists who were taken to soon by this EVIL thing called drugs.
I was fortunate enough to see her perform in Toronto and nothing could prepare you for the power of her performance. I will always remember that feeling of loss when I heard of her passing. I can only wonder at how much we have missed.
Was that the concert just before Festival express?
The train was intended to start in Montreal but was cancelled.
Festival Express is a great doc. to watch and available on youtube.
There is One very amazing performance by Janis towards the end of the doc...or somewhere in the middle.
1i
Yes, it was. I went with friends and was there specifically to see the Dead. I was aware of Janice at the time but had no opinion one way or the other. Well, today, I don't remember how well the Dead performed or even if I saw them at all...but I do remember Janice. Her voice seemed to go right through me. After every song, I was left breathless. I remember looking at my buddy and we both just shook our heads in amazement.
I was never aware that they were to start that festival in Montreal. Learn something everyday. I remember Buddy Guy put on a great show in Toronto too at that time.
I watch that doc every once and awhile and it still gets to me.
Please stop the psychobabble. She had a disease called addiction. Like many performers who have money and can afford an unlimited supply -- they overdose. It most likely was an accident. She wasn't edgy -- she was most likely suffering withdrawal.
You are not a compassionate person are you........SAD.
I am very compassionate - as a clinical psychologist I helped many addicted patients. The sad part is we have no effective "treatment". AA and similar approaches are statistically no better then no treatment. Other (methadone) just offer symptom relief. This psychobabble masks the real cause of death. I know her story -- others have similar stories and are not also struggling with addiction. People with addiction are often struggling with depression. These deaths that get our attention would be better used to spur better research and treatment. for others.
I find it hilarious that you speak of "psychobabble" in one sentence, then refer to addiction as a "disease" in the next
I have trouble defining habituation as addiction. The truth is many medically dependent people safely use opiates for decades to deal with chronic conditions.
Otto, I have a Ph.D. in clinical psychology. You have?? It is a brain disease. Get an education -- you are a very ignorant (lacking knowledge or awareness in general; uneducated or unsophisticated.) person.
I think the social conditions under which the drugs are taken cause the problems not the pharmacological property of the drugs or a persons habitual use. The brain changes in response to any stimuli-many people go into the hospital for prolonged periods are given opiates and weaned off without even knowing they were ever on them. Now compared to what you see on Hollywood Tonight or the Man with the Golden Arm and problems with "kicking" this has nothing to do with the physiology of withdrawal. Alcohol is more life threatening than withdrawal from opiates and it is more damaging to the human body as well. Granted people do self medicate with substances for emotional and mental pain the substance doesn't matter generally and if it were not alcohol or heroin it would be glue or some other thing to change their painful emotional or mental state. I think the most humane thing to do in these cases is to give them something safe that works to ease their suffering rather than see them sniff glue or whatever else they can get their hands on. In these cases very little can be done. They will either resolve their conditions spontaneously and quit the same way most people quit smoking on their own or die of cancer-in many not all cases. ( Genetics and ENVIRONMENT) REGARDLESS of the labels professionals put on them and make a comfy lifestyle "treating" in the most part UNSCIENTIFICALLY and CULTURALLY or RELIGIOUSLY or a combination of same. Indeed if these "patients" received even half the money that the practitioners' get-they would have a much greater chance at rehabilitation. Social Inequality and Poverty are the gateway to "addiction" although many poor people go through life without ever picking up a mood or mind altering substance for some reason-perhaps it is the notion that their kids will have a better life than they have although given the wanton excesses of our elite class I have very little faith in the system or the future for most of the people living on the planet today.
The neurosciences that re mapping the brain a definitive visual proof that the brains of depressed people are different than those of norma; the brains of psychopaths are different than normal brains, etc.Now the question is does this difference exist before or after use. Only 10% of the population develope addiction when exposed to these drugs. The research is ongoing and will change how we see mental disorders and how we treat them.
It also changes when you get an erection.
Of course
They would need before and after mapping of the depressed person first off. As your post admits you don't know what you are doing. Looking for Pharmacological magic bullets is generally the last things addicts or sick people need. What they need most are empathic people around them in the social sphere.
Not necessarily. You need scans of clinically diagnosed depressed persons and scans of people without signs of depression. You note the differences. When you then scan a person you look at the areas of the brain that are correlated to depression. My I suggest you Google this and become more informed. A response by a person who has made the effort to learn is more conducive to a constructive conversation.
YES! I completely agree with you.
People who wave their credentials about in order to legitimize their opinions immediately discredit themselves, in my opinion. When they go on to insult and belittle those who disagree with them, it further compounds that impression. There is absolutely NO proof that "addiction" is a brain disease. This is a subject I have researched for years and years, as well as having personally survived heroin addiction. Rocky makes a lot more sense than you do. Yes, I am aware of the study that makes the claims that addicts' brains are different and it is very problematic because it focused on people who'd been using for years. Obviously the brain changes after excessive substance use so those results are meaningless. You would have to be able to predict who is going to develop addiction before they start using and study the brain of that person, which is obviously not possible.
Yes Rocky,
About 90% of all people use opiates, alcohol, etc without becoming dependent ( i.e. while they may become physically dependent they can withdraw without the mental craving of an addict). We all have different brain structures as we have different body types, hair, etc.
Scoring is always a problem when it is illegal. A few days clean and then an Russian Roulette shot trying to estimate strength is enough to guarantee accidental overdose.
Stop calling it a disease. Addiction is not a disease. People choose to do drugs. Diseases are not addictions they are things that happen on their own and are usually illnesses. People need to stop calling addiction a disease. People choose to do them. You don't choose a disease.
"It was most likely an accident" so how to PREVENT these accidents tell people they have a disease and go to treatment?
@louiskrodel You stop the psychobabble! There is no such "disease" of addiction. You sound like a person who has been brainwashed by the 12 step cult. Getting high feels good and if a person has other emotional or psychological (or financial or sexual or....) problems then this natural desire to feel good via intoxicants can become dangerously imbalanced, ergo: addiction. When self-awareness and mental health are achieved, then it is possible to get high in a non-destructive, i.e. non-dependent, way or one may decide not to get high at all. Joplin did not overdose because she "had lots of money and could afford an unlimited supply" but because the purity of that final batch of heroin was far greater than she was used to and so she took a lethal dose unawares. As other intelligent commenters have noted, if the war on (some people who use some) drugs was replaced by sensible legislation and thus some kind of quality control was in place for substances, the same way it is for alcohol, then this kind of accidental overdose would not happen.
Hello Diana,
I am a clinical psychologist (now retired) I suggest you use Google and look for research regarding addiction as a brain disease. You might also be interested in the correlation of brain activity with diagnoses of depression, sociopathy, etc. The neurosciences are now mapping the brain. ALL mental health issues will be traced to some form of brain dysfunction.
Wherever the spirits of Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin have taken refuge from the living, it's "got" to be a more exciting place than the realm that we are stuck in.
Your comment sucks, Timmy Suckmeister. The graveyard is not an exciting place and life is a fantastic experience with only one shot allowed. If your life isn't exciting, barring external circumstances, you have no one but yourself to blame. I, absolutely, despise the "they're in a better place" logic. It was used on me when I suffered personal loss and it doesn't help...at all.
Your comment Jack1952, sucks! First off its easy to see that he was making the comment because they seem to be very fun people to be around. Other than that, even if he does believe in an after life who are you to judge his beliefs just because you have no such belief. Im so sick and tired of happening across athiests comments online about how dumb people are who believe in God or an after life. Maybe if you think this is your only shot at life you should spend less time getting under other peoples skin about their beliefs and spend more time making your own life enjoyable and fun.
I would think that the greatest gift that God gave us, life, is not something that we should aspire to escape from. Ms. Joplin wanted children. She never had the chance to have them. She never seen the results of her work on the album "Pearl", never got to enjoy the happiness of grandchildren, never got to experience those special things in life that I, one similar in age, got to experience. Whether one is atheist or religious, life is precious and that existence that was Janice Joplin did not get to live it. It is not a relief, it is a tragedy. Any suggestion that it was a good thing "sucks".
I too believe in rebirth,but I don't agree with your escape from the present suffering life just applying committing suicide. You will suffer more than in your future life If you commit suicide in this existence. It is just like while you're studying at university on the 1st year you're asking to sit the class of 3rd year. You've to pass the 1st & the 2nd both classes to go to the 3rd class. You've to face your karma whether they're acutely suffering karma or highly pleasurable karma. There're no short-cuts. You've no any rights to give up your life even you defend that your life is belongs to you so, you can do whatever to the life . If you commit suicide mean you fail the final exam of the present life & You'll have to sit for more tough exam in the future life.
If I am suffering and it is terminal I am going for the medicine jar also if runaway global warming becomes to drastic I am going for the medicine jar although I want to stick around for as much of the show as I can-I will not resort to cannibalism to survive. Other than those two scenario's I cannot imagine any reason to euthanize myself. Life for me even at it's worst is still better than most on the planet and I have a rich inner life and many interests to pursue even though I am what one would call poor. I am blessed and few would know of my socio-economic situation unless I told them. Music, the internet-movies books friends who have survived to live twice the age of 30 when there was a time we agreed anyone that age or over could never be trusted. Not being a part of the rat race in blind obedience to forces I do not understand-because I DO understand them and REFUSE to succumb-my cat of 15 years-the wedding of a niece the third generation since my family came here.....a pretty girl ogling me in the Food Store check out....lol Helping my aged mother get through her days cutting her lawn as well as my own neighbors....being active in my neighbourhood with a group of people I can work with and actually get things done. A decent looking car to get me to where I want to go ( bike has a flat tire worn out) Pickin my guitar and play just like yesterday, being able to pick up the phone any time day or night knowing a sympathetic voice will be on the other end...and it is platonic! My mother deciding to go on dialysis and hanging in there and processing that with her being able to do that WITH HER. And being AWARE of what she was SAYING even though she didn't come out and say JUST LET ME DIE I DON"T WANT TO LIVE ON THAT MACHINE. Her Inspiration and courage...give me strength and the will to go on HAPPILY.
It's a pity she couldn't handle her demons - it's hard.