Janis Joplin

Janis Joplin从小都不快乐。小时候，她的样貌成为她最大的障碍，她糟糕的肤色，身材甚至面孔，都成为身边的女孩子们嘲笑的对象。整个童年和青少年，她都很孤独，无法融入女孩子群体。当她试图向同龄的男孩寻求友谊时，妄图以喝酒、说粗话、模仿男性举动来达到谋求友谊的目的时，却让她遭受了更强烈的轻视。
　　于是，她只能用诗歌和绘画排遣寂寞，以受难着的决心来嘲笑苦难。但伤害却从没有在她心底痊愈，被轻视、甚至毫不留情的厌恶以对她造成了一个几乎是来源与病理学上的对爱的需求。但对于爱，她始终有着一种难以克服的自卑，直至她成名后，也常常对自己的胖子形象也玩笑，甚至更加无所顾忌的破坏自己。
　　“Janis Joplin绝对是个江湖艺人。她是一位摇滚乐史中的伟大女性——她是那个时代的女性摇滚艺人。在音乐这个领域中，她为女性开创了一个充满可能性的世界：没有Janis Joplin，就不会有Melissa Etheridge，也不会有Gwen Stefani。《Pearl》是我买的第一张唱片，我还记得当时我有几分恐惧。我想如果Joni Mitchell告诉了我一个女人可以描写她的公众生活的话，那么Janis则告诉了我一个女人还可以过着疯狂的生活，并且在公众面前将这种疯狂释放出来。那时，我还是一个彻底的天主教小女孩，Janis的出现是令我为之震惊。但这并没有能阻止我继续买她的专辑，也没能阻止我在她死的那天带上了黑箍。现在很难想象当时Janis在一个多么巨大的范围内引起了如此彻底的震惊。以前出现过一些疯狂的布鲁斯歌手，他们也只是有点接近Janis而已。她总是像处于完全不受控制的边缘。她是个无情的焦点，她是个奇观，就像在人群中引发的核爆炸。她始终不移地坚持着自己的真理，而不管这个真理多么具有破坏性，多么怪异或者是否造成伤害。她的歌声发自她的灵魂，她是道强烈而美丽的光芒，但是消失得太快了。
　　世界本来就是一首悲伤的歌，我们每个人都在吟唱着，或激奋，亦或低沉；而她一直在漫不经心的唱，唱着她的执着和绝望。直到最后她犹如一直再也不会唱歌的黄莺，从树上跌坠而死，离开这个折磨着她短短一生的世界。
　　她喜欢用假声和转音来唱那些感人的蓝调音乐，一会生死力竭，一会低吟自语，那是一冷一热，水火交融的唱腔；那是极其伤害嗓子的唱腔，但是她完全不顾及那么多，她根本不在乎那么多，她只想在瞬间得到满足的快感，她唱自己的喜和悲，唱自己的平淡和愤怒，用尽一切力量去纵容她的随性。如同一只困兽在苦苦挣脱，还是了无希望，于是她就放纵自己，去闭着眼忘记了冰冷刺骨的疼痛。放纵是一种摩擦，在正负极之间游动，火花在无形中绽放，一场放肆，一次欲望，突现得无边无尽。
　　她是六十年代的精神圣女，她是六十年代迷幻主义的追随者，她是六十年代女歌者的一道风景，她只能是Janis Joplin，六十年代一束匆匆划过天际的一条彩虹
　　听Janis Joplin唱歌，你永远也不会感到沉闷，你可以在每一个小小的细节里都听到她热情洋溢而且显得连自己也难以控制的充沛活力。她总是在每次演出都尽全力演唱，有人劝过她如果这么唱下去的话，会大大缩减她的演唱生涯，可是她并不在乎。听她的歌唱你会感觉到两个字---热爱---对音乐的热爱，对摇滚的热爱，尽管这种热爱到最后为我们留下来的东西着实不多，但这些东西的确感动了我们，感动着我们。
　　实际上Janis Joplin在自己的个人事业生涯中，只正正式式出过一张专辑，就是《I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Aga》，却并非让人太满意，反而是这张Janis Joplin去世之后留下来的一些还未完成后期工作的作品和一些现场的录音所结合在一起的专辑《Pearl》成为了经典。尽管Janis Joplin的歌唱比起很多黑人灵歌女歌手来，会显得更象嚎叫而不象演唱，但是历史选择把她的名字留下来，而抹去其他的人走过痕迹。Janis Joplin的唱法深受Blues音乐的影响，自由奔放，不拘一格。
大事记
Janis Joplin（贾尼斯•乔普林）1943年1月19日生于美国得克萨斯州的Port Arthur，小时候广泛接触布鲁斯、福音歌和乡村音乐。
　　和许多成名前的歌手一样，Janis开始也在酒吧和夜总会驻唱，慢慢地，她从Bessie Smith和Odetta的声音得到启发，摸索出一种刺耳的、并不特意讨人喜欢的唱法，这种唱法与Joan Baez和Judy Collins这类大众明星的风格迥然相异。
　　1963年Janis来到旧金山，在那里成为North Beach Coffee Gallery令人瞩目的演唱者。但这段好时光被她的安非它明类兴奋剂上瘾所打断。为了戒毒她返回家乡得克萨斯州，继续上大学，但毒瘾戒后，又重回歌坛。并于66年移居旧金山，接受当时正忙于经营阿瓦龙舞厅的赫尔姆斯（Chet Helms）的劝告，参加由他刚刚成立的一个叫做“Big Brother and the Holding Company”的乐队。
　　Janis在第一次置身于阿瓦龙舞厅旋转的迷幻灯光和色彩中间，与乐队一起表演后说：“这是我一生中最惊心动魄的时刻……它是那么痛快，那么令人激动，那么大声，简直疯了。我不能无动于衷。我唱歌时从来不带舞蹈动作……但在那里我动了，跳了。我听不见我的声音，只好唱得大声点，再大声点，最后我完全无法控制自己。”
　　1967年，“Big Brother and the Holding Company”在Monterey Pop Festival（蒙特利音乐节）上演出，使全场乐迷疯狂。Janis翻唱了布鲁斯经典名曲《Ball and Chain》，她的嗓子本来就够粗犷有力的，为了压倒乐队的声音，她真正地是把歌词喊叫出来的。现场观众曾这样描写她：“她不仅是一位歌手，而是一种原始力量。……当她歌唱时，她愤怒地跺脚，不顾一切地甩她的黑发，以致一缕缕头发抽打在她脸上。有时，她浑身颤抖，使用她那粗糙的布鲁斯声音和在表现极度痛苦时迸发出来的激动的高声呼喊和尖叫声，而在她的呻吟和耳语中仍然有着更加强烈的感情表露。
　　很难使人相信，一个在台下外表不怎么样的人，当被她自己歌曲的感情抓住的时候，竟会变得如此引人注意的美丽，或者说，一个那么年轻的人当歌唱时，竟会显得那么老成、精疲力竭。”Janis成了这次音乐节上的明星之一。
　　音乐节演出以后，Albert Grossman（格罗斯曼，鲍勃•迪伦的经理人）成了Janis的经理，而且由哥伦比亚唱片公司提供录音合同。1968年，“Big Brother”的第一张哥伦比亚专辑《Cheap Thrills》发行，获专辑第一名，持续8周。但随着Janis名气的增加，乐队阻碍Janis发展的评论也随之而来，这种议论加剧乐队中原有的矛盾。
　　后来Janis离开“大哥”自组乐队，并推出专辑《I Get Dem Ol'Kozmic Blues Again Mama!》。在这张专辑里，她的有力的、粗糙的声音和Soul似的声乐风格在她自己创作的《I Get Dem Ol'Kozmic Blues Again Mama!》、《Maybe》、《Try》等歌曲中有着很好的体现。
　　但Janis的生活始终沉浸在吸毒、酗酒、性交中，毒瘾和酒瘾越来越大，人际关系也越来越不稳定，这些都影响了她的现场演出。Janis只好再次解散乐队，设法求医戒毒。1970年，Janis又组建了一支名为The Full-Tilt Boogie乐队，对于与这支技术“精锐部位”的合作，乐坛上的评论褒贬不一，可是这支乐队却随着Janis再次的疯狂吸毒和酗酒失去了生命力。
　　1970年10月4日，Janis因吸食过量海洛因突然死亡。死后专辑《Pearl》发行，和其中的歌曲《Me and Bobby McGEE》均荣登排行榜首位，这张专辑也一直被认为是她的经典。1979年影星Better Micller主演了以Janis为原形的电影《玫瑰》。
　　Janis Joplin去世时才27岁，正式的唱歌生涯也只有几年，却给人留下了难以磨灭的印象。她是白人，但她的歌唱风格体现了黑人才具备的Soul的精神和特征。在“模仿”盛行的流行音乐界，很难有人能模仿出另一个Joplin来。她的唱腔也给后世的摇滚女歌手树立了典范。
The greatest white female rock singer of the 1960s, Janis Joplin was also a great blues singer, making her material her own with her wailing, raspy, supercharged emotional delivery. First rising to stardom as the frontwoman for San Francisco psychedelic band Big Brother & the Holding Company, she left the group in the late '60s for a brief and uneven (though commercially successful) career as a solo artist. Although she wasn't always supplied with the best material or most sympathetic musicians, her best recordings, with both Big Brother and on her own, are some of the most exciting performances of her era. She also did much to redefine the role of women in rock with her assertive, sexually forthright persona and raunchy, electrifying on-stage presence.
Joplin was raised in the small town of Port Arthur, TX, and much of her subsequent personal difficulties and unhappiness has been attributed to her inability to fit in with the expectations of the conservative community. She'd been singing blues and folk music since her teens, playing on occasion in the mid-'60s with future Jefferson Airplane guitarist Jorma Kaukonen. There are a few live pre-Big Brother recordings (not issued until after her death), reflecting the inspiration of early blues singers like Bessie Smith, that demonstrate she was well on her way to developing a personal style before hooking up with the band. She had already been to California before moving there permanently in 1966, when she joined a struggling early San Francisco psychedelic group, Big Brother & the Holding Company. Although their loose, occasionally sloppy brand of bluesy psychedelia had some charm, there can be no doubt that Joplin — who initially didn't even sing lead on all of the material — was primarily responsible for lifting them out of the ranks of the ordinary. She made them a hit at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, where her stunning version of "Ball and Chain" (perhaps her very best performance) was captured on film. After a debut on the Mainstream label, Big Brother signed a management deal with Albert Grossman and moved on to Columbia. Their second album, Cheap Thrills, topped the charts in 1968, but Joplin left the band shortly afterward, enticed by the prospects of stardom as a solo act.
Joplin's first album, I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama!, was recorded with the Kozmic Blues Band, a unit that included horns and retained just one of the musicians that had played with her in Big Brother (guitarist Sam Andrew). Although it was a hit, it wasn't her best work; the new band, though more polished musically, was not nearly as sympathetic accompanists as Big Brother, purveying a soul-rock groove that could sound forced. That's not to say it was totally unsuccessful, boasting one of her signature tunes in "Try (Just a Little Bit Harder)."
For years, Joplin's life had been a roller coaster of drug addiction, alcoholism, and volatile personal relationships, documented in several biographies. Musically, however, things were on the upswing shortly before her death, as she assembled a better, more versatile backing outfit, the Full Tilt Boogie Band, for her final album, Pearl (ably produced by Paul Rothchild). Joplin was sometimes criticized for screeching at the expense of subtlety, but Pearl was solid evidence of her growth as a mature, diverse stylist who could handle blues, soul, and folk-rock. "Mercedes Benz," "Get It While You Can," and Kris Kristofferson's "Me and Bobby McGee" are some of her very best tracks. Tragically, she died before the album's release, overdosing on heroin in a Hollywood hotel in October 1970. "Me and Bobby McGee" became a posthumous number one single in 1971, and thus the song with which she is most frequently identified.