Every day brings a new story. And each day contributes to the art of story telling -- in prose and poetry, in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books.
Today is the story of January 19th.
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It is the 19th day of the year, leaving 346 days remaining in 2022.
On this date in 1943, the American blues, folk, and rock 'n' roll singer Janis Joplin was born in Port Arthur, Texas.
She is considered one of the top singers of the 1960s scene and perhaps the best white blues singer ever. She sang songs that told stories -- Me and Bobby McGee, about a love that ended after being "busted flat in Baton Rogue"; Cry Baby, about a women telling her man she will always wait for him, and Mercedes Benz, about the rejection of the empty promise of consumerism. It was a rare song she wrote, and it was the last song she recorded.
Joplin died in Los Angeles on Oct. 4, 1970, of a drug overdose.
She had long struggled with alcoholism and addiction. She had an unhappy children, in which she said she was bullied and ostracized. After a year of college, she wandered off to San Francisco, where she sang, played music, and did drugs. She recovered, returned to Texas, and returned to college.
But her voice -- she was influenced by Leadbelly and Bessie Smith, among others -- was heard and remembered. The band Big Brother and the Holding Company urged her to return to California and became their lead singer. She did, and she was noticed in the San Francisco music and hippie scene in the late 1960s.
She was a phenomenal singer, known for her vocal range, and her fierce and uninhibited stage presence, Her raucous blues singing boosted the band, and her performance at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival is legendary. Big Brother's next album hit the top of the charts.
Joplin soon formed her own band. But she started using drugs again. While recording her album Pearl, she suffered an overdose, and was found dead in her hotel room.
The album, released a few months after her death, was a best-seller.
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