Released: 1968
Sometimes it’s said best when it’s not said at all, but Life’s Al Aronowitz did so anyway in profiling singer Janis Joplin in 1968. Flitting between provocation and admiration, in his opinion the Texan fireband presented some obvious paradoxes ‘If she weren’t so feminine, she might have become a lady wrestler. She’s pop music’s only broad, and whether she’s singing or talking, it’s with all the soul of a Hell’s Angels exhaust pipe. Like Mae West, she could be the greatest lady who ever walked the streets.’
In fairness so much ink had been dispensed in her honour by that point that a little more could hardly have affected matters. Joining Big Brother and The Holding Company after being spotted at the Monterey Pop festival, the group rapidly became more famous for the huge advance paid to them by the Colombia label rather than their music. A volatile relationship was capped off when after their second album Cheap Thrills arrived in 1968, it was roundly condemned by producer John Simon and Joplin herself, causing an eventual parting of the ways for those concerned later that year.
The singer had plenty of demons of her own of course, vices which would lead to her imminent and tragic death. Her performance on Piece of My Heart underlined to the world what they would soon lose; even when slighty ragged in tone and working with basic songwriting she still managed to conjure up an instant, bell ringing classic. However she was to be remembered, this was the moment which meant that the opinions of others no longer really mattered.
The Voice Of Unreason 
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