On the Road with Janis Joplin (39 page)

Promotional photo of Big Brother and the Holding Company.

PHOTO © BOB SEIDEMANN

Janis signing Big Brother and the Holding Company’s recording contract with Columbia Records in Columbia’s New York offices, February 1968. Janis’s calm expression belies the excitement she felt on signing with Columbia seven months after Big Brother’s triumphant success at the Monterey Pop Festival.

PHOTO © JOHN BYRNE COOKE

Peter Albin signing the Columbia contract.

PHOTO © JOHN BYRNE COOKE

The author (center) at the Big Sur Folk Festival in 1968, on a break from touring with Big Brother and the Holding Company. With (from left) Joni Mitchell, Judy Collins, festival director Nancy Carlen, and Joan Baez.

PHOTO © ROBERT ALTMAN

Rock promoter Bill Graham and
San Francisco Chronicle
music critic Ralph J. Gleason, 1967. Gleason was responsible for getting Janis and Big Brother on the bill at the Monterey Pop Festival, and Graham booked the band often at his San Francisco venues and at Fillmore East in New York.

PHOTO © JOHN BYRNE COOKE

James Gurley, 1968. In Big Brother and the Holding Company, Sam, Peter, and James, as well as Janis, all sang lead vocals. One of the songs James sang often was the traditional blues “Easy Rider.”

PHOTO © JOHN BYRNE COOKE

Janis’s European tour with the Kozmic Blues Band in April 1969 was a triumph. Here, Janis sings harmony with Sam Andrew as young Germans and American servicemen crowd the stage at a concert in Frankfurt, West Germany.

PHOTO © JOHN BYRNE COOKE

Janis and Sam Andrew in 1969, rehearsing on a California motel patio before a concert with the Kozmic Blues Band.

PHOTO © JOHN BYRNE COOKE

Janis and the Kozmic Blues Band on
The Dick Cavett Show
, July 18, 1969. Very few photos of Janis Joplin and her Kozmic Blues Band exist, partly because it was difficult to fit everyone in the band into a single photo.

At the end of a song, Janis exults in the audience’s reaction to her concert with the Kozmic Blues Band in Frankfurt, West Germany.

PHOTO © JOHN BYRNE COOKE

CHAPTER 1

“I remember Janis took to you right away, man”
:
Author interview with Sam Andrew, October 18, 1973.

CHAPTER 2

“I eat a persimmon”
:
Robert Penn Warren,
All the King’s Men
, Boston: Mariner Books, 1996, 331.

When whisperings of the Monterey Pop Festival reached Gleason’s ears
:
Author interview with Ralph J. Gleason, October 2, 1973.

“Big Brother and the Holding Company and Janis were on the Pop Festival because”
:
Author interview with Ralph J. Gleason, October 2, 1973.

Five days before the festival began
:
Ralph J. Gleason,
San Francisco Chronicle
, Sunday, June 11, 1967,
This World
magazine, 34.

Altschuler said thanks but no thanks
:
Author interview with D. A. Pennebaker, June 3, 1997.

“Oh, groovy. A nice sound system at last”
:
Monterey Pop
, Monterey International Pop Festival, Inc., 1968, D. A. Pennebaker, director.

Denny, still nursing his wounds, has not yet arrived in Monterey
:
The Mamas & the Papas: Straight Shooter
(video), Rhino Home Video, 1988.

“It’s a Mexican standoff, typical of the yawning gulf between L.A. and San Francisco”
:
Rock Scully and David Dalton,
Living with the Dead
, Boston: Little, Brown, 1996, 102–103.

CHAPTER 3

The evening performances are sold out
:
Ralph J. Gleason,
San Francisco Chronicle
, June 11, 1967,
This World
magazine, 34.

One girl has hitchhiked from Champaign, Illinois
:
Monterey Pop
, D. A. Pennebaker, director.

Over the course of the weekend
:
Ralph J. Gleason,
San Francisco Chronicle
, June 19, 1967, “On the Town” column.

“So much of Monterey had nothing to do with logistics or planning”
:
Bill Graham and Robert Greenfield,
Bill Graham Presents
, New York: Dell, 1992, 189, 193–194.

“Sittin’ down by my window / Just lookin’ out at the rain”
:
Willie Mae Thornton, “Ball and Chain.”

“Wow. Wow! That’s really heavy!”
:
Mama Cass, in
Monterey Pop
, D. A. Pennebaker, director.

By the account of one insider, Julius refuses to discuss business
:
Author interview with San Francisco photographer Bob Seidemann, August 12, 1997.

John L. Wasserman, film critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, said in his review of Dont Look Back
:
John L. Wasserman,
San Francisco Chronicle
, May 17, 1967.

“Don’t worry,” Albert said
:
Author interview with D. A. Pennebaker, June 3, 1997.

On Sunday morning, Chief Marinello sends home half the officers
:
Ralph J. Gleason,
San Francisco Chronicle
, June 21, 1967, “On the Town” column.

A plan to have bagsful of the festival’s signature pink orchids
:
Author interview with Peter Pilafian, September 16, 1997.

Finally Shankar holds up his arms and the audience quiets
:
Ralph J. Gleason,
San Francisco Chronicle
, June 21, 1967, “On the Town” column.

“The best time of all was Monterey”
:
Janis Joplin, quoted in Laura Joplin,
Love, Janis
, New York: Villard, 1992, 241.

They trash the same amp at every show
:
Ralph J. Gleason,
San Francisco Chronicle
, June 21, 1967, “On the Town” column.

“I saw Owsley give him two of his little purple tabs”
:
Author interview with Peter Pilafian, September 16, 1997.

“I saw him take, literally, a handful of Owsley tabs”
:
Author interview with Bob Seidemann, August 12, 1997.

“I thought that [Monterey] just cut the whole scene wide open”
:
Author interview with Peter Pilafian, September 16, 1997.

“My idea of a good festival, the best festival of all time, was Monterey”
:
Grace Slick, quoted in Graham and Greenfield,
Bill Graham Presents
, 189.

CHAPTER 4

“The first annual Monterey International Pop Festival this weekend was a beautiful, warm, groovy affair”
:
Ralph J. Gleason,
San Francisco Chronicle
, June 19, 1967, “On the Town” column.

“I thought [Joe Val] was a really good steady guy, and a good musician”
:
Author interview with Peter Berg, December 7, 1997.

CHAPTER 5

Chet’s out-of-hand dismissal of Shad’s interest
:
Author interview with Sam Andrew, December 3, 1997.

“I have a problem,” she wrote
:
Janis Joplin, quoted in Laura Joplin,
Love, Janis
, 161–162, letter dated August 22, 1966. In this letter, and in others Laura quotes in her book, there is evidence that Janis would write a letter over several days and date it when she mailed it. In this case, Janis evidently began the letter at least a week before Big Brother left California for Chicago, where their gig at Mother Blues began on Tuesday, August 23.

Paul gathered several musicians in a living room in Berkeley
:
Author interviews with Paul Rothchild, March 19, 1974, and Sam Andrew, July 27, 1997.

In San Francisco, Paul Rothchild and I tried to recruit Janis Joplin for Elektra
:
Jac Holzman and Gavan Daws,
Follow the Music: The Life and High Times of Elektra Records in the Great Years of American Pop Music
, Santa Monica, Calif.: First Media, 1998, 157.

In the letter to her parents, Janis expressed another doubt
:
Janis Joplin, quoted in Laura Joplin,
Love, Janis
, 162.

Janis told the boys about Paul Rothchild’s offer
through
Taken aback by Peter’s onslaught, Janis gave in
:
Author interviews with David Getz, July 24, 1997, and Sam Andrew, December 3, 1997.

At her next meeting with Paul Rothchild
:
Author interview with Paul Rothchild, March 19, 1974.

She wrote her parents
:
Laura Joplin,
Love, Janis
, 162.

Janis comes offstage, skipping and happy
:
Author interview with Ralph J. Gleason, October 2, 1973.

“Big Brother was really a delight and Miss Joplin is a gas”
:
Ralph J. Gleason,
San Francisco Chronicle
, Monday, September 18, 1967, “On the Town” column.

Graham knows that realizing Big Brother’s full potential
:
Graham and Greenfield,
Bill Graham Presents
, 205. In this book, Graham gave his reasons for passing Janis to Grossman: “I knew who Janis was. I knew she was not a sometime thing.
She needed full-time management or she would go astray. . . . And I couldn’t give my life over to her. Because I felt that what I was doing was bigger and more important than dealing with one single artist.”

“At that period, there were only two people that Albert really wanted to work with”
:
Author interview with Sally Grossman and Barry Feinstein, September 4, 1997.

Linda was one of a few creative women
:
Author interview with Linda Gravenites, May 9, 1986.

“If you want to stay in San Francisco and play around”
:
Author interview with Linda Gravenites, May 9, 1986. Linda offered an additional reason why Janis, for her part, was willing to fire Julius: “Julius was such a prick sometimes. And Janis, of course, gets her back up very easily. So they were just bitching at each other constantly. And I think what happened was, Julius freaked out after the Monterey Pop Festival. It got too big for him to cope.”

More recently, Columbia has expressed interest
:
Author interview with Peter Albin, July 19, 1997.

“I wouldn’t say that either Jerry or Herb are really nasty people”
:
Author interview with Bob Gordon, May 10, 1986.

Bob represented Big Brother when they were asked to appear
:
Author interview with Bob Gordon, May 10, 1986.

They ask Albert to guarantee that he will make them
:
Author interview with David Getz, July 24, 1997.

CHAPTER 6

Invited to sit in with Junior Wells at the Blue Flame Lounge
:
Author interview with Nick Gravenites, December 7, 1973.

CHAPTER 7

She and Dave Getz had been to a party in the city
:
Author interview with David Getz, July 24, 1997.

“She was very compassionate”
:
Author interview with Sam Andrew, July 27, 1997.

“One day Nancy [later James’s wife] and I took LSD together”
:
Author interview with Bob Seidemann, August 12, 1997.

One of the actors, Howard Hesseman, emigrated from Oregon to San Francisco for the jazz
:
Author interview with Howard Hesseman, August 8, 1997.

“I would let her sing at the Coffee Gallery”
:
Author interview with Howard Hesseman, August 8, 1997.

“I just remember that when I actually heard her”
:
Author interview with Howard Hesseman, August 8, 1997.

CHAPTER 8

He met Janis in the Haight, on the street
:
Author interview with Mark Braunstein, September 10, 1997.

“Before I was working with the band”
:
Author interview with Mark Braunstein, September 10, 1997.

“She could play the roles that men were playing really well”
:
Author interview with Nick Gravenites, December 14, 1973.

Except for Janis, who says it makes her think too much
:
Author interview with Linda Gravenites, May 9, 1986.

With her boyfriend at the time
:
Author interview with Milan Melvin, October 5, 1997.

Sam is a former speed freak as well
:
Author interview with Sam Andrew, July 19, 1997.

At the Golden Bear
:
Author interviews with Sam Andrew, April 23, 1997, and David Getz, July 24, 1997.

It rattles the band’s confidence when
:
Laura Joplin,
Love, Janis
, 211.

CHAPTER 9

“You were very distant”
:
Author interview with Mark Braunstein, September 9, 1997.

“There were women who turned her on”
:
Author interview with Linda Gravenites, May 9, 1986.

It was Debbie who received Janis
through
Debbie tried to follow up on the idea
:
Author interview with Debbie Green, April 3, 1998.

On January 19, 1968, which is Janis’s twenty-fifth birthday
:
Laura Joplin,
Love, Janis
, 214, letter dated January 31, 1968.

After the gig, Janis doesn’t fly back
:
Laura Joplin,
Love, Janis
, 215.

The reason for Janis’s restraint at Kaleidoscope
:
Author interview with Linda Gravenites, May 9, 1986.

“Janis Joplin Is Climbing Fast in the Heady Rock Firmament”
:
Robert Shelton,
New York Times
, February 19, 1968.

We grab a couple of cabs and head uptown to the Black Rock
:
Laura Joplin,
Love, Janis
, 219, letter dated February 20, 1968, confirms the date of the signing.

Meet Big Brother and the Holding Company
:
Albert B. Grossman Management press release pages.

CHAPTER 10

“At first, [New York] seemed to have made us all crazy”
:
Janis Joplin, quoted in Nat Hentoff,
The New York Times
, April 21, 1968, Sec. II.

The other act on the bill is a new band
:
Author interview with Al Kooper, June 11, 1998.

The Grande’s manager, Russ Gibb
:
Goodman,
The
Mansion on the Hill
, 160.

When Albert listens to the recordings
:
Author interview with Sam Andrew, July 27, 1997.

“For years, it was our particular lot not to rise to a given occasion”
:
Author interview with Sam Andrew, July 27, 1997.

The only conclusion that comes out of the meeting
:
Author interview with Sam Andrew, July 27, 1997.

“I think fundamentally he didn’t like Janis”
:
Author interview with Sam Andrew, July 27, 1997.