Janis Joplin
For my Recording Artist Hall of Fame... Janis Joplin
I've always been a bit 1960's - orientated probably more than any other era. That's the music that was around when I was young in the 70's and 80's. Janis Joplin was one of those '60's icons who died too soon. Made immortal by an early death like the Kennedies, MLK, Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Malcolm X, Brian Jones, etc etc etc ...
When I think of Janis Joplin, I think of her great Monterey Pop Festival performance of "Ball and Chain". I could watch that over and over (and I have). I also think a bit about Leonard Cohen's "Chelsea Hotel no. 2".... "we are ugly but we have the music"... She wasn't a typical glammed-up beautiful pop star, not prefabricated for mass consumption, she was a hard-drinking, drugged up hippie blues singer. One of the greatest the world has seen.