Pearl
The Obsessions and Passions of Janis Joplin
Published on 6. June 2023
340 pages
978-1-63576-839-8 (ISBN)
Description
The definitive biography of the 1960s music legend covers her trailblazing life from troubled childhood to iconic stardom to her tragically early death.
A wild child of the Texas-Louisiana swamps, Janis Joplin wailed the blues like no one before had ever dared. She was the first rock star of the 1960s counterculture, a fashion trendsetter in San Francisco's back-to-the-roots movement that overtook the world, and a prisoner of an ultimately doomed search for happiness in sex, drugs, money, and fame. But to those who knew and loved her intimately, she was Pearl.
Acclaimed music biographer Ellis Amburn reveals the true life story of this immortal legend. From her backwater Texas childhood where classmates punished her for her individuality, Amburn charts her unlikely rise to stardom and affairs with fellow music legends including Jim Morrison, Kris Kristofferson, and Jimi Hendrix. Amburn also chronicles her losing battles with addiction, insecurity, and other forces that drove her through a short, impulsive life, to death by overdose at the age of twenty-seven.
A wild child of the Texas-Louisiana swamps, Janis Joplin wailed the blues like no one before had ever dared. She was the first rock star of the 1960s counterculture, a fashion trendsetter in San Francisco's back-to-the-roots movement that overtook the world, and a prisoner of an ultimately doomed search for happiness in sex, drugs, money, and fame. But to those who knew and loved her intimately, she was Pearl.
Acclaimed music biographer Ellis Amburn reveals the true life story of this immortal legend. From her backwater Texas childhood where classmates punished her for her individuality, Amburn charts her unlikely rise to stardom and affairs with fellow music legends including Jim Morrison, Kris Kristofferson, and Jimi Hendrix. Amburn also chronicles her losing battles with addiction, insecurity, and other forces that drove her through a short, impulsive life, to death by overdose at the age of twenty-seven.
More details
Person
Ellis Amburn worked as a reporter-researcher at Newsweek before becoming a book editor at Putnam, where he edited John le Carré and Jack Kerouac. Amburn was also an editor-in-chief at Delacorte and William Morrow. He worked as a ghostwriter with Priscilla Presley, Shelley Winters, Zsa Zsa Gabor, and Sammy Davis, Jr. He wrote several biographies including Buddy Holly: A Biography, Dark Star: The Roy Orbison Story, The Sexiest Man Alive: A Biography of Warren Beatty, Subterranean Kerouac, and Pearl: The Obsessions and Passions of Janis Joplin. He died after a long illness on August 18, 2018 at the age of 85.
Content
- Intro
- PEARL
- Ellis Amburn Books in the Diversion Music Library
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Copyright
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Town Without Pity: 1943-1962
- The Anxious Asp: 1963-1965 40
- Photos
- Big Brother and the Holding Company: 1966
- Down in Monterey: 1967
- Sex, Dope, and Cheap Thrills: 1968
- Photos
- Queen and Consorts: 1969-1970
- Kristofferson: 1970
- Seth Morgan: 1970
- Drinks Are On Pearl: 1970
- Epilogue
- Coronerâ?Ts Report
- Discography
- Bibliography
- About the Author
