She recalls one night at a party with Janis Joplin when a heroin dealer was handing out free shots. It’s an extraordinary anecdote: did she recognise it was extraordinary at the time? “You don’t know you’re hanging out with people who will be legendary,” she says. “I really wanted to try cocaine, but Jimi was way against it because he was horribly addicted to it.” One night Ian and Hendrix went to see BB King in the Village and he stopped the performance to announce that Martin Luther King had died. “In one night you could go see Nina Simone at the Village Gate and then go to the Gaslight to see someone else.” Nine years older, Hendrix was nevertheless a responsible accomplice. “I was 16 and would go club-hopping with Jimi,” she says. The success of Society’s Child, and her debut album of the same name, propelled Ian into a world where her social circle included Nina Simone, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix. “I ignored it.” It seemed, at first, as though the strategy had worked. “I did what every adolescent does when faced with an untenable situation,” she says. I wasn’t able to have anyone open my mail without worrying there would be a bomb in it.” In the face of such extreme reactions – people bought tickets to see her perform in order to scream racist abuse as she sang – Ian’s response was simply not to respond. “I wasn’t able to go in the street without somebody spitting on me. “I was dealing with threats all the time,” says Ian. “And when you hold up a mirror, people don’t like what they see.” A radio station in Atlanta was burned down for playing the record and journalists were fired for publishing the lyrics in newspapers. Society’s Child gave Ian her first taste of success. It was released twice but only became a hit when it was publicly championed on television by Leonard Bernstein. Society’s Child was considered so controversial that 22 record labels turned it down. The song was about an interracial relationship, inspired by a couple she had seen holding hands on a bus, even as the other occupants moved away from them. Born in New Jersey to leftist parents who were on an FBI watch list, she wrote her first song aged 12, was signed to a recording contract at 13, recorded her first album aged 14 and scored her first hit, Society’s Child, aged 15. She opened so many doors for female musicians breaking down barriers and destroying ideals of what a female music should be and proved what a female musician could be.Ian, who has just released her first album in 15 years – and also her last – has been singing to those outsiders for close to 60 years. She was the first of her kind, and in many ways the last. Janis Joplin’s influence is felt to this day. I always wondered how George Harrison, who was too aged 27 years old in 1970 felt. Joplin died just 16 days after Jimi Henrix, who also famously died at 27 years old. That’s not even the end of the album, but it should be. She ends the song by saying “That’s it!” followed by a throaty giggle. This song was to be the last song Joplin would ever record. Cracking when she goes full tilt, yet still powerful. The song was recorded a cappella on Thursday 1 October 1970, 3 days before her death from a heroin overdose on Sunday 4 October 1970. The most chilling song on the album is ‘Mercedes Benz.’ “I'd like to do a song/Of great social and political import/It goes like this,” Joplin sings. The album also includes Joplin’s only career #1 single, ‘Me and Bobby McGee,’ a track written by Kris Kristofferson featuring the iconic line “Freedom’s just another word for nothing’s left to lost,” delivered in only a way that Janis Joplin could. Nick Gravenites, the man that wrote the song, was offered the opportunity to sing it in tribute to her but declined. The album features 10 tracks, 2 of which were penned by Joplin, and one instrumental, ‘Buried Alive In The Blues.’ As Joplin passed away before vocals could be completed for the song, it was decided to be left as an instrumental. Released 3 months after the untimely death of Janis Joplin at the age of (you guessed it) 27 years old, ‘Pearl’ truly showcased the incredible voice of Janis Joplin gritty, raw and bluesy contrasting with the polished sound of her backing band and slick production by Paul Rothchild, who produced the first 5 records by The Doors.
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