Janis Joplin

Janis Joplin
January 19, 1943
Port Arthur, Texas

This freedom-loving Capricorn put everything on the line for her art.

'On stage, I make love to 25,000 people, then I go home alone.'

Janis Lyn Joplin was born in Port Arthur, an oil-refining town in East Texas. Her dad, Seth Ward Joplin worked at a cannery. Her mom, Dorothy Bonita East worked at a local college. 'My father was like a secret intellectual, a book-reader, a talker, and a thinker', recalled Janis. 'He was very important to me, because he made me think.' She had a younger sister, Laurel Lee and a younger brother, Michael Ross. After graduating from Thomas Jefferson High School in 1960 she went to the University of Texas in Austin. Inspired by folk and blues legends Odetta, Big Mama Thornton and Bessie Smith, she spent her nights in Austin bars playing autoharp.

'I got treated very badly in Texas,' she said. 'They don't treat beatniks too good in Texas. Port Arthur people thought I was a beatnik, though they'd never seen one and neither had I.' In 1963 she hit the road, inspired by beat poets as well as the blues, traveling around and performing. She wound up living in the North Beach and Haight Ashbury districts of San Francisco.

In 1966, her friend and fellow Texan, Chet Helms talked her into fronting Big Brother and the Holding Company, a popular San Francisco rock band. He was managing Big Brother and running Family Dog Productions -- putting on rock concerts. Janis's first concert with Big Brother was at the Avalon Ballroom on June 10, 1966. With James Gurley and Sam Andrew on guitar, Peter Albin on bass and Dave Getz on drums, the band quickly became a legend as part of San Francisco's psychedelic music scene. But by this time Janis was caught in the grip of an alcohol and drug addiction that would soon claim her life.

In 1967 Big Brother and the Holding Company performed at the Monterey Pop Festival to a wildly appreciative audience. Janis became an instant superstar. Big Brother put out the album Cheap Thrills in 1968. It sold over a million copies its first month and established them as one of the greatest Rock 'n' Roll bands of all time.

Later in 1968, after two East Coast tours, including a performance with Jimi Hendrix, Janis parted ways with Big Brother. Their last official gig was a Family Dog benefit on December 1, 1969 (although they did a reunion concert at the Fillmore West in San Francisco on April 4, 1970).

Janis put together her own Kozmic Blues Band. Their first gig was in Memphis, Tennessee at the 1969 Stax-Volt record company Christmas party -- a tribute to her soul music creds. Their album, I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama! (1969) eventually went gold. But the new band was not as well received as Big Brother. They split up a year later. Janis performed solo at Woodstock in 1969. She created the Full Tilt Boogie Band -- a group of Canadian musicians -- in the spring of 1970. They joined the 'all-star' Festival Express in June and toured Canada with The Band and the Grateful Dead.

On October 4, 1970, Janis died in a Hollywood hotel room from an overdose of heroin and alcohol. She was 27.

Her biggest album, Pearl was released after her death. It featured her signature song, 'Me and Bobby McGee,' written by her friend Kris Kristofferson.

Sun in Capricorn made Janis serious and quietly ambitious. She was driven to prove herself and to achieve success. As she told it, 'I always wanted to be an artist, whatever that was, like other chicks wanted to be stewardesses. I read. I painted. I thought.' Her work, her position in the world and her contributions to society were very important to her. She persevered through enormous hardship and frustration to reach her goals. She often sacrificed much in personal relationships and home life in order to do so. Those sacrifices took their toll.

She had a pensive, quiet disposition and did not readily show her inner feelings or needs, unless she was on stage: 'It's a supreme emotional and physical experience -- I live for that one hour on stage. It's full of feeling -- it's a rush, honey.' She always came across as competent and strong. She was highly conscientious and even as a child possessed great maturity and worldly wisdom. She had great respect for tradition, which showed in her love of the blues.

Janis was not easy to know intimately. She was a modest person and sometimes overly self-critical. Giving herself permission to be spontaneous and silly or weak and vulnerable wasn't easy for her.

With Sun trine Uranus the unusual and unorthodox appealed to her and she did not allow other people's expectations to dictate how she lived her life. Craving freedom, adventure and excitement, Janis was not afraid of change. She was a creative genius. In 1995, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She holds the Number 3 spot on VH1's list of the 100 Greatest Women of Rock 'n' Roll. In 2004 Rolling Stone Magazine named her the 46th Greatest Artist of All Time.

Sun trine Neptune made her imaginative and sensitive to anything colorful, beautiful or magical. She was attracted to artistic and creative endeavors, music and mysticism. Her spiritual values colored her approach to life; she was idealistic and perhaps impractical.

Sun opposition Moon/N. Node gave her a feeling of being spiritually bonded with her friends, partners and associates. Sun opposition Jupiter/Pluto made her capable of extraordinary physical and mental efforts to gain success, recognition and respect. She had a strong need for power and performed best in a leading position.

With Mercury in Aquarius she was a progressive thinker, open and receptive to the latest discoveries in any field. She had high expectations and a deep belief that mankind's problems could be solved through the use of our creative intelligence and inventive minds. She had no patience for those whose conservative, unimaginative outlook limited their capacity to find solutions and envision a better future. She also liked to keep abreast of world affairs, for she instinctively knew that what happens in one part of the world affects everyone. She had strong humanitarian impulses.

Mercury conjunct Venus gave her an appreciation of aesthetics and a fine sense of form, design and beauty. She had the ability to harmonize well with others and helped improve relationships between people. Her sense of humor and personal charm were of great benefit on a one-on-one level.

Mercury opposition Pluto guaranteed she had strong opinions. She was keenly aware of the ways media, popular artists and advertising manipulate our thoughts. She immediately saw through hypocrisy and sham. She had an intense way of communicating and may have threatened others unintentionally.

Uranus opposition Sun/Neptune indicates her normal energies could suddenly drop and she was likely to experience self-doubt and inner fears. She could be subject to sudden, unexpected upsets in her life.

Venus in Aquarius shows she was open and unconventional in her attitude towards love, romance and sex. She enjoyed socializing, bringing people together and having many friends of both sexes. She once said, 'My advice to everyone is come to California and I'll buy you a drink.'

She valued friendship very highly and was, in fact, more comfortable being a friend than a lover. She desired an intellectual rapport or spiritual bond with her love partner, but deep intimacy and emotional bonding did not come easily to her. She felt that no person truly 'belongs' to another and appreciated a love partner who allowed her plenty of freedom. Or, as she put it, 'I won't quit to become someone's old lady.'

Neptune opposition Sun/Saturn meant her moods varied and she may have felt psychologically or physically fatigued at times. A sense of weakness made it hard for her to get herself going. She was highly sensitive to subtle spiritual truths. In her words: 'Being an intellectual creates a lot of questions and no answers.'

Mars in Sagittarius guaranteed she was aspiring, enterprising and forever following a bright and distant star. She aimed high and was not content with a quiet, secure existence. She liked to stretch her limits and to take risks. She was a positive thinker who expected success for herself, but was philosophical about failures. She was flexible and bounced back from disappointment quickly. Her enthusiasm and confidence were contagious and enabled her to get support for her projects.

Mars opposition Jupiter/Uranus reiterates that freedom was very important to her and she worked hard to get it. Quick to act, she was in a hurry to realize her goals.

Saturn trine Neptune made her very sensitive to the inner qualities of honesty, integrity and good will. Her credo was: 'Don't compromise yourself. You are all you've got.' Saturn sextile Pluto gave her the ability to overcome tremendous odds. When she set her sights on achieving something or was presented with a challenge, her capacity for getting along with very little and riding through tough times enabled her to triumph.

With Pluto opposition Sun/Venus she seemed to have nerves of steel. She was ambitious and courageous with a strong desire for power. She impressed others as someone not to be trifled with. She had far-reaching plans and was destined to reach success early in life.

Maybe she sensed she didn't have much time. Not long before she died she wrote her will, designating some money so her friends could have a party if something happened to her. The party was at a San Francisco rock club. The invitation said, 'The drinks are on Pearl.'

'When I sing, I feel like when you're first in love. It's more than sex. It's that point two people can get to they call love, when you really touch someone for the first time, but it's gigantic, multiplied by the whole audience. I feel chills.'