Janis Joplin: Portrait of an 'Enviously Unrestrained' Art Student -- Picture Book

Posted on Oct 1st 2010 10:30AM by Pat Pemberton
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Each week, in Picture Book, we present an iconic photo from rock 'n' roll's past or present, accompanied with insightful commentary. Whether it's a famous picture or an unearthed rarity, these striking images will serve to illustrate the visual side of music.

Marjorie Alette, Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images

Janis Joplin, Austin, Texas, 1962

Looking more like a folkie beatnik than the wildly dressed, sexually charged psychedelic blues rocker she'd become, Janis Joplin appears for a portrait during her short time as a University of Texas art student. A month after enrolling, the student paper ran a feature on her, headlined 'She Dares to Be Different,' which noted that she performed in a trio called the Waller Creek Boys while leading a life "that is enviously unrestrained." By 1966 she had moved to California, and a year later she was one of the stars born at the Monterey Pop Festival. On Oct. 4, 1970, Joplin overdosed at the Landmark Motor Hotel in West Hollywood, Calif. Like Jimi Hendrix, who died roughly two weeks earlier, she was 27.

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