Listen To An Almost Unrecognizable Early Recording Of Janis Joplin

In January 1963, Janis Joplin, who was born in Port Arthur, Texas on this date in 1943, made a well-known pilgrimage from her native Texas to explore the scene in San Francisco. The trip was Joplin’s second stint in California following an unsuccessful move to Los Angeles shortly after a similarly unsuccessful enrollment in 1960 at Lamar State College of Technology in Beaumont, Texas.

The second journey West saw Joplin hitchhiking with Chet Helms, who would become a central figure in the Bay Area psychedelic rock scene of the late 1960s. The two-year period spent in San Francisco between 1963 and Joplin’s return to her home of Port Arthur, Texas in 1965, also saw her connect with future Jefferson Airplane/Hot Tuna guitarist Jorma Kaukonen. Helms encouraged Joplin to return to the Bay Area and in 1966 she came back to front the band Helms managed, Big Brother & The Holding Company.

Joplin’s subsequent second relocation to San Francisco soon saw her rise as an iconic figure of the city’s counter-culture-centered Haight district. As the leader of Big Brother & The Holding Company (and later the Kozmic Blues Band and the Full Tilt Boogie Band) Joplin made her mark as one of the integral voices in rock ‘n’ roll history.

Her often-emulated singing style – heavily influenced by early Black blues and jazz performers like Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday and Leadbelly – propelled Joplin to the forefront of rock ‘n’ roll singers, exemplified in songs like “Piece Of My Heart,” “Ball & Chain,” “Cry Baby,” “Summertime,” “Down on Me,” and others, including the posthumously released “Me & Bobby McGee.”

Joplin’s instantly recognizable voice, defined by its raw and raspy texture, was full of grit and visceral emotions, captivating listeners hearing her sing on the radio or watching one of her mesmerizing live performances. Joplin’s powerful and gritty vocal delivery did not dominate every song she recorded, as evidenced by the intro to “Me & Bobby McGee” or the acapella “Mercedes Benz.” Another early recording made in 1962 showcases a different side of Joplin’s singing skills.

Before embarking on the trip to the Bay Area with Helms in January 1963, Joplin put one of her early original songs to tape. The recording was made while Joplin was enrolled at the University of Texas in Austin and featured Joplin performing “So Sad To Be Alone.”

According to Joplin biographer Holly George-Warren’s book, Janis: Her Life and Music:

“Before leaving Austin, Janis had written and recorded with Powell St. John a song for Julie Paul, the mournful ‘So Sad To Be Alone,’ accompanying herself on autoharp, but there is no evidence that she ever performed it in San Francisco.”

Powell St. John was a part of the folk music scene in Austin at the time. During that period in the early 1960s, Joplin, St. John and Lanny Wiggins formed a loose-knit folk trio, calling themselves the Waller Creek Boys. St. John went on to write songs for Austin-based psyche-rockers The 13th Floor Elevators and many others. Joplin recorded his song “Bye Bye Baby.”

“[Joplin] knew rhythm and blues tunes I had never heard,” said St. John. “She knew much more about music than we did. Janis was very serious about her art. She had a frivolous side, but she was a very intelligent girl.”

The purported inspiration for “So Sad To Be Alone,” was the aforementioned Julie Paul, who George-Warren described as an “Austin-native and country and western fan who liked to drink.” Joplin had a short-lived romantic, and by some accounts tumultuous, relationship with Paul, whose end was memorialized by Joplin in song.

Paul was also a musician who played guitar and drums. After their split, Joplin remained friends with Paul, who married fellow Austin musician Chuck Joyce. The couple performed together in Austin, including backing Joplin when she made a surprise appearance at a concert in Texas in 1970.

Paul and Joyce divorced in 1972 and she pursued interests outside of music. Paul sadly died in a car accident in 1985 at age 42.

Presenting a rarely heard singing style, Joplin’s vocal delivery on the home recording of “So Sad To Be Alone” is soft and gentle, unaffected and pure. Listen to the heartfelt track below: