Archive for December 5th, 2009
Big Brother and the Holing Company, Grateful Dead, and Jefferson Airplane were the front runners in musical bands in the 1960′s that made the psychedelic sound one that other bands tried to emulate. The name everyone thinks of when you mention The Grateful Dead is a guy who played mostly electric guitar but also played banjo and the steel guitar, the guys name is Jerry Garcia. The voice behind Jefferson Airplane is non other than Grace Slick.
Peter Albin, Sam Andrew, and James Gurley were the guitar players of the band, and in 1966 were joined by a girl from Texas who only stayed with the band for two years, had a solo career until she died in 1970, her name Janis Joplin. With the sound from the electric guitars in back along with her blues style voice made it a perfect fit for psychedelic rock. Her voice and style carried the album Cheap Thrills to the number one spot on the billboards for eight weeks, it was the best album for 1968, it was so good it ranks 338 of “500 Greatest Albums of All Time”. Janis Joplin also ranks 46 out of “100 Greatest Artists of All Time” in Rolling Stone, and 28th of its “100 Greatest Singers of All Time”.
Rock and Roll was male dominated until Janis Joplin came along, she led the way for other female stars such as Stevie Nicks. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and in 2005 given a “Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Not bad for a few short years.