It is 45 years since 1967 and the Haight-Ashbery Summer of Love. In June the Monterey Pop Festival featured Janis Joplin, it might have been the festival cd liner notes that describe her as sometimes singing two notes at one time. I read the book by Alice Echols, an historican specializing in the 1960s and Feminism, Scars of Sweet Paradise: The Life and Times of Janis Joplin (1999). Echols theme resonates that Janis Joplin did not enjoy her life as a rock and roll star, but suffered as a heroin addict and died of a heroin overdose. Of Haight-Ashbery, Echols writes on page 157: "From the outset thought, it was evident that this paradise was going to leave some wicked scars." Echols lists many interviews and sources. I looked through two of Echols' sources: Janis Joplin, Buried Alive, by Myra Friedman (1973), and Love Janis, by Janis Joplin's younger sister Laura Joplin (1992). These list the same facts but with other emphases. Myra Friedman's evocative descriptions use imagery to carry the reader to sights Janis experienced, for example, the dark Texas highway. Janis Joplin's sister Laura Joplin opens the family album generously, she earned a masters in psychology and a doctorate in education, and writes about the family life Janis Joplin tried for over a year to regain as she tried to leave Haight-Ashbery behind. According to Laura Joplin, it was the place (page 241) where "being cool meant being high". The performances one can view and hear are remarkable. However, the talent of Janis Joplin might have taken some other direction. (I may have begun slightly before June 2)
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