Janis Joplin: A Piece Of My Heart

There is a handful of music and musicians that have a deep emotional significance for me that I cannot put in words. This significance is something so strong that I believe that the day I can write about them to my satisfaction, my purpose for having been born would have been fulfilled, and that till that day arrives, death will have to wait. Janis Joplin, the screeching, moaning, hurting queen of soul and blues, is one of them. Janis (January 19, 1943 � October 4, 1970) influenced me as a young person not only in terms of music but also in terms of understanding alienation and loneliness. Her songs and her live recordings have been a source of comfort to me through the years.

The fan art that continues to be made around the life and work of #janisjoplin is nothing short of amazing! pic.twitter.com/iCPTrqwn7H

— subhorup dasgupta (@subho65) January 30, 2015

I have often wondered why I feel so strongly about her music and her life. Of course, the romanticism of her rebellious personality and the tragedy of her battle with drugs and alcohol were major factors, but they were temporal; yet, even from a more mature and �norm�al perspective, her work remains extremely close to my heart, meaning much more than music for recreation or songs in the background. For me, her songs symbolize the battle cry of the individual against the might of the system, the unshakeable conviction and the pain of knowing how simultaneously powerless and overpowering that battle cry is, and the longing to share with others the glorious vision of a just and compassionate world.

Today, 42 years after that sad and quiet morning when she died, I put together some of what I have tried to write about her in the past.
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