Buried Alive: The Biography of Janis Joplin - Hardcover

FRIEDMAN, Myra

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 068805160X ISBN 13: 9780688051600

Publisher: William Morrow & Company, 1973

Synopsis

"It can't be yet. I want it to be the truth. Myra, about the drugs, about everything. I mean really the truthl" So Janis Joplin spoke to Myra Friedman in a New York City bar, about the biography that Janis hoped Myra Friedman would someday write. Buried Alive is that biography. Janis Joplin has become a legend since her death at twenty-seven of a heroin overdose. And in legends there are invariably lies. Buried Alive,, written by a professional associate and close friend of Janis, who had access to a great deal of exclusive material, is the hard truth that Janis wanted. It deals not only with the years of her immense fame, but also with her childhood in Texas and her young-adult years in Texas, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, where she commenced her career as the most famous rock singer of rock's incredible decade, the 1960's.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

Electrifying, highly acclaimed, and intensely personal, this new and updated version of Myra Friedman's classic biography of Janis Joplin teems with dramatic insights into Joplin's genius and into the chaotic times that catapulted her to fame as the legendary queen of rock. It is a stunning panorama of the turbulent decade when Joplin's was the rallying voice of a generation that lost itself in her music and found itself in her words.
From her small hometown of Port Arthur, Texas, to San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury, from the intimate coffeehouses to the supercharged concert halls, from the glitter of worldwide fame to her tragic end in a Hollywood hotel, here is all the fire and anguish of an immortal, immensely talented, and troubled performer who devoured everything the rock scene had to offer in a fatal attempt to make peace with herself and her era. Yet, in an eloquent introduction recently written by the author, Joplin emerges from her "ugly duckling" childhood as a woman truly ahead of her time, an outrageous rebel, a defiant outcast and artist of incomparable authenticity who, almost in spite of herself, became to so many a symbol of triumph over adversity.
This edition also contains an afterword detailing the whereabouts of a large and colorful cast of characters who were part of Joplin's life, as well as "We Remember Janis," a new chapter of poignant and affectionate anecdotes told by friends.

From the Back Cover:

"One of the best books about a rock figure thus far...Buried Alive is unquestionably an accomplishment and it may well be the best portrait we'll have of Janis -- and past even that, it seems a study of the motivations of stardom as true as one is likely to achieve....I'd take Buried Alive over Norman Mailer's metaphysical Marilyn any day!" -- Rolling Stone

"Brilliant, marvelous, emotionally devastating...I don't think there's anything about Janis the book leaves untouched....I can almost hear her speak and, more relevantly, hear her laugh." -- New York Daily News

"Written with a sympathetic intelligence, at times fiercely lyrical, Buried Alive is an honest book about Joplin the idol....This is the best book yet about rock...."

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Publication date: 1973
• ISBN 10: 068805160X
• ISBN 13: 9780688051600
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1