| REVIEWER | RATING & REVIEW |
 | Moose74 (6)
08/27/2008 | Janis was a bright light who was with us for far too short a time. Of course, her drug use, and the part of her that was self-destructive, should be condemned. What we're left with is her music, and that is great. Until Janis, no white woman ever sang the blues with such abandon.
(0 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 2 agree) |
 | louiethe20th (78)
06/30/2008 | Never was that big of a fan, but she was very unique.
(3 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
 | headson (0)
01/29/2008 | Very unique and talented as a singer. If you hate her for her music you're a dumbass, I mean she did her part in rock n roll and may I recommend Britney Spears or Avril Lavigne for you haters, lol. She did have all the respect from the guys back then though, like Jerry Garcia. And he can't be wrong man.
(3 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
 | CanadaSucks (50)
12/18/2007 | While I believe Joplin had talent, I've often thought she was a tad overrated and overshadowed by more talented acts during this fascinating era of music. . .
(1 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
 | GenghisTheHun (177)
12/18/2007 | I remember when she died--I was driving along a road in Idaho when I heard the news.
I liked Bobby McGee and Mercedes Benz but she was no great shakes, believe me.
The world did not go into mourning!
(3 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
| Limpin' Trenchfoot (18)
12/18/2007 | I've only recently heard some of her stuff and only wish to God I'd delayed this pretty unpleasant experience several decades longer. Quite why this lardy rug munching moose has classic rock status can only be down to the fact that she croaked early . Why is it that self destructiveness is seen as a virtue in the rock world?
(3 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
 | lucy2 (7)
06/18/2007 | Janis Joplin had some great songs. I really have to be in a certain mood to get into her songs. I like her rendition of Summertime, I really like Turtle Blues and of course, Bobbie McGee. She was fighting some inner demons and a lot of her songs even sound "tortured" but that's what made her sound so unique. Nothing else ever like it.
(1 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
 | willier100 (0)
03/11/2007 | Janis was truly the best blues singer of all times-She passed too early. it is a shame she did not have more chance to get her foot in the door of the industry.
(1 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
 | Kelticman (10)
10/23/2006 | Quite simply, the queen of all female rock/blues singers. Her voice is the benchmark by which all others are measured. She was a magnificent talent.
(2 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
 | buildingjanis69 (0)
10/20/2005 | I love janis joplin, she is the perfect role model for being yourself and not caring what anyone thinks! you should alwyas be yourself, no matter what. I watched a biography on her, and she is amazing. anyone who does not think janis joplin is just wonderful, is nuts!!!! i love her and her inspiring music!!!!
(1 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
 | kadone (0)
06/28/2005 | terrible voice
(0 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
 | adc103051 (0)
05/19/2005 | FAT DEAD DOPEHEAD.
(0 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
| kingguiness (13)
05/17/2005 |
Yes, highly overrated. Nonetheless, she has a few good songs.
(1 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
 | Len (0)
04/20/2005 | Chicken Soup!
(1 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
 | Molfan (60)
04/03/2005 | I will give her a 2.5. Oh come on, I do not think she deserves to be so high up on this list. The only song I liked from her was Me and Bobby McGee. It seems like it is the only one she did not scream when she sang. why did she abuse her vocal cords the way she sang. I am not one her fans.
(7 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
 | Sally B (0)
02/14/2005 | I love Janis. She can rock, but she got the blues in her voice too. Rock on.
(1 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
| tocwelsh (2)
02/07/2005 | She looked looked she sang!!!!!!!!!
(1 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
 | Djahuti (57)
11/14/2004 | Janis Joplin was a stunning performer and one of the greatest Blues songstresses EVER.Unfortunately,she never had a backup band worthy of her.(Just Imagine if she had Page,Bonham and John Paul Jones behind her!!!)
(3 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
| fierce_pajamas (0)
09/11/2004 | Janis had one of the best voices ever.
(1 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
| Althea (0)
03/13/2004 |  So misunderstood!!! Janis took old blues and folk songs that everybody at the time had only heard done in passive, slow grinds, and took them to another level! Jaws hung open at the Monterey Pops Fesival. She mixed the soul, spirit, meaning, and history of these well known songs with the passion, anxiety, and experimentation of the Haight Ashbury psychedelic musical growth spurt, and created raw, pure, and inspired art. This woman sang from her soul! She had an extensive range, and she hit notes that most vocalists can only hope to reach. Yet she did it with a raw edge that can only be gained from living a life of struggle. People that don't like her voice are really saying they don't like the grit and authenticity of her delivery. She is so real it bothers people. Many famous female singers credit Janis as an inspiration and an idol. Janis broke the mold, she set the standard, and she paved the way for all female rock singers to come. Sometime lyrics say it best: I don't know, but something like a bird within her sang. She sang a little while and then flew off. and Such a long, long time to be gone and a short time to be there.
(1 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
 | peoriaaz (0)
11/02/2003 | No, thanks. I like women that bathe
(2 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
 | kolby1973 (33)
10/19/2003 | With the exception of Me and Billy McGee..this woman actually sounded worse than the cats in the back alley ! Janis just couldn't sing.....and I hated her tired message to the world too....who cares?
(0 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
 | scarletfeather (53)
10/18/2003 | She had a terrible, grating, voice. All she did was holler and scream.
(0 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
| joefly69 (0)
09/28/2003 | Janis Joplin died 6 years before I was born and she is still my favorite female singer of all times. Rest in peace Janis.
(1 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
 | jamestkirk (24)
09/10/2003 | The pride of Pt. Arthur, TX!
(3 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
| Moosekarloff (19)
08/18/2003 | Overrated and excessive. You have to grant her some respect because she revived the approaches of her influences, namely the gutbucket women blues singers of the 1920s-50s, but the black gals did a much better job at it than this imitator. She had pretty bad artistic judgment and never really found a band that was perfectly suited for her. Regardless of what some posters have affirmed here, there was nothing "new" about Joplin's sound and approach, and if anything, her sound is quite derivative and too over the top. And she was hardly the first female rock star, as Brenda Lee and Dusty Springfield had numerous hits long before Joplin came along, and female singers had been part of the rock/pop landscape for over a decade before "Cheap Thrills" was released. Brush up on your music history, folks! Gotta give Janis three stars for trying, however...
(2 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
| andyknoedler (0)
08/12/2003 | I saw Janis live twice, once with each of her bands, and enjoyed the earlier gig, with Big Brother and the Holding Company, more than the later one, with the Full Tilt Boogie Band. With a microphone in one hand and a bottle of Southern Comfort in the other, Janis belted out the blues as well as any white girl has every done.
(4 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
| help me (0)
06/21/2003 | sung straight from the heart. she set the grounds for all the other female rockers.
(2 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
| Heaven Leigh 23 (0)
06/20/2003 | Beautiful!!!!!She had a voice like no other in the world and it is a shame that she is no longer with us.
(3 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
| JASONLUVER (0)
06/12/2003 | I love her and we truly lost something when she died. I still rock out to her music daily. It's good soul-bearing lyrics and scream-along music.
(3 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
| TheBlueWyvern (0)
05/26/2003 | Absolutely horrible...the woman just plain could not sing.
(1 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
 | RebelYell1861 (10)
05/13/2003 | I don't know how anyone can say they enjoy listening to a skanky girl screeching into a microphone.
(2 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
| Keetsula (0)
03/14/2003 | Janis Joplin was an original- she spoke for the 60s generation. Although I thought that her wild lifestyle was irresponsible, I admired her rough and tumble singing style. Her hometown, Port Arthur, Texas, never honored her and were ashamed of her antics. I hope the City Fathers eventually erected a memorial in her honor.Just to hear Joplin singing "Summertime", brought up memories of iced lemonade and sultry Texas summers. Her early albums were solid rock 'n' roll. Here's another shot of Southern Comfort, Janis. Rock on.
(4 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
| Theatre_Bug_05 (0)
02/17/2003 | How could you not love Janis Joplin?
(2 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
| crimson_and_clover (0)
02/12/2003 | one of the best female artists
(3 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
| WilShakes1 (0)
01/20/2003 | She'll always have a piece of my heart. Damn, that girl could wail ... Leonard Cohen wrote his "Chelsea Hotel #2" as a love song/lament to her, and small wonder.
(3 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
| AngelofMercy62 (0)
01/18/2003 | My favourite female artist. Janis influenced me as a child and as a teenager. I have many of her albums in my collection and consider her in a league completely on her own. Janis was raw, emotional, crude, disgusting, can scream like no other - but gave us the Blues and dues.
I am disappointed that Janis is not right up there with the rest of 'em...ratings of this kind is very poor. I am one very big fan and appreciate her wonderful persona and am saddened by her death and destructive life in which she lived, but I am thankful to have known her through her music.
A 5 star rating is simply not high enough
(5 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
| ultraalkaline99 (0)
11/25/2002 | White trash.
(0 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
| gopman79 (2)
11/21/2002 | Awful, just awful. Just a drugged up women seriously in need of vocal chords!!!
(0 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
| trpnstn1 (0)
11/15/2002 | Janis should get a "5" just to pay due to the fact that she was the first female rock star and she inspired and influenced countless female singers that are popular today. She paved the way, and she paid for it. I think people that don't like her, or realize her contribution to music, probably don't have an extensive musical background. If they did, they might be able to see just how cutting edge her singing was back in the 60's. She took songs that were already well known to most people (through jazz, blues, and folk music) and sang them in a way nobody had ever heard before, and maybe never will again. For example "Summertime" was usually performed in a smooth, graceful way like a lullabye, in the 30's and 40's. But, when Janis sang it, the song took on new meaning. It became edgy and rough, filled with Janis' heart and soul, dripping with desire, pain, envy, and raw emotion. Back in the 60's that was totally new, now Janis' version is the version everybody thinks of when you mention the song. Now that's influence. Every note Janis sang communicated a specific feeling, she was truely gifted. But like so many sensitive artists, she couldn't handle the intensity of her own life, she self-medicated her confusion and pain, and she was taken from us too early.
(8 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
| kruesit (0)
11/06/2002 | what can i say about janis...it's a shame she lived in the 60's...a waste of a life
(1 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
| Jason1972 (4)
10/25/2002 | She was Robert Plant with ovaries. Seriously though, you could sense every bit of her raw emotions when you hear her or see her old concert footage. What a treat it is to hear her perform. Too bad her time in the limelight was limited.
(4 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
| lukskywlkr. (3)
10/24/2002 | She sang the blues like no other white woman ever has. Everybody knows Me and Bobby McGee and Mercedes Benz, but listen to Piece of My Heart and Ball and Chain. This lady was amazing. It's such a shame she left us so early.
(4 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
 | Solenoid DH (20)
03/04/2002 | I was hoping Janis Joplin would be on the list so I could have the distinct privilege of proclaiming her the worst thing I ever listened to. She was grating, noisy, obnoxious, and tone deaf. Lord help anyone who identified with that "music" (and I use the word very loosely).
(6 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
| yarden (0)
01/12/2002 | Janis Joplin was, and still, the queen of rock, a classical 60's performer, and one of the best blues singer ever.
Her music is so full with emotion and passion, she sang the blues like nobody else can, because she just gives her whole soul to the singing.
(5 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
 | ellajedlicka21 (6)
10/30/2001 | She was a great performer in the late '60s. You have to love the raw power and emotion that she sings with. She wasn't earth-shattering or breath-taking like Hendrix. They both died very young in 1970 and were only in the spotlight for a brief time period. So, she's not a 5, but she was good in her time. Despite this, she is certainly one of the best and most influential women in rock.
(3 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
| thekettleblack (0)
08/15/2001 | It sucks that she's being commercialized and exploited like every other dead rock star, because she doesn't deserve it. 100% heart, soul, emotion comes through in her music. I could listen to it forever. She's just amazing. The first *real* female rock star.
(5 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
| kiwi8577 (0)
07/05/2001 | She was terrific! Maybe not the best singer in the world, but she put her heart and soul into her music! She died way before her time.
(4 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
 | MedgarEvers (15)
05/22/2001 | I bought 'Pearl' the other day. This convinced me that Ms. Joplin is undoubtedly one of rock's greatest females to this day, though she was on the earth for only a short time. She was born into a poor Texan family, laughed out of her school, laughed out of the state, as she said on the Dick Cavett Show. She was caught up in the spirit of the 60's and got pulled into drugs and alcohol. Music was her only escape from all this anguish. I can understand that many do not see the beauty in her work, but once she opened her mouth and released that power, rock and roll would never be the same, I believe.
(5 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
 | Ruby (16)
03/11/2001 | I think Janis might be one of those magnetic personalities that must have been incredible in person, but just didn't translate to record. I mean, "Pearl" is a decent record, but nothing that justifies her spot next to Jimi.
(4 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
 | CastleBee (85)
02/26/2001 | Apparently all it takes to convince people that you have "soul" is to not comb your hair for several weeks, go on stage sloppy drunk and high and scream at the top of your lungs. Joplin may have meant what she was singing, but she was way too disgusting when she was doing it. She was in serious need of help in more ways than one.
(8 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
| crazy_byrd (0)
02/24/2001 | Anyone who loved 70s rock music loved Janis. She was unaffected by the people who taunted her and made herself into the rock star she invisioned herself to be. She is a legend.
(5 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
| starla (0)
11/23/2000 | She was a queen, and one of the best artists of all time. She just rocks!!
(4 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
| Johnny Roulette (3)
11/07/2000 | This woman never left anything in the dressing room. You got every ounce of her soul.
(8 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
| Nikita91 (0)
11/02/2000 | She did have some heart and soul in her music, but her vocal range was limited and the screaming was very excessive.
(2 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
| libby (0)
11/01/2000 | She was one of the best artists ever. She showed a lot of emotion in her work.
(4 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
| 1-56 OF 56 | View All |
