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Living with the myth of Janis Joplin

This book "Living with the myth of Janis Joplin" by Michael Spörke tells the band's story of how difficult it is to find an identity separate from that of Janis Joplin's overshadowing talent. As David Getz, the drummer of the band, says: "The fame of Big Brother is like a Golden Albatross. It hangs around your neck like a curse. But the curse is made of gold."

Big Brother & the Holding Co. were and are far more than a Janis Joplin backup band. The exclusive focus on Janis Joplin distorts the meaning of Big Brother, and, indeed, of the sixties counterculture which was not about single "stars" but about the whole constellation of community.

Spörke's biography narrates, from the beginning in 1965, each Big Brother member's life story. Where they each came from? What are their roots? How they see their time with Janis Joplin? What they experienced after their Janis time? Michael Spörke wrote this biography with the close participation of the musicians themselves.

To purchase this book please email Michael Spörke at MSpoerke@aol.com

Best of Janis Joplin: (Sheet Music)

Hal Leonard Pub. / September 1999

Living in the Dead Zone: Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison

Gerald A. Faris,Ralph M. Farris / Paperback / FirstBooks Library / December 1997

Scars of Sweet Paradise

Scars of Sweet Paradise : The Life and Times of Janis Joplin - Alice Echols - Hardcover 320 pages - (March 1999)