Born: February 14, 1946, in Kansas City, Missouri
Died: July 27, 1973
Band: Bloodstone, The Sinceres

In 1962, a group of high school friends in Kansas City, Missouri, founded a doo-wop quintet named The Sinceres. The members eventually learned how to play instruments, renamed themselves Bloodstone, and after a brief stint as a Las Vegas lounge act, moved to LA. Months without a record deal forced the band to London where label boss Mike Vernon took them to the studio.

Roger Durham sang and played percussion on the group’s eponymous debut from 1972, which included “Natural High,” a single that placed top ten on the pop charts. (“Natural High” also found its way on the soundtrack to Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown, starring Pam Grier, Robert De Niro, and Samuel L. Jackson, Bridget Fonda, and Michael Keaton.)

Bloodstone tapped into a mix of doo-wop, subdued funk riffs, and soul with a tinge of gospel, which garnered the group a place in the black rock and funk movement of the seventies. They played gigs alongside the likes of Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye, The Impressions, and (the-not-so-black) Elton John. Bloodstone’s keyboardist Harold “Ivory” Williams went on to cut On The Corner with Miles Davis, but returned in time for gigs and recording dates.

July 27, 1973, Roger Durham fell off a horse and died from the injuries. His duty as an airman in the Vietnam War garnered him interment at the Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery in Kansas.

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Born: December 8, 1943, in Melbourne, Florida
Died: July 3, 1971, in Paris, France
Band: The Doors

A self-styled “erotic politician,” James Douglas Morrison was a creative soul, a loud drunk, and a fantastic entertainer who knew how to push the buttons of individuals, an audience, and society at large. The Doors worked hard at the Whiskey Go Go in Los Angeles. Jim’s early stage presence was poor, but as the band grew tighter he grew comfortable with the role.

“Light My Fire” sealed the band’s success and Jim was lauded as a mysterious Greek god and featured in teeny magazines. Morrison quickly grew tired of the success and wanted to be viewed as a filmmaker and poet. His lyrics for the Doors touched on subjects such as the meaningless war in Vietnam (”Unknown Soldier”), ecology (”When The Music’s Over”), and sketches from his life and imagination (”LA Woman,” “The End,” “Riders on the Storm”)

In 1969, after a concert in Miami, Morrison was accused of exposing himself on stage. The charges were ridiculous, witnesses dubious, and the trail bore strong markings of a farce. He was eventually let go with a fine, but he was done with his leather clad show biz persona. Jim Morrison gained weight, grew a beard, wrote poetry, directed a movie, and moved to Paris. One morning his girlfriend Pamela found him dead in the bathtub of the Paris apartment they shared. The official cause of death was heart failure. Morrison apparently did heroin the night of his death, and there are several conspiracy theories surrounding his death (i.e. did he really OD in the bathroom at the Rock & Roll Circus?).

Crystal-Ship.com

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Jesse Belvin is hardly mentioned in the annals of rock, but his contributions are significant to its early development. Belvin could croon like Nat King Cole or roar, sounding like a combination of Little Richard and Elvis Presley. Belvin was a prolific songwriter and was known to sell them off to other doo-wop groups in the LA area for $100 a piece. Jesse Belvin co-wrote “Earth Angel,” which was a major hit for the Penguins in the mid-fifties, peaking at the rhythm and blues charts and even crossing over to a respectable #8 on the pop charts. Frank Zappa paid homage to the song and the LA doo-wop scene that he grew up with on Weasels Ate My Flesh. “Earth Angel” was recently recorded by both Death Cab For Cutie and Weezer.

RCA Records signed Belvin in 1959 and decided to promote him as much as possible. Jesse recorded a slew of singles and Dick Clark ended up using Belvin’s “Goodnight My Love” as the closing theme for American Bandstand for several years.

February 2, 1960, Belvin played for the first segregated audience in the history of Little Rock, Arkansas. White supremacists hailed racial epithets and managed to halt the show twice. Belvin had received several death threats since his tour started in the still-segregated south, and he was scared for his life. Four hours after the show ended, Belvin was on the road near Hope, Arkansas, with his manager/wife JoAnn and a driver when the black Cadillac skidded off the road. Jesse and the driver died on impact while JoAnn died at the hospital later that night. A trooper on the accident scene stated that the rear tires had “been tampered with.” No more details surfaced, but The 27s book tells another version of what happened that night. Belvin is largely forgotten, but his songs and recordings live on.

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Born: January 19, 1943, in Port Arthur, Texas
Died: October 4, 1970, in a Los Angeles hotel room
Bands: Big Brother and The Holding Company, The Kozmic Blues Band, The Full Tilt Boogie Band

After a miserable childhood as Port Arthur’s “freak,” “creep,” and “pig” she went to found a crew of like-minded people in Austin’s University district. Janis sang vocal jazz, blues, country, folk, and bluegrass. In 1963, she left for the West Coast and spent time as a bohemian in North Beach. She moved up the coast and connected with the thriving folk scene that spread across several coffee houses. She recorded several demos accompanied by Jorma Kaukonen (later of The Jefferson Airplane), but got caught up in the speed scene, left town for NYC, came back, and was urged stock, The Band, Buddy Guy, The Dooto dry up at home. Back in Port Arthur she shed her wild life style and cultivated a slow domestic life style. In San Francisco, Chet Helms, who knew Joplin from Austin, managed a new psychedelic band called The Holding Company, and he thought she would be perfect for the gig. He sent mutual friend who convinced Janis is was time to return.

With Janis Joplin on board with The Big Brother and The Holding Company it didn’t take long before the band was known for raw-energy live shows. During the summer of ’66 the group moved next to the Grateful Dead; Janis and Pigpen soon had a little summer fling going. Big Brother’s major breakthrough occurred the following summer at the Monterey Pop Festival, which was appeared in D. A. Pennebaker’s Monterey Pop film. Big Brother and The Holding Company’s eponymous debut followed a few weeks later. The media loved the Janis’ raw vocals and wild demeanor, both on and off stage, but the rest of the group wasn’t equally excited about her commanding place in the spotlight.

Janis Joplin came from Port Arthur, Texas, via Austin, to San Francisco.

Cheap Thrills followed in early ’68 and its single, “Piece of My Heart,” rose to the top of the Billboard chart. The continued to tour and Janis sunk deeper into her cravings for heroin. Columbia Records declined her suggested name for the album, yet it pretty much summed up where she was at: Sex, Dope and Cheap Thrills. Tensions mounted and Janis Joplin left Big Brother at the end of 1968, ready for her “own” band. Joplin sought help to assemble the Kozmic Blues Band in early 1969 and they soon recorded I Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again Mama! The Kozmic Blues Band backed her up later that year at the fabled Woodstock festival, but critics urged her to disband, which she did only a year after its inception. Janis Joplin was much more involved in selecting her final band, which she named the Full Tilt Boogie Band. “It’s my band,” she raved to a journalist. “Finally it’s my band.” Joplin weaned herself off heroin, but filled the void with even heavier drinking.

During the 4th of July week in 1970, Janis and Full Tilt rode and performed on the Festival Express tour through Canada (other acts included Grateful Dead, Flying Burrito Brothers, The Band, Buddy Guy). She was drunk, but seemed happy. Unfortunately it didn’t last long. Over the course of that summer, Joplin was back on the needle.

In September 1970, she and the band started recording Pearl in Los Angeles with Paul Rothchild (who had previously produced The Doors). Janis Joplin sadly died of an overdose of heroin during the recordings on October 4, 1970. She was 27 years old and was scheduled to add vocals to “Buried Alive In The Blues” the following day.

JanisJoplin.net

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