By Martin H. Rots

Janis Joplin was the most tragic figure of the Classic Rock era.  Monday, October 4, 2010 marked the 40th anniversary of Janis' checking out of the Landmark Hotel in Los Angeles...permanently.  The anniversary of her death passed without notice.  I didn't see anything on television or the internet marking her passing.  At the time, it had taken us by surprise coming just weeks after Jimi Hendrix's death the previous month.  It was almost overshadowed by Jimi's passing and many of us were afraid it was the beginning of a trend.  Brian Jones had died in England the previous year and Jim Morrison would die on the anniversary of Brian's death in 1971.  Strangely, they would all die at twenty-seven years of age.

It almost seemed like a trend was beginning.

No one talks about Pearl's passing much.  Everyone knows she died from a heroin overdose.  Too bad, but that's the price you pay when you dabble in death drugs.  The possibility was always there.  Janis had been trying to get clean in San Francisco, but when she arrived in L.A. to record what would be her last album, she became reacquainted with her heroin taking and dealing friends and sealed her fate.

Most of the visiting rock stars in Los Angeles stayed at the Hyatt (Riot) House or the Chateau Marmont.  The Landmark Hotel was popular with the stars who pursued a quieter, more private, means of self-destruction.  She was alone at the Landmark.  No one from the band was staying there, but it suited Pearl.  It was quieter and less manic than the drama to be found at the previously mentioned inns. 

You could nod out in private without being disturbed or hearing a lecture.

Her new album, Pearl, was almost done.  On October 1, Janis recorded the vocals for the classic Mercedes Benz.  During the session, Janis recorded a birthday message for John Lennon, a message he wouldn't receive until after her death.  All the instrumental tracks were complete and all Janis had left to do was to put the vocals on Buried Alive in the Blues.  In the end, the track was released without a vocal.

On the night of her death, Janis was trying to get her new boyfriend, Seth Morgan and girlfriend, Peggy Caserta to her room for a three way sexual encounter.  Seth was in San Francisco and when Janis sent him traveling money to come to L.A., he spent it romancing another woman.  Peggy, Janis' longtime lover was trying to distance herself from Janis and heroin.  That was how Joplin came to be alone at the Landmark the last night of her life.

She'd had visitors earlier in the evening including a member of the GTO's and French Count Jean deBreteuil.  Living in Los Angeles on an expired student visa, Jean fancied himself heroin dealer to the stars in Los Angeles.  It was he who provided her with the heroin that would kill her.  Jean had been having a long affair with Pamela Courson, Jim Morrison's girlfriend.  Through her, he had met many of rock's elite when they visited Los Angeles.  He claimed that the heroin he sold was delivered in a French diplomatic pouch from Marseilles.  Wherever it came from, the heroin that killed Joplin was extremely pure. 

Janis wasn't an IV drug user.  That means she didn't inject heroin into a vein, she injected it into a muscle.  The big difference between the two is that the reaction from injecting heroin intra-muscularly is delayed.  Injected directly into a vein, the effect of heroin is almost instant.

After her company had left, Janis tried unsuccessfully to contact both Seth and Peggy.  It was getting later and she grew despondent when she realized that neither of them would be making an appearance that evening.  It was then that she  went down to the hotel lobby for a pack of cigarettes.  She got change for the machine from the clerk and made small talk for a few minutes.  He would be the last person to see her alive.

When she got back upstairs, she took off her slacks and put them on the bed.  It was then that the heroin hit her and she collapsed.  On the way down, she hit her face on the nightstand.  It's likely that she was already dead before she hit the floor.  Her body lay there all night.

The next afternoon she was due at the studio to record the vocals for Buried Alive in the Blues and when she didn't show up, her road manager, John Cooke, became concerned and went to the Landmark.  Her psychedelic Porsche was in the parking lot where she had left it the previous day.  When she didn't answer the door, he had the manager use his pass key.  They found Joplin dead on the floor with a bloody lip and broken nose from her encounter with the nightstand.

That night, the band and crew gathered at Barney's Beanery to mourn her passing.  The party had been planned as a wrap party for the album, instead it was a solemn occasion.  It wasn't long before they were joined by a morose Jim Morrison.  Joplin had once broke a wine bottle over a drunken Morrison's head.  They had kept their distance from each other until hendrix died.  it wasn't long after that the two made peace.  Her death had left Morrison visibly shaken.  After a few quickly downed drinks, Morrison raised his glass and announced to no one in particular, "You're drinking with number three."

No one knew it then, but Morrison had almost exactly nine months left on the planet.  The heroin that would kill him was provided in Paris by none other than Jean deBreteuil who would soon be found dead of a heroin overdose himself in North Africa.

The greatest tragedy, however, was that Pearl died without finding love.  In the end, the comfort she found in heroin was no replacement for the love and acceptance she sought, but never found, in life.