Peggy Caserta

When this book first was published, back in 1973, it elicited strongly divergent reactions from readers. Some liked it for its frank revelations about Janis Joplin’s private life, especially the sex and the drugs. Others were disgusted by its salaciousness, as introduced by its first sentence: “I was stark naked, stoned out of my mind on heroin and the girl lying between my legs giving me head was Janis Joplin.” Those who were offended by the book viewed it as the worst sort of “tell-all” – an exploitative account by Janis’ former friend who sought to cash in on their alleged relationship.

Peggy Caserta, the book’s nominal author, has recently disavowed the book, offering reasons for a third reaction: to regard “Going Down with Janis” as a largely fictionalized account written by a ghost writer for the money. That Peggy and Janis were friends is well- established (in fact they flew in to the Woodstock concert together); likewise, they did heroin together for a period of time, and may well have had sexual liaisons. However, the text was written by ghost writer “Dan Knapp”, who took Peggy’s minimal descriptions and turned them into prose like that quoted above. Says Peggy: “ I would say things like, ‘We made love that night,’ and the co-author would change it to something like, My fingers crept up inside her moist groin and plunged in …

“Don’t read it” urged Peggy in a 2020 interview, “ It’s trash. It was so obvious that ghostwriter and publisher took a very nice, sweet story and turned it into pornography. It scandalized me and my family. It paralyzed me. But I think the ghostwriter and publisher knew I was vulnerable. I sold the rights to the editing to buy heroin… I wasn’t respectable. I wasn’t. I was a strung-out junkie.” As for the sexual relationship? ” People seem to be so interested in the gay thing, and I understand that. But truth is that Janis was straight. I was gay… I didn’t write that smut about Janis,” she says. “I would never talk like that about our close association. But I lost control because I was strung out and making awful decisions.” ”

We are also left uncertain about various other revelations in the book: that Joan Baez had a female lover (at this point, do we remotely care?); that Peggy was in school with Lee Harvey Oswald (again, do we care in the slightest?); that Janis had sex with talk show host Dick Cavett (who she allegedly found to be better equipped than a previous lover, Joe Namath); and so on. And then there are issues surrounding Janis’ death. Back in the day, many blamed Peggy for having introduced Janis to heroin (a charge Peggy strenuously denied, and still denies). Likewise, some held her responsible for Janis’ drug overdose the night she died. They may have been right for the wrong reasons, since by Peggy's account, she stood Janis up that night, and Janis did the heroin alone. What’s more, as reflected in the book and in recent interviews half a century later, Peggy fervently believes that Janis did not die of an overdose per se; that she must have tripped on the carpet hit her head on the night table and broke her nose, and died through asphyxiation coupled with the drugs in her system. Against that (arguably self- serving) view, we have the official autopsy that attributed her death to a heroin overdose. That leaves Peggy with memories of trying without success to get through to Janis by telephone that fateful night (the desk clerk declined to put through her call).

And so, in “Going Down with Janis” we have an iconic, influential work of many decades ago, untrustworthy and labelled as not worth reading by the book’s supposed author -- yet one that continues to be a source of particular interest to readers (the paperback sells at Amazon for $75 and up [though a more recent survey reveals hardback copies for under $20)). In skimming through it today, I found that the writing drew me in… I could easily read it again, if there weren't so many other books waiting to be read. And of course, there is no reason to regard the content to be at all trustworthy.

Anyone interested in the interviews from which the above quotes were taken can find them at the following sites:

https://www.fugues.com/2020/10/01/the-redemption-of-peggy-caserta/
https://www.vulture.com/2018/08/peggy-caserta-janis-joplins-love-comes-clean-for...
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/janis-joplin-death-drug-overdo...… (lisätietoja)

Memoirs like this, by a 'friend' of a famous person, can be difficult to both read and review. What is the author's aim? Are they setting the record straight or cashing in? Do they care more about the famous friend's reputation (or memory, in this case) or their own ego? Were they good or bad for the famous friend, and do fans want to read their version of events? Peggy Caserta was an 'intimate friend' of Janis Joplin for the last few years of the singer's life. The way Peggy recounts their relationship, Janis got her hooked on drugs, to the point where she lost all her money, her business and her looks, but then Peggy was the one who got Janis back on heroin just before she overdosed. She tries to make the singer sound like a needy, greedy friend and lover, who loved Peggy more than she loved Janis, but Peggy's other relationships - with Kim Chappell, who beat her up, and Janis' guitarist Sam Andrew, who treat her like a dog because she let him - seem to encourage the opposite view.

Anyway! Whether or not you believe Peggy's claim that 'The important thing is that it is all true, It happened', she tells a powerful story (with Dan Knapp). Both Peggy and Janis slept around - or 'balled', which is Peggy's favourite phrase - with men and women, but I always feel, and Peggy says the same, that Janis was simply looking for love and affection from whoever would have her, which is sad. There are a couple of cute anecdotes - Peggy gifting Janis a pair of jeans from her boutique when the singer had no money, Janis sitting naked in bed reading a magazine while Peggy was trying to make love to her - but mostly this is a roll call of sex. Sex with each other, sex with other people (including Kris Kristofferson), sex with each other and other people. I don't mind the odd lurid detail in a memoir, but all the 'balling' made me question Peggy's motives in divulging such private moments. Yes, you slept with Janis Joplin, we get the point!

Peggy's version of Janis makes the talented singer and free spirit seem a bit sordid somehow, and not just because of all the sex, but because Janis comes across as pathetic and desperate all the time. Maybe she was, in her lowest moments, but she was also clever and witty, and that doesn't really translate too well here. Like this passage: 'There was something raw and ragged about her, and it was underscored by a wild nest of long, electrically disordered hair. She looked like she'd been all the way there and back. And if the clothes and her general condition didn't indicate all the methedrine, booze and bad times that had made imprints on her soul, the voice did. Somehow she was bending it downward and upward through gravel-throated, gutturally-frightening bass notes and the high shrieks of small-animal terror.' A backhanded compliment if ever there was one!

Worth reading, if you can find a cheap copy, but balance with other books on Janis Joplin, such as Love Janis, by her sister Laura.… (lisätietoja)

OK, so this book probably wasn't really written by Caserta, so Knapp gets the blame for the terrible, exploitive style of this book.

But I bought it when I was obsessed with Janis, and craving some proof that she was queer. She was. She was also really, really fucked up, as anyone would have to be in order to sustain a relationship with Caserta, who was pretty fucked up herself.

It's worth a read. It doesn't take long. Just don't take it as gospel and don't expect anything of great literary quality. But we all need a little trashy pulp in our lives now and then.… (lisätietoja)