Pic of the day: The wild days of Rock n Roll …

… Big Brother & The Holding Company (feat. Janis Joplin):

Janis Joplin – Texas International Pop Festival 1969 (1991)

Janis Lyn Joplin (January 19, 1943 – October 4, 1970) was an American singer and musician. One of the most successful and widely known rock stars of her era, she was noted for her powerful mezzo-soprano vocals and “electric” stage presence.

In 1967, Joplin rose to fame following an appearance at Monterey Pop Festival, where she was the lead singer of the then little-known San Francisco psychedelic rock band Big Brother and the Holding Company. After releasing two albums with the band, she left Big Brother to continue as a solo artist with her own backing groups, first the Kozmic Blues Band and then the Full Tilt Boogie Band.

She appeared at the Woodstock festival and on the Festival Express train tour. Five singles by Joplin reached the Billboard Hot 100, including a cover of the Kris Kristofferson song “Me and Bobby McGee”, which reached number one in March 1971.[9] Her most popular songs include her cover versions of “Piece of My Heart”, “Cry Baby”, “Down on Me”, “Ball and Chain”, “Summertime”, and her original song “Mercedes Benz”, her final recording.

Joplin died of a heroin overdose in 1970, at the age of 27, after releasing three albums (two with Big Brother and the Holding Company and one solo album). A second solo album, Pearl, was released in January 1971, just over three months after her death. It reached number one on the Billboard charts. She was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995. Rolling Stone ranked Joplin number 46 on its 2004 list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time and number 28 on its 2008 list of 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. She remains one of the top-selling musicians in the United States, with Recording Industry Association of America certifications of 18.5 million albums sold. (wikipedia)

And here´s one of the finest Jais Joplin bootleg ever:

Excellent but ridiculously short recording of the Texas performance. Just a little more than 30 mins.
Looking at the available recordings from the festival it seems strange more wasn’t recorded. Could have been wiped accidentally I suppose! Real shame as the performance seems more together than Woodstock.

Some releases state Sam Andrew on guitar, but I’m pretty sure he’d left the Kosmic Blues Band by this time. (DamnFooFoo)

Really excellent quality live recording of this festival, from the soundboard. Better than some of the official live releases for sure with Janis in full flow & super-tight live band. (Roger_C)

Personnel:
Sam Andrew (guitar, background vocals)
Maury Baker (drums)
Brad Campbell (bass)
Terry Clements (saxophone)
Cornelius “Snooky” Flowers (saxophone, background vocals)
Luis Gasca (trumpet)
Janis Joplin (vocals)
Richard Kermode (keyboards)
Gabriel Mekler (keyboards)

Alternate frontcover:

Tracklist:
01. Announcement by Wavy Gravy 5.26
02. Raise Your Hand (Cropper/Floyd/Isbell) 5.14
03. As Good As You’ve Been (Gravenites) 6.52
04. Try (Just A Little Bit Harder) (Taylor/Ragovoy) 6.24
05. Maybe (Barrett) 3.46
06. To Love Somebody (B.Gibb/R.Gibb) 4.58
07. Summertime (G.Gershwin/I.Gershwin) 4.38
+
Live in Frankfurt(Germany, 1969:
08. Raise Your Hand (Cropper/Floyd/Isbell) 3.06
09. Try (Just A Little Bit Harder) (Taylor/Ragovoy) 4.23
10. Maybe (Barrett) 3.42
11. Ball & Chain (Thornton) / Piece Of My Heart (Ragovoy/Berns) 10.00

*
**

The concert poster for the show in Frankfurt/Germany, 1969:

More from Janis Joplin:

More from Big Brother & The Holding Company:

Janis Joplin – Pearl (1971)

Janis Lyn Joplin (January 19, 1943 – October 4, 1970) was an American singer and musician. One of the most successful and widely known female rock stars of her era, she was noted for her powerful mezzo-soprano vocals[2] and “electric” stage presence.[3][4][5]

In 1967, Joplin rose to fame following an appearance at Monterey Pop Festival, where she was the lead singer of the then little-known San Francisco psychedelic rock band Big Brother and the Holding Company.[6][7][8] After releasing two albums with the band, she left Big Brother to continue as a solo artist with her own backing groups, first the Kozmic Blues Band and then the Full Tilt Boogie Band. She appeared at the Woodstock festival and on the Festival Express train tour. Five singles by Joplin reached the Billboard Hot 100, including a cover of the Kris Kristofferson song “Me and Bobby McGee”, which reached number one in March 1971.[9] Her most popular songs include her cover versions of “Piece of My Heart”, “Cry Baby”, “Down on Me”, “Ball and Chain”, “Summertime”, and her original song “Mercedes Benz”, her final recording.

Joplin died of a heroin overdose in 1970, at the age of 27, after releasing three albums (two with Big Brother and the Holding Company and one solo album). A second solo album, Pearl, was released in January 1971, just over three months after her death. It reached number one on the Billboard charts. She was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995. Rolling Stone ranked Joplin number 46 on its 2004 list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time[12] and number 28 on its 2008 list of 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. She remains one of the top-selling musicians in the United States, with Recording Industry Association of America certifications of 18.5 million albums sold.

Pearl is the second and final solo studio album by Janis Joplin, released on January 11, 1971, three months after her death on October 4, 1970. It was the final album with her direct participation, and the only Joplin album recorded with the Full Tilt Boogie Band, her final touring unit. It peaked at number one on the Billboard 200, holding that spot for nine weeks. It has been certified quadruple platinum by the RIAA.

The album has a more polished feel than the albums she recorded with Big Brother and the Holding Company and the Kozmic Blues Band due to the expertise of producer Paul A. Rothchild and her new backing musicians. Rothchild was best-known as the recording studio producer of The Doors, and worked well with Joplin, calling her a producer’s dream. Together they were able to craft an album that showcased her extraordinary vocal talents. They used Sunset Sound Recorders in Los Angeles.

The Full Tilt Boogie Band were the musicians who accompanied her on the Festival Express, a concert tour by train of Canada, in the summer of 1970. Many of the songs on this album were recorded on the concert stage in Canada two months before Joplin and the band started their Los Angeles recording sessions. The band also appeared twice on The Dick Cavett Show. They also played many American cities, both before and after Festival Express, although no recordings of those concerts have been officially released.

All nine tracks that she sings on were personally approved and arranged by Joplin. Pearl features the #1 hit “Me and Bobby McGee”, on which she played acoustic guitar, written by Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster; “Trust Me”, by Bobby Womack, written for Joplin; Howard Tate’s “Get It While You Can”, showcasing her vocal range; and the original songs “Move Over” and “Mercedes Benz”, the latter co-written by Joplin, Bobby Neuwirth, and Michael McClure.

Joplin sang on all tracks except “Buried Alive in the Blues”, which was actually a backing track in which she had not yet recorded vocals. The song’s writer Nick Gravenites was offered the opportunity to sing it as a tribute to Joplin, but he turned it down, so the song ended up as an instrumental. He later sang the song with Joplin’s former band Big Brother and the Holding Company for their 1971 album How Hard It Is. The recording sessions, starting in early September, ended with Joplin’s untimely death on October 4, 1970. Her final session, which took place on Thursday, October 1 after a break of several days, yielded her a cappella “Mercedes Benz.” It was the last song she recorded before her death. The album cover, photographed by Barry Feinstein in Los Angeles, shows Joplin reclining on her Victorian era loveseat with a drink in her hand.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 122 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, moving to 125 in a 2012 revised listing. It was moved to a 259 ranking in the 2020 list.

In 1993 Columbia reissued the album on 24kt gold CD as part of their MasterSound series, this edition was remastered by Vic Anesini using the Super Bit Mapping process.[12] In 1999 it was remastered again for the Box Of Pearls box set, this version was also mastered by Vic Anesini, it included four previously unreleased live recordings from the Festival Express Tour, recorded on July 4, 1970, as bonus tracks; it was also released as a standalone release. A two-disc Legacy Edition was released on June 14, 2005, with six bonus tracks including a birthday message to John Lennon of “Happy Trails,” and a reunion of the Full Tilt Boogie Band in an instrumental tribute to Joplin. The second disc included an expanded set from the Festival Express Tour, recorded between June 28 and July 4, 1970. The album was again reissued again in 2012 as The Pearl Sessions. It contains the original album, six mono mixes, two live tracks and alternate takes of the songs that constituted the Pearl vinyl album when Columbia Records released it in 1971. Recordings of Joplin and Paul Rothchild talking between takes give the listener insight into their creative musical process. In 2016 Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab released the album on SACD and double 45 RPM vinyl, the SACD was mastered by Rob LoVerde while the vinyl was cut by Kreig Wunderlich assisted by LoVerde. (wikipedia)

Janis Joplin’s second masterpiece (after Cheap Thrills), Pearl was designed as a showcase for her powerhouse vocals, stripping down the arrangements that had often previously cluttered her music or threatened to drown her out. Thanks also to a more consistent set of songs, the results are magnificent — given room to breathe, Joplin’s trademark rasp conveys an aching, desperate passion on funked-up, bluesy rockers, ballads both dramatic and tender, and her signature song, the posthumous number one hit “Me and Bobby McGee.” The unfinished “Buried Alive in the Blues” features no Joplin vocals — she was scheduled to record them on the day after she was found dead. Its incompleteness mirrors Joplin’s career: Pearl’s power leaves the listener to wonder what else Joplin could have accomplished, but few artists could ask for a better final statement. (by Steve Huey)

I wonder if Janis knew she was recording a masterpiece at the time. i doubt it, but this her 4th & final lp is not only her best but one of the best classic rock lps of all-time. here Janis has the prefect blend of blues, pop, folk & rock in the performance & choice of songs to complement her always extraordinary voice. the Full-Tilt Boogie Band play with tasteful restraint, not needing to overplay to prove their chops foreshadowing quality playing such as Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers.

the closing song “Get It While You Can” is a fitting epitaph given Janis’ untimely death. i mourn the lost of what could have been had Janis lived. she finally found her musical balance but unfortunately died before she could have created more. i am grateful that she left us with a perfect album. (Art Moy)

Personnel:
Richard Bell (piano)
Brad Campbell (bass)
Janis Joplin (vocals, guitar on 07.)
Ken Pearson (organ)
Clark Pierson (drums)
John Till (guitar)
+
Sandra Crouch (tambourine)
Bobbye Hall (percussion)
Bobby Womack (guitar on 09.)
+
background vocals:
Phil Badella – John Cooke – Vince Mitchell

Tracklist:
01. Move Over (Joplin) 3.40
02. Cry Baby (Ragovoy/Berns) 3.57
03. A Woman Left Lonely (Penn/Oldham) 3.30
04. Half Moon (John Hall/Johanna Hall) 3.53
05. Buried Alive In The Blues (Gravenites) 2.25
06. My Baby (Ragovoy/Shuman) 3.44
07. Me And Bobby McGee (Kristofferson/Foster) 4.31
08. Mercedes Benz (Joplin/Neuwirth/McClure) 1.48
09. Trust Me (Womack) 3.16
10. Get It While You Can (Ragovoy/Shuman) (Howard Tate 1966 rendition) 3.23
+
Studio outtakes:
11. Happy Birthday, John (Happy Trails) (Evans) 1.12
12. Me And Bobby McGee (demo version) (Kristofferson/Foster) 4.45
13. Move Over (alternate version) (Joplin) 4.24
14. Cry Baby (alternate version) (Ragovoy/Berns) 4.53
15. My Baby (alternate version) (Ragovoy/Shuman) 3.56
16. Pearl (instrumental) (Bell/Pearson/Till/Campbell/Pierson) 4.27
+
Live from the Festival Express Tour, Canada, June/July 1970:
17. Tell Mama (Toronto, June 28, 1970) (Carter/Daniel/Terrell) 6.48
18. Half Moon (Toronto) (John Hall/Johanna Hall) 4.40
19. Move Over (Calgary, July 4, 1970) (Joplin) 4.44
20. Maybe (Winnipeg, July 1, 1970) (Barrett) 3.56
21. Summertime (Winnipeg) (G.Gershwin/Heyward/I.Gershwin) 4.41
22. Little Girl Blue (Calgary) (Rodgers/Hart) 3.56
23. That’s Rock ‘n’ Roll (Toronto) (Bell/Pearson/Till/Campbell/Pierson) 6.20
24. Try (Just A Little Bit Harder) (Toronto) (Ragovoy/Taylor) 8.35
25. Kozmic Blues (Toronto) (Joplin/Mekler) 6.07
26. Piece Of My Heart (Toronto) (Ragovoy/Berns) 5.23
27. Cry Baby (Toronto) (Ragovoy/Berns) 6:.33
28. Get It While You Can (Calgary) (Ragovoy/Shuman) 7.22
29. Ball And Chain (Calgary) (Thornton) 8.10

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**

From the Janis Joplin scrapbook:

More from Janis Joplin:

The official website:

Janis Joplin – This Is (1965)

Janis Lyn Joplin was born in Port Arthur, Texas, on January 19, 1943, to Dorothy Bonita East (1913–1998), a registrar at a business college, and her husband, Seth Ward Joplin (1910–1987), an engineer at Texaco. She had two younger siblings, Michael and Laura. The family belonged to the Churches of Christ denomination.

Her parents felt that Janis needed more attention than their other children. As a teenager, Joplin befriended a group of outcasts, one of whom had albums by blues artists Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, and Lead Belly, whom Joplin later credited with influencing her decision to become a singer. She began singing blues and folk music with friends at Thomas Jefferson High School. Former Oklahoma State University and Dallas Cowboys Head Coach, Jimmy Johnson, was a high school classmate of Joplin.

Joplin stated that she was ostracized and bullied in high school. As a teen, she became overweight and suffered from acne, leaving her with deep scars that required dermabrasion.[15][22][23] Other kids at high school would routinely taunt her and call her names like “pig,” “freak,” “nigger lover,” or “creep.”  She stated, “I was a misfit. I read, I painted, I thought. I didn’t hate niggers.”

Joplin graduated from high school in 1960 and attended Lamar State College of Technology in Beaumont, Texas, during the summer and later the University of Texas at Austin (UT), though she did not complete her college studies. The campus newspaper, The Daily Texan, ran a profile of her in the issue dated July 27, 1962, headlined “She Dares to Be Different.” The article began, “She goes barefooted when she feels like it, wears Levis to class because they’re more comfortable, and carries her autoharp with her everywhere she goes so that in case she gets the urge to break into song, it will be handy. Her name is Janis Joplin.” While at UT she performed with a folk trio called the Waller Creek Boys and frequently socialized with the staff of the campus humor magazine The Texas Ranger.

Joplin cultivated a rebellious manner and styled herself partly after her female blues heroines and partly after the Beat poets. Her first song, “What Good Can Drinkin’ Do”, was recorded on tape in December 1962 at the home of a fellow University of Texas student.

She left Texas in January 1963 (“Just to get away,” she said, “because my head was in a much different place”), hitchhiking with her friend Chet Helms to North Beach, San Francisco. Still in San Francisco in 1964, Joplin and future Jefferson Airplane guitarist Jorma Kaukonen recorded a number of blues standards, which incidentally featured Kaukonen’s wife Margareta using a typewriter in the background. This session included seven tracks: “Typewriter Talk”, “Trouble in Mind”, “Kansas City Blues”, “Hesitation Blues”, “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out”, “Daddy, Daddy, Daddy”, and “Long Black Train Blues”, and was released long after Joplin’s death as the bootleg album The Typewriter Tape.

In 1963, Joplin was arrested in San Francisco for shoplifting. During the two years that followed, her drug use increased and she acquired a reputation as a “speed freak” and occasional heroin user. She also used other psychoactive drugs and was a heavy drinker throughout her career; her favorite alcoholic beverage was Southern Comfort.

In May 1965, Joplin’s friends in San Francisco, noticing the detrimental effects on her from regularly injecting methamphetamine (she was described as “skeletal”[16] and “emaciated”), persuaded her to return to Port Arthur. During that month, her friends threw her a bus-fare party so she could return to her parents in Texas. Five years later, Joplin told Rolling Stone magazine writer David Dalton the following about her first stint in San Francisco: “I didn’t have many friends and I didn’t like the ones I had.”

Back in Port Arthur in the spring of 1965, after Joplin’s parents noticed her weight of 88 pounds (40 kg),[23] she changed her lifestyle. She avoided drugs and alcohol, adopted a beehive hairdo, and enrolled as an anthropology major at Lamar University in nearby Beaumont, Texas. During her time at Lamar University, she commuted to Austin to sing solo, accompanying herself on acoustic guitar. One of her performances was at a benefit by local musicians for Texas bluesman Mance Lipscomb, who was suffering with ill health.

Joplin became engaged to Peter de Blanc in the fall of 1965. She had begun a relationship with him toward the end of her first stint in San Francisco. Now living in New York where he worked with IBM computers, he visited her to ask her father for her hand in marriage. Joplin and her mother began planning the wedding. De Blanc, who traveled frequently, ended the engagement soon afterward.

In 1965 and 1966, Joplin commuted from her family’s Port Arthur home to Beaumont, Texas, where she had regular sessions with a psychiatric social worker named Bernard Giarritano at a counseling agency that was funded by the United Fund, which after her death changed its name to the United Way. Interviewed by biographer Myra Friedman after his client’s death, Giarritano said Joplin had been baffled by how she could pursue a professional career as a singer without relapsing into drugs, and her drug-related memories from immediately prior to returning to Port Arthur continued to frighten her. Joplin sometimes brought an acoustic guitar with her to her sessions with Giarritano, and people in other offices within the building could hear her singing.

Giarritano tried to reassure her that she did not have to use narcotics in order to succeed in the music business. She also said that if she were to avoid singing professionally, she would have to become a keypunch operator (as she had done a few years earlier) or a secretary, and then a wife and mother, and she would have to become very similar to all the other women in Port Arthur.[23]

Approximately a year before Joplin joined Big Brother and the Holding Company, she recorded seven studio tracks with her acoustic guitar. Among the songs she recorded were her original composition for the song “Turtle Blues” and an alternate version of “Cod’ine” by Buffy Sainte-Marie. These tracks were later issued as a new album in 1995, titled This is Janis Joplin 1965 by James Gurley.  (by wikipedia)

Watching that other misfit Paris Hilton bawl about her jail sentence made me reach for this recording. Janis Joplin was from the other side of Paris Hilton’s social class. By all accounts, Joplin never fitted whether in school or with her peers. The only time she felt super-confident was when she sang. Hilton on the other hand is a misfit because she behaves like a spoilt brat. Both have in common a recording career.

The seven-tracks on this CD come from an audition Joplin did before she joined Big Brother & The Holding Company. The year of this recording is either 1964 or 1965. Where it was recorded remains a mystery. The tapes come from James Gurley, the Big Brother guitarist. Originally just Joplin and her acoustic guitar, Gurley has embellished it with a full band to make this sound like a real Big Brother session.

“It’s unheard Janis Joplin material,” Gurley says. “It’s probably the best album she’s done since ‘Cheap Thrills.'”

“It was a work of love,” he says. “I wanted it to be something, if she was looking over my shoulder, she would be proud of. I tried to keep her first and I didn’t change what she did.

“This is what she was doing before Big Brother. I wanted to bring out that innocence before she got crazy from rock ‘n’ roll.”

In 1996, Gurley said he made 100 copies and gave them away or sold some through eBay. These seven tracks later appeared on the nine-CD fan compilation Blow All My Blues Away that collected everything else Columbia saw fit not to release. But Gurley has shied from releasing this citing ownership issues. He owns the master reel-to-reel tape but clearly Joplin’s family would have something to say about any release.

Since this is pre-fame Joplin, her voice is unblemished by alcohol and drug abuse – just pure blues phrasings. The original version of Turtle Blues, Joplin’s own composition, is here plus a different version of Buffy St Marie’s Codine which Joplin adlibbed with her own lyrics.

Joplin was singing here in the hope of getting into Big Brother. Everything is pretty. In Alice Echols’ book, Scars Of Sweet Paradise, she quotes Joplin friend Frank Davis offering a view of Joplin’s darker side, when she wanted to piss everyone.

“I have a recording of her doing a song where she’s yelling at the top of her lungs for 10 minutes about dead black people,” he says. “She was too damn strong for everybody.”

After just one album with Big Brother, by mutual consent, Joplin split for the bright lights and the big city. (by the Big O Archive)

What a great album … Janis Joplin celebrates her own and very special way to sing the Blues … what a voice !

Personnel:
Hongo Gurley -(drums, tambourine)
Ras Jab Jimmy (bass, tambourine, afucho cabasa)
Janis Joplin (vocals, guitar)
Abie Perkins (piano)
Etaoin Shrdlu -(guitar)
+
Giuseppe Insingo (bass on 02., 04. + 05.)
+
background vocals:
St. James Tabernacle Choir
The “Grouchy old Hillbilly” – Slide Guitars

Tracklist:
01. Apple Of My Eye (unknown) 2.29
02. Zip Train 219 Train) (Desdunes) 3.18
03. Cod’ine (Sainte-Marie/Joplin) 4.27
04. (Nobody Knows You When Your Are) Down and Out (Cox) 3.42
05. Turtle Blues (Joplin) 2.47
06. I Ain’t Got A Worry (Axton) 3.36
07. Brownsville (Jackson) 2.46

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Janis Lyn Joplin (January 19, 1943 – October 4, 1970)

 

Janis Joplin – I Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again Mama! (1969)

I Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again Mama! is a 1969 studio album by Janis Joplin. It was the first solo studio album Joplin recorded after leaving her former band, Big Brother and the Holding Company, and the only one released in her lifetime (Pearl was released 3 months after Joplin’s death).I Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again Mama! is a 1969 studio album by Janis Joplin. It was the first solo studio album Joplin recorded after leaving her former band, Big Brother and the Holding Company, and the only one released in her lifetime (Pearl was released 3 months after Joplin’s death).

Recording began on June 16, 1969 in New York City and ceased on June 26. For the album, Joplin recruited guitarist Sam Andrew of the Holding Company to take part in development, along with the Kozmic Blues band. Joplin installed a brass and horn section into the tracks, a feature her previous band would not allow. It was a total contrast to Joplin’s previous psychedelic rock as the compositions chosen were more soul and blues driven. All but two tracks were cover versions that producer Gabriel Mekler and Joplin chose. The other two tracks, “One Good Man” and “Kozmic Blues”, were written by Joplin herself. Overall, the album was a more polished work, but with the lack prominent accompanists like the Holding Company, the album was not as successful as Cheap Thrills.

The LP was released on September 11, 1969 and reached gold record status within two months of its release.[5] It was issued by Columbia under #KCS 9913. The first pressing was titled only on the spine and disc labels. Later, the title of the album was added as a sticker designed by R. Crumb and stuck to the shrink wrap. The album was re-released by Columbia as WKPC 9913 and again as PC 9913 both on vinyl. The re-issued album did not have the same title sticker, instead the re-issues had the title printed on the cover and the Sony’s “Nice Price” sticker on the shrink wrap. Some of the newer PC 9913 have a bar code. A 180 Gram Limited Edition classic LP high-definition Virgin Heavy Vinyl pressing was also released in 2010. Technically, this album was reissued on vinyl a total of six times. Many collectors are mistaken in thinking the issue that included the R. Crumb sticker was the original issue; it was not. The hard-to-find original sealed issue is KCS 9913, which had no R. Crumb sticker, and the title was only on the spine of the cover. Columbia Records released as a single Kozmic Blues b/w Little Girl Blue 4-45023. The single peaked at #41 on the US Billboard charts.

I Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again Mama! also contains the hits “Try (Just A Little Bit Harder)”, “Kozmic Blues” and “To Love Somebody”. The CD reissue of the album includes the outtake cover of Bob Dylan’s “Dear Landlord”, with new lyrics and arrangements provided by Joplin, and versions of “Summertime” and “Piece of My Heart” recorded live at Woodstock as bonus tracks.

John Burks of Rolling Stone wrote in a November 1, 1969 interview praising Joplin’s vocal performance. However, he notes that her vocals are hindered by her backup band’s instrumental role in the album. Overall, Burks was satisfied with Joplin’s change in musical direction, but recommends “reaching the point where you are able to shut out the band”.

Janis Joplin’s solo debut was a letdown at the time of release, suffering in comparison with Big Brother’s Cheap Thrills from the previous year, and shifting her style toward soul-rock in a way that disappointed some fans. Removed from that context, it sounds better today, though it’s still flawed. Fronting the short-lived Kozmic Blues Band, the arrangements are horn heavy and the material soulful and bluesy. The band sounds a little stiff and although Joplin’s singing is good, she would sound more electrifying on various live versions of some of the songs. The shortage of quality original compositions — indeed, there are only eight tracks total on the album — didn’t help either, and the cover selections were erratic, particularly the Bee Gees’ “To Love Somebody.” On the other hand, “Try” is one of her best soul outings, and the reading of Rodgers & Hart’s “Little Girl Blue” is inspired. (by Richie Unterberger)

Personnel:
Sam Andrew (guitar, vocals)
Maury Baker (drums)
Brad Campbell (bass)
Lonnie Castille (drums)
Terry Clements (saxophone)
Jerry Edmonton (drums; uncredited)
Cornelius Flowers (saxophone)
Luis Gasca (trumpet)
Janis Joplin (vocals, guitar)
Richard Kermode (keyboards)
Goldy McJohn keyboards; uncredited)
Gabriel Mekler (keyboards)
Michael Monarch (guitar; uncredited)
+
Mike Bloomfield – guitar on 02., 03. ´08.)

Tracklist:
01. Try (Just a Little Bit Harder) (Ragovoy/Taylor) 3.57
02. Maybe (Barrett) 3.41
03. One Good Man (Joplin) 4.12
04. As Good As You’ve Been To This World (Gravenites) 5.27
05. To Love Somebody (B.Gibb/R.Gibb) 5.14
06. Kozmic Blues (Joplin/Mekler) 4.24
07. Little Girl Blue (Hart/Rodgers) 3.51
08. Work Me, Lord (Gravenites) 6.45
+
09. Dear Landlord (Session outtake) (Dylan/Joplin) Joplin 2.32
10. Summertime (Live at Woodstock) (G.Gershwin/I.Gershwin) 5.04
11. Piece Of My Heart (Live at Woodstock) (Ragovoy/Berns) 6.31

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Big Brother & The Holding Company – Same (1967)

The debut, self-titled album from Big Brother & the Holding Company is an evolving paradigm, ten tracks initially issued on Mainstream Records, a label that would have success in 1968 with “Journey to the Center of the Mind” by Ted Nugent’s Amboy Dukes. Unfortunately for Janis Joplin and Big Brother & the Holding Company, the respectable performances and all of the material on this disc are undercut by a weak production that sounds rushed. Recorded on December 12, 13, and 14 of 1966, it’s quite telling that perhaps the best two songs from the sessions, Peter Albin’s tribal-sounding “Coo Coo,” and Janis Joplin’s fiery “The Last Time,” were only available on a 45 RPM and played as treats on FM radio “rare tape” nights. Those two songs have an intensity and drama missing from laid-back album cuts like “Easy Rider” and “Intruder.” Big Brother’s strength sans Janis was their ability to experiment and rely heavily on ideas to make up for their lack of musical prowess. Sad to say, there is little of that experimentation here. Even a potential science fiction Peter Albin composition, “Light Is Faster Than Sound,” comes off like an audition tape instead of the hit it could have been had it the cosmic explosion of a “Journey to the Center of the Mind.” The album does contain interesting studies of future classics, like Moondog’s “All Is Loneliness” (the street poet eventually signing with Columbia himself), and Joplin’s creative arrangement of “Down on Me,” making it more of an entertaining textbook than a deep musical experience.

It was the lack of product from superstar Janis Joplin which kept putting an emphasis on this release with little else available to satisfy rabid fans who couldn’t get enough Janis. Columbia picked up the album and re-issued it in its original form, then reissued it again with “The Last Time” and “Coo Coo” added. In 1999, former Cars’ manager Steve Berkowitz coordinated a superb 14-track re-release with invaluable Sam Andrew liner notes and an eight-page booklet, alternate takes of “Call on Me” and “Bye, Bye Baby” opening up the vaults and giving more insight. Almost four decades after their release, these naive recordings remain a precious snapshot because of the spirit and enthusiasm of the superstar just emerging from the grooves. (by Joe Viglione)

And this was the start of the short but great career of Janis Joplin … one of the best female singers in the rock history !!

Personnel:
Sam Andrew (guitar)
Peter Albin (bass)
David Getz (drums)
James Gurley (guitar)
Janis Joplin (vocals)

Tracklist:
01. Bye, Bye Baby (John) 2.40
02. Easy Rider (Gurley) 2.26
03. Intruder (Joplin) 2.30
04. Light Is Faster Than Sound (Albin) 2.33
05. Call On Me (Andrew) 2.35
06. Women Is Losers (Joplin) 2.06
07. Blindman (Getz/Gurley/Joplin/Albin/Andrew) 2.26
08. Down On Me (Traditional) 2.07
09. Caterpillar (Albin) 2.21
10. All Is Loneliness (Moondog) 2.32
+
11. Coo Coo (Single) (Albin) 1.59
12. The Last Time (Single) (Joplin) 2.17
13. Call On Me (alternate take) (Andrew) 2.42
14. Bye, Bye Baby (alternate take) (John) 2.39

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