\n(Editor’s Note: This disc was reviewed as part of the<\/i> Box Of
\nPearls
\nbox set – hence the “Box Set Rating” at the bottom of the
\npage.)<\/i><\/p>\n
A lot of people probably think that Big Brother And The Holding
\nCompany – Janis Joplin’s first vehicle to success – only had one
\nalbum out, and that was
\nCheap Thrills<\/i>. Well, sure, it would be easy to make such an
\nassumption, seeing how much attention
\nCheap Thrills<\/i> still gets to this day.<\/p>\n
So people might be mildly surprised to hear of an
\nearlier<\/i> album from this group – their 1967 self-titled debut
\nalbum. Originally released on the Mainstream label, it did have
\nsome moderate success on the
\nBillboard<\/i> charts, but it was eclipsed by the rampant success
\nof
\nCheap Thrills<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Now, in a re-mastered edition complete with bonus tracks,
\nBig Brother And The Holding Company<\/i> is back to reclaim its
\nattention with the listener. And the funny thing is, it’s a damn
\ngood listen.<\/p>\n
The original ten songs that made up this album highlight Joplin,
\nthen in her early twenties, singing with a passion that was rarely
\nheard in someone so young. The gentle opening strains of “Bye, Bye
\nBaby” (complete with two-tracking of her vocals) almost deceive the
\nlistener into thinking that things coming from her lungs are always
\ngoing to be that gentle.<\/p>\n
But Joplin kicks things into full shred with tracks like “Call
\nOn Me” (a nice, slow blues number), “Women Is Losers” and “Down On
\nMe”. This album might not have made Joplin a star (actually, the
\nband’s performence at “Monterey Pop” took care of that), but it let
\npeople know that she was gunning for the spotlights, and she had
\nthe motor set on overdrive.<\/p>\n
Granted, there is a bit of ’60s spaciness on
\nBig Brother And The Holding Company<\/i>, but that was to be
\nexpected. And listening to it 32 years after it was first released,
\nit actually is interesting to go back and listen to (especially
\nseeing that I wouldn’t enter the picture until three years after
\nthis album came out). “Light Is Faster Than Sound” brings to mind a
\nfew memories of Steppenwolf, especially when the song kicks up the
\nspeed. “All Is Loneliness” is a beautiful chant, and is an
\nappropriate way to end the original album.<\/p>\n
There’s only one moment I could live without on this album:
\n“Easy Rider,” with an out-of-tune male vocal drawling the lyrics…
\nugh! (I’m assuming the vocalist is guitarist James Gurley, who also
\nwrote the song. Corrections on this would be appreciated from the
\naudience.) I don’t mind the country-like trippiness of it, and
\nJoplin’s background vocals tie things together, but the lead vocal
\nbarely tries to stay in tune. (For that matter, I noticed the same
\nthing on the live take on
\nLive At Winterland ’68<\/i>.)<\/p>\n
The four additional tracks tacked on to this album are all
\ninteresting, though I’ll freely admit I don’t hear much of a
\ndifference between the alternate takes of “Call On Me” and “Bye,
\nBye Baby” and the ones used on the album. The two non-album
\nsingles, “Coo Coo” and “The Last Time,” help to bring everything
\nabout this album together. (And, I will admit, opening and closing
\nthe album with “Bye, Bye Baby” helps to bring everything full
\ncircle.)<\/p>\n
\nBig Brother And The Holding Company<\/i> might not have been the
\nalbum to bring this band fame and fortune, but that was just around
\nthe corner. For now, this was a powerful first roar out of the box,
\nand should be checked out and enjoyed by Joplin fans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25054,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6125],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-36259","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-big-brother-and-the-holding-company","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36259"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36259"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}