With the exception of one or two of her hits, I can honestly say
\nI’ve not been a big fan of Janis Joplin. I don’t know why this is,
\nbut I’ve never had a major drawing to pick up her whole
\ndiscography. Some years ago, I even decided to pick up a copy of
\nCheap Thrills<\/i> by Big Brother And The Holding Company, a band
\nwith which Joplin sang in the late ’60s. I don’t remember my exact
\nopinion of it, but it hasn’t left the storage of the Pierce
\nArchives since.<\/p>\n
Now, 30 years after they were recorded, two shows of Big Brother
\nAnd The Holding Company with Joplin leading the band have surfaced
\non
\nLive At Winterland ’68<\/i>. Not only are the shows in pristine
\nshape, but they also allow the listener to peek in on a band being
\nshaped by the times it lived in – and it allowed me to gain a
\ngreater appreciation for Joplin.<\/p>\n
The album could literally be split down the middle of its 14
\ntracks; although I could be wrong, I think it’s safe to say that
\neach seven-song group is the set that Big Brother performed at
\nWinterland that particular evening. (It accounts for the two
\ndifferent versions of “Down On Me” that appear on this album – and
\nit is interesting to hear the differences in the song between using
\nit as a set opener and as a set closer.)<\/p>\n
Most of the songs are sung by Joplin, though on a few cuts,
\nguitarists James Gurley and Sam Andrew and bassist Peter Albin take
\nover the lead throat slot. (Drummer David Getz only provides
\nbackground vocals throughout the album.) And while Joplin was no
\ndiva vocal-wise, she made up in charisma and emotion what she might
\nhave lacked in style; just check out how she could turn a hoarse
\nscream into a whisper almost effortlessly at different points in
\nthe album.<\/p>\n
If only it were so easy to say which of the two nights was the
\nbetter set. The show from April 12, 1968 includes a raucous
\nperformance of “Combination Of The Two,” and an impassioned “I Need
\nA Man To Love”. “Easy Rider,” with Gurley on lead vocals, is a weak
\nnumber; the bass sounds out of tune with the guitars (something I
\npicked up during Albin’s bass solo), and Gurley delivers a
\nDylan-like recitation of the body of the song. It just doesn’t
\nwork.<\/p>\n
However, other performances from that night like “Farewell Song”
\nand “Flower In The Sun” turn out to be pleasant surprises, and are
\njust as enjoyable as Big Brother’s best-known song “Piece Of My
\nHeart”.<\/p>\n
The second evening’s show features “Piece Of My Heart,” which
\nmust have been a relatively new song to the band, as its
\nperformance is tentative at times. It does, however, give me an
\nappreciation for the original track – I can no longer write Big
\nBrother off as a trippy band who weren’t a tight-knit group of
\nmusicians. If anything, their loose sound betrayed the tightness of
\ntheir rhythm section. The two longest performances on the disc,
\n“Light Is Faster Than Sound” and “Ball And Chain,” turn out to be
\nthe best on the album.<\/p>\n
\nLive At Winterland ’68<\/i> is especially noteworthy for the
\nquality of these shows. If they did any type of doctoring to these
\ntapes to clean them up after 30 years, you can hardly notice; it
\nalmost sounds like you’re in front of the stage dancing to these
\nnumbers.<\/p>\n
One nagging question does pop up: With Joplin long dead, will
\nthere be any interest in this release? I sure hope so; what
\nLive At Winterland ’68<\/i> does for any listener is preserve a
\nslice of psychedelic history, as well as the growing pains of one
\nof the biggest bands of the time. It also serves as a much better
\nintroduction to both Big Brother and Joplin than any other album in
\neither’s discography will uncover.<\/p>\n
\nLive At Winterland ’68<\/i> is a unique find in an era of
\nhaphazard reissues and discoveries. It is an album that breaks new
\nground, creates a new level of interest in the band, and most
\nimportantly, tops the original material hands down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27683,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6230],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-39059","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-janis-joplin","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39059","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=39059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39059"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39059"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}