Customer Reviews

Big Brother And The Holding Company

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This CD exhibits the raw talents of a San Francisco based band-Big Brother and the Holding Company, including Janis Joplin of course. Though in studio, you can sense the many talents of the musicians being exhibited here.
Though much more "toned down" than in proceeding recordings, you can still sense that a blues powerhouse and an acid-rock motif is about to happen. Consider "Bye,Bye Baby" and "Down on Me." Here, Janis sang in a very harsh voice and yet kept her bluesy-saloonstyle persona:notice the strong Texas accent.
A very common misconception is: Big Brother and the Holding Company was just a "backup band"for Janis. Well, any competant music fan would dissagree-strongly.Consider guitarist/bassist Peter Albin.Albin was one of the main songwtiters of many of the songs here:Light is Faster than Sound,","Coo Coo","Catipillar"and"Blindman." In fact, Albin based Catipillar on an idea he came up with when he wrote children songs."Coo Coo"(misreferenced as Jack of Diamonds)" is actually the song that would be re-versed as "Oh Sweet Mary" on the next album. You just have to admire Albin's intuition here.

Guitarist Sam Andrew was responsible for the beautifully meticulus guitar leads played throughout this album. Note that he was actually singing a duet with Janis during the track:Call on Me(not the outake).

Now guitarist James Gurley, on the other hand, is a totally different character here. Originally a folkie-fingerstyle picker, Gurley ushered his talents into the "acid rock" genre that BB&HC became famous for. Notice in "Blindman," the twangystyle of electric fingerstyle guitar playing was no other than the works of James Gurley.Unfortunately, this CD does not have the classic instrumental "Hall Of the Mountain King".Nonetheless the guitarwork and moaning of "All is Loneliness"was begun by Gurley himself.
The drumer Dave Getz, who used the bass and snare trum almost simultaneously while playing the majority of the songs-contributed quite well.

Notice:during the outakes and the endings of the songs performed on this CD, you could hear laughter and some dialogue.Most of the worldwide emerging musicians of the mid 1960s, (disregarding the Dead,the Airplane,etc,)tended to worry more about financial gains or musical survival(career ego).However, Big Brother just-played!Plain and simple;not only as one singer/backup band, but an ENSEMBLE.After listening to this CD, you will definitely know what I mean!!!!!!!!!!!!

There seems to be some confusion about this album. First, when initially released on Mainstream records in late '67, the title was, simply, Big Brother and the Holding Company. No special mention of Janis. That came with the several reissues on Columbia. Also with those reissues came the inclusion of the tracks Last time and Coo Coo. These songs were the A and B sides of a Mainstream single that was released along with the album. In other words, they were bonus tracks. Curiously, Coo Coo briefly made the top 100 in the pop charts. I have several versions BBHC, including a mono copy on Mainstream, and this is the first time the material has sounded right. The phase distortion that previously marred Janis's double-tracked vocals on Bye, Bye Baby is gone. Also, the instrumentals seem to have been re-synched (could be my imagination or just the drugs), so the band sounds more competant. The sound is as good as it's going to get and the price is right for this short, sweet slice of pre-history. For me Intruder makes it all worth the while.

These 1966 recordings sound much more folky, and soft than Big Brother's later albums. More subdued and punctual than the loose, heavily amplified BBHC I am used to hearing. Even gently psychedelic in a Lewis Carroll sort of way. "All Is Loneliness" is Janis at her most haunting. My mother got this album on record when it came out, and I listened to it often throughout my younger years. But now that I am older, I kind of stole it from her. I flipped when I saw the new reissue Cd in the store. A must buy for any Janis fan.

I can't honestly say that I'd give 5 stars for this effort, in and of itself, but rather for what it ushered in. This first effort to package the then unknown Big Brother into a kind of "Spanky And Our Gang" mold, to make them more commercially appealing, was not successful. B.B. was just too WEIRD for mainstream top 40, and never flourished there. They were at their best not in a studio atmosphere, but live, where all their un-restrained stream of conscienceness playing could be best captured, like the wild animal that they were (are.) Though Janis was just one of the group when this album was recorded, her legendary explosion soon followed, and it is interesting to hear her on this recording. Though her searing voice is featured as the lead in several songs, she was close to being a back up singer on many here, and, considering what followed, it is thrilling to hear her in her then almost anonymous glory. I still have an original copy of this album, with the wonderful psychedelic cover art by Stanley Mouse, it is one of my cherished possessions. I would recommend this more as a curio piece rather than a great listen, a precursor not only of the mythical Janis, but to one of the best, under-appreciated groups ever.

Janis is the greatest female singer of all time, no doubt about it. And her early acid rock with Big Brother doesn't deny that fact. The best song on here is Call On Me, a duet between Janis and...uh, Sam I think. But the album is a nice mix of folk, blues and acid rock. If you like Janis, or sixties music, add this to your collection.

Simply titled Big Brother & The Holding Company (1967), the album is Janis's one attempt to be part of a group ensemble instead of the "star." The performances are proof-positive that Janis never succeeded at blending in - she had too much power. In the opening number, "Bye, Bye Baby," Janis's voice is double-tracked. Thanks to the elegant re-mastering job, the raw beauty of that performance can now be fully appreciated. The group itself produced a fine debut album, but it's doubtful that the album would have been treated to such a lavish re-mastering job without the historical connection that Joplin provided. This is the best of the San Francisco sound: raw, driven rock where the musicians were genuinely talented. Sounds great!!

Many fans of Janis and the band Big Brother and the Holding Company find this album completely ridiculous when compared to their later work. But you know what? This album is excellent! The songs are usually very short (none exceed 3 minutes), but it's all fun listening, even the childlike "Caterpillar". All the songs have a certain something about them, a mix of folk rock, country, and rock and roll. The album reminds me of JEFFERSON AIRPLANE TAKES OFF: it's an excellent early beginning to an excellent band!

For those who do not already know this album, let me first echo a few of the caveats made by some of the other reviewers: 1) This being Big Brother's first album, made before the Monterey Pop Festival and thus before they, and most especially Janis, hit international stardom, it lacks the developed sound and careful production of Cheap Thrills. 2) Janis sings lead not on every song, but on every second track. 3) A number of the tunes must be taken for what they are: goofy, experimental forays by an inspired group of talented hippie-musicians who were still in the process of discovering what it is that they do best and in so doing developing a unique artistic identity. As such, songs like "Light is Faster Than Sound" and "Caterpillar" (one could add to this list "Harry" and "Gutra's Garden," both of similar ilk found not on this album but on Big Brother live collections) would never have made it onto an album with a more commercially-saavy producer, yet they reveal some of the competing--and fun--elements that were in the Big Brother mix from the beginning.

With those caveats in mind, this album is nevertheless a jewel, expecially when one considers how precious little material exists from Janis's greatest period, the mere two-and-a-half years she spent with Big Brother. Janis's voice here is higher, clearer, and more piercing than the raspiness of her Cheap Thrills period; it and the music have not yet found their way to the hugeness of drama, dissonance and pain that mark that second album.

But the voice and the sound on this album have their own special appeal. Songs like "Women is Losers," "Intruder," "Bye, Bye, Baby," "Down on Me" display a startlingly original talent, a voice with a phrasing and tone and force of conviction that leaps out at the listener with an urgency that is unlike any other.

Finally, a note to those who may already own the original vinyl edition of this album and therefore question whether they need another copy: The original issue and many of the subsequent re-issues did not contain the song "The Last Time," which was the B-side of a single. This song, written entirely (music and lyrics) by Janis, is astonishing. For me, hearing it for the first time only a few years ago, it was as though I had traveled back in time or Janis had traveled forward into the present and I was hearing Janis's incendiary being in all its searingly defiant nakedness and immediacy. It's at moments like these that I can't help but recall the words Janis sings in "Flower in the Sun":
"I see you looking up at the sky
(Oh, how high it is) --
You wonder if there is another me --
Oh, how can there be? How can there be?"

you know, this was actually pretty good. i listened to it for the first time, and i was surprised at the folky sound of it. i thought that it was gonna be a blues rock romp. i see this as a preamble to CHEAP THRILLS. janis gets her down, but she does not get off on this one like i thought she would. i like the stuff she does not do lead on as well. very interesting formats.

This is Big Brother and the Holding Company before Monterey Pop. The songs on this album are a bit more mellow and more folksy than those on Cheap Thrills. They're mostly very short songs with tight arrangements. With their appearance at the Monterey Pop Festival, Big Brother moved towards a harder, more guitar-driven sound as heard on Cheap Thrills.

Some of the highlights of this album are Bye Bye Baby, Call On Me, Light Is Faster Than Sound, and Blindman. Better versions of some of these songs, however, can be found on the Live At Winterland '68 CD. The Winterland version of Easy Rider, for example, is much better than this one. The same goes for Down On Me. I much prefer the harder rocking live version of Down On Me to this one. The album is pretty short so the bonus tracks are an added value, kind of.

A few complaints:

1. The cover artwork. They felt the need to add "Featuring Janis Joplin" to the cover. Same with the cover for Live At Winterland. The group was NOT called "Janis Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company".

2. The song lineup. The original track listing was as follows: Bye Bye Baby, Easy Rider, Intruder, Light Is Faster Than Sound, Call On Me, Coo-Coo, Women Is Losers, Blindman, Down On Me, Caterpillar, All Is Loneliness, The Last Time. I have no idea why they felt the need to take Coo-Coo and The Last Time out of order and pass them off as bonus tracks. With a programmable CD player, you can fix this error though.