Customer Reviews

Big Brother and the Holding CO with Janis Joplin / Nine Hundred Nights

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Told mostly by the members of Big Brother, you get to see Big Brother from the early days thru the Janis period. This film doesn't focus exclusively on Janis Joplin, it looks at the band and the effect that Janis Joplin had on the band.

Big Brother took a lot of flack for "holding Janis back" from some music critics, but, in truth, Janis was so incendiary on stage that any band would have taken a back seat to her, and looked mediocre in comparison. By itself this film is too tightly focused on commentary, the musical performances are mostly clips lasting a minute or so. However there is a separate menu selection that presents four full length songs performed live, all featuring Janis. This provides a good glimpse of the band, and Janis, and the energy they generated.

The main strength of this DVD is the opportunity to get to see members of Big Brother, as well as other contemporaries on the San Fransisco scene, reflect both on the band and the times. There was so much energy then, and it seems so far away now.

very good documentary on big brother and the holding company,my major interest was good vintage concert footage, so the highlight for me personaly were the four uninterrupted songs in the "extra" section of this dvd,three of the four i consider "very rare" as i have never seen them anywhere else,(b+w footage but great quality),please understand however that the bulk of this dvd is a documentary,one i consider very well done,but remember a "documentary" not a live concert film.***i think serious fans will enjoy having this in their collection.***

Three things save this DVD fom the trashcan - one is the selection of KQED-TV black and white performances (although the whole show is available on VHS). Two are the very interesting films of the band recording "Summertime" in the studio for the Cheap Thrills album. Three of course is Janis. She shines. For those who only know her visually from still photos and the Monterey Pop film, you may find yourself surprised at how very attractive she is in every way. Still photos never did her justice.

Unfortunately, beyond these three saving graces this hour long documentary is lackluster, managing to make this incredibly exciting period of American rock and roll just plain boring, along with the social revolution which fed it. Most of the band's performances within the documentary are nothing short of embarrassing, PROFOUNDLY bad, bad guitar, bad bass, bad backing vocals, and just sloppy timing. When this is accompanied by lifeless modern interviews with the band, it's tough to find pleasure on this disc. It comes across, I'm sad to say, as grown men whining incessantly about how nobody liked them and everyone liked Janis more.

Even though I've always regarded the band's live playing on Cheap Thrills and an alternate evening's performance which is out there someplace on CD as being brilliant, my opinion of Big Brother's abilities (and personal character) has shrunk mightily after watching 900 Nights. All bands have bad nights, and have bad recordings out there in circulation - most Airplane live recordings are pretty scary, but nothing like what we have here. One would have had to look very hard for performance clips that made the band sound worse.

The black cherry on the sour whipped cream is found in the extras, where each band member is asked how he heard about Janis' death. Peter Albin's and James Gurley's responses are bloodless and shameful. Honest perhaps, but show a little class guys. Remember that you're part of a legendary band for one reason and one reason alone. If it wasn't for that one particular lady, no one would know your names. Stop whining. Get over it. You got fired because you were a pretty lousy band who couldn't keep time or play decent solos. The Cheap Thrills album sounds like another band, frankly.

This is a decent documentary. The only problem is that when all the talking is done it was really the music that mattered and there is little of that here. The clips are just long enough to be frustrating. janis was great but through the years Big Brother has gotten the short end of the stick. Sure they were rough & could be sloppy by todays standard but there are some things to consider that made most of the bands, be it The dead, Buffalo Springfield,The Byrds, Jefferson Airplane to The monkees and even the Beatles, something less that stellar in performance. Stage monitors were either very poor or non existant. Another this is that electronic tuners weren't around yet. Have you ever tried to tune an electric guitar on stage with a pitch pipe? Another thing is that35 years after the passing of Janis Big Brother is still performing and touring the world. One of this documentary's problems is the unenviable task of translating the importance of Big Brother to a time nearly 40 years down the road. This work is watchable and will do till something better comes along.

The good news about this DVD is that it does focus more on Big Brother as a band, rather than exclusively on Janis Joplin, as other documentaries have. Unfortunately, the sound quality is overall very poor, and the images are often washed out. This is especially noticeable because much of the same footage has been used in such other films as JANIS, MONTEREY POP, BIG BROTHER : BALL AND CHAIN, and various TV specials (A&E, Biography, VH1 and so on) so comparisons are too easy to make. I have reissues of 78 rpm vinyl records on CD that have been digitally restored to offer clearer sound than this DVD, and have seen silent movie images similarly restored, so I can only surmise that this documentary was hastily thrown together with an eye to the fast buck and not much concern for production quality.
That being said, the DVD does offer a fascinating look at the band members then and now. Some of them look back on the Psychedelic Era with nostalgic fondness, while others have obviously been clinging to and rehearsing their grudges for the last 40 years. If they'd never met Janis Joplin, Big Brother's story might have been very different -- whether nobody would ever have heard of them, or whether they'd have made it big on their own raw-edged, bluesy terms, we'll never know. But this DVD offers tantalizing glimpses of not only what was, but what might have been.

I and my wife saw this band live yesterday. The band members are highly accomplished musicians and were downright huge listening too. Sam Andrew was incredible on his Summertime (he made the guitar arrangements in the famous song). I have seldom seen such an underrated band in my life. Big Brother and the Holding company was Janis Joplin's original band from - 66 to - 68. Before they became "Janis Joplin and Big Brother" the original members Sam Andrew and Peter Albin met in a Victorian mansion in San Francisco in 1962. They were a very active part of the creation of the hippie movement. In this DVD they recreate these out of the ordinary days. The DVD mix old material such as vivid recordings of concerts in 1967 with new and interesting interviews with the original band members. This DVD should be seen by everyone who are interested in the San Francisco sound and the hippie movement of the - 60's. The DVD is both carefully created and quite long running. The original band member's tour alot today. They don't seem to have let the years wear them down. Sam Andrew even took the time for a little chat after the concert yesterday. He was a very charming and friendly human being (far from the rock star image). I don't think they were "just a band of Janis Joplin". Sam Andrew and James Gurley did a lot in the sound and songs in many of the most famous Janis Joplin songs. They are in their own right worth listen too. Fascinating and brilliant individuals. In the 60's as well as today the band has at times been claimed of being unprofessional and lame. To me this is bull. This is not only unfair but also shows a lack of understanding for this specific type of music. Listen to Sam's guitar in Summertime or Gurleys guitar and singing in Coo Coo. Perhaps you will find as I that they were braver more experimental freewheeling than most bands of the time.

A fair portayal of the dynamic beween Janis and Big Brother. The band has been portraed as nothing more than a back up for Janis, when in fact it was an accomplished blues group in its own right. James Gurely was at the heart of Big Brother and the Holding Comapny. Unfortunately, Janis was too hot at the time to hold the egos together. The best jams came from the collaboration beween Gurley and Janis. Great to see the live perfomances!

This DVD is a gem! Any new information or lost footage of one of the most important women in music history is a must for any hardcore or casual fan of the late, great Miss Janis Joplin (and of course, the band that first made her name known to the world).

A fair portayal of the dynamic beween Janis and Big Brother. The band has been portraed as nothing more than a back up for Janis, when in fact it was an accomplished blues group in its own right. James Gurely was at the heart of Big Brother and the Holding Comapny. Unfortunately, Janis was too hot at the time to hold the egos together. The best jams came from the collaboration beween Gurley and Janis. Great to see the live perfomances!

I have to agree with some of the other reviewers; Janis, of course, is awesome. The documentary part is interesting, but I wanted to vomit when I heard some of the interviews with the rest of the members of Big Brother. All it seemed like they were doing was complaining that Janis left and became more famous than them. Some of them I considered to be actually disrespectful seeing as Janis is no longer alive and cannot even defend herself. One member even said that he thought they would have been better off with Janis never having joined the group... WHAT????!!!!