Cheap Thrills [EXTRA TRACKS] [ORIGINAL RECORDING REISSUED] [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]

Janis Joplin, Big Brother

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 31, 1999)
• Original Release Date: August 31, 1999
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Extra tracks, Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B00000K2VU
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,194 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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  #46 in	Music > Classic Rock > Psychedelic Rock
  #48 in	Music > Rock > Blues Rock
  #81 in	Music > Rock > Oldies & Retro

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording
One of the most eagerly awaited albums in rock history, Big Brother & the Holding Company's 1968 major label debut (they'd previously released one thinly produced collection on the small Mainstream label) made good on all the hype generated by Janis Joplin's amazing performance at the Monterey Pop Festival the year before. Crowned by its hit single, a churning remake of Aretha Franklin's sister Erma's "Piece of My Heart," the album also contained Joplin's Monterey showstopper, Big Mama Thornton's "Ball and Chain," as well as the Gershwin classic "Summertime," on which Joplin's always underappreciated band (especially guitarists Sam Andrews and James Gurley) match her vocal intensity with their own ferocious playing. This expanded reissue includes two previously unissued outtakes ("Roadblock" and "Flower in the Sun") and a couple of heretofore unheard live cuts ("Catch Me Daddy" and "Magic of Love"), all from 1968. --Billy Altman

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Janis Joplin Takes No Prisoners With "Cheap Thrills.", February 3, 2005

By	Gavin B. (St. Louis MO) - See all my reviews

Dying young may be a good career move for a rock star, but it precludes any possibility of cashing in on that one last comeback tour. Janis Joplin became an icon and celebrated public figure in August of 1968, immediately after this album, "Cheap Thrills" was released and was dead three short years later. She didn't even live long enough to pay off advances from Columbia Records against future royalties. In the long run, Columbia Records was the primary beneficiary of Janis Joplin's premature death. Her record label has made a fortune from repackaging her catalog as deluxe boxed sets and anthologies over the years. It's ironic because no deluxe Columbia product has distilled the pure undiluted essence of Janis as much as this humble debut album.

For all its ragged glory, "Cheap Thrills" endures as the best showcase of Janis Joplin's extraordinary singing talent. Among the songs are the chart topping R&B classic "Piece of my Heart", the funky rhythm driven "Combination of the Two", a raw and soulful recasting Gershwin jazz classic "Summertime" and Janis' signature tune the show stopping "Ball and Chain."

A number of music critics took aim at Big Brother's musicianship and criticized the band as unprofessional and not up to par with Janis' talents. Janis, being young and riddled with insecurities, was wounded by the barbs. She left the band four short months after "Cheap Thrills." It's a shame, because Big Brother's ramshackle and reckless playing was uniquely attuned to the explosive dynamics of Joplin's "take-no-prisoners" approach to blues singing. She never found another group of musicians she bonded with like Big Brother. Her last album "Pearl" is technically better than "Cheap Thrills", but musical virtuosity is over-rated. Ask any hardcore fan of Janis and they will tell you that "Cheap Thrills" is the first CD they'll grab when their house is burning down.

25 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One For the Time Capsule, January 12, 2003

By	Gregor von Kallahann - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Janis Joplin has been gone for more than 32 years. That's a timespan five years longer than she actually lived! (She died, as did Hendrix and Morrison, at age 27.) In the intervening years, there has been some debate among critics,as well as the listening public, regarding her actual contribution to popular music. Did she single-handedly reinvent the role of the female popular singer, and if even she did, does that make her recordings still listenable 30 years hence. Or was her music in fact a "you-had-to-be-there" phenomenon?

You'll find plenty of people in both camps, to say nothing of all the adjacent camps in between. But Janis Joplin was just as controversial in her own day. For every listener who hailed her as "the greatest white blues singer of her generation," there were plenty who found her "screaming" unmusical and, basically, intolerable, just as they do today! The more things change, the more they stay the same.

As for the notion that "you really had to be there...," well, I kinda was and kinda wasn't. I grew up in the sticks and never saw Janis perform live, much to my regret. But I listened intently to all her records and watched her on TV and film. And I did GET IT, but not right away. Having read about Janis before I ever heard her, I imagined her having some dark, rich soulful voice. The raw, cracked "whiskey voice" evidenced on CHEAP THRILLS came as something of a surprise and, admittedly, took some getting used to, but eventually I acquired the taste, and then some. Janis's voice was indeed huge, but it was also raw, scorching and often painful.( I did eventually hear that dark, soulful voice too, by the way, but it belonged to another singer entirely--Mother Earth's equally great, but decidedly diferent Tracy Nelson.)

So CHEAP THRILLS, the first fully realized album featuring Janis Joplin, remains controversial to this day. Is it the best expression of Janis' (and Big Brother's) inspired amateurism? Or is it a sloppy, slapdash affair that only suggests what Joplin and the band were capable of in concert? I think it's the former and would maintain that no subsequent Joplin effort captured the exuberence and kinetic energy that she embodied. In fact, few other albums define the late 60s as well as this one. I love the fact that it was still a BAND at this juncture, and that Janis did not necessarily sing lead on every track (including the album's classic opener "Combination of the Two"). OK, she still overpowers when singing back-up, but the point was that this band was NOT ust Big SISTER and the Holding Co.

In fact, as others have noted, the unique, stuttering, almost manic guitar work of James Gurley and Sam Andrew is like nothing you've ever heard before. The opening for "Ball and Chain" alone sounds like Demiurges awakening from the bowels of the earth. No wonder, Janis is inspired to almost unheard of vocal pyrotechnics in response: she had all that beautiful noise to compete with.

The only caveat for neophytes with the "expanded tracks" version is to keep in mind that those extra tracks are a mixed blessing. Longtime fans may welcome the addition of the newly available stuff, but in some ways they do detract from the album's power. "Ball In Chain" ended the original LP on a stunning note: the four extra tracks here have their moments, but they were "outtakes" for a reason. As "put-ins" they actually lessen CHEAP THRILLS' considerable impact.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous sound quality and a few good bonus tracks., September 11, 1999

By A Customer

CHEAP THRILLS has always been a favorite album of mine and the digitally remastering of the classic record comes off well. "Combination of the Two" starts the album off with a bang, then segues into "I Need a Man to Love", what I think is the best song on the original album! "Summertime" and "Piece of My Heart" are classic Janis standards, "Turtle Blues" goes back to Janis' Texas roots, "Oh Sweet Mary" gets as acid-rock as you can get, and "Ball and Chain" finishes off what has been quite an experience! Now, everyone knows there was a wealth of material left over from the CHEAP THRILLS recording sessions and only two are here (for the others, look for FAREWELL SONG and JANIS 3-CD). "Road Block" is the best version of the song I've heard, but the band members' voices are toned down to make Janis sound like lead singer. It gives it a phony sound. The same with "Catch Me Daddy" the live track, which is horrible! "Flower in the Sun" is a good studio track, not the best version around (see LIVE AT WINTERLAND '68), but it is very good! "Magic of Love" is the best version I've heard of the song. I do think the bonus tracks throw off the atmosphere of the complete original album: hard, deep, dark, FANTASTIC rockin'! But they're nice to have. Any Janis released is good Janis, in my eye. But sometimes they need only be heard once.