Customer Reviews

Living with the myth of Janis Joplin. The History of Big Brother & the Holding Co.1965-2005

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

 

 

What Mick Jagger is for the Rolling Stones, or Freddie Mercury for Queen, Janis Joplin was for Big Brother & the Holding Company. Joplin's story still determines the public view of the Band. Her passion for an intense life and her expressive singing made Janis famous. Like Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison she is one of the outstanding stars of the Rock music of her time.

To many people, Big Brother and the Holding Company has always meant Janis Joplin. Big Brother, who gave Janis a platform for success by giving her the freedom and the energy to develop her musical style, were considered as amateurish and unprofessional by many reviewers. The critics downgraded Big Brother for a long time and in the Joplin biographies the band was marginalized. Janis Joplin became the singer of Big Brother in 1966, and in that group she found the space to become one of the best white blues singers in the world. Although Big Brother & the Holding Co. were known in the Bay Area of San Francisco a year before Janis Joplin joined them and although they still play today as an active band, there has never been written a real history of Big Brother.

This fame and glory of Janis Joplin overshadowed the band. Big Brother therefore is representative of all the overshadowed bands in music history. This book tells the band's story, how difficult it is to find an identity separate from that of Janis Joplin's overshadowing talent. As David Getz, the drummer of the band, says: "The fame of Big Brother is like a Golden Albatross. It hangs around your neck like a curse. But the curse is made of gold."

Big Brother & the Holding Co. were and are far more than a Janis Joplin backup band. They are, as music photographer Bob Seidemann says, "an organic, natural phenomenon, which grew like a plant from the soil. Janis Joplin became their flower." The exclusive focus on Janis Joplin distorts the meaning of Big Brother, and, indeed, of the sixties counterculture which was not about single "stars" but about the whole constellation of community. Big Brother were the pioneers of the San Francisco sound and belong to the outstanding representatives of the psychedelic music. Guitarist James Gurley was regarded as "the Father of psychedelic Music." The music journalist and publisher of the famous Haight Ashbury magazine Mojo Navigator, Greg Shaw, called him a "psychedelic Hero of the sixties."

Spörke's biography narrates, from the beginning in 1965, each Big Brother member's life story. Where they each came from? What are their roots? How they see their time with Janis Joplin? What they experienced after their Janis time?

The Book is based on Interviews with the following Persons:

Peter Albin, Bill Andrew, Sam Andrew, Ed Bogas, Todd Bolton, John Byrne Cooke, Peter Coyote, Ed Denson, Joe McDonald, Kathie McDonald, Dave Eskesen, Bob Flurie, Myra Friedman, David Getz, Mic Gillette, Nick Gravenites, Wavy Gravy, Richard Green, Richard Greene, James Gurley, Dan Hicks, Chet Helms, Julius Karpen, Bill Laymon, Lisa Law, Taj Mahal, Barry Melton, Stanley Mouse, Tim Murphy, Muruga, Mark Naftalin, David Nelson, Tary Owen, Cathy Richardson, David Schallock, Bob Seidemann, Greg Shaw, John Simon, Gregg Simpson, David Smith, Mike Somavilla, Jay Thelin, Linda Waldron, Peter Walsh, Baron Wolman

Praise about the book:

"I read from cover to cover your wonderful book. I couldn't put it down. You did a masterful job. I really became immersed in your book." Robert Altmann (Chief-photographer for Rolling Stone magazine. A leader in embracing digital photography, his recent work appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Mojo, The New York Times, People, San Fran cisco Chronicle, and San Francisco Examiner.)

0A

"Although the author was born after Big Brother and the Holding Company had splintered and its most famous member, Janis Joplin, had died, the affection that Michael Spoerke has for the band and the San Francisco counterculture from whence it emerged has fueled a tremendous project. Interviewing a host of participants and with full cooperation of the band's gentlemen, he has written a detailed, well-researched, sympathetic and well-reasoned account. It covers the entire history, from the formative years of the members to the band's inception, evolution, stardom, tribulations, disintegration, and reformation, all the way to the present." Craig Morrison (Canadian ethnomusicologist and author of American Popular Music: Rock and Roll)

"This is the only existing work on this seminal band, covering in depth their history before, during and after Janis Joplin. Based on countless interviews and the full cooperation of all surviving band members, and written by a longtime music expert." Greg Shaw (Founder of the Mojo-Navigator magazine, www.bomp.com)

Big Brother and The Holding Company is one of the legendary and almost mythical rock bands that brought the San Francisco Sound to the world. They along with The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Country Joe and The Fish, and Quicksilver Messenger Service led the psychedelic tidal wave that swept the Haight Ashbury in 1967.

Michael Spoerke's book first came out in German and was aimed at German and Austrian readers and fans of Big Brother in those countries. Sam Andrew the talented linguist and guitarist in Big Brother translated Spoerke's book into English now making the book available to the English speaking audience.

This is a book any fan of Janis and Big Brother would want to add to their home library. While there have been many books on Janis this is the first to concentrate on the band the was indeed overshadowed by her huge stardom. Of course it wasn't always like that. When Janis first came to the group straight from Texas, she was just happy to be part of the band. As time went on and her star rose higher and higher she soon felt that she had outgrown the band and moved on to create other bands that would be her back up group (Kozmic Blues Band and Full Tilt Boogie).

Big Brother member James Gurley is given the credit he surely deserves as being the father of psychedelic guitar playing. James was way ahead of his time. The book introduces all the Big Brother members: James Gurley, Peter Albin, Sam Andrew, and Dave Getz and describes each in depth before joining the group, while in the group and what they have done up to today.

The band continues to perform as Big Brother and The Holding Company and recently appeared all over the USA as part of the Heroes of Woodstock tour. Only Sam played at the 1969 Woodstock then with the Kozmic Blues Band. Sam has been the glue of the band keeping them playing over the years. Sam also was the musical director for the Off Broadway show Love, Janis.

Over the years I saw Big Brother perform with Janis during those heady days of the California Hall, Avalon and Fillmore in San Francisco. I also saw them without Janis with Kathi McDonald and Nick Gravenites singing lead. I am glad they are still around 40 years later and still playing and sounding great. They always had a very unique sound and no band has ever sounded quite like Big Brother and The Holding Company.

Michael Spoerke has put a face on the band members who helped Janis reach the top - she may not have made it without them. The only thing missing from the book are photos, however I did like the one and only photo on the cover of the book.

Many people grow up in the shadow of an older sibling or an over achieving parent and feel like they always have to measure up, or that they're being compared to, the siblings or parents. It's well known that these environments create its fair share of emotional baggage and debris.

Michael Spörke's brilliant book, "Living with the Myth of Janis Joplin", gives the low down on an inverted version of this type of environment. The book chronicles the history of Big Brother and the Holding Company that was the first band that Janis Joplin worked with and who was the catalyst for her meteoric rise to fame.

Notice that I didn't say that BBHC was her back-up band. Nothing could be further from the truth. Janis Joplin hit the hippie scene of San Francisco with dreams of being a singer. The problem was that she didn't have a band. Through some already well documented introductions, she was invited to join the already successful Big Brother and the Holding Company.

With incredible research and exhaustive interviews, Spörke has put together a definitive history of this legendary band and its members. He gives appropriate historical backgrounds of each of the members of the band and the thoughts and perspectives that each of them had of each other, of Janis joining the group, and their life after Janis dumped them.

Unlike other books that mention the band as being in the shadow of Janis, there are no lurid details that cater to certain people's prurient and voyeuristic interests. Just great, insightful information about the major players in this bands history is offered up. It's a great, clean "read".

What's also detailed very thoroughly is the schism that was caused when the band was being categorized as Joplin's "band members". While the perception is understandable, the book details why this caused the expected angst among the band and the residual effects on some of the members for years after Janis's untimely death.

The book provides what the band members have been up to from the time of Joplin's departure from BBHC to the time of the completion of the manuscript (2004). You'll finish the tome with the knowledge that each the gentlemen are multifaceted, complex and highly talented individuals who make a lasting impression wherever they go.

The book was originally published in German. What turns out to be an incredible touch and brilliant stroke of genius, Spörke worked with founding BBHC member, and expert linguist, Sam Andrew, to translate the book from German into English for publication in the U.S. Andrew's expertise with languages and the turn of an English phrase adds additional depth and insight into this must have book for BBCH and Janis Joplin fans.

If you're a Baby Boomer or just someone who loves and appreciates the music of the 60's and 70's, you'll want to buy two of these books. Why? Because, undoubtedly, you know someone who will also enjoy this incredible book.

Randy Patterson

Boomerocity.com

This is an intriguing, intelligent and well researched band bio of Big Brother & The Holding Company. One doesn't necessarily have to be an obsessed fan of the legendary group or even Janis Joplin, their female vocalist to enjoy this book. The author Michael Spoerke cleverly manages to describes the formation of the San Francisco hippy movement and the eruption of the Bay Area's West Coast psychedelic rock while focussing on the individual characters of Big Brother as well as on the movers and shakers of that magical musical era.

This book could have benefited from stills and an index, but the simplistic prose suitable for old and new Big Brother & The Holding Company converts, is so detailed it should definitely be part of the schools' Music History curriculum.