Customer Reviews

Joy of Cooking

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1970: I'm watching TV--some local program on a San Francisco station. A local group is performing for some talk show host. Two female singers and four guys backing them. They call themselves the Joy of Cooking. I am mesmerized, enough to spend money I don't have to buy their LP. Over the next few months I nearly wear it out, playing it again and again. JOC comes out with two more releases: "Closer to the Ground" and "Castles." I buy both of them, and though I do not find them quite as rewarding, I love them just the same.

Thirty four years later I'm going through my LP collection, thinking about ripping some MP3 from long-forgotten stuff when I run across JOC. So much of my collection from that era does not sit well with me these days--too pretentious, too self-indulgent. Even some of my old Janis Joplin just don't hold up. But JOC is as rich and creamy as the day I brought it home.

So I go to Amazon.com to see if any members of JOC are still around, and what do I find? This re-release. Wonderful.

These people were musicians first, last and still. They represent the best of their genre, their time. Forget most of the popular groups of the Woodstock generation. Get this CD and experience a real treasure.

I've had this album on tape in the early eighties, and waited for its re-issue since then. It's a classic country blues 60's album,
but unlike Let It Bleed for instance (yes, I think it's better),it's also clever and has a wonderful emotional attitude. First of all, this is the first rock(?) group whose material was written by the women in it. Terry Garthewaite is a happy Janis Joplin with great musical blues skills, a little harsh, but uptempered and free. She is a great improviser, as you can hear in the group's version for Mockingbird, that also has a touch of new-left critisizm in it. Toni Brown is the thinker and feeler. In a period that was put the word "free" before every statement, she talks wonderfully about attachments and about an intimate altenative that the cultural revolution may have suggested. Red wine at noon is an example. the two are mixed well together and are backed up by very good musicions. It is more or less a concept album, and one of the best examples of this ganre. We Are Living I Our Children's House, the last track, is a marvelous anthem for our relation to our planet and our future because it is presented on such a personal level.I can't overrate this, and can keep on writing about it forever, but in one sentence, thisis an excellnt album musically, whose content can be an inspiration for a life time.How is that for a compliment? thanks, Terry, toni, Fritz, Jeff and Ron.

Seems to have taken forever for the reissuing of the Bay area's Joy Of Cooking's three (only three!) albums, but here they are. Earthy and visceral, each has its particular charms. This, the first, has several fine examples of mellow SF post-Grateful Dead acoustic rock/soul/gospel/blues/etc hybrids. Of particular note are "Red Wine At Noon" with Teri Brown and Toni Garthwaite's lovely harmonizing and the deceptively unassuming "Too Late, But Not Forgotten" which features some mellifluous piano work from Brown as well. The band stretches out a bit on "Did You Go Downtown" - - the call-and-response vocals are quite affecting; it must have been awesome when performed live. And "Children's House" is a great closer, with a lengthy and layered choir crescendo lending an enthralling gospel effect before the song settles down to a practically post-coital purr to end the album. Great stuff. Joy Of Cooking didn't get a whole lot of airplay in the early 70s, and most people don't even know they ever existed. Too bad. Here's your chance to do some catching up on one of the era's finest.

I had heard this album in it's entirety way back in 1973, and had looked for it until it's current release date on CD in 2003, a full 30 years later. Well, not quite that long, but from the waning days of vinyl pressings and had relinquished my albums for the durability of aluminum discs. Listening again to an old friend, I was immediately transported back to a gentler, deeper, and definately more evolved musical era. This disc's music is in pace with the 60's, though completely timeless. Brown and garthwaite's vocals are the driving force, but not without Garthwaite, Kasten, and Wilson's music, for, without one, the whole thing couldn't have come together. It is a rarity and should be in any collection of 60's music, a true gem to not be missed, and anyone who has not, has truly missed something for a lifetime. As is the fate of much wonderful music, I'm glad that this one was not lost in time. Edward A. Schatz.

The three Joy of Cooking albums are each magnificent.

I knew Terry when she was singing in a Berkeley coffee shop. She sang like this in the tiny room and brought goose bumps to me.

Later when they were famous and on the cover of Time magazine, Terry and Toni did a freebee in front of the Berkeley student union. We mobbed the place and it was the singular most joyful concert I have ever experienced (free didn't hurt either).

These three albums bring them back--listen with both ears in a quiet room and imagine they are singing to you. They are.

But there's still something missing. They cut at least two other albums together, but didn't refer to them as Joy of Cooking albums--"Cross Country", and "Good for You Too" (MCA 386). I'm still looking for these two...and you should be too. They are incredible.

When I first heard this there were not that many female rockers, basically Grace & Janis. But this was different, defiant, yet gentle. Stong and nurturing. It was joyous and it cooked. Great to see it out on CD.

Oren is right...except I don't know if I agree the music/album is better than Let it Bleed, which to me is an all time classic. I met Oren in 1995, his taste in music is Dead On...those of us who appreciate, like, and still listen to the 60's bluesy rock are not only aging hippies! (well, I guess I am...)- this is just amazing music. Thank you Oren!

This album was given to me as a birthday gift in 1971 and remains one of my favorite albums of all time. I love these women, I love the folk-rock music, I love the songs. If they did a movie of my life, I'd like this to be the background music.

I was 16 years old when I picked this album up on a whim, intrigued by the cover art (which isn't used in this reissue, sadly), not having heard a note of it -- and it quickly found a warm place in my soul, remaining a favorite to this day. Toni & Terry were vibrant new voices, their songs a wonderful mixture of blues, jazz, rock, country, and folk. There was a maturity to their work, a certain wisdom born of living, experiencing both happiness & heartbreak -- but they could rock, lay down a sinuous groove, and burn both slow & fast! To this day, "Too Late, But Not Forgotten" hits me where I live -- "Hush" makes my heart beat with delight -- "Down My Dream" sends me floating in memories -- "Only Time Will Tell Me" makes me think about the future -- but every song here is a winner. And they only got better with each new album!

Not quite a lost band, but certainly not as well known as they deserved. Here's the chance to discover a genuine treasure -- most enthusiastically recommended!

"Joy of Cooking" was a group that embodied the communal, feminist ethos of the early 1970's. It was fronted by two very talented women--Toni Brown, a versatile keyboardist, vocalist and strong songwriter, and Terri Garthwaite, a blueswoman with a sweet/sour voice similar to Bonnie Raitt.

This was their first album and also their best. "Brownsville/ Mockingbird", "Hush", and "Did You Go Downtown" were staples for the band in concert, where they stretched out on jams that sometimes lasted half an hour.

They were a band that had no stars, yet they could be surprising. "Did You Go Downtown", for example, features a fine solo by Brown on kalimba (thumb piano). She also sparkles on piano, exhibiting some influences jazz player Vince Guaraldi, and she could play some funky organ, too.

In concert, the group was invariably a crowd pleaser, exceeding expectations. They didn't rely on volume, or overpowering guitar solos---instead they would draw the audience in. They were an airtight band, and all the musicians perfectly complemented each other...totally unpretentious (though some of the "earth mother" sentiments could cause you to want to pick the granola from your teeth).

This album is the place to start.