Live at Winterland 68 [Live]

Janis Joplin, Big Brother | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 2, 1998)
• Original Release Date: June 2, 1998
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Live
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B000007TSP
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #196,704 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

This belated collection of Janis Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company tracks features 14 performances, a dozen of which debut here. Of the two familiar selections, the version of "Ball and Chain" here is the same one that graces Cheap Thrills, and "Bye Bye Baby" can be heard on In Concert. No matter if it's not quite the definitive Big Brother album; it is nonetheless a hell of a lot of fun. Big Brother's playing is intense and relatively tight. A magnificent moment is heard in "I Need a Man to Love" when Joplin urges the band on. "C'mon boys, play," she prods, and a stunning Sam Andrews guitar solo ensues. If you've never heard Joplin do "Summertime," grab this album. If you have, grab it anyway. It's wonderful. --Myra Friedman

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars JOPLIN-- YOU ARE THERE, November 29, 1999

By 

F. Barton "Forrest W. Barton" (Newport, WA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Live at Winterland 68 (Audio CD)

This CD is what every live CD should be, that artist in concert, raw, unabridged, and true audience inspired highs. This one succeeds on ALL levels. The band, I once thought was okay, I now worhip, due to remastering. What fantastic work, and it's all here, in tremendous sound, for you to enjoy anytime. SUCH a great, electric feeling you get when you get a KILLER version of "Piece of my Heart" that is NEW, delivered gutsy, powerful on all levels as always, but NEW! A SHOCK of delight that this CD is FULL of! For those of us too young to have ever seen her live, this is a MUST HAVE! Her voice is incredible here, another tremendous version of "Ball and Chain", the old blues song, with Ma Bailey, never had anyone sing the HELL out of it like Janis. She was happy, full of the power of God, and in a great mood this night. Who wouldn't want to be with her?

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Cusp of Blues-Rock, February 25, 2001

By 

Kevin L. Nenstiel "omnivore" (Kearney, Nebraska) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Live at Winterland 68 (Audio CD)

With the release of this album, we're exposed to a crucial moment in Janis Joplin's evolution. Riding the counterculture success of their #60 release on Mainstream Records, Big Brother and the Holding Company were headlining a star show for Bill Graham that was so big it couldn't even be held in the Fillmore Auditorium, it had to be held at the Winterland ice arena (despite Sam Andrew singing "Everybody's dancin' at the Fillmore" in the song "Combination of the Two"). The band got higher billing even than Booker T and the MGs or Iron Butterfly. Anticipating the release of their first major-label record, the band was flying high, trying out new arrangements and new songs, including a little tune Joplin, in her stage banter, credited to Irma Franklin, but which would soon be inescapably her own, "Piece of My Heart."

This album is everything the band wanted to create with Cheap Thrills when they tried to sound like a live concert. Songs like "Down on Me," with which the band opened and closed, grab the listener by the ear and refuse to let go, while the band's take on the Gershwin brothers' old chestnut "Summertime (and the Livin's Easy)" transforms a sweet but dippy show tune into a true mournful operatic cry from the heart.

Unfortunately, you can also here the ultimate seeds of the band's breakup on this album. Joplin was a strong idealist and a lover of the blues for arts' sake, while the boys in the band tend to be glory hounds. They have every right to be, not one musician in the group isn't a strong soloist, and any one of them could have led a band of their own. Indeed, in the liner notes, guitarist Sam Andrew remembers playing this concert and being approached backstage by Steve Cropper of Booker T and the MGs and being invited to jam - a high compliment indeed. However, it was rather an open secret that Joplin was the star of the show by this point. Everyone came to hear her tear her throat out and sell her soul to the music in a way that Hendrix wouldn't fully grasp until he recorded with the Band of Gypsies, and Jim Morrison wouldn't understand until the L.A. Woman album.

On the song "Easy Rider," for example, guitarist James Gurley makes a game attempt to sing lead in duet with Joplin, but in the bridge in the middle of the song, Joplin can be heard chanting "Not a chance, honey, not a f***in' chance." Is she referring to the fact that Gurley's girl "ain't good lookin', but she sure can dance," or is she referring to Gurley thinking the crowd was there to see the band? Three songs - "Easy Rider," "Combination of the Two," and "Light is Faster Than Sound" - have all or part of the lead vocals sung by the boys, but the audible reception of the audience is unmistakably bland.

Most of these songs are available on Big Brother and the Holding Company's two albums, and of those that aren't, there are no real revelations. Indeed, for all its good qualities, this album has its flaws. Long periods while the band tunes up are obvious examples, but there's also the problem that the album is composed of two sets played at different points in the concert, and they don't mesh well. However, the version of "Piece of my Heart" included on this album is, if anything, superior to the single, on which the band tried to recapture the raw sound of a live concert appearance. They might have saved themselves the trouble and released this version. For sheer vocal and instrumental chops, this track by itself more than justifies the cost of the purchase. Other tracks are almost as strong, and for fans of blues-rock, and for fans of Janis, this album is really worthwhile.

The packaging, incidentally, is priceless. The front cover is done in the style of the acid-drenched art of 1968 with a picture of the whole group that still manages to make it plain that Janis is the focus. Inside, a history of the group, and a partial history of Joplin and her career, are interspersed with reminiscences from prominent female musicians, such as Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders, Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac, and Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls. Photographs of Janis in concert make the text pop out at the reader and demand immediate attention, and reminiscences from her bandmates let you know what it was like being up on stage with the living legend.

This album isn't without its faults, but the average fan will find it enjoyable, and even neophytes will find it a good introduction to the magic that was Janis Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Garage Band Blues, June 15, 2006

By 

Katherine McCarthy "kath e. miller" (Forest Hills, NY United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Live at Winterland 68 (Audio CD)

When I'm in the mood for Janis,I put on Cheap Thrills. Nothing wrong with Kozmic Blues or Pearl, but they are the "cleaned up, dressed for meetin'" Janis. There's something endearing, energizing, and wild about the intense sloppiness of Big Brother that's perfect for Janis' over the top caterwauling. Talk about the combination of the two! I'll be darned - it is better than Cheap Thrills! The band sears with buzzsaw acid-drenched guitars, practically coming off the track, with Janis hanging on for dear life. Time-warped garage band blues with a world class singer. Considering the technology at the time, the sound is great.