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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Cusp of Blues-Rock, February 25, 2001
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.
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~ Janis Joplin
~ Janis Joplin
~ Janis Joplin
~ Janis Joplin
![Live At The Paramount [EXTRA TRACKS] [LIVE] [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51YWjg8tSeL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
by Janis Joplin 
