TGIF Rock-n-Roll Oldies: Janis Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company- 1967

Reaganite Republican ^ | March 25, 2011 | Reaganite Republican

[Reaganite Republican]

Big Brother and the Holding Company came together in 1960's San Francisco, springing from the same historic Bay-area scene that produced the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and others.

While the band was formed before Joplin came along, they became famous shortly after absorbing her as lead singer.  The chemistry worked, and soon they released what many consider to be a truly epic rock-n-roll record, the US #1 Cheap Thrills...

Janis Joplin (1.19.43 - 10.4.70) herself was of course an American singer, songwriter and arranger. After dying far too young, Joplin lives on in in our collective memory as a star-crossed member of the "27 club". She first rose to prominence in the late 1960s first as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company, then briefly as as a solo artist before her untimely passing.

As a teen, Janis Joplin was known as an eccentric around her native Port Arthur, Texas, where her father was a white-shirted engineer at Texaco. Her mom once remarked "She was unhappy and unsatisfied without (receiving a lot of attention). The normal rapport wasn't adequate."

Her friends were other local misfits who introduced her to the music of blues artists such as Leadbelly and Robert Johnson. Joplin joined the church choir to hone her skills locally while listening to blues singers such as Big Mama Thornton. Primarily an aspiring painter while still in school, among her high school classmates was future Dallas Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson. 

Fusing a style of part blues-rebel, part beatnick proto-hippie, Janis Joplin adopted the sound and moves of female blues divas of the 30s and 40s. Her very first song recorded on tape -done at the home of a friend in 1962- was "What Good Can Drinkin' Do". 

Joplin soon left the Lone Star State for the SF Bay area in '63, moving into North Beach and later Haight-Ashbury. The next year Joplin and future Jefferson Airplane guitarist Jorma Kaukonen recorded a number of blues standards, further accompanied by Margareta Kaukonen on typewriter, employed as a percussion instrument (!).

Unfortunately a narrative which was to eventually claim her life -heavy drinking and drug use- came to be a major factor already at this time, with Joplin abusing 'speed' and then later on to heroin.  She also experimented with LSD and other psychoactive drugs, and her affection for Southern Comfort was legendary. 

But you have to wonder if those who consider Lady Gaga to be really something special have ever heard a truly powerful female performer the likes of Tina Turner or Janis Joplin- and power is the word.

With Joplin, this is what really catches the imagination... how this shy, odd duck who seemed so very uncomfortable expressing herself in most other ways could get on stage and just shred it like she did in her prime- incredible. One famous clip from Alamont had Grace Jones sitting in the front row with jaw dropped at the spectacle of Janis Joplin's live performance... an intense, talented, and emotional person was inside, always yearning to burst-on-out... and on stage, it did.

Note this live cut's opening seconds below, where you can hear that meek, faint voice in the background informing the rhythm guitarist that he's "been hitting the wrong chord all night"... right  before she fires up the pipes and rolls right into it:

Big Brother and the Holding Company: Down on Me - 1967


[video/more]

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Previous RR Rock n Roll Oldies features -here-

Enjoy your weekend, FReepers...

[library user]

Damn dirty hippies!

[Georgia Girl 2]

She was one of a kind. Never before and never again. The lights that burn the brightest always seem to burn out fast.

[dainbramaged]

I saw her live at the old Sick’s stadium in Seattle, late 1960’s - one heck of a show - I was a teenager at the time, before the mountains were formed.

[skeeter]

Doggone Texans infecting the west coast.

Seriously, alot of the caterwalling aside, she had an incredibly powerful voice.

[Frantzie]

Why can’t this dude find something good from the 1960s? I could think of a zillion groups who were not dirty junkies.

[rhoda_penmark]

R-pub, “Cheap Thrills” was the very first album I ever went out and bought with my own money. I was 14.

Thanks for posting this stuff on Fridays!

[Trajan88]

I think I remember reading the former Miami Hurricane/Dallas cowboys/Miami Dolphins head coach Jimmy Johnson attended school with Joplin (in Beaumont, TX).

[Finatic]

She and Pigpen from the Grateful Dead had a relationship. Can you imagine how homely their offspring would have been.

[dfwgator]

Didn’t she play for the other team?

[ZirconEncrustedTweezers]

IIRC, Janis was a switch-hitter.

[cicero2k]

IIRC, Janis was a switch-hitter.

Legend has it that when she performed at the Monterey Pop Fest in '67 she was discovered by record execs in the crowd. The companies fought over her. She selected I think CBS records, on a visit to NY offices, but insisted on having sex with the company rep, either then and there or soon after as a condition.

[ZirconEncrustedTweezers]

I have heard that story. BB&THC were signed to CBS Records, and as I recall the rep in question was Clive Davis.

[Reaganite Republican]

LOL- seriously, you’re blessed

[Reaganite Republican]

I do oldies every Friday, but frankly there’s been a lot of junkies that popped up on my list- hmmm

I mean, is there some way I could ignore Clapton...?

And hey... even Kieth Richards kicked it eventually lol

[Finatic]

Evidently she was a switch hitter.

[Reaganite Republican]

It was indeed Davis, and who didn’t he sign, really

I think his first smash discovery was Donovan... he has an ear for it

But Milli Vannilli too... ouch lol

[Harold Shea]

Had Cheap Thrills on reel to reel and was excited when she was gonna play Fayetteville in `70,she canceled because she was too stoned or drunk or both

Still have the ticket

That gal put away some booze for a short while

[Tribune7]

bump

I don't know if you've ever checked out R Crumb's illustrated Book of Genesis, but it's actually faithful, and rather good.