Janis Joplin · Be a Brother

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Big Brother And The Holding Co.- Be A Brother 1970 US
Ripped @ 2004 from pirated copy vinyl CSJ 1028 /1970 Tw.@ 256 b/s

The mercurial figure in this group was undoubtedly singer Janis Joplin, born in Port Arthur, Texas in 1943. She was very much out of place in this quiet Texan community, considered 'way out' by her school mates because she dressed differently and held different values and, therefore, grew up as rather a loner. Until now, neither she nor her family had exhibited any musical talent, but at the age of seventeen she discovered the blues, idolizing the songs of Leadbelly and Bessy Smith. She sang locally as a blues singer in Austin, Texas before dropping out of college and heading for San Francisco with Chet Helms, one of her few friends at the time. Janis arrived in Frisco at the beginning of the whole flower-power era - acid was becoming a big thing and underground clubs were beginning to open up all over the city. Chet Helms was organising the first hippy dances at the Avalon in San Francisco. One of the early groups trying to establish themselves were Big Brother and the Holding Company, who had begun gigging in the basement to 1090 Page Street. They were originally known as The Blue Yard Hill and also nearly called themselves Tom Swift and His Electric Grandmother. Helms became their manager, but the group felt they needed another singer. Realising Janis' potential Helms had sent Travis Rivers, a friend of his, to Texas to fetch her. He was just in time for she was about to join the 13th Floor Elevators. Big Brother was born....

In their early days they gigged regularly around the underground clubs alongside The Jefferson Airplane, The Grateful Dead and the many other exponents of the San Francisco Sound. Joplin's talent as the vocalist was immense. Her raucous gutbucket vocals complemented the strength of the band's electric music. Her roots were in the blues and she was at her best singing bluesy numbers which caused many to think she was the greatest female white blues singer. On stage, too, she was a powerful spectacle - appearing to be wild and working herself into a frenzy.

Undoubtedly, Big Brother was one of the most popular San Francisco groups at this time. Inevitably, they were soon offered a recording contract, first by Mainstream, a small Chicago label. They recorded an album which the record company did not release until after their appearance at the Monterey Festival in 1967. Prior to this festival the band was practically unknown outside of San Francisco. The festival launched them nation-wide and Janis demolished the hippies with her screaming, mourning bluesy voice and her sexual act - she became a star overnight.

Mainstream then released their debut album Big Brother and The Holding Company. However, the band, feeling they had improved vastly since recording it, fought vainly to block it. The opening track Bye Bye Baby demonstrated the raucousness of Joplin's amazing voice. In another track Light Is Faster Than Sound she blends effectively with the group's other vocalists. Call On Me was an equally effective slower number. However, some of the material on the album was comparatively weaker. For example, Women Is Losers once again featured Joplin's vocal gymnastics but over a rather unimaginative I'm A Man style guitar riff. Tracks like Blindman where other group members took the vocal lead were understandably inferior. On the final track All Is Loneliness, a strange sounding affair, the group come nearest to achieving Airplane-like harmonies. Very early pressings off the album have only 10 tracks. Later editions feature two later tracks Coo Coo and The Last Time.

Their follow-up album Cheap Thrills was released on Columbia, who had rejected the original title 'Dope, Sex and Cheap Thrills' and a photograph chosen of the band featuring them in bed. Instrumentally, the band had improved. Opening track Combination Of The Two was a fine illustration of their driving rock and Joplin's gutbucket vocals. 'We're goin' knock you, rock you, sock it you now' she growled. The slower I Need A Man To Love and Summertime also saw her in fine form. Oh Sweet Mary opens with an acid guitar intro and once again captures the band at their more harmonious. However, the prominent tracks on the album were Piece of My Heart and Ball and Chain. The former showed the group at their best and was a hit in the U.S. and also in the UK, where the group never attained the popularity they enjoyed in their homeland. The song possessed a catchy chorus and Janis growled in the opening verse and chorus, whilst Ball and Chain was a longer, more bluesy number executed in a similar vein.

Joplin probably realized the instrumental limitations of the Holding Company, which certainly lacked subtlety. She left the band in 1968 and performed with various backing bands prior to the release of her first solo effort I Got Dem Ol' Cosmic Blues Again. She then found a new backing group, The Full Tilt Boogie Band (John Till (gtr), Richard Bell (piano), Brad Campbell (bs), Ken Pearson (organ) and Clark Pierson (drums). With this line-up she started recording Pearl. Tragically she died accidentally of a heroin overdose on 4th October 1970 in a Hollywood motel room before the album was complete. The strains and stresses of overnight stardom had taken their toll. At first she had resorted to booze, but the loneliness of her life in contrast to her stardom on stage had driven her to narcotics. The album was completed and issued after her death. Among the material was her only U.S. No. 1 Me and Bobby McGee. Also on the album were Get It While You Can, a song which described her own live-for-today approach to life and two of her own compositions Mercedes Benz and Move Over. All subsequent releases are compilations, which ironically out-number her original recordings.

Meanwhile, Big Brother struggled on. Nick Gravenites and Kathi McDonald (ex-Unusuals) joined up as vocalist and they recorded Be A Brother and How Hard It Is, which were inevitably inferior in quality to their material with Joplin. They finally split up in 1972. Featuring ... JJ was a reissue of their first album. However, that Cheap Thrills album is a fine example of the bluesy side of San Francisco music at that time.

In 1984 Edsel issued a compilation LP Cheaper Thrills (Edsel ED 135) which includes previously unissued material from a live concert at California Hill on 28th July 1966. It gives a good insight into the band's music in their early days. Different pressings of this album have been issued by Made To Last and Rhino in the US. Also in 1985 Joseph's Coat (Edsel ED 170) emerged.

Big Brother reformed in 1987 with all the original members, are still playing gigs today.

Compilation appearances have included: Ball And Chain on Psychedelic Perceptions (CD).

(Vernon Joynson)

Personnel:
PETE ALBIN bs, gtr A B C D E F G H I
SAM HOUSTEN ANDREWS ld gtr A B C D E F G H I
DAVE ESKERSON gtr A
CHUCK JONES drms A B
JAMES GURLEY ld gtr B C D E F I
DAVE GETZ drms C D E F G H I
JANIS JOPLIN vcls D
DAVE NELSON ld gtr E
TED ASHBURTON piano F
MIKE FINNEGAN organ F
NICK GRAVENITES vcls F G H
MIKE PRENDERGAST gtr F
DAVE SHALLOCK ld gtr G H
KATHY McDONALD vcls H I
JOHN DAWSON gtr


ALBUMS:
(up to 1972)
1(D) BIG BROTHER (Mainstream 6099) 1967 60
2(D) CHEAP THRILLS (Columbia CBS PC 9700) 1968 1
3(G) BE A BROTHER (Columbia CBS PC 30222) 1970 134
4(C/H) HOW HARD IT IS (Columbia CBS KC 30738) 1971 157


NB: (1) reissued by Mainstream and Columbia in 1968. (1) issued by Fontana and London in the UK. (1) issued as (Vogue CLVXMA 165) and (London 195011) in France. (2) and (3) issued by CBS in UK. (2),(3) and (4) issued in France on (CBS S7 63392), (CBS S 64118) and (CBS S 64317).

ALBUMS: Janis Joplin solo:
1 I GOT DEM OL' KOZMIC BLUES (Columbia CBS 9913) 1968 5
2 PEARL (Columbia 30322) 1970 1
3 IN CONCERT (Columbia 31160) 1971 4
4 GREATEST HITS (Columbia 32168) 1973 37
5 JANIS (Columbia 33345) 1974 54
6 FAREWELL SONG (Columbia PC 37569) 1981 104


45s:
1 Blindman/All Is Loneliness (Mainstream 657) 1967 110
2 Down On Me/Call On Me (Mainstream 662) 1967 43
3 Bye Bye Baby/Intruder (Mainstream 666) 1967 118
4 Women Is Losers/Light Is Faster Than Sound (Mainstream 675) 1967
5 Coo Coo/The Last Time (Mainstream 678) 1967 84
6 Piece Of My Heart/Turtle Blues (Columbia 44626) 1968 12
7 Kosmic Blues/Little Girl Blue (Columbia 45023) 1969 41
8 Try (Just A Little Bit Harder)/One Good Man (Columbia 45080) 1969 103
9 Maybe/Wake Me, Lord (Columbia 45128) 1969 110
10 Me And Bobby McGee/Half Moon (Columbia 45314) 1970 1
11 Cry Baby/Mercedes Benz (Columbia 45379) 1970 42
12 Get It While You Can/Move Over (Columbia 45433) 1970 78
13 Down On Me/Bye, Bye Baby (Columbia 45630) 1970 91
14 Keep On/Home On The Strange (Columbia 45284) 1971
15 Nu Boogaloo Jam/Black Widow Spider (Columbia 45502) 1971


NB: (7) - (13) as by Janis Joplin.

Tracks:
01 Keep On 4:45
02 Joseph's Coat 3:15
03 Home on the Range 2:11
04 Someday 2:18
05 Heartache People 6:46
06 Sunshine Baby 3:41
07 Mr. Natural 3:37
08 Funkie Jim 3:58
09 I'll Change Your Flat Tire, Merle 3:15
10 Be a Brother 3:04