Big Brother and the Holding Company - Big Brother and the Holding Company (1967)

Posted By : RayG! | Date : 13 Apr 2009 18:22:06 | Comments : 4 |

Big Brother and the Holding Company - Big Brother and the Holding Company (1967)
1999 Original Recording Remastered with Extra Tracks
APE+CUE+LOG | 207 MB | 33:23 min. | Booklet 6 MB
Psychedelic / Acid / Blues-Rock

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The debut, self-titled album from Big Brother & the Holding Company is an evolving paradigm, ten tracks initially issued on Mainstream Records, a label that would have success in 1968 with "Journey to the Center of the Mind" by Ted Nugent's Amboy Dukes. Unfortunately for Janis Joplin and Big Brother & the Holding Company, the respectable performances and all of the material on this disc are undercut by a weak production that sounds rushed. Recorded on December 12, 13, and 14 of 1966, it's quite telling that perhaps the best two songs from the sessions, Peter Albin's tribal-sounding "Coo Coo," and Janis Joplin's fiery "The Last Time," were only available on a 45 rpm and played as treats on FM radio "rare tape" nights. Those two songs have an intensity and drama missing from laid-back album cuts like "Easy Rider" and "Intruder." Big Brother's strength sans Janis was their ability to experiment and rely heavily on ideas to make up for their lack of musical prowess. Sad to say, there is little of that experimentation here. Even a potential science fiction Peter Albin composition, "Light Is Faster Than Sound," comes off like an audition tape instead of the hit it could have been had it the cosmic explosion of a "Journey to the Center of the Mind." The album does contain interesting studies of future classics, like Moondog's "All Is Loneliness" (the street poet eventually signing with Columbia himself), and Joplin's creative arrangement of "Down on Me," making it more of an entertaining textbook than a deep musical experience. It was the lack of product from superstar Janis Joplin which kept putting an emphasis on this release with little else available to satisfy rabid fans who couldn't get enough Janis. The 1999 CD reissue adds the worthy single "Coo Coo"/"The Last Time" (good Eastern-influenced guitar work on the former, a "good hurt" hard rock vocal from Joplin on the latter) and previously unreleased alternate takes of "Call on Me" and "Bye, Bye Baby."
Joe Viglione (allmusic)

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Tracklist:

1. "Bye, Bye Baby" (Powell St. John) – 2:35
2. "Easy Rider" (James Gurley) – 2:21
3. "Intruder" (Janis Joplin) – 2:25
4. "Light Is Faster Than Sound" (Peter Albin) – 2:29
5. "Call on Me" (Sam Andrew) – 2:32
6. "The Last Time" (Janis Joplin) 2:17
7. "Women Is Losers" (Joplin) – 2:01
8. "Blindman" (Peter Albin, Sam Andrew, David Getz, James Gurley, Joplin) – 2:00
9. "Down On Me" (Traditional, arranged Joplin) – 2:02
10. "Caterpillar" (Peter Albin) – 2:15
11. "All Is Loneliness" (Moondog) – 2:15
12. "Coo Coo" (Traditional, arranged Joplin) – 1:59

1999 re-release bonus tracks

13. "Call on Me" (Alternate Version) – 2:42
14. "Bye, Bye Baby" (Alternate Version) – 2:39

Personnel:
Janis Joplin - vocals
Peter Albin - bass
Sam Andrew - guitar
David Getz - drums
James Gurley - guitar