Janis Joplin - Pearl (1971)

Janis Joplin was an American singer, one of the most popular female rock vocalists of the 60s.

Following her departure from Big Brother & The Holding Company, Janis Joplin had begun her solo career with 1969's I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama!, recorded with the Kozmic Blues Band. She toured with them, and performed at the Woodstock festival. Following Woodstock she broke up the band. She took some time out, travelling to Brazil and attempting to kick her heroin addiction. However on her return to America she was soon using again. She put together a new group called The Full Tilt Boogie Band, consisting of John Till (guitar), Richard Bell (piano), Ken Pearson (organ), Brad Campbell (bass) and Clark Pierson (drums), all of whom were Canadian. They went on tour, and also joined the all-star Festival Express train tour through Canada, and appeared on the film Festival Express.

During the autumn of 1970 Joplin and the band recorded her new solo album, working with producer Paul A. Rothchild (at the time best known for producing The Doors). The album was almost completed when Joplin was found dead in her hotel room. The official cause of death was a heroin overdose. The Pearl album was thus released posthumously, and featured one song (Nick Gravenites' "Buried Alive In The Blues") which she never got round to recording her vocals for, thus leaving it as an instrumental. The album improved on the R&B/rock fusion sound she had first explored on her debut, featuring covers of songs by Bobby Womack, Dan Penn, Jerry Ragavoy and Kris Kristofferson, as well as a few good originals. The last recording she ever made was her a capella original "Mercedez Benz", which has become something of a signature tune of hers. The album was a success, and gave her a posthumous #1 hit - her cover of Kristofferson's "Me And Bobby McGee" topped the charts three months after her death.

Since her death Janis Joplin's fame has endured, and she is today looked back on as one of the major icons of the 60s hippie counter-culture and rock music in general.

I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama! (1969) <|> In Concert (1972)
More from Janis Joplin

Download

Janis Joplin - I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama! (1969)

Janis Joplin was an American singer, one of the most popular female rock vocalists of the 60s.

Janis Joplin was born in Texas in 1943, and as a teenager started listening to blues music, which inspired her to start singing. In 1963 she moved to San Francisco, where she befriended and recorded with guitarist Jorma Kaukonen (the recordings became a popular bootleg called The Typewriter Tapes). It was also at this time that she started drinking and using drugs heavily. In 1965 she moved back to Texas for a change of lifestyle, in an attempt to kick her habits. However she returned to San Francisco when she was invited to be the lead singer of rock band Big Brother & The Holding Company, and together they became a very popular part of the city's psychedelic rock scene. She also relapsed into her excessive drink and drugs habits. 

Big Brother & The Holding Company became very successful, and Joplin became known as the most powerful white female vocalist in rock music. However she left the band for a solo career in late 1968, taking Big Brother guitarist Sam Andrew with her to form a new backing group, which she called the Kozmic Blues Band. Her first solo album with them was released in 1969, titled I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama! It was a fine debut, shifting direction away from acid rock towards more concise, funky R&B music. It was a style that suited her bluesy voice well. Among the covers featured on the album were The Chantels' "Maybe", The Bee Gees' "To Love Somebody", two songs by Nick Gravenites, and Jerry Ragavoy's "Try (Just A Little Bit Harder"), which became something of a signature tune for her. Though opinions were divided over whether her new direction was a good thing of whether she should have stayed with Big Brother, she was still generally seen as one of the greatest voices of her era. The album got to #5.

|> Pearl (1971)
More from Janis Joplin

Download