Reprinted from Green Man Review.
In his book, iPod Therefore I Am Dylan Jones made a comment to the effect that Janis Joplin was untalented and over-rated, and to tell you the truth, I’ve felt that way myself for many years. Recently, though, I have begun to reassess her work. It all comes from seeing the film Festival Express. Not the DVD you understand, but the film, on the big screen, where a bright, carefully timed light source illuminates thousands of tiny sequential photographs and displays a simulation of real time on a huge screen, with loud sound to accompany it! It’s quite thrilling really. The motion picture experience, that is. Janis Joplin, in this film, epitomizes feeling in singing. She owns the screen. And her appearances on the Dick Cavett Show gave me more appreciation for her as a thoughtful, sensitive person. Now, Sony/Legacy’s new double CD release of her classic Pearl album puts the icing on the cake. There was more to Janis than a screaming blues mama, for sure.
Pearl was Janis’s last recorded album. It wasn’t completed and released until after Joplin’s death (accidental heroin overdose) in 1970. The Legacy Edition contains the original album, plus a half dozen alternate tracks from the sessions and a second disc, Live from the Festival Express Tour, Canada. The live recordings display some of the best tracks from Pearl and a selection of hits from her previous albums, all recorded on stage with the best band she ever fronted. The Full Tilt Boogie Band was one rockin’ ensemble, and with Joplin out front, they were unbeatable.
Part of the problem earlier Joplin recordings held for me was that the band just wasn’t that good. Big Brother & the Holding Company sounded so much like a couple of garage bands I’d either been part of or heard practicing that I couldn’t take them seriously as musicians. And Joplin’s uncontrolled screech was like fingernails on a blackboard much of the time. The Kozmic Blues Band was only slightly better. But by the time keyboardists Richard Bell and Ken Pearson arrived from Canada, joining Clark Pierson, Brad Campbell and John Till, the band was ready to go full tilt. The songs on Pearl provided that opportunity. Pierson’s insistent time-keeping starts things off, then Till’s guitar echoes Joplin’s vocal line as “Move Over” kicks into action. This quickly becomes a total band effort and the instrumental break is quite thrilling. Joplin’s histrionics are under control throughout and she reminds the listener of her heroes far more than she did when she shrieked in front of the Holding Company. Instead, on Pearl, she sounds powerful and emotive.
There are bluesy tunes like Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham’s “A Woman Left Lonely,” contemporary rockers like John & Johanna Hall’s “Half Moon,” and even folky numbers given the Joplin treatment, as seen in Kris Kristofferson’s “Me & Bobby McGee.” Joplin’s originals “Move Over” and her classic “Mercedes Benz” blend well with a couple of Jerry Ragovoy (et. al) classics. And the sound? Well, Pearl has always been the best sounding album Joplin ever made and the Legacy Edition lifts it even higher. This is very immediate music. Listen loud and you’ll be left breathless.
The live disc is a fine addition to the Joplin canon. Just as exciting as she appeared on the Festival Express film, Janis manages to keep up the energy through the entire set. And the Full Tilt Boogie Band never disappoints. The package itself is neat. It’s a three-way foldout with outtakes from the original album cover photographs by Barry Feinstein. These are perhaps the best pictures ever taken of Joplin, reclining on a loveseat, dressed in hippy finery, she shows off several moods. In each one she seems more delicate, fragile. All in all, a beautiful tribute.
(Columbia/Legacy, 2005, originally released in 1971)
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