Product Description

Six months before becoming an overnight sensation followinga blistering set at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, Big Brother was an unknown group from San Francisco playing a month-long Chicago club engagement. The band, made up of bassist Peter Albin, drummer David Getz, and guitarists James Gurleyand Sam Andrew, was completed when the quartet was introduced to singer Janis Joplin by mutual friend Chet Helms.
When their gig was cut short, Big Brother avoided returning toCalifornia when Bob Shad signed the group to Mainstream Records, his small, struggling jazz label. The three-day recording session in December 1966 resulted in a set of mostly original songs, with the exception of New York City street musician Moondog's "All Is Loneliness" and a more secular arrangement of the gospel standard "Down on Me". Despite Joplin's fiery singing style, Big Brother was still the kind of democracy in which Joplin shared vocals with Sam Andrew on the trippy "Light Is Faster Than Sound" and the more soulful duet "Call on Me". But most of this record featured Joplin reaching back and channeling her hero Big Maybelle on songs like the brassy "Women Is Losers" and the no-nonsense "Intruder".

Track Listing

1. Bye Bye Baby
2. Easy Rider
3. Intruder
4. Light Is Faster Than Sound
5. Call On Me
6. Women Is Losers
7. Blindman
8. Down On Me
9. Caterpillar
10. All Is Lonliness
11. Coo Coo
12. Last Time
13. Call On Me (2)
14. Bye Bye Baby (2)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #58492 in Music
• Released on: 2003-07-14
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

Raw, explosive -- best of the San Francisco sound
Simply titled Big Brother & The Holding Company (1967), the album is Janis's one attempt to be part of a group ensemble instead of the "star." The performances are proof-positive that Janis never succeeded at blending in - she had too much power. In the opening number, "Bye, Bye Baby," Janis's voice is double-tracked. Thanks to the elegant re-mastering job, the raw beauty of that performance can now be fully appreciated. The group itself produced a fine debut album, but it's doubtful that the album would have been treated to such a lavish re-mastering job without the historical connection that Joplin provided. This is the best of the San Francisco sound: raw, driven rock where the musicians were genuinely talented. Sounds great!!

Primitive, but interesting...
This is a low budget recording...and it sounds like it! What you don't get here, which some JJ/BB heads might be used to, is extended jamming and wild vocals. What you do get is very tight, disciplined playing, concise rock songs and a fuller picture of the band AS A BAND, rather than a backing outfit for JJ.
I have to say, the remastering is about as good as could be expected, but the recording definitely shows its age. As Sam Andrew notes in the booklet, the guitar sound 'came out of the fifties' - a consequence of BB being signed to a jazz label, which didn't know how to record rock artists. For all that, though, it's a fascinating artefact of an era....rather like listening to the juvenilia of the Stones or the Velvet Underground. If you are a JJ/BB fan, this will be a mandatory purchase.
Be warned, though: the playing time is just shy of 34 minutes (and that's WITH the bonus tracks!).

The Original Janis album - complete with the indispensible Big Bro & the Holding Co.
Janis was complete when she was playing with Big Brother, whatever the tensions and insecurities. It is a marriage of mutual dependance and both contribute enormously to the relationship. The later albums, Kozmic Blues and Pearl, without Big Bro, lack this passion, naivety, excitement and raw energy. This first tentative album does not have the power of Cheap Thrills but it is beautiful none-the-less. It's embryonic, not just for Janis but of the whole San Fransisco mid-sixties music scene. This is an album at the birth of psychedelic rock. 'Light is (indeed) Faster than Sound'. Then you have 'Coo Coo' and 'All is Loneliness' - only in the summer of love could these tracks blossom.

Did I say naive? This is naive in spades and gains much from being rushed, fresh and under produced. 'Down on Me', 'Call on Me' and 'Women is Losers' are archetypal Janis tracks. For the techies and pefectionists this album isn't. It's flawed, innocent, tinny some say and recorded in a hurry, straight off the street, to satisfy the band's live audiences craving for a record of their show. For me this is a landmark, coming of age album and one that fits perfectly into its unique niche in rock history. Rest your Soul Janis - this was your sanctuary if only you could have realised it.