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Her 3 Masterpieces Jul 30, 2007
Cheap Thrills is a great, raucous, exuberant celebration of life with Joplin's at times desperate, always intensely emotional vocals and the enthusiastic playing of Big Brother in their powerful acid rock/psychedelic onslaught. Piece Of My Heart sweeps the listener along in its maelstrom of sound, while Combination Of The Two has a certain addictive, hypnotic quality that is the trademark of great rock music. Summertime and Ball & Chain are innovative interpretations of the Gershwin and Big Mama Thornton tunes respectively. Because of the Big Brother onslaught, it does sometimes seem that there's a cosmic battle taking place between Joplin's vocals and the band's wall of sound, but this creates a further element of tension that adds to the overall force of these performances. This is a great show of Joplin's magic.
Kozmic Blues, Joplin's solo debut may perhaps be described as a glorious marriage of blues and soul. Don't be misled by the original psychedelic album cover - this is not the acid-rock Janis. She turns the Bee Gees' To Love Somebody into a wrenching torch song, an at times restrained, at times desperate, but always brilliant rendition. The arrangements impress throughout, especially in the complex and moving As Good As You've Been and KozmicBlues. Another favorite of mine is Maybe, where she out-souls Aretha Franklin. It may not be as accessible as Pearl, but this album nevertheless amply rewards the listener and reveals another aspect of this mistress of the desperation blues.
What struck me about Pearl upon listening to it again recently, is the authenticity of the music. Some reviewer once claimed that rock merely gets stale whereas pop music rots with time. There is nothing stale about Joplin and her band on this all-time classic. After all these years, it remains a magnificent listening experience because of the quality of the songs, the band's tight playing and the impressive emotional range of Joplin's vocals. Unlike on Cheap Thrills, where there was mostly a cosmic battle between her voice and Big Brother's heavy metal onslaught, here the voice is the star. My favourites on an album of classics include the incredible Me and Bobby McGee, the tender A Woman Left Lonely, the nervous Half Moon, the emotional Cry Baby, the buoyant Get It While You Can and the plaintive/humorous Mercedes Benz. Perfect arrangements, brilliant playing and masterly vocalization combine here to create a timeless masterpiece.
Scars of Sweet Paradise: The Life and Times of Janis Joplin
Farewell Song
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