Just like there was ever only one Koko Taylor, there could only ever be one Etta James, so too there was, and ever shall be, only one Janis Joplin. Often ridiculed or dismissed during her too-brief moment in the spotlight, Joplin's legacy has grown immense in the four-decades-plus since her tragic death. Today you have numerous retrospectives of her music, best-selling books on her life, movies, even a stage show. Janis's legacy is larger than she ever could have been in life...
For Janis, it all began back in 1966 with San Francisco psychedelic blues-rockers Big Brother & the Holding Company. The band's manager, Chet Helms, convinced Joplin to join Big Brother, and the singer vaulted to stardom, or at least notoriety, on the strength of the band's 1968 album Cheap Thrills. Joplin would leave the band after less than three years to strike out on her own, and other than a pair of studio albums; the late-1990s CD release Live at Winterland '68; and a handful of live bootlegs, there has been little documentation of this early period of Joplin's career.
Janis fans can rejoice, 'cause on March 13, 2012 Legacy Recordings will release Live at the Carousel Ballroom 1968, a previously unreleased performance by Big Brother & the Holding Company with Janis, taken from the archives of legendary San Francisco scene soundman Owsley "Bear" Stanley. Stanley made his bones mixing live sound for the Grateful Dead in 1966, and he ran the sound system at the Carousel Ballroom, which promoter Bill Graham would turn into the Fillmore West in late 1968. Stanley would often record the shows he worked as a way to improve the listening experience, recordings he called his "sonic journals," and Live at the Carousel Ballroom 1968 was mixed by Stanley, who also oversaw the album's mastering, before his death in March 2011.
The first of "Bear's Sonic Journals" is a red-hot performance from the band, taken a couple of months after the show captured by Live at Winterland '68. The tracklist for Live at the Carousel Ballroom 1968 includes all of the band's well-known songs at the time - "Down On Me," "Ball & Chain," "Piece of My Heart," "Summertime" - but it also includes some obscure material as well, like a rare live performance of "It's A Deal," an outtake from Cheap Thrills, and "Call On Me," from the band's self-titled first album. An extended jam, titled "I'm Mad" (or "Mad Man Blues") I can't find anywhere in the band's catalog, and the album also includes a live reading of "Coo Coo," a 1967 track that was only released on a 45rpm single at the time.
The sound on Live at the Carousel Ballroom 1968 is pretty good, especially considering the primitive technology in use at the time. Stanley did a great job in capturing the ambiance and spirit of the performance, and of the era...it really is the next best thing to having witnessed the show in person. Hopefully we'll get to hear more from Bear's stash in the future, but in the meantime, Live at the Carousel Ballroom 1968 is a "must have" for the Janis faithful, or for fans of 1960s-era psychedelic blues-rock jams.
Photo courtesy Legacy Recordings
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