Big Brother And The Holding Company reviews, music, news

Big Brother are primarily remembered as the group that gave Janis Joplin her start. There's no denying both that Joplin was by far the band's moststriking asset, and that Big Brother would never have made a significant impression if they hadn't been fortunate enough to add her to their lineupshortly after forming. But Big Brother also occupies a significant place in the history of San Francisco psychedelic rock, as one of the bands thatbest captured the era's loosest, reckless, and indulgent qualities in its high-energy mutations of blues and folk-rock.Big Brother was formed in 1965 in the Hai ...read more

Big Brother are primarily remembered as the group that gave Janis Joplin her start. There's no denying both that Joplin was by far the band's moststriking asset, and that Big Brother would never have made a significant impression if they hadn't been fortunate enough to add her to their lineupshortly after forming. But Big Brother also occupies a significant place in the history of San Francisco psychedelic rock, as one of the bands thatbest captured the era's loosest, reckless, and indulgent qualities in its high-energy mutations of blues and folk-rock.Big Brother was formed in 1965 in the Haight-Ashbury; by the time Joplin joined in mid-1966, the lineup was Sam Andrew and James Gurley onguitar, Peter Albin on bass, and David Getz on drums. Joplin, a recent arrival from Texas, entered the band at the instigation of Chet Helms, who(other than Bill Graham) was the most important San Francisco rock promoter. Big Brother, like the Grateful Dead and Quicksilver MessengerService, were not great songwriters or singers. They didn't entirely welcome Joplin's presence at first, though, and Joplin did not dominate thegroup right away, sharing the lead vocals with other members.It soon became evident to both band and audience that Joplin's fiery wail -- mature and emotionally wrenching, even at that early stage -- had tobe spotlighted to make Big Brother a contender. But Big Brother wasn't superfluous to the effort, interpreting folk and blues with an inventive (ifsometimes sloppy) eclecticism that often gave way to distorted guitar jamming, and matching Joplin's passion with a high-spirited, anything-goesethos of their own.Big Brother catapulted themselves into national attention with their performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in June 1967, particularly withJoplin's galvanizing interpretation of "Ball and Chain" (which was a highlight of the film of the event). High-powered management and record labelbids rolled in immediately, but unfortunately the group had tied themselves up in a bad contract with the small Mainstream label, at a time wherethey were stranded on the road and needed cash. Their one Mainstream album (released in 1967) actually isn't bad at all, containing some of theirstronger cuts, such as "Down on Me" and "Coo Coo." It didn't fully capture the band's strengths, and with the help of new high-powered managerAlbert Grossman (also handler of Bob Dylan, the Band, and Peter, Paul & Mary), they extricated themselves from the Mainstream deal and signedwith Columbia.The one Big Brother album for Columbia that featured Joplin, Cheap Thrills (1968), wasn't completed without problems of its own. John Simon foundthe band so difficult to work with that he withdrew his production credit from the final LP, which was assembled from both studio sessions and livematerial (recorded for an aborted concert album). Cheap Thrills nonetheless went to number one when it was finally released, and though it toowas an erratic affair, it contained some of the best moments of acid rock's glory days, including "Ball and Chain," "Summertime," "Combination ofthe Two," and "Piece of My Heart."Cheap Thrills made Big Brother superstars, a designation that was short-lived. By the end of 1968, Joplin had decided to go solo, a move fromwhich neither she nor Big Brother ever fully recovered. That's putting matters too simply: Joplin never found a backing band as sympathetic, butdid record some excellent material in the remaining two years of her life. Big Brother, on the other hand, had the wind totally knocked out of theirsails. Although they did re-form for a while in the early '70s with different singers (indeed, they continued to perform in watered-down variationsinto the '90s), nothing would ever be the same. « hide

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