"The Woodstock Experience/I Got Dem 'Ol Kozmic Blues Again Mama!" by JANIS JOPLIN (July 2009 Columbia/Legacy 2CD Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

"...Dem 'Ol Kozmic Blues, Again..."

With two albums under belt fronting Big Brother & The Holding Company - it was time for the Texas Twister to unleash her debut - and like that State's tornado strewn landscape - it was an absolute smasher.

Released only three weeks after her Sunday 17 August 1969 appearance at Woodstock - "I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama!" offered up eight tracks of Rock-Soul dynamite - a dark album fro sure but also wildly romantic in its ragged way. A mixture of four originals and four deftly chosen covers - it even sported Robert Crumb lettering on its rear artwork and a Janis mid-passion blurry shot for the front. 1969 was a huge year for her - a genuine star and force of nature - something she hammered on to the multitude at Yasger's Farm that famous weekend. Hardly surprising then that the album slots into this 5-title reissue series - "The Woodstock Experience" (see list below). And the live disc here sports three Previously Unreleased cuts. Let's get Kozmic...

UK released July 2009 - "The Woodstock Experience" by JANIS JOPLIN on Columbia/Legacy 88697 48243 2 (Barcode 886974824329) is a 2CD set celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the legendary Sixties festival (see list of other releases below) which couples Joplin’s "I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama!" Columbia Records debut LP with a new CD of live recordings from the Sunday of that August weekend in 1969. It pans out as follows...

Disc 1 (37:24 minutes):

1. Try (Just A Little Bit Harder) [Side 1]

2. Maybe

3. One Good Man

4. As Good As You've Been To This World

5. To Love Somebody [Side 2]

6. Kozmic Blues

7. Little Girl Blue

8. Work Me, Lord

Tracks 1 to 8 are her Debut LP "I Got Dem 'Ol Kozmic Blues Again Mama!" - released September 1969 in the USA on Columbia KCS 9913 and October 1969 in the UK on CBS Records S 63546 in Stereo. Produced by GABRIEL MEKLER - it peaked at No. 15 on the US Rock LP charts, didn't chart UK.

Track 1 is a Chip Taylor and Jerry Ragovoy song first issued as a US 45 by Lorraine Ellison in April 1968 on Loma 2094

Track 2 is by Richard Barrett of The Valentines

Track 3 is by Janis Joplin

Tracks 4 and 8 are by Nick Gravenites of Big Brother & The Holding Company

Track 5 is by Robin and Barry Gibb of The Bee Gees

Track 6 is by Janis Joplin and album Producer Gabriel Mekler

Track 7 is a Rodgers and Hart cover

Disc 2 (58:16 minutes):

1. Raise Your Hand [Previously Unissued]

2. As Good As You've Been To This World [Previously Unissued]

3. To Love Somebody

4. Summertime

5. Try (Just A Little Bit Harder)

6. Kozmic Blues

7. Can't Turn You Loose [Previously Unissued - Vocals by Cornelius "Snooky" Flowers]

8. Work Me, Lord

9. Piece Of My Heart

10. Ball And Chain

All songs recorded Live At The Woodstock Music & Art Fair, Sunday, 17 August 1969 (8-Track recordings)

Track 1 is an Eddie Floyd cover written Eddie Floyd-Steve Cropper-Al Bell

Tracks 2 and 8 by Nick Gravenites of Big Brother & The Holding Company, later with The Electric Flag

Track 3 is a Bee Gees cover written Barry and Robin Gibb; Track 4 is a George Gershwin cover

Track 5 is by Chip Taylor and Jerry Ragovoy song first issued as a 45 by Lorraine Ellison in April 1968 on Loma 2094

Track 6 is a Janis Joplin and Gabriel Makler song

Track 7 is an Otis Redding cover; Track 10 is a Big Mama Thornton cover

Track 9 is a Jerry Ragovoy and Bert Berns song first issued as a 45 by Irma Franklin in October 1967 on Shout S-221

Inside a textured-feel outer card slipcase are two oversized 5" hard card replica sleeves with sepia-feel inner bags (each with separate liner notes too -see photos provided). Both card repro sleeves are gorgeous to look at and the recording details/liner notes are impressively comprehensive. As with the other 4 releases in this series - the large foldout poster has a colour shot of the Woodstock crowd on one side (with the festival logo at the top) and for this Joplin one, a live shot of Janis on the flip (similar blur red photo to the LP cover). The album card sleeve even goes to the lengths of depicting the jigsaw-of-photos effect the original rear cover had - nice...

The packaging on all five of these "Woodstock Experience" issues is to my mind properly lovely. It feels and sounds classy. The Remaster of the album and the live stuff has been done by a vastly experience Audio Engineer – VIC ANESINI who has handled hugely prestigious catalogues like Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon and Simon & Garfunkel, Santana, Mott The Hoople, The Jayhawks, Spirit and many more. The album is gorgeous and way more romantically inclined than I remember it. Her clever choice of covers too, that somehow now feel like, Janis songs. Some have complained about the audio on the live set and certainly on the three unreleased cuts, I can hear why they were left alone – the audio isn’t great and on their take on the Blues Brothers drive of Otis Redding’s "Can’t Turn You Loose" Snooky Flowers takes vocals and while he’s good – he’s not Janis. But don’t let any of that put you off. The other seven are fabulous. "To Love Somebody" is a great live recording – her vocals centred and clear. The opener of Eddie Floyd’s "Raise Your Hand" has Janis is absolutely blistering form (she’s waited 10 hours to hit the stage) – for sure the recorded vocal isn’t great but what a performance. And the band’s Funky Soul-Rock nature comes screaming through on the Blood, Sweat & Tears fire of "As Good As You’ve Been To This World".

Re-listening to the album and the lethal double-whammy of intense ballads like "Maybe" and her "One Good Man" and at times, the confessional style is even a mite hard to take. And that cover of Rodger and Hart’s "Little Girl Blue" reeks of Blues and Whiskey – the backing group sounding like a STAX/VOLT Revue – swaying and swooning and funking their way through every song. Raw and emotional and in only October 1971 (after the equally cool and heartfelt "Pearl" LP of early 1971) - she’d be gone.

When you think of every Female Rock and R&B Singer whose ever had a set of lungs from Maggie Bell of Stone The Crows, Elkie Brooks of Vinegar Joe, Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders right up to Macy Gray and Joss Stone – they would surely all nod a thank to Janis for smashing down the doors – 50 years ago.

A rather brill little reissue for me and in fact, the other four are the same. "...Treat me right..." - she pleaded as she sang, and I think Columbia/Legacy have...

The 5 titles "The Woodstock Experience" Series from July 2009 are:

1. Jefferson Airplane - uses the "Volunteers" album and has an 8-track live album recorded 17 Aug 1969 Catalogue No: RCA/Legacy 88697 48240 2 (Barcode 886974824022)

2. Janis Joplin - uses the "I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama!" debut album and has a 10-track live album recorded 17 Aug 1969. Catalogue No: Columbia/Legacy 88697 48243 2 (Barcode 886974824329)

3. Santana - uses the "Santana" debut album and has an 8-track live album recorded Saturday 16 Aug 1969. Catalogue No: Columbia/Legacy 88697 48242 2 (Barcode 886974824220)

4. Sly & The Family Stone - uses the "Stand!" album and has a 9-track live disc recorded 17 Aug 1969. Catalogue No: Epic/Legacy 88697 48241 2 (Barcode 886974824121)

5. Johnny Winter - uses the "Johnny Winter" album and has an 8-track live disc recorded 17 Aug 1969. Catalogue No: Columbia/Legacy 88697 48244 2 (Barcode 886974824428)