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"...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)
