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...this is janis out in frisco and surrounding' environs in the early 1960s, roundabout late 62/63 working alone and with a couple of other long forgotten beatnix, which is where the disk title comes in as although this ain't strictly north beach clubs and coffee houses as such it is north beach in its outlook, its beatsville all the way...made up of tunes from old weird amerikkka (kinda like the stuff mother mccrees were putting down), its full of 1920's blues/country blues/hokum and folk ditties that came down the pike to be rescued by the revivalists of the left back in the late fifties...real nice hours worth of janis just wailing and strumming for a few select layabouts in the know, essential listening to see that her vocal style was already intact before she hooked up with those freakrockers big brother, their ampage would just give her the strength to make it bigger ready to blow away the ballroom crowd...
...recordings made around the winter of '63 in various beatnik holes on grant avenue where the layabouts hung out grooving on old time country blues, still hung over from the folk revival...janis is accompanied by different cats but mainly the show, even at this early stage belongs to her, wailing out like some undiscovered blues singer from the nineteen twenties...hopped up on some good mexican reefer janis is connecting with the ghosts from long gone hazy days, coming on like an old victrola shellac brought to life, breathing existance and new meaning into songs that had been lost for 30 years (or at least untill harry smith got busy)...cats who've heard some early janis will want to dig this and cats who ain't got down with this period are going to flip at how good it is, these jams are real, not phony and polite folk warbling...
...taped at jormas pad in mid '64 this is a fine quality sounding glimpse at pre frisco hippy fame jamming just for the fun of it all...jorma's picking is real nice and janis grooves along easy if slightly tentatively while margaretta k. provides some avant style percussion via her typewriter...this all has a special beatnik vibe that is a must to hep cats digging the change from '50s culture to free speech vietnam '60s...a short but special token from bygone times and could sit real well next to mother mccrees disk...
...from the start the sound quality is very good and the tunes are real cool...sam andrew provides a great reminder of big brother with his psycho-ballroom guitar screach and the rest of the kozmic combo kick up a funky racket...the whole thing kicks off with a fairly upbeat janis being interviewed for swedish broadcast...recorded april 1969 at the start of janis's euroland jaunt...dig it all, indeed all cats must...
...very nice audience tape from when janis appeared for the first and only time in london during april 69 as the last date of her euroland tour...during the breaks in the tunes we hear the cats round the taper giving forth with opinions etc, all helping the evening into the NOW so the listener kind of gets the vibe this is the first time for all concerned, let the show unfold (once more)...the audience really dig janis and are totally on it with enthusiasm all the way through, they dig the attitude and realness that flows from performer to the gathered mass of heads and rock royalty(beatles/stones pay homage to the blues shouter from the new world)...janis lays down a few of her patented raps, and tells all that she really digs the london groove, its where its AT...this is history going down here as janis is accepted in the capital of HIP...the kozmic blues band are a bit lumbering in places but then they'd been gigging most of the year(and would work solid to the end of it) so it aint surprising...
...its with this slice that we see jj starting to work for the suits as they get busy with shenanigans to turn her into something she's not, which is a cross between stax review hambone and a sultry nightclub chanteuse...it's easy to see with hindsight which is always 20/20 where the leaches thought they were heading and how the cash might be gotten from citizens reading about this new music wild woman but it really didn't jibe with her mentality to be any of these things...it's a good enough wax, as all joplin disks are worthier than most but the hysterical pleading soul (here soul should be applied advisedly, as a style more than a feeling, which of course she had plenty of) vibe was not really the way that was needed as others had and would do this much better...another example of muddleheaded thinking going the wrong way down a one way street...in another universe far far away she gave the suits the finger and stayed with the cats who knew her and loved what she could do...
...janis and her full tilt boogie are experiencing some sound problems during this gig and in fact surely it sounds like the stage is still being built at one point, but with that taken into consideration this is a mostly great blowout of funky janis getting down with the groove...though being in the middle of a heavy touring schedule and tired of travelling she extols the virtues of rock'n'roll and tries to get the audience to get loose, not to be so uptight, she's come to rock and she needs everyone to let go and boogie down on the one (renta-pig trouble seems to be going on when the audience do actually start the freak dance)...her band let rip with some great (nearly) mind fried rock but if anything is happening its that big brother could easily stayed working with janis, they would have kicked out the jams just like theearly days, cats needing some proof only need check as far as the last track for the stone solid truth of the matter, dig how BB would have slammed this groove into the rightous place where the stoned soul beatnik lives...during some of janis' raps it comes obvious that stardom don't sit too well with her, she'd be better as part of a collective effort, like BB&HC, but by now its too late to stop the media circus (it would stop for janis in a couple months but that was a heavy price for freedom), janis needs the support of equals not a backing band, hired in for one reason, to supply the sound but not the comradeship, not the vibes, janis needs a reciprocal situation with all the cats pulling in the same direction...janis is behind some southern comfort, giving her the courage and impetus to get up on stage, but she'd been a whole lot more groovy with the holding co. and some reefer, really being able to soar to the heavens on an electric-freak-jazz-R&B groove, she'd be totally at one with the universe, not alone earthbound, hanging out with squares most days...getting down to the facts, this show gives 100% of what was and what could have been, the groove is loose but could have been more out there, communicating on a different level, a more aware level, audience and band as one intermingling mind/body/soul taking off for the planets, a sun ra trip for hippys....as an aside dig the MC at the end treating the audience as a commodity, telling them when to stand up then telling them to sit down, what a square...
...janis and her band are late going on tonight and the MC has to abate the crowd with some explaination about having had their gear stolen earlier in the day and a new bunch of equipment had to be found and that is why the show is late starting...anyone totally believing this must have the gear with them because a load of hippies stealing equipment lock stock and barrel is somewhat hard to swallow, their general ineptitude makes for the deal to go wrong before it's started...more likely janis was too strung out to get with the time to get on stage and get some rocking going...when they do get on stage they get down with some funk soul rock screech and janis gives off some down home urban shouting and the audience settle in for a late evening with the 'wicked woman', the rock goddess who will set them free from the constraints of a straight jacket society...unfortunately for janis she could not set herself free from society or the life that was mapped out for her by unscrupulous bread heads at the record company or management (the wonderfully exploitative al grossman) so she sank into the booze and smack which bought on entirely new problems so the vicious circle of society / alcohol / heroin kept on turning, least till early october 1970 when some kind of sweet relief was offered and taken...the gig represented by an audience recording on this early boot is from august 12 and was to be her last public engagement and she's kind of getting really wired, giving off some extreme vibrations like she's reaching for something / someone unobtainable yet she continually strives but never comes to the end of the quest...the set list is familiar and the raps between songs have all been heard before, interestingly the audience seem not to get any prurient enjoyment from the joplin expose raps so that must be down to the 'sophisticated boston' hick town mentality more than anything else closer to home...the band are getting some of janis frenetic energy which they translate into some heavy soul blasting, letting rip trying to carry janis further, to the place she so wants to be, to the now unachievable nirvana...
...released in 1972 this double waxing consists of one slice with big brother from '68 and the quicky reunion in early 70 with the other being recordings with full tilt crew recorded on the great train trip of the same year...with the big brother sides the first track kicks things off in top fashion with great freak-screach-guitar backing janis's belting vocal and the whole kaboodle is a blast the whole way...what is really fine and dandy are the raps that joplin lays on the eager audience which more than make up for the obvious fact that this was really no more than a record company exploito cash in...
...a very nice and goodly snootfull of exploito mop up on these 2 coasters consisting of some patented chipper freak-screach from big brother and some plaintive blues belting from jj's later days...a sad last look at what was once a beautiful freaky proposition...well cool stuff and worthy of some spintime in any cats book...
...this is janis out in frisco and surrounding' environs in the early 1960s, roundabout late 62/63 working alone and with a couple of other long forgotten beatnix, which is where the disk title comes in as although this ain't strictly north beach clubs and coffee houses as such it is north beach in its outlook, its beatsville all the way...made up of tunes from old weird amerikkka (kinda like the stuff mother mccrees were putting down), its full of 1920's blues/country blues/hokum and folk ditties that came down the pike to be rescued by the revivalists of the left back in the late fifties...real nice hours worth of janis just wailing and strumming for a few select layabouts in the know, essential listening to see that her vocal style was already intact before she hooked up with those freakrockers big brother, their ampage would just give her the strength to make it bigger ready to blow away the ballroom crowd...
...taped at jormas pad in mid '64 this is a fine quality sounding glimpse at pre frisco hippy fame jamming just for the fun of it all...jorma's picking is real nice and janis grooves along easy if slightly tentatively while margaretta k. provides some avant style percussion via her typewriter...this all has a special beatnik vibe that is a must to hep cats digging the change from '50s culture to free speech vietnam '60s...a short but special token from bygone times and could sit real well next to mother mccrees disk...
...from the start the sound quality is very good and the tunes are real cool...sam andrew provides a great reminder of big brother with his psycho-ballroom guitar screach and the rest of the kozmic combo kick up a funky racket...the whole thing kicks off with a fairly upbeat janis being interviewed for swedish broadcast...recorded april 1969 at the start of janis's euroland jaunt...dig it all, indeed all cats must...
...very nice audience tape from when janis appeared for the first and only time in london during april 69 as the last date of her euroland tour...during the breaks in the tunes we hear the cats round the taper giving forth with opinions etc, all helping the evening into the NOW so the listener kind of gets the vibe this is the first time for all concerned, let the show unfold (once more)...the audience really dig janis and are totally on it with enthusiasm all the way through, they dig the attitude and realness that flows from performer to the gathered mass of heads and rock royalty(beatles/stones pay homage to the blues shouter from the new world)...janis lays down a few of her patented raps, and tells all that she really digs the london groove, its where its AT...this is history going down here as janis is accepted in the capital of HIP...the kozmic blues band are a bit lumbering in places but then they'd been gigging most of the year(and would work solid to the end of it) so it aint surprising...
...its with this slice that we see jj starting to work for the suits as they get busy with shenanigans to turn her into something she's not, which is a cross between stax review hambone and a sultry nightclub chanteuse...it's easy to see with hindsight which is always 20/20 where the leaches thought they were heading and how the cash might be gotten from citizens reading about this new music wild woman but it really didn't jibe with her mentality to be any of these things...it's a good enough wax, as all joplin disks are worthier than most but the hysterical pleading soul (here soul should be applied advisedly, as a style more than a feeling, which of course she had plenty of) vibe was not really the way that was needed as others had and would do this much better...another example of muddleheaded thinking going the wrong way down a one way street...in another universe far far away she gave the suits the finger and stayed with the cats who knew her and loved what she could do...
...janis and her full tilt boogie are experiencing some sound problems during this gig and in fact surely it sounds like the stage is still being built at one point, but with that taken into consideration this is a mostly great blowout of funky janis getting down with the groove...though being in the middle of a heavy touring schedule and tired of travelling she extols the virtues of rock'n'roll and tries to get the audience to get loose, not to be so uptight, she's come to rock and she needs everyone to let go and boogie down on the one (renta-pig trouble seems to be going on when the audience do actually start the freak dance)...her band let rip with some great (nearly) mind fried rock but if anything is happening its that big brother could easily stayed working with janis, they would have kicked out the jams just like theearly days, cats needing some proof only need check as far as the last track for the stone solid truth of the matter, dig how BB would have slammed this groove into the rightous place where the stoned soul beatnik lives...during some of janis' raps it comes obvious that stardom don't sit too well with her, she'd be better as part of a collective effort, like BB&HC, but by now its too late to stop the media circus (it would stop for janis in a couple months but that was a heavy price for freedom), janis needs the support of equals not a backing band, hired in for one reason, to supply the sound but not the comradeship, not the vibes, janis needs a reciprocal situation with all the cats pulling in the same direction...janis is behind some southern comfort, giving her the courage and impetus to get up on stage, but she'd been a whole lot more groovy with the holding co. and some reefer, really being able to soar to the heavens on an electric-freak-jazz-R&B groove, she'd be totally at one with the universe, not alone earthbound, hanging out with squares most days...getting down to the facts, this show gives 100% of what was and what could have been, the groove is loose but could have been more out there, communicating on a different level, a more aware level, audience and band as one intermingling mind/body/soul taking off for the planets, a sun ra trip for hippys....as an aside dig the MC at the end treating the audience as a commodity, telling them when to stand up then telling them to sit down, what a square...
...janis and her band are late going on tonight and the MC has to abate the crowd with some explaination about having had their gear stolen earlier in the day and a new bunch of equipment had to be found and that is why the show is late starting...anyone totally believing this must have the gear with them because a load of hippies stealing equipment lock stock and barrel is somewhat hard to swallow, their general ineptitude makes for the deal to go wrong before it's started...more likely janis was too strung out to get with the time to get on stage and get some rocking going...when they do get on stage they get down with some funk soul rock screech and janis gives off some down home urban shouting and the audience settle in for a late evening with the 'wicked woman', the rock goddess who will set them free from the constraints of a straight jacket society...unfortunately for janis she could not set herself free from society or the life that was mapped out for her by unscrupulous bread heads at the record company or management (the wonderfully exploitative al grossman) so she sank into the booze and smack which bought on entirely new problems so the vicious circle of society / alcohol / heroin kept on turning, least till early october 1970 when some kind of sweet relief was offered and taken...the gig represented by an audience recording on this early boot is from august 12 and was to be her last public engagement and she's kind of getting really wired, giving off some extreme vibrations like she's reaching for something / someone unobtainable yet she continually strives but never comes to the end of the quest...the set list is familiar and the raps between songs have all been heard before, interestingly the audience seem not to get any prurient enjoyment from the joplin expose raps so that must be down to the 'sophisticated boston' hick town mentality more than anything else closer to home...the band are getting some of janis frenetic energy which they translate into some heavy soul blasting, letting rip trying to carry janis further, to the place she so wants to be, to the now unachievable nirvana...
...released in 1972 this double waxing consists of one slice with big brother from '68 and the quicky reunion in early 70 with the other being recordings with full tilt crew recorded on the great train trip of the same year...with the big brother sides the first track kicks things off in top fashion with great freak-screach-guitar backing janis's belting vocal and the whole kaboodle is a blast the whole way...what is really fine and dandy are the raps that joplin lays on the eager audience which more than make up for the obvious fact that this was really no more than a record company exploito cash in...
...a very nice and goodly snootfull of exploito mop up on these 2 coasters consisting of some patented chipper freak-screach from big brother and some plaintive blues belting from jj's later days...a sad last look at what was once a beautiful freaky proposition...well cool stuff and worthy of some spintime in any cats book...
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