Live at the Carousel Ballroom | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Live album by | ||||
Released | March 12, 2012 | |||
Recorded | June 23, 1968 | |||
Venue | The Carousel Ballroom, San Francisco, California | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 1:10:51 | |||
Label | Columbia/Legacy | |||
Producer | Owsley Stanley | |||
Big Brother and the Holding Company featuring Janis Joplin chronology | ||||
|
Live at the Carousel Ballroom 1968 is a live album by Big Brother and the Holding Company featuring Janis Joplin. The album was recorded by Owsley Stanley in 1968, and released on 12 March 2012 through Columbia and Legacy, on the one-year anniversary of his death in an automobile accident. He had been supervising the development and release of this album right up to the time of his death on March 12, 2011. The album is dedicated to him, and set to the specifications Stanley set prior to his death. [1] [2]
The concert by Big Brother and the Holding Company was performed at the Carousel Ballroom on June 23, 1968, shortly after recording sessions ended for the group's number-one hit album, Cheap Thrills . [3] The concert took place during a brief six-month period in which the facilities were owned by bands including the Holding Company, Jefferson Airplane, and the Grateful Dead. Afterwards, the ballroom would be purchased and run by Bill Graham, who renamed it the Fillmore West. [4] Owsley Stanley, who most memorably produced innovative sound recordings for the Grateful Dead, manned the sound system for the Holding Company and other acts who played the Carousel. This is the first of Stanley's Bear's Sonic Journals, hundreds of released and unreleased live shows from the San Francisco psychedelic rock era. No mixing or remastering was done for the release of the album, as Stanley's intent was to create a unique and real sound. [5]
Limited by the technology of 1968, Stanley admirably worked to perfect the sound produced by Big Brother during the performance. Unusual by today's standards, drums and vocals are transmitted on the left channel and lead guitar and bass on the right. The distinctive results are a raw sound depicting each instrument as a different individual entity. [6] Stage monitors had yet to be developed, so the musicians had to listen to the echo effect in the ballroom, the P.A., and amplifier sound to cue pitch. An occasional missed note, especially in the vocal harmonies, was the result. Still, the miscues don't hinder the production of an overall classic performance by the Holding Company. [3] Despite its imperfections, this style of recording features a distinct uncut sound that captures the true live experience of the performance. Stanley also insisted that no applause be dubbed into the recording. [7]
As for the Holding Company's performance, Janis Joplin's lead vocals are dominant. Sam Andrew also ventured beyond his lead guitar role as an occasional co-lead vocalist and backing vocalist. The Holding Company's heavily psychedelic instrumentals jell superbly with Joplin's commanding vocals, making standouts like "I Need a Man to Love" and "Ball and Chain" all the more stellar. [3] Joplin establishes an emotional integrity in her performance. This concert is a prime example of the Holding Company at the climax of their live appearances in San Francisco. Apart from the band's usual repertoire are two rarities, "Jam - I'm Mad" and "It's A Deal," that had not yet been released. [6] There is minimal stage banter, but what little there is noteworthy. After the eighth track, "Call on Me," it is announced to Hells Angels bikers Tiny and Tim that their motorcycles would be towed if they were not promptly moved out of the parking lot. [2]
Live at the Carousel 1968 was released on March 12, 2012 to compact disc on the Columbia/Legacy label. Subsequent releases were included on vinyl and, another LP release included a bonus track, "Call On Me". This version of the song was performed from the Holding Company's concert in the same venue on June 22, 1968. [8]
San Francisco rock analyst Joel Selvin noted the live album as an influential piece in the overall "social/musical laboratory experiment akin to inmates running asylums, whose six-month run may well have corresponded with the height of the whole sixties Haight-Ashbury/San Francisco thing...". He goes on to state the recording is a pivotal part in Stanley's long and innovative sound engineering career. [9]
In the liner notes, Stanley advises listeners on how to listen for the best experience: increase the volume and place one speaker on each side of yourself. Stanley also states that "I believe that this will be hailed as a definitive Big Brother live album...". [10] Liner note writer Jaan Uhelszki explains, "These 14 songs are a testament to what a force of nature Janis Joplin and the Big Brother and the Holding Company was during these two nights at the Carousel Ballroom". [11] Stanley's widow also expressed how the album preserved the production values Stanley held so dear: "This is Bear's vision -- how he heard the band live, and how he wanted to transmit it to you...". [12]
Janis Joplin was an American singer and songwriter who sang rock, soul, and blues music. One of the most successful and widely known rock stars of her era, she was noted for her powerful mezzo-soprano vocals and "electric" stage presence.
Big Brother and the Holding Company is an American rock band that formed in San Francisco in 1965 as part of the same psychedelic music scene that produced the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and Jefferson Airplane. After some initial personnel changes, the band became well known with the lineup of vocalist Janis Joplin, guitarists Sam Andrew and James Gurley, bassist Peter Albin, and drummer Dave Getz. Their second album Cheap Thrills, released in 1968, is considered one of the masterpieces of the psychedelic sound of San Francisco; it reached number one on the Billboard charts, and was ranked number 338 in Rolling Stone's the 500 greatest albums of all time. The album is also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
Augustus Owsley Stanley III was an American audio engineer and clandestine chemist. He was a key figure in the San Francisco Bay Area hippie movement during the 1960s and played a pivotal role in the decade's counterculture. Under the professional name Bear, he was the soundman for the rock band the Grateful Dead, whom he met when Ken Kesey invited them to an Acid Test party. As their sound engineer, Stanley frequently recorded live tapes behind his mixing board and developed their Wall of Sound sound system, one of the largest mobile public address systems ever constructed. Stanley also helped Robert Thomas design the band's trademark skull logo.
Cheap Thrills is the second studio album by American rock band Big Brother and the Holding Company. It was their last album with Janis Joplin as lead singer before she started a solo career. For Cheap Thrills, the band and producer John Simon incorporated recordings of crowd noise to give the impression of a live album, for which it was subsequently mistaken by listeners. Only "Ball and Chain" was actually recorded in concert at Winterland Ballroom.
James Martin Gurley was an American musician. He is best known as the principal lead guitarist of Big Brother and the Holding Company, a psychedelic/acid rock band from San Francisco which was fronted by singer Janis Joplin from 1966 to 1968.
Sam Houston Andrew III was an American musician, singer, songwriter, composer, artist and founding member and guitarist of Big Brother and the Holding Company. During his career as musician and composer, Andrew had three platinum albums and two hit singles. His songs have been used in numerous major motion picture soundtracks and documentaries.
"Piece of My Heart" is a romantic funk/soul love song written by Jerry Ragovoy and Bert Berns, originally recorded by Erma Franklin in 1967.
I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama! is the debut solo studio album by American singer-songwriter Janis Joplin, released on September 11, 1969. It was the first album which Joplin recorded after leaving her former band, Big Brother and the Holding Company, and the only solo album released during her lifetime.
Big Brother & the Holding Company is the debut album of Big Brother and the Holding Company, with Janis Joplin, their main singer. Recorded during three days in December 1966 for Mainstream Records, it was released in the summer of 1967, shortly after the band's major success at the Monterey Pop Festival. Columbia took over the band's contract and re-released the album, adding two extra tracks, and putting Joplin's name on the cover. Several tracks on the album were released as singles, the most successful being "Down on Me" on its second release, in 1968.
In Concert is a live album by Janis Joplin. It was released in 1972, after Joplin's death, as a double-LP record. The first record contains performances with Big Brother and the Holding Company and the second with the Full Tilt Boogie Band, recorded at various locations in 1968 and 1970. The album lacks any live recordings with her first solo effort with the Kozmic Blues band though songs that had been produced with that band were performed in the recordings of the Full Tilt Boogie Band. The Photographs used for the gatefold album were taken by photographer David Gahr in New York City in 1969 and 1970.
Live at Winterland '68 is an album by Janis Joplin with her band Big Brother and the Holding Company. It was recorded at the Winterland Ballroom on April 12 and 13, 1968, and includes live renditions of songs from their studio albums.
How Hard It Is is the fourth and final studio album by Big Brother and the Holding Company, released in 1971.
"Ball and Chain" is a blues song written and recorded by American blues artist Big Mama Thornton. Although her recording did not appear on the record charts, the song has become one of Thornton's best-known, largely due to performances and recordings by Janis Joplin.
Farewell Song is a 1982 collection of nine previously unreleased recordings of Janis Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company, the Kozmic Blues Band, and Full Tilt Boogie Band. Tracks include Cheap Thrills-era outtakes and live performances; "Misery 'N", "Farewell Song", and "Catch Me Daddy".
Be a Brother is the third album by Big Brother and the Holding Company, released in 1970. It was their first album after Janis Joplin's departure. Recruited in her place were guitarist David Shallock and singer-songwriters Nick Gravenites and Kathi McDonald.
Can't Go Home Again is an album by Big Brother and the Holding Company, released in 1997.
Kathryn Marie "Kathi" McDonald was an American blues and rock singer and songwriter. As a teenager she sang with different bands around the Pacific Northwest before she was discovered by Ike Turner. She sang as an Ikette with Ike & Tina Turner and eventually replaced Janis Joplin as the front woman of Big Brother and Holding Company. McDonald became a background vocalist for various artists, including Leon Russell, Joe Cocker, The Rolling Stones, Freddie King, and Long John Baldry. She also recorded as a solo artist and fronted her own band Kathi McDonald & Friends.
18 Essential Songs is a collection of songs recorded throughout Janis Joplin's career released in 1995 by Columbia Records. It included songs from her solo career as well as with Big Brother & the Holding Company. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified it as gold on April 12, 1999.
"Flower in the Sun" is a psychedelic rock song by Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis Joplin written by founding member, guitarist Sam Andrew.
Cheaper Thrills is a live album by Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis Joplin as their lead singer. Recorded live at one of their earliest concerts in San Francisco at California Hall on July 28, 1966, it includes the band's rendition of the song "Let the Good Times Roll," which was ten years old at the time. The recording of this concert became officially available to the public for the first time in 1984. The LP was originally released by Rhino Records as RNLP 121. Big Brother drummer David Getz produced and contributed liner notes to the back cover with his personal reminiscences of the circumstances leading to the formation and success of the band. The live material on this release was also released as Cheaper Thrills, 1984, Edsel Records (UK), and Live in San Francisco 1966, 2002, Varese.