big brother & the holding company

• Format: Vinyl LP, stereo album reissue
• Vinyl: 180-gram black vinyl

Big Brother & The Holding Company introduced the wider record-buying public to Janis Joplin and one of the defining groups of San Francisco’s psychedelic era. Recorded before the band’s celebrated appearance at the Monterey International Pop Festival, the album captures their early combination of blues, folk, garage rock and loose psychedelic improvisation.

Joplin’s unmistakable voice is already at the centre of the music, moving from tenderness to full-throated intensity on songs such as “Bye, Bye Baby,” “Call On Me” and “Down On Me.” Around her, guitarists Sam Andrew and James Gurley create a raw, sometimes abrasive psychedelic backdrop, supported by Peter Albin’s bass and David Getz’s energetic drumming.

This expanded twelve-track version also includes “Coo Coo” and “The Last Time.” Although the group would achieve its greatest commercial success with Cheap Thrills, their debut preserves a more spontaneous and unpolished side of the band, documenting the sound of the San Francisco underground before it reached the mainstream.

Track Listing

Side A

1. Bye, Bye Baby
2. Easy Rider
3. Intruder
4. Light Is Faster Than Sound
5. Call On Me
6. Coo Coo

Side B

1. Women Is Losers
2. Blindman
3. Down On Me
4. Caterpillar
5. All Is Loneliness
6. The Last Time