Having just put up a Bonnie Raitt show that helped re-introduce me to the trading community a few years back, it seems only fitting to look even farther back to my roots and give some love to Janis.
We all have our stories on how we became blues fans. Some of us were born into it; others, like myself, had to have a few doors kicked open for us. Like a lot of we folks of the Caucasian Persuasion, growing up in the '70's and '80's, I got turned onto the blues by the rock crowd. We were forever hearing of the blues roots of the artists we loved, from Zeppelin to the Stones to Clapton. We accepted these roots as a matter of course, saw the lyrical connections, and mostly remained removed from any of the "real blues," as much by geography as for any other reason.
If we were lucky (& if we became blues fans, we got lucky at some point...)we found an artist who opened that world up to us, who delivered to us those moments when we finally "got it." I came to the blues because I fell in love with Janis Joplin.
I first heard Janis like most of us did, because one of three or four tunes showed up on the local classic rock radio station. I was a teenager and all I could think was, "you must be shitting me. What the hell is
that?" It wasn't the voice I was used to hearing from a woman.
It took a couple years. I have long maintained that life's got to knock the hell out of you, that you've got to get your heart good and shredded, before you can really "get" the blues, to
feel a music that's all about the feeling. When I finally gave
Cheap Thrills an honest spin, Janis ended up speaking to me as no singer ever had at that point. Thundering through
Ball and Chain, I finally "got" where that voice came from. Here was the unabashed voice of rage and pain, of heartbreak and liberation.
There was no going back for me at that point. Ever.
Janis would be out front of a line of rock artists who ended up leading me straight for the old-school blues. After Janis and Jimi, Stevie Ray and, yes, the Blues Brothers, my days were numbered. BB King, Muddy Waters and Junior Wells would not be far away...
As concert recordings go, Amsterdam '69 has been in circulation--and highly-regarded--for years. It is one of the best-sounding of Janis' boots (which likely has lent itself to its reputation...a lot of Janis' concert recordings sound like ass...) It doesn't hurt one bit that Joplin and her Kozmic Blues Band serve up an electrifying set. From the horn-heavy instrumental opening until
Piece of My Heart's last note fades, the band doesn't let up for a second.
Going into '69, Janis was finding her new voice, forging a new direction for herself after leaving Big Brother behind. She was looking for a tighter, bluesier sound and less Big Brother "freak-out." (Janis' quote, not mine...). The Kozmic Blues band would never become the powerhouse that Big Brother was, but they were no second-string team. They were a disparate assemblage of musicians who played as if they'd been playing together for years. Sam Andrew, who followed Janis when she leapt from Big Brother, serves up his trademark leads, though it is sax player Snooky Flowers who is the real supportive stand-out here. His high-energy duet with Janis on
Can't Turn You Loose is just a joyous, sweaty romp. The song would become a standard during the Kozmic Blues Band's brief incarnation. At Woodstock four months later, it looked like this...
Janis & Snooky, Woodstock '69Last year, long after I first got dosed with a copy of this boot, I got to call "bullshit!" on Sam Andrew over this show. Long story short, some shitstain posted a "vid" of
Summertime on youtube, billing it as a duet between Janis and Jimi Hendrix (i.e. the uploader was telling folks it was Jimi playing Sam Andrew's lead...) I poked around and matched it to a June, '68 Big Brother show. Andrew had actually been contacted by someone else on youtube during that whole debate. "It was from our Amsterdam show," the legendary guitarist insisted. "I remember it like it was yesterday."
What can I say? I couldn't resist the urge to PM Sam myself to quietly remind him that there wasn't any way the suspect video came from the spring of '69. Amsterdam had a horn section.
"You know what they say," Andrew wrote me back, "'if you can remember the '60's, you weren't really there..."
I've come to believe that it is the very notoriety of this particular Joplin boot that informed Andrew's original response/thoughts. Bootleg Janis Joplin recordings generally come in two varieties: this show and all the others...
Janis Joplin
Concertgebouw
Amsterdam, Netherlands
April 1, 1969*1. Instrumental
2. Maybe
3. Summertime
4. Try (Just A Little Bit Harder)
5. Can't Turn You Loose
6. Combination of the Two
7. Ball and Chain
8. Piece of My Heart
The Kozmic Blues Band was...
Janis Joplin - Vocals
Sam Andrew - Guitar
Cornelius "Snooky" Flowers - Baritone Sax
Brad Cambell - Bass
Richard Kermode - Organ
Terry Hensley - Trumpet
Terry Clements - Tenor Sax
Roy Markowitz - Drums
Link*I have seen two different dates for this show, both April 1 and April 11, 1969. I have yet to determine which one is actually the correct date, though 4/1/69 seems to be the most consistent...
Peace, Mudcatz
As bootleg Janis goes, this one isn't without its issues. There are equipment/guitar amplifier issues on stage, prompting some interesting banter and moments through Track 4. Coming out of this into an otherwise strong reading of Maybe, we are getting some distortion. Sound fluctuations will follow, scattered throughout the balance of this show.
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