I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in "Cheers & Jeers".
OK, you've been warned - here is this week's tomfoolery material that I posted.
CHEERS to Bill and Michael in PWM, our Laramie, Wyoming-based friend Irish Patti and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous weekend .... and week ahead.
ART NOTES — an exhibition entitled Rise Up: Stonewall and the LGBTQ Rights Movement (commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall riots) will be at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. through December 31st.
Exhibition covers the past fifty yearsPROGRAMMING NOTE — I will be travelling next weekend, and hence there will not be a Friday posting in C&J, nor a Sunday Odds & Ends diary (though I will be hosting Top Comments this coming Thursday, June 6th). Will return middle-of-the-month.
WITH ALL OF THE ATTENTION focused on children not being vaccinated against the measles — some authorities believe adults should be encouraged to receive booster shots (in part since some may not have received a full battery as a child).
THURSDAY's CHILD is named Waylon the Cat— a long distance trucker’s (and military vet) co-pilot who escaped one night … who then posted a picture of Waylon to the “Trucker Cats” Reddit page … which soon led to a reunion.
Waylon the Travelling CatYOUR WEEKEND READ is this essay by David Graham in The Atlantic about how the Trumpster thought that immigration would be easy to counter … and isn’t.
WITH EIGHT CO-CHAMPIONS in this past week’s National Spelling Bee— where the 1951 winning word was “insouciant” …. and then the last incorrect word in 2018 was “bewusstseinslage” .... why not have a Spelling Bee for those who cannot spell ordinary words ... yet are compelled to write a caustic opinion on everything?
FRIDAY's CHILD is named Cricket the Cat— a British Columbia klepto-kitteh who seems to restrict her theft to gloves (garden, construction and ski varieties).
Cricket the Klepto KittehBRAIN TEASER - try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC.
THE OTHER NIGHT yours truly hosted the Top Comments diary with a look at two events here in New Hampshire — an update on a local animal cruelty case, and the back-story to Thursday’s abolishment of capital punishment by the Legislature.
SEPARATED at BIRTH — Australian film star Liam Hemsworth (Hunger Games) and the Russian tennis star Karan Khachanov (who, with a victory yesterday, has now advanced to the Round of 16 at the French Open).
Liam Hemsworth (b. 1990) — Karan Khachanov (b. 1996)...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… while they were never the most individually talented (and certainly not the most disciplined) band in the world …... it is possible to look at Big Brother & the Holding Company (BBHC) as a band that reflected their times ... and helped shape them. Their early days gave no particular sense of immortality, yet it was their 1-1/2 years with Janis Joplin that catapulted them into the spotlight. They fell back to earth after her departure and - after a break-up lasting fifteen years - have been reunited since 1987 (with their classic line-up members participating). It's worth a look at them .... before (and after) the whirlwind.
The band was formed in San Francisco in 1965, when musicians Peter Albin (a country-blues guitarist who became their bassist) and guitarist Sam Andrew (who had a jazz background before becoming a rocker) met when Andrew was walking down a street, heard Albin's playing and knocked on the door .... and the two decide to form a band.
Then, music promoter Chet Helms - second in prominence only to Bill Graham in the Bay Area - brought a musician to the new band (and not for the last time). This was lead guitarist James Gurley - whose mix of blues and John Coltrane-like solos lent itself to the psychedelic sound that was soon to emerge. Helms also came up with the band's name from a list of names - "Big Brother" was near the top of the list and "The Holding Company" close to the bottom ....and the decision was to combine the two.
Helms then found drummer Chuck Jones, and the band played its first show in January, 1966. By March, Jones had left the band and was replaced by jazz drummer Dave Getz - who had been in the audience for the first night's show. And these four became the "classic" lineup of the band throughout its history.
In time, they became the 'house band' for Helms, but the band knew that the lack of a strong singer was their one weakness. Once again, Chet Helms intervened — and as he had spent part of his youth at the University of Texas, he recalled a young Janis Joplin as a singer who just might be the solution. She had, in fact, lived in San Francisco for two years (from 1963-1965) before returning home due to a lack of success and amphetamine use that worried her. But Helms prevailed upon her, and she returned in May, 1966.
The auditions and initial performances were a bit awkward - the band was a bit loose and free-flowing, and she was a singer not used to playing with a loud band. But in time, she - and they - adapted, and their sound came together. Now the band was starting to get a reputation outside of northern California.
December of 1966 brought them to Chicago (their first real touring date) where they made a recording with Mainstream Records. This was a jazz label unaccustomed to a rock band, and the band wasn't exactly happy with the production (nor the contract) - and the album was not released until after they hit the big-time.
And this happened after their summertime appearance at the June, 1967 Monterey Pop Festival - where their final song, the Big Mama Thornton-written Ball and Chain was captured on the festival's documentary film - when BBHC became stars. The album release shortly thereafter caught some wind, with original songs such as "Blindman" and "Coo Coo" gaining some airplay, and the album reaching #60 in the charts.
This led Bob Dylan's manager Albert Grossman to sign the band and (eventually) get them out of their contract with Mainstream and bring them to Columbia Records. And there a decision was made to de-emphasize James Gurley's guitar work (which many fans thought of as one of the band's main appeals) and focus exclusively on Janis. The band was the first to appear at the newly-opened Fillmore East in March, 1968 when they entered a New York studio to record what would become their last album with Janis Joplin.
Cheap Thrills was a difficult album to make; the band had arguments over the cover (which eventually used artwork by R. Crumb as a compromise) and over the producer, John Simon. But it resulted in a #1 album for eight weeks, and the Jerry Ragovoy/Bert Berns song Piece of My Heart - originally recorded by Erma Franklin, (Aretha Franklin's sister) made it to #12 on the pop charts .... and which later ranked as #353 on the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list by Rolling Stone.
The album also had songs such as the Gershwin Brothers' Summertime as well as a new version of "Ball and Chain" and years later, the album was ranked at #338 on the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time by Rolling Stone.
But all along, forces were separating the singer from the band. Janis had ideas for the band (overdubbing, for example) that did not square with the others. And she had many (including executives at Columbia) telling her to get a more polished band, that could catapult her to greater heights. After a year-and-a-half, she left (along briefly with Sam Andrew) in December, 1968 to form the Kozmic Blues Band in early 1969. With this, the other three band members went their separate ways (with Dave Getz and Peter Albin joining Country Joe and the Fish).
A year later, the four classic band-members reunited, along with Quicksilver musician Nick Gravenites. But they found it tough sledding, despite releasing two albums Be A Brother (in 1970) and How Hard It Is (in 1971), and after touring for a while .... BBHC hung-it-up in 1972.
Fifteen years later in 1987, the four classic line-up band mates re-formed BBHC ... and it remains active to this day, with numerous guest singers and musicians rounding out the line-up over the years (with a more recent photo of the band below right). They released a 1997 recording Can't Go Home Again along with 1999's Do What You Love ... and won praise for a 2006 live album that showed this legacy band (along with then-lead singer Sophia Ramos) performing much more crisply and professionally than in their heyday ...... yet still with that 1960's sound coming through.
Of their two original guitarists: James Gurley left in 1997, and pursued solo work before his death in December, 2009 (just two days before his 70th birthday) and Sam Andrew died in February, 2015 at the age of 73. Rhythm section members Peter Albin and Dave Getz carry-on, with newer musicians and BBHC tours on occasion - with a biography of the band released just a few years ago.
The lasting question has been: did Janis Joplin help herself by leaving BBHC? The Kozmic Blues Band was not a success, although her later group, the Canada-based Full Tilt Boogie Band - which backed her on her final album Pearl (that included “Me and Bobby McGee”) before her death — was indeed a more skilled lineup. Some previously unreleased work with BBHC has been released in the past few years, and I agree with the All-Music Guide's Richie Unterberger's conclusion:
There's no denying both that Joplin was by far the band's most striking asset, and that Big Brother would never have made a significant impression if they hadn't been fortunate enough to add her to their lineup shortly after forming. But Big Brother also occupies a significant place in the history of San Francisco psychedelic rock (on its own) - and (Joplin's) new band, though more polished musically, was not nearly as sympathetic accompanists as Big Brother were. Classic quartet w/Janis in the 1960’s ….. and a more recent group photoOf all of the band's tunes, it's a 1930's traditional song Down on Me— for which Janis enhanced the lyrics on the band's first album — that remains my favorite, which the current lineup performs to this day. And a March, 1968 live version— from a Detroit concert — shows the sound of the band: not the most polished nor the most tight .... yet with a lively sound that reflected its time.
This double album Joplin in Concert was released after Janis’ death — the first record with BBHC and the other with her later musicians — and i vividly recall a record reviewer at that time who said he avoided playing it ... certain it was a cash-in attempt … and how delighted he was that it was a worthy compilation.
One of these mornings be proud and fair Put on my wings and then I'll try the airBelieve in your brother have faith in man, Help each other, honey if you can
Since it looks like everybody in this whole round world: Is down on me
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