Janis Joplin (Original Soundtrack)

by Joe Viglione In 1975 Columbia Records released this double disc, which held both treasures and frustration for the fans of Janis Joplin. The treasures were the glimpses of her live work with the Kozmic Blues Band plus a bonus LP containing 17 previously unreleased folk tracks entitled "Early Performances." The frustration lies in the big lie. In the world before DVD combined the film and the CD soundtrack, someone at Columbia had the audacity to substitute previously released material to replace some of the live performances that appeared on the film -- most notably "Cry Baby" and "Piece of My Heart." It is noted on the label, but is not the kind of thing fans of soundtracks expect to see after they purchase the LP. Think anyone had the intuitive courage to take the live performance of "Mercedez Benz" from the Wicked Woman bootleg of her last show with Full Tilt Boogie from Harvard University Stadium for this set? Instead you get the a cappella "Mercedez Benz" from Pearl along with the hit version of "Me and Bobby McGee." Absolutely ultra-redundant treatment for an artist whose catalog only expanded decades after her passing, when Sony/Legacy started mining the vaults. The big tease is a mere taste with the brilliant version of Big Mama Thornton's "Ball & Chain" recorded April 12, 1969, by Kozmic Blues finding its way on here. What it does is demand that that entire concert eventually get released. Guitarist John Till and company absolutely rip into Chip Taylor's "Try (Just a Little Bit Harder)" from April 7, 1970, and as sublime as it is, that track was also found on Joplin in Concert, the double-LP release from 1972.The folk material on the second disc is really special -- a loose New Orleans style band with horns, harmonica, and that distinctive voice going through "Silver Threads & Golden Needles," "Walk Right In," and other bluesy tunes, Janis Joplin covering Dusty Springfield and the Rooftop Singers in an extraordinary way. Think "Turtle Blues" from the Cheap Thrills album for a hint of the atmosphere. These are not the Jorma Kaukonen "typewriter tapes" that showed up on the three-CD box Janis, though two of the titles are different renditions of that material -- "What Good Can Drinkin' Do" and "Trouble in Mind." Outside of fragments that were made available on a flexi-disc inside David Dalton's biography of the singer, the world didn't get to hear much early Janis. Though less than what it could have been, this "soundtrack" is still an important and powerful release that mirrors 1973's Sound Track Recordings From the Film Jimi Hendrix, another double-disc companion piece to a film about a rock star who passed away in 1970.