Published on Aug 30, 1999
(Editor’s Note: This album was initially reviewed as part of the
Janis Joplin Box Of Pearls
box set – hence the “Box Set Rating” at the bottom of the
page.)
Cheap Thrills was the breakthrough album for Janis Joplin
and Big Brother & The Holding Company. Topping the charts for
eight weeks and spawning a top 20 single, this was the album that
solidified the reputation that the band had spawned with their set
at the Monterey Pop festival. It also marked the end of the band;
not terribly long after the album’s release, Joplin left the band
to pursue a solo career.
When I first bought a battered vinyl copy of
Cheap Thrills some years ago, I was unimpressed.
This was the album that helped to shape the music scene of
the late ’60s? (Then again, keep in mind the first time I heard the
Grateful Dead, I didn’t much care for them, either.)
Now, with the re-mastered release (containing four bonus
tracks), I got a chance to re-think my original position… only to
find it had improved by the narrowest of margins. The time on the
road shows in both positive and negative ways, and
Cheap Thrills still remains an album that you either get or
you don’t… and I don’t.
Musically, Sam Andrew and crew had worked themselves into a
tight musical unit by the time these tracks (some of which were
recorded live at the Fillmore Auditorium) were cut. But on the
other end of the spectrum, you can hear the strain on Joplin’s
vocals. On some tracks, like “Piece Of My Heart,” the raggedness
fits the mood perfectly. But on others like “I Need A Man To Love”
and “Summertime”, it’s almost painful to hear how she’s shredding
her throat. She had vocal power beyond many female blues singers;
pity that she overused that power.
“Piece Of My Heart,” the hit single from
Cheap Thrills, remains a classic song that has lost little
of its power over the course of three decades. Likewise,
“Combination Of The Two” is an underrated classic that allows
Joplin the fiery freedom to cut loose with her vocal abilities. In
a way, I prefer “Combination Of The Two” over “Piece Of My Heart,”
maybe because it hasn’t been overplayed over the years, and remains
a secret treasure locked away for fans to discover. (Think of it
this way: which of the two tracks
isn’t on the
Greatest Hits album, though it should be?)
Of the remaining tracks that made up the original
Cheap Thrills, there seems to be an overreliance on 12-bar
blues that wasn’t there on the band’s first album. “I Need A Man To
Love,” “Turtle Blues” and “Ball And Chain” (the last track Joplin’s
tribute to the song’s author, “Big Mama” Thornton) all seem to
hammer the reliance home – maybe this was one of the limiting
factors that Joplin saw with Big Brother & The Holding Comapny.
The band’s cover of “Summertime” (co-written by George Gershwin)
just doesn’t fit the mood that well.
What makes
Cheap Thrills raise a few notches in my book is the addition
of the four bonus tracks. Had songs like “Flower In The Sun,”
“Catch Me Daddy” and “Magic Of Love” been included on the original
album, my opinion of it as a teenager would have been much higher.
(Of the new additions, only “Roadblock” doesn’t do anything for me;
it almost seems like a song looking for a direction.)
Cheap Thrills is the kind of album that anyone who wants to
discover what the ’60s were like will want to run out and grab. And
if you want to discover more about Joplin than a compilation album
will show you, it’s worth the trip. But
Cheap Thrills shows a band whose musical focus was changing
– and it’s a shame we didn’t get a chance to see if they would have
gotten things back on the right road.