Published on Aug 30, 1999
In September of 1969, just weeks after a blistering set at the
original Woodstock Festival, Janis Joplin made her solo debut in
the record store bins with her new group, the Kozmic Blues Band.
Bringing only guitarist Sam Andrew from the Big Brother fold,
Joplin’s first solo album
I Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again Mama! showed Joplin
partially embracing the blues roots that Big Brother began to
explore on
Cheap Thrills while delving into a new world for Joplin –
r&b/soul music. In some ways, this album was an improvement,
but it also showed that this group was to be short-lived.
Where Joplin’s vocals sounded ragged and frayed on parts of
Cheap Thrills, her overall sound is a major improvement on
this disc. It almost seemed like Joplin knew what kind of material
was best suited for her vocal style, and now that she was solely in
command, she had the freedom to pick those songs.
And, in a way, the r&b bend to the music turned out to be a
good move for her. The opening track “Try (Just A Little Bit
Harder)” is a perfect example of this. While this isn’t pure
r&b like other songs were on this album, it has a bluesy feel
without being mired in 12-bar, and is a tune you can naturally
groove to. The fact that it allows Joplin to set her vocals at full
shred after the intro doesn’t hurt matters either.
But Joplin was to delve further into r&b on
I Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again Mama!. On tracks like “As
Good As You’ve Been To This World” and “Work Me, Lord,” Joplin’s
true range as a musician and a singer begins to truly come into its
own. Anyone who might have been tempted to write Joplin off as a
product of the hippie generation without listening to these
performances would be making a terrible mistake.
That isn’t to say that there aren’t mis-steps on this album. The
cover of “To Love Somebody” is a song that was not meant for vocal
oomph – something that Joplin and a few other vocalists would learn
over time. Other tracks like “Maybe” and “One Good Man” are okay,
but are nothing special.
The three bonus tracks on this remastered edition both help and
hinder the original. The studio outtake “Dear Landlord” is a great
track, and I can’t help but wonder why it didn’t make the cut for
the original album. The two live tracks from Joplin’s Woodstock
performance are hit-and-miss. Joplin is able to breathe some life
into “Summertime,” a song I wasn’t particularly enamored with on
Cheap Thrills – but I don’t like the more Otis Redding-like
arrangement of “Piece Of My Heart”.
There is a bonus if you listen right after “Piece Of My Heart”
fades out – but for once, I’m not gonna spoil the surprise. (Kudos
to Bob Irwin and the gang at Legacy for finally getting the concept
of a bonus track right; they didn’t make me sit through 10 minutes
of silence or 200 three-second tracks to get to the gold.)
I Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again, Mama! showcased Joplin as
the artist in transition; the band would disintegrate at the end of
1969. But while this album still showed some weaknesses, it was an
improvement over the last effort from Big Brother & The Holding
Company – and was proof positive that Joplin could hold her
own.