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Janis Joplin
Pearl: Legacy Edition
(Columbia/Legacy)
The Music Box's #8 specialty package for 2005
First Appeared in The Music Box, June 2005, Volume 12, #6
Written by John Metzger
If The Essential Janis Joplin represented the many milestones of Janis
Joplin’s admittedly brief career, then Pearl was its pinnacle. Given
this, it’s not surprising that the retrospective featured all but one track from
this glorious outing, though in doing so it also made her masterpiece nearly
irrelevant. The latest repackaging of the album comes in the shape of Pearl:
Legacy Edition, and although it doesn’t restore completely the pertinence of
the original effort, it does offer a terrific and focused overview of her final
moments on Earth.
Indeed, in the wake of a self-imposed hiatus, Joplin emerged in the spring of
1970, fully re-energized and raring to go. She assembled a new band that soon
was dubbed Full Tilt Boogie, and by the end of June, the ensemble set forth on a
voyage across Canada as part of the Festival Express tour. Culled from this
week-long railroad expedition are 13 tracks, which represent the bulk of the
bonus material featured on Pearl: Legacy Edition. In short, taken along
with the original album, these concert selections represent some of the most
powerful recordings of Joplin ever to be assembled. Right from the opening notes of
Tell Mama, which more than ever echoes the Grateful Dead’s rendition of
Turn on Your Lovelight, there’s little doubt as to who is in control.
Unlike Big Brother and the Holding Company, Full Tilt Boogie was Joplin’s band,
and the collective allowed her room to feed from its energy and sing from her
heart. Granted, much of the music is ragged, but it also is undeniably intense.
Move Over, for example, isn’t stretched far beyond the time constraints
of its studio counterpart, but it’s far more urgent. As for songs like Little
Girl Blue, Maybe, and Summertime, her soul-infused vocals
exuded the pain and anguish that forever seemed to surround her. Also featured
on Pearl: Legacy Edition is an acoustic-driven, demo rendition of Me
and Bobby McGee and five additional selections that were plucked from the
studio sessions, though none of it is nearly as sterling as the concert cuts.
As for Pearl itself, it is commonly (and rightfully) referred to as
Joplin’s finest studio effort. Released posthumously and never fully completed,
the album still became her most successful outing, largely because it featured
not only her most accessible but also her most enduring material. Without
question, she always was able to tap into a remarkable range of emotion, but it
was within Pearl’s contents that she demonstrated the most restraint and
control over her abilities. On Cry Baby, she alternated between
broken-hearted tenderness and spine-tingling, guttural wails; A Woman Left
Lonely reeked of utter desperation; the manner in which she encapsulated
both the spirit of the open road and the tormented heartache of Kris
Kristofferson’s Me & Bobby McGee makes hers the quintessential rendition
of the song; and the concluding Get It While You Can is as devastating a
statement of resignation as any ever delivered. It’s almost too much to consider
what Joplin might have accomplished had she not accidentally overdosed while in
the midst of creating Pearl, but the terrifying blend of beauty and
misery that she left as her epitaph is as much of a legacy as anyone should
need.
Pearl [Original Album] —  ½
Bonus Materials —
Pearl: Legacy Edition — ½
Pearl: Legacy Edition is available
from Amazon.com. To order, Click Here!
For Canadian orders, please
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For UK orders, please
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Pearl [Original Album] is available
from Amazon.com. To order, Click Here!
For Canadian orders, please
Click Here!
For UK orders, please
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Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2005
The Music Box
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