Janis Joplin - Pearl

Janis Joplin made the blues her own. Though she didn't live to finish this album before her 1970 death from a heroin overdose, her intense passion and frantic cries of pain and ecstasy were enough to make Pearl one of the most memorable recordings of her era. Her band does fill up some vinyl with the instrumental "Buried Alive in the Blues," but it's the vocals that make this album worth hearing these many decades later. Listen to the tortured heartbreak of "Cry Baby" or the hopeful declarations of Kris Kristofferson's "Me & Bobby McGee" and understand why Joplin remains an essential, if tragic, figure in pop. This reissue of Joplin's final album includes four live bonus tracks recorded during the 1970 Canadian Festival Express Tour. --Steve Appleford Amazon.com essential recording

 JANIS' SWANSONG (She was a classic, and so is her very special last album)
Janis Joplin's Pearl (1971) was recorded during September 1970. The last song they cut was Mercedes Benz, one of two songs on the album written by Janis. It was taped on Oct. 1, 1970, just three days before Janis suddenly died. It's sung a cappella, and a little tongue-in-cheek, but the song really does have some "social and political import" (as Janis says introducing the song) regarding materialism, economic class, and religon. It's really sort of sad to hear it sometimes, knowing that she unknowingly had only three days to live at the time. At the end of Mercedes Benz, Janis laughs and says, "That's it!".

Pearl is a great album, maybe Janis Joplin's best, and it highlights her talent in a variety of musical settings. And what talent she had! She was dramatic, soulful, expressive, tough yet vunerable, and beautifully feminine in her own way. A real "Pearl" (also Janis' self-chosen nickname). The first and only album she recorded with the Full Tilt Boogie Band, Pearl has a cleaner sound, more polished and less experimental than her earlier work. That's not to say the album doesn't rock. It does! The first two songs are good examples. Move Over (written by Joplin) and Cry Baby are both classic Janis, rockin', bluesy, and tough. A Woman Left Lonely is slower, as in the slow piano blues tradition, but just as direct and completely satisfying. Half Moon is a lively rocker with funky guitar, spacy piano, and a spirited vocal performance from Joplin. It's one of my favorites here. Get It While You Can is another winner that rocks the blues in classic Janis Joplin fashion. The big hit from the album was fellow Texan Kris Kristofferson's Me And Bobby McGee. Janis plays the acoustic guitar herself on this one, and she and the band end the country song with a vigorously wide-open improvisational rock coda. Janis is the star on Pearl, and the Full Tilt Boogie Band allows her to shine while providing a competent backdrop for her stirring and genuine vocal performances. She was a great blues, rock, and country singer, and on Pearl she really shows it.

Paul Rothchild, who also produced all but one of The Doors albums, produced Pearl, and says it was Janis Joplin's best album. Is Pearl her best album? It's really a matter of taste and the sentimental connections that people have to each album. What do I think? Maybe it's her best, maybe not. But Pearl is my favorite of all of Janis' albums. And this is one of my all-time favorite album covers, too. What a smile! January 22, 2008

 Simply Stunning
In the last year or so, I've become immersed in the Monterey Pop Festival and the blues from this time. I picked up Pearl because I love Janis and she's always been a genius figure in music. However, this album is one of the first albums to actually give me goosebumps. Listening to her voice, I saw so much versatility. She could get raspy and passionate in some of the tracks, while she could also tone it down and display her magnetic voice. Her backup band, which she helped choose, is a fantastic partnership to Janis.

Get this album. Whether you get this version or the version with a whole disc of live cuts, please get this album. The additional liner notes comment on this being her most mature and polished work, and that couldn't be more right. Pay tribute to one of the greatest, most classic blues singers and buy this album. December 13, 2007

 another must
I prefer Janis with Holding Company: wilder sound. But This one is a must as well: her best selling album, with the only # 1 hit, her last recordings, released after her death. A voice with a soul we still miss: nobody comes close to her since. December 8, 2007

 GET IT WHILE YOU CAN
Arguably one of the best rock and blues albums in history Pearl, from start to finish, was a perfect coming-of-age release for Janis Joplin, who was just beginning to peak both critically and commercially as an artist. The quality and polished treatment of this studio album, released after Joplin's death due to a drug overdose, make one ponder how tragic the loss of Joplin was and question just what might have been.

Very good organ and guitar arrangements are prevalent throughout, especially in the introductory track, Move Over, and the final one, namely Get It While You Can. In between are the popular favorites Me and Bobby McGee (written by Kris Kristofferson) and the a capella Mercedes Benz.

As one listens to the other tracks that accompany, especially Cry Baby and Buried Alive in the Blues, he or she just might receive the impression that Janis was going to give what was going to be her next album an extra special treatment, both lyrically and vocally, as if it very well could be both her final and signature release. Indeed, Janis did appear to tap into a whole new dimension of artistry, somehow amalgamating the emotions of anger and sorrow and bringing them under control with pleasant overtones reflecting a newly-formed sage with a very refined perspective on life.

Pearl, perhaps the greatest of the great from Joplin, will convince many that this one female singer will always remain a unique vocalist who will never be equaled or adequately imitated. Ironically, viewpoints parallel to those regarding Janis' vocal range have been firmly held regarding the unique guitar instrumentations thus enduring musical accomplishments of another blues artist who died at the same age, 27, during the same year, 1970, as Janis, namely Jimi Hendrix.
March 17, 2007

 A Real Pearl
My favorite Joplin album, even though I'll grant that Cheap Thrills is a better set of songs. The reason I prefer Pearl is that it's better performed than Thrills, with several of Janis' most memorable songs: Move Over, Cry Baby, Half Moon, A Woman Left Lonely, posthumous #1 Me & Bobby McGee, and Get It While You Can. She occasionally slips into soft-rock irrelevancy (My Baby; Truet Me), and while the solo vocal on Mercedes-Benz is innovative, it's not one of her better songs. Regardless, this is Janis' best set of material in her all-too-short career. As usual, Janis' voice is in top form throughout, and the Full Tilt Boogie Band is far surperior to Big Brother & the Holding Company. February 23, 2007

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