Pearl

Joplin, Janis

album cover

The Precious Last Testament of a Belter

Janis Joplin had recorded most of the vocals for this album before she died, from a heroin overdose in a Hollywood hotel, on October 4, 1970. But it wasn't finished: She was scheduled to return to the studio the day after she died, to do the vocals on at least one more song. The song appears on Pearl as an instrumental. It's called "Buried Alive in the Blues."

The sentiment of "Buried Alive" is typical blues woe—one verse goes, "All caught up in a landslide, bad luck pressing in from all sides, just got knocked off my easy ride, buried alive in the blues." It's tempting to hear the tune as an eerie epitaph. But that overlooks one key Joplin trait: Though she poured everything into the blues, she never let herself get swallowed up by it.

By her last year, the belter from Port Arthur, Texas, had grown into a devastatingly original voice, the rare white interpreter of African American music who resisted the ready cliché. She treated old Delta songs and '50s R&B ballads as theatrical platforms, ripe for largescale rethinking. Her blues woe was never typical blues woe. Matching paint-peeling power with an uncanny sense of dramatic timing, she could turn out a plea that made listeners feel like they were part of a fateful make-or-break moment happening right then.

This album contains her only chart-topping single (the posthumously released "Me and Bobbie McGee") and several of her most compelling covers ("Get It While You Can," "Cry Baby"). More significantly, it captures the astounding repertoire of vocal mannerisms Joplin discovered singing with her old band Big Brother and the Holding Company and perfected with this ensemble, which she called the Full Tilt Boogie Band. The 1999 reissue contains four previously unreleased live bonus tracks, recorded in the summer of 1970 on a Canadian tour, all showcasing the mighty Joplin at the peak of her powers.

Genre: Rock
Released: 1971, Columbia
Key Tracks: "Cry Baby," "Move Over," "Me and Bobby McGee," "Try (Just a Little Bit Harder)."
Catalog Choice: Cheap Thrills (with Big Brother and the Holding Company)
Next Stop: Bonnie Raitt: Green Light
After That: Ronee Blakley: Welcome
Book Pages: 410–411