0247. Janis Joplin
Pearl
First and foremost: I've never liked Janis' rendition of Me & Bobby McGee (or rather: Me & Bobby McGee is a song I've never liked any version of - not even the original).
Second: Mercedes Benz is a killer - which goes to show that it's not about the amount of instruments or money you throw into the production, but instead how you deliver. (And once again 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die gets it wrong, stating that the song is about having a good time when it's in fact criticising materialism.)
After recording with, and leaving, Big Brother And The Holding Company as well as the Kozmic Blues Band she hooked up with the Full Tilt Boogie Band to create this album. The band's name reveals some of the musical style of Pearl: boogie rock with a dosage of blues. And of course Ms Joplin's voice.
Of the ten songs Janis only penned the lyrics to two of the tracks (Move Over and Mercedes Benz together with two or three beat poets (sources say differently)), but she truly owns them all.
Sadly she didn't get to see the release as she O.D.'d on heroin before the studio sessions were finished, leaving Buried Alive In The Blues an instrumental.
The last song she ever recorded (a fact I didn't know until today) was Mercedes Benz - and that's a damn good swan song.
