HISTORY OF JANIS JOPLIN PIECE OF MY HEART FULL
Though the live versions by Big Brother, Kozmic Blues Band and Full Tilt Boogie are great, they are not as precise as this studio take. There is passion and fury which cuts across the grooves from beginning to end, the guitars blazing away as the singer explains the facts of life. This resonating, pulsating moment in song overshadows Led Zeppelin's "Living Loving Maid" and Paul McCartney's "Helter Skelter" for pure intensity as Janis rides the electric surf of her band for all its worth. On pages 96 and 97 of Clive Davis' book Clive: Inside The Record Business, the former head of Columbia Records and man truly responsible for discovering Janis explains how he personally re-edited the single version of the tune, and how he approached his singer to get her approval. It is a dynamic shredding of notes that just puts the song over the top.
HISTORY OF JANIS JOPLIN PIECE OF MY HEART PLUS
meters that occurs three minutes and thirty-one seconds into the four minute plus song. The key moment that they build up to is a Joplin cosmic wail off the V.U. It's exhilirating, and it is a driving zenith for "Big Brother & The Holding Company, that experimental band utilizing all their hard learned and hard earned musical tricks to envelope Janis with passionate guitar, drums and bass. come on and break it, have another little piece" - taunting him with her heartbreak. Even John Lennon's "Revolution", which hit the same chart position two weeks prior to this classic, subsided into a cutesy radical pop tune after its initial blast while Janis & Company ebb & flow from a dark blues to a triumphant noisey dare "You know you got it, if it makes you feel good." This is not your ordinary "oh woe is me" blues tune, because when Janis can't stand the pain she dares her lover, "come on and take it.
"Purple Haze", "Journey To The Center Of The Mind", "Magic Carpet Ride" and others all pale in comparison.
This disc was truly a "combination of the two" as it is Janis Joplin's primal scream bursting out of Big Brother's psychedelic quagmire which made it impossible for other songs of the day to compete with in regards to the same level of condensed volume for radio. In terms of loud music no hit prior to this rendition of "Piece Of My Heart" had the acid-soaked raw nerve of the Sam Andrew / James Gurley sonic attack or Big Brother's pounding rhythm section. Writers Bert Berns and Jerry Ragovoy, not to mention vocalist Erma Franklin, never envisioned the power and explosive fury of this Top 15 hit which made it onto the charts in the Autumn of 1968. For those lucky enough to have first heard the tune pump out of a transistor radio in the sixties, it was a memorable and magical moment that is sustained listen after listen after listen. This studio version of a song the band found on a record by Aretha's sister, Erma Franklin, was recorded on by producer John Simon and catapulted Janis Joplin into superstardom. Track #4 on Cheap Thrills is also the first track on Janis Joplin's Greatest Hits, and rightfully so, for "Piece Of My Heart is arguably Joplin's greatest hit in a small catalog of magnificent vocal work.
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