1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: 126. Big Brother and the Holding Company – Cheap Thrills (1968)

 

I tend to listen to these albums without doing any prior research, nor knowing why they were included in the list, and so it was partway through the first track that I thought “That sounds like Janis Joplin”. And, indeed, it is; the second of two albums she did with Big Brother before going solo, before sadly joining the 27 Club a couple of years later.

Like Jeff Beck’s album last time, this is largely blues-rock, with an added dash of psychedelia (because it’s 1968 and therefore almost compulsory), bits of soul, R&B and even a bit of Gershwin, but sounds a lot more visceral and real compared to Beck. A big part of this is due to Joplin’s emotive vocals with a voice like an angel made of sandpaper. She’s a lot better at sounding authentic. 

Many of the songs are funkier than Beck as well, with a groovy bassline from Pete Aldrin, and the double guitars of Sam Andrew and James Gurley. I listened to the re-release version, and all of the tracks are good – for Joplin the stand-out is probably the cover of Piece of My Heart, for sheer exuberance the first track Combination of the Two is a great piece of San Francisco psychedelia.

Oh yeah, and a cover by Robert Crumb for added counter-culture cachet.