I post a weekly diary of the historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I featured this past week in "Cheers & Jeers". For example .....
By Request OLDER-YOUNGER SIBLINGS? from el vasco - Broadway star Jane Alexander as well as Alan Rickman the Hollywood star. Whaddya think?
OK, you've been warned - here is this week's tomfoolery material that I posted
ART NOTES - the first major retrospective since the death fifteen years ago of Roy Lichtenstein is at the Tate Modern museum in London, England through May 27th.
BUSINESS NOTES .... while many in Britain are fearful of the European Union, one group that isn't are Scotch-whisky makers - who want to stay in the EU.
A NEW REPORT argues that the European Union ought to model itself after the USA following its independence. With some states crippled by debt, Alexander Hamilton persuaded the federal government to assume all the debt, securing the country's creditworthiness - which the report says is now needed in Europe.
WEDNESDAY's CHILD was rescued from a burning building in Pasadena, California - and after recuperating in an oxygen chamber: is now awaiting to be claimed.
ENERGY NOTES - the U.S.-based firm SunEdison will team with a Chilean mining company to build a 100-MW solar plant in that country: touted as the biggest of its kind in Latin America and also one of the world’s largest.
PROGRAMMING NOTE - as I will be on vacation for several days next week, there will likely not be an "Odds & Ends" for next weekend. Will see you in two weeks.
ART NOTES - sometimes called "The Father of the Renaissance" - but relatively unknown, as most of his works are immovable frescoes or fragile paintings on wood panel - the exhibit Piero della Francesca in America aims to rectify this, with seven works on display at the Frick Collection in New York City until May 19th.
AT A RECENT CONFERENCE in Ireland, the executive director of the relatively new UN Women organization, Michelle Bachelet - the former president of Chile - gave an address on "Making cities safe for women and girls" as part of an annual anti-poverty conference.
ONE OF MY FAVORITE analysts is Rick Perlstein - the author of Nixonland - and two of his shorter pieces that caught my eye recently were about two university students (whom many right-wing pundits suggest are "indoctrinated" with liberalism there). Perlstein writes instead about one college libertarian who got mugged by reality after graduation ...... and also by someone determined to be a moderate Republican until graduation.
THURSDAY's CHILD is Meatball the Cat - an English kitteh located 500 miles from home (in Scotland) due to his microchip.
AN INTERESTING ASPECT of the shared experience many Americans feel in watching the Super Bowl is that felt by prison inmates - as noted in an essay by someone wrongly convicted (and imprisoned) in his youth.
IN an ERA where high-tech and major corporations prevail, there are still some small-time inventors such as Frankfurt, Germany locksmith Walter Günther - who develops saucepans that whistle when potatoes finish cooking, motor-driven sausage turners ..... machines he says others have simply 'forgotten to make' - and spurning patents on any of his creations.
SEPARATED at BIRTH - actors Chris Pine ("Princess Diaries", "Star Trek") and James Marsden ("X-Men", "Hairspray").
WHILE THE WORDS .... ice hockey and India may appear to be a non-sequitur .... that nation's northernmost region has had (since the 1970's) an active scene ... and is starting to draw international players and fans to see it played against the backdrop of the Himalayas.
BRAIN TEASER - try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC.
FRIDAY's CHILD is Valentine the Cat - so-named as he was dumped from a car in Ohio .... but is a purr-a-holic, and several want to adopt him from the shelter he was brought to.
......and finally, for a song of the week ............... while they were never the most individually talented, nor the most disciplined band in the world: it is possible to look at Big Brother & the Holding Company (BBHC) as a band that reflected their times ... and helped shape them. Their early days gave no particular sense of immortality, yet it was their 1-1/2 years with Janis Joplin that catapulted them into the spotlight. They fell back to earth after her departure and - after a break-up lasting fifteen years - have been reunited since 1987 (with most of their classic line-up members participating). It's worth a look at them .... before and after the whirlwind.
The band was formed in San Francisco in 1965, when musicians Peter Albin (a country-blues guitarist who became their bassist) and guitarist Sam Andrew (who had a jazz background before becoming a rocker) met when Andrew was walking down a street, heard Albin's playing and knocked on the door .... and the two decide to form a band. Then, music promoter Chet Helms - second in prominence only to Bill Graham in the Bay Area - brought a musician to the new band (and not for the last time). This was lead guitarist James Gurley - whose mix of blues and John Coltrane-like solos lent itself to the psychedelic sound that was soon to emerge. Helms also came up with the band's name from a list of names - "Big Brother" was near the top of the list and "The Holding Company" close to the bottom ....and the decision was to combine the two.
Helms then found drummer Chuck Jones, and the band played its first show in January, 1966. By March, Jones had left the band and was replaced by jazz drummer Dave Getz - who had been in the audience for the first night's show. And these four became the "classic" lineup of the band throughout its history.
In time, they became the 'house band' for Helms, but the band knew that the lack of a strong singer was their one weakness. Once again, Chet Helms intervened - and as he had spent part of his youth at the University of Texas, he recalled a young Janis Joplin as a singer that might just be the solution. She had, in fact, lived in San Francisco for two years (from 1963-1965) before returning due to a lack of success and amphetamine use that worried her. But Helms prevailed upon her, and she returned in May, 1966.
The auditions and initial performances were a bit awkward - the band was a bit loose and free-flowing, and she was a singer not used to playing with a loud band. But in time, she - and they - adapted, and their sound came together. Now the band was starting to get a reputation outside of northern California (they are in the first photo, below).
December of 1966 brought them to Chicago (their first real touring date) where they made a recording with Mainstream Records. This was a jazz label unaccustomed to a rock band, and the band wasn't exactly happy with the production (nor the contract) - and the album was not released until after they hit the big-time.
And this happened after their summertime appearance at the June, 1967 Monterey Pop Festival - where their final song, the Big Mama Thornton-written Ball and Chain was captured on the festival's documentary film - when BBHC became stars. The album release shortly thereafter caught some wind, with original songs such as "Blindman" and "Coo Coo" gaining some airplay, and the album reaching #60 in the charts.
This led Bob Dylan's manager Albert Grossman to sign the band and (eventually) get them out of their contract with Mainstream and bring them to Columbia Records. And there a decision was made to de-emphasize James Gurley's guitar work (which many fans thought of as one of the band's main appeals) and focus exclusively on Janis. The band was the first to appear at the newly-opened Fillmore East in March, 1968 when they entered a New York studio to record what would become their last album with Janis Joplin.
Cheap Thrills was a difficult album to make; the band had arguments over the cover (which eventually used artwork by R. Crumb as a compromise) and the work of producer John Simon. But it resulted in a #1 album for eight weeks, and the Jerry Ragovoy/Bert Berns song Piece of My Heart - originally recorded by Erma Franklin, Aretha Franklin's sister - made it to #12 on the pop charts .... and which later ranked as #353 on the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list by Rolling Stone.
The album also had songs such as the Gershwin Brothers' Summertime as well as a new version of "Ball and Chain" and years later, the album was ranked at #338 on the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time by Rolling Stone.
But all along, forces were separating the singer from the band. Janis had ideas for the band (overdubbing, for example) that did not square with the others. And she had many (including at Columbia) telling her to get a more polished band, that could catapult her to greater heights. After a year-and-a-half, she left (along with Sam Andrew) in December, 1968 to form the Kozmic Blues Band in early 1969. With this, the other three band members went their separate ways (with Dave Getz and Peter Albin joining Country Joe and the Fish).
A year later, the four classic band-members reunited, along with Quicksilver musician
Nick Gravenites. But they found it tough sledding, despite releasing two albums Be A Brother (in 1970) and How Hard It Is (in 1971), and after touring for a while .... BBHC hung-it-up in 1972.
Fifteen years later in 1987, the four classic line-up band mates re-formed BBHC ... and it remains active to this day, with numerous guest singers and musicians rounding out the line-up over the years (with a more recent photo of the band below right). They released a 1997 recording Can't Go Home Again along with 1999's Do What You Love ... and won praise for a 2006 live album that showed this legacy band (along with then-lead singer Sophia Ramos) performing more crisply and professionally than in their heyday ...... yet still with that 1960's sound coming through.
James Gurley left in 1997, and pursued solo work before his death in December, 2009 (just two days before his 70th birthday). BBHC tours regularly - with a biography of the band released just a few years ago - and just the other day, BBHC performed at a benefit concert for the ailing Jefferson Starship musician Slick Aguilar.
The lasting question has been: did Janis Joplin help herself by leaving BBHC? The Kozmic Blues Band was not a success, although her later group, the Canada-based Full Tilt Boogie Band - which backed her on her final album Pearl before her death - was indeed a more skilled lineup. Some previously unreleased work with BBHC has been released in the past few years, and I like the All-Music Guide's Richie Unterberger's conclusion:
There's no denying both that Joplin was by far the band's most striking asset, and that Big Brother would never have made a significant impression if they hadn't been fortunate enough to add her to their lineup shortly after forming. But Big Brother also occupies a significant place in the history of San Francisco psychedelic rock (on its own) - and (Joplin's) new band, though more polished musically, was not nearly as sympathetic accompanists as Big Brother were.
Of all of the band's tunes, it's a 1930's traditional song Down on Me - for which Janice enhanced the lyrics on the band's first album - that remains my favorite. And a March, 1968 live version - from a show in Detroit - shows the sound of the band: not the most polished nor the most tight .... yet with a sound that reflected its time. And below you can hear it.
One of these mornings
be proud and fair
Put on my wings
and then I'll try the air
Believe in your brother
have faith in man,
Help each other, honey
if you can
Since it looks like everybody
in this whole round world
Is down on me