![]() Rothchild sensed the camaraderie between singer and band. ![]() Its lyrics echo the insistent "You know I need a man" on Joplin's self-penned "Move Over," and both songs feature scorching, soul-deep vocals that may have drawn on her time singing in church as a child. Its churchy gospel chords accentuate the sad story being told: "The fevers of the night, they burn an unloved woman/Yeah, those red-hot flames try to push old love aside/A woman left lonely, she's the victim of her man, yes she is!" But it's hard to see Joplin as a victim, except perhaps of the excesses that took her life all too soon. Just as riveting is "A Woman Left Lonely," written to order by Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham. Shuman's lyric for "Get It While You Can" made for an eerily fitting epitaph: "Don't you know when you're loving anybody, baby/You're taking a gamble on a little sorrow/But then who cares, baby/'Cause we may not be here tomorrow, no." Joplin's delivery is raw, pained, personal and above all else, honest. Ragovoy, a favored songwriter of Joplin's who had already provided her with "Piece of My Heart," is also represented with "My Baby" and "Get It While You Can," both co-written with Mort Shuman, one-time partner of Doc Pomus and devotee/English lyricist of Jacques Brel. She invented Jerry Ragovoy and Bert Berns' "Cry Baby," a 1963 hit for Garnet Mimms and the Enchanters, as a psychedelic blues with deep soul. All of the singer's disparate styles were employed on Pearl. Though it's doubtful Joplin knew she was racing against time, the original album never lets up, from the opening drum beat of "Move On" to the final crescendo of "Get It While You Can." Recording commenced in July 1970 sessions were still taking place when Joplin died on the evening of October 4, and her vocal of "Mercedes Benz" was recorded just days earlier on October 1. ![]() Both approaches are valid but neither could be called "definitive." However, Sessions confirms there's still much, much more to explore when it comes to Janis Joplin. Sessions drops those tracks and replaces them with a behind-the-scenes look. The first (2005's Legacy Edition on Columbia/Legacy C2K 90282) supplemented it with a live performance from 1970's Festival Express tour. Sessions is the second 2-CD set devoted to the album. Only "Me and Bobby McGee" exceeds the four-minute mark. A sense of drama permeates the original album which wasn't always apparent in her earlier, more free-form recordings indeed, this is as tight a group of songs as she ever recorded. Joplin pleads, wails, shrieks, and otherwise gives herself in to the music with abandon and fervor. Some of the most forceful repertoire of her all-too-short career can be found on the album, produced by Paul Rothchild, best known for his work with The Doors. Pearl captured all of these contradictions, and more, better than any of the artist's albums before it. She was a songwriter of no small talent but best known for her interpretation of others' songs. Joplin was both larger-than-life and shy, supremely confident but pained. The answer would have to be "yes" and "no," which is altogether appropriate for an artist of many contradictions. ![]() (A vinyl Sessions highlights album and a 180-gram pressing of the original LP will also be available on Record Store Day.) So is this the last word on Pearl? Pearl has arrived on CD once more from Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings under the title The Pearl Sessions (88697 84224 2), expanding the original 10-track album with a clutch of mono singles, two live tracks, and nearly a disc's worth of alternate takes and studio banter. One dictionary defines "pearl" as an object both "hard" and "lustrous," synonymous with "gem" or "jewel." Couldn't all of those words also describe Janis Joplin? Pearl was, of course, the name bestowed upon the singer by her final group, The Kozmic Blues Band, and the title of her final, posthumously released album from 1971. ![]()
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