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Big Brother & The Holding Company

Big Brother & The Holding Company

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Big Brother And The Holding Company: Cheap Thrills (CBS KCS 9700)

Review by Simon Frith, Let It Rock, April 1975

JANIS JOPLIN was an awkward Texan girl with a rough voice who became one of the major idols of the sixties 'counter culture'. Why? ...

Audio interviews

Big Brother's Peter Albin (1984)

Interview by Gene Sculatti, Davin Seay, Rock's Backpages audio, 1984

With a little help from bandmate James Gurley, Big Brother's bassist recalls growing up in San Carlos; the scene at 1090 Page Street; meeting his future bandmates; Chet Helms and the Family Dog; Big Brother's debut show at the first Trips Festival; the mutual influence of the San Francisco bands; developing the group's material; the arrivial of Janis Joplin; getting stranded in Chicago and recording the eponymous first album; playing the Monterey Pop Festival; signing with manager Albert Grossman and recording Cheap Thrills...

File format: mp3; file size: 66.4meg, interview length: 1h 09' 09" sound quality: ***

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Big Brother & the Holding Company

Interview by Greg Shaw, Mojo Navigator, 5 October 1966

GS: Can you tell us about your recent visit to Chicago? ...

San Francisco: The Flourishing Underground

Report and Interview by Richard Goldstein, The Village Voice, 2 March 1967

SAN FRANCISCO — Forget the cable cars; skip Chinatown and the Golden Gate; don't bother about the topless mother of eight. ...

At Monterey Fairgounds: 1st Pop Music Festival Draws Large Crowds

Report by Pete Johnson, Los Angeles Times, 19 June 1967

MONTEREY — Thirty thousand people swelled the city of Monterey over the weekend for the first International Festival of Pop Music, held in the outdoor ...

Keith Altham Planes West to Cover America's Monterey Pop Festival and Cables This Day-By-Day Report

Report by Keith Altham, New Musical Express, 24 June 1967

WE DROVE to London Airport in Animal manager Mike Jeffery's Rolls-Royce while he dictated a few last minute instructions to assistant Tony Garland — "Ring ...

Monterey Pop Festival: The Hip Homunculus

Report by Richard Goldstein, The Village Voice, 29 June 1967

"The West is the best: Get here and we'll do the rest!" — The Doors ...

Chet Helms: Hurok of Haight Street

Report and Interview by Richard Goldstein, Los Angeles Times, 27 August 1967

HIS DESK looks impressive. A clean blotter is piled high with correspondence. A vertical file bulges with memos. A calendar and a trash can are ...

Loraine Alterman on Records: New Albums from Vanilla Fudge, Big Brother et al

Review by Loraine Alterman, Detroit Free Press, 3 September 1967

Vanilla Fudge: Exciting Album ...

Albums from Bobbie Gentry, Aretha Franklin, Big Brother, Captain Beefheart and the Animals

Review by Pete Johnson, Los Angeles Times, 10 September 1967

New Album From Bobbie Gentry ...

New Wave USA

Report by Nick Jones, Melody Maker, 25 November 1967

NICK JONES SORTS OUT THE NEW U.S. SOUNDS ...

Big Brother & the Holding Company, B.B. King, Aluminum Dream: Anderson Theater, New York NY

Live Review by Robert Shelton, The New York Times, 19 February 1968

Janis Joplin Is Climbing Fast In the Heady Rock Firmament ...

Rock & Roll Crusader: Detroit

Report by uncredited writer, The Warren-Forest Sun, 1 March 1968

DETROIT IS turning into ROCK CITY before our eyes, and we love it! All over the country groups are being "discovered, " and cities like ...

Big Brother: James Gurley Talks to the Sun

Interview by uncredited writer, The Warren-Forest Sun, 29 March 1968

SUN: LET'S TALK some about the old Detroit, before the days of LSD 25. When did you leave Detroit? ...

16 Hours of Rock in Dismal Surroundings

Report by Philip Elwood, The San Francisco Examiner, 20 May 1968

SIXTEEN HOURS of the same thing gets to be an enervating experience even if one is a super-rock fan and many of the nation's outstanding ...

Big Brother & the Holding Company, Ten Years After, the Staple Singers: Fillmore East, New York NY

Live Review by Robert Shelton, The New York Times, 3 August 1968

FILLMORE EAST HEARS GOSPELERS 2,500 in Audience Cheer a British, 2 U.S. Groups ...

Janis Joplin: Lock Up Your Sons

Interview by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, 17 August 1968

SHE WEARS a micro-length dress with a neckline plunging down to the navel. She swoops around the stage like some kind of female bat about ...

Big Brother & the Holding Company: Cheap Thrills (Columbia KCS 9700)

Review by Pete Johnson, Los Angeles Times, 18 August 1968

Big Brother Album Out ...

Top Tunes: Big Brother's Janis Joplin

Interview by Michael Oberman, Evening Star, The (Washington DC), 24 August 1968

SOUL IS where it's at, and Janis Joplin has more than her share. ...

Janis Joplin and the Boys in the Band

Report by Judith Sims, TeenSet, September 1968

IT WAS beginning to dawn on me. Janis Joplin was a Superstar, complete with her photo in Vogue magazine (which must be some sort of ...

Big Brother & the Holding Company, Iron Butterfly, the Fraternity of Man: Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Pete Johnson, Los Angeles Times, 9 September 1968

Big Brother in Concert at Bowl ...

Janis Joplin Has Superstar Status

Profile by Mike Jahn, Pop Scene Service, 14 September 1968

NEW YORK — It has finally happened. Janis Joplin, the ghost of a hundred female blues singers, has become a superstar. ...

Janis Joplin: Singer With The Bordello Voice

Profile and Interview by Al Aronowitz, LIFE, 20 September 1968

IF YOU HAVEN'T heard of Big Brother and the Holding Company by now, you're going to miss your chance. ...

Big Brother & The Holding Company: Cheap Thrills (CBS)

Review by Miles, International Times, 4 October 1968

Janis Joplin (lead voc); Peter Albin (bass, voc); San Andrew (lead & rhm gtr); James Gurley (lead & rhm gtr); David Getz (Drms, voc). ...

Big Brother & the Holding Company: Cheap Thrills (CBS)

Review by uncredited writer, Disc and Music Echo, 12 October 1968

BIG BROTHER: FRESH MAGIC, CAPTURED LIVE! ...

Big Brother & The Holding Company: Hunter College, NY

Live Review by Mike Jahn, The New York Times, 17 November 1968

BIG BROTHER and the Holding Company, which played before a packed auditorium at Hunter College Friday, has less than one month before Janis Joplin leaves ...

Has Frisco Gone Commercial?

Report by Michael Lydon, The New York Times, 24 November 1968

  SAN FRANCISCO — In the heady first days of the "San Francisco Sound," someone dubbed the city the "Liverpool of the USA." The title, though ...

Suddenly… Janis Joplin!

Profile and Interview by uncredited writer, Flip, December 1968

A YEAR AGO, Flip's Hollywood Editor (Carol Deck) and Flip's London Editor (Keith Altham) met at the now legendary Monterey Pop Festival. It was the ...

Big Brother & The Holding Company: Where They're At

Profile and Interview by Jim Delehant, Hit Parader, February 1969

BIG BROTHER and the Holding Company exploded on the national scene in the summer of 1967 at the Monterey Pop Festival when Janis Joplin, feet ...

What Big Brother Is Up To

Report and Interview by Ben Edmonds, Circus, October 1970

THE EXPLOITS OF Janis Joplin in her post-Big Brother days are inevitably front-page material, but what of the band she left behind? Big Brother & ...

The Frustrations of Janis Joplin

Obituary by Philip Elwood, The San Francisco Examiner, 6 October 1970

FIDGETING NERVOUSLY, singer Janis Joplin edged toward the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival mike, squinted up at a slim break in the fog overhead, reared back ...

Buddy Miles, Big Brother & The Holding Company: Fillmore East, New York NY

Live Review by Mike Jahn, The New York Times, 10 January 1971

Buddy Miles Group And the Holding Co. Heard on Rock Bill ...

Janis Joplin: Pearl/Big Brother and the Holding Company: Be A Brother (CBS)

Review by Charlie Gillett, Cream, May 1971

THEY ALL AGREED, the people who went to see her on stage, that Janis had something special. The effect of her personality didn’t come over ...

Big Brother : How Hard It Is

Review by Ben Edmonds, Rolling Stone, 30 September 1971

IT HAS RIGHTEOUSLY ranked my ass to see the shabby treatment accorded Big Brother and the Holding Company over the course of the past four ...

Chet Helms: Rockin' back to the 60s scene

Profile and Interview by Philip Elwood, The San Francisco Examiner, 29 September 1978

CHET HELMS was the great visionary of the innocent early days of San Francisco's rock music and hippie scene. ...

Festival remembers the Summer of Love

Report by Charles Bermant, The Globe and Mail, 14 September 1987

SAN FRANCISCO – The first cosmic occurrence was before noon, when Jesse Colin Young sang the last chorus of 'Get Together'. He let the crowd ...

The San Francisco Sound

Retrospective and Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 23 August 1990

"My eyes were opened. There's a new world and a new society and a new spirit." ...

Big Brother and the Holding Company

Live Review by Richard Younger, Midtown Resident, 25 July 1997

"Four gentleman and one great, great broad."Watching Big Brother and the Holding Company at Manny's Car Wash a few weeks back, I couldn't help but ...

A Shot From The Heart: Janis and Cheap Thrills

Retrospective by David Dalton, Gadfly, September 1998

IT'S 30 YEARS ago today since Cheap Thrills was released, but as soon as the needle touches the surface of the record (I’m sentimental about ...

Big Brother & The Holding Company: Do What You Love

Review by Steve Roeser, Goldmine, 25 September 1998

THIS IS an album that's been a mighty long time comin', and one which you may have to attend the band's live show to readily ...

Big Brother & The Holding Company: Do What You Love

Retrospective and Interview by Steve Roeser, Goldmine, 25 September 1998

"All of a sudden someone threw me in this rock 'n' roll band. They threw these musicians at me, man, and the sound was coming ...

Love, Sam

Retrospective and Interview by Ernesto De Pascale, Rock's Backpages, April 2001

On the eve of the premiere of off-Broadway show Love, Janis, Big Brother’s Sam Andrew remembers his friend and musical soulmate. ...

In Defence of Big Brother!

Comment by Michael Goldberg, Neumu, 17 May 2002

A recent documentary reminds us that Janis' bandmates mattered too ...

Revisiting the Summer of Love

Report by Charles Bermant, Rock's Backpages, October 2007

Things aren't what they used to be, but they never were in the first place ...

Big Brother & The Holding Company in The Summer of Love

Retrospective and Interview by Richie Unterberger, MOJO, Summer 2007

THE RELEASE of Big Brother And The Holding Company's self-titled debut album in the summer of 1967 should have been a highwater mark in both ...

School of Rock: Monterey to Altamont

Guide by Barney Hoskyns, iTunes, 2008

BETWEEN 1966 and 1970, there was a seismic change in British and American pop. Within a few short years "pop" became "rock", and teenagers who'd ...

R. Crumb: So Last Century

Report and Interview by Larry Jaffee, The Word, 12 September 2008

The world of R. Crumb – where every record sleeve wishes it was still 1920. ...

Frisco, Where Art Thou: Reassessing the Musical Legacy of the '60s Psychedelic Capital

Retrospective by Gene Sculatti, Rock's Backpages, September 2010

LAST SATURDAY, paging through an article on Robert Plant in the September issue of MOJO, I learned that, upon their initial meeting in a Dublin ...

Janis Joplin And Her "Big Brothers" Come Back Live And Raw

Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 13 March 2012

A BOON FOR classic-rock fans in recent years has been an increased activity in vault-mining, as record labels are discovering, polishing up, and releasing a ...

Suddenly That Summer

Retrospective and Interview by Sheila Weller, Vanity Fair, July 2012

It was billed as "the Summer of Love", a blast of glamour, ecstasy, and Utopianism that drew some 75,000 young people to the San Francisco ...

Big Brother: John Simon in Woodstock and Bearsville

Book Excerpt by Barney Hoskyns, 'Small Town Talk' (Faber & Faber), 2016

Two excerpts from Small Town Talk that tell part of the story of John Simon, producer of The Band and Janis Joplin… plus one excerpt ...

Big Brother's Chick Singer

Book Excerpt by Holly George-Warren, 'Janis: Her Life and Music' (Simon & Schuster), 2019

Playing is the "mostest" fun there is – feeling things and really getting into it. That's what it's all about. – Janis Joplin ...

see also Janis Joplin

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