"On the Road with Janis Joplin" by John Byrne Cooke (2014)

To my mind there has never been a good book yet about Janis Joplin’s life on the road; from Big Brother and the Holding Company through the final days of the Full Tilt Boogie Band. Now there is. John Byrne Cooke was the road manager for all three incarnations of Janis’ career and he was taking notes; and filming some of it on his 8mm. And because he did that we have a great record of what Janis; and the 3 bands she fronted; were doing from early 1968 until her death in October 1970.

Written in the present tense and against the backdrop of the Vietnam War and the attendant election of Richard Nixon in 1968, this book is almost animated in its presentation. The 1960’s were lively, to be sure, which can make them difficult to capture on paper. No such problem for the author here. He has done a great job of melding the two into a very entertaining, and yet informative, account of one of the most vibrant stars of the decade.

Along the journey you will hear the story behind some of the stories which have become legendary since Janis Joplin’s passing. The Jim Morrison and Janis fight; in which she smashed a bottle on his head while playing pool and he told her she couldn’t sing the blues worth a shit;  or the slapping of Jerry Lee Lewis, who slapped back; are two great examples of the raucous side to Janis. But there are softer moments, too.

A bit of rock and roll history gets thrown in; the situation which existed in NYC that literally made Bill Graham feel as if he had to open a decent musical venue on the East Coast is explored. The Anderson Theater was right across the street from another old Yiddish Theater. Bill Graham had it up and running in about 8 weeks flat. Big Brother and the Holding Company were the headliners on opening night.

My own memory of “Cheap Thrills” did not include the fact that within a few weeks of the album’s release and ascension to number 1 on the charts in November 1968, the band dissolved by the end of November. Janis was going to front a new band and they were already booked for engagements beginning in January. Many fans were upset with the breakup. Big Brother seemed to embody the San Francisco scene and the album, with its cover by Robert Crumb, quickly became an icon of acid rock and hung on the walls of many bedrooms across the country.

This new band became the Kozmic Blues Band and featured a horn section for the first time. With this album’s releaaseI began to think of Janis as the female version of James Brown. Listen to, and watch, some of the performances and her introductions on You Tube and you’ll see what I mean.

Still not happy with the sound she was searching for led to the Kozmic Blues Band going through many changes in personnel. Mr. Cooke has supplied a listing of personnel associated with each band at the front of the book which comes in handy for reference on several occasions. Just keeping track of the horn section is a chore. They underwent 3 changes in that department before getting it right. Still, they produced a magnificent album with the release of “I’ve Got Them Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again Mama.”

The author also adds a nice touch to the book by showing the dates of almost all of the shows Janis performed with the band during his time as road manager, which was pretty much her entire recorded career from before “Cheap Thrills” until the very end. This lends an air of immediacy to the narrative as you can actually see the hectic touring schedule as you read about what the band was up to in between shows and cities.

With Full Tilt Boogie Band being formed and a new album waiting to be recorded Janis ventures back home for a high school re-union in 1970. I always have felt that this visit; along with the lack of any real acknowledgement of her success by her peers; contributed to her spike in heroin use which finally killed her a few months later. Instead of just giving her a dozen roses and making her feel welcome, she was summoned to a meeting of the “clique” and asked what she “wanted”.

What can you say to that? So, she replied that she was just there to enjoy herself and they took that a license to basically ignore her. That; along with the fact that her parents were away at a wedding for someone else’s daughter; had to have hurt her. You can see it in her face when watching the film of the press conference.

The Full Tilt Boogie Band had recorded about 10 songs for the new, as yet unnamed, album when Janis died. The numbers ran from a Capella to raw vocal tracks and even an acoustic version of “Me and Bobby McGee”, the song written by Kris Kristofferson. If you look at the material you get the sense that Janis was trying to lay out all of her musical influences and styles in one album. This is a woman who was influenced very early on by Jean Ritchie and her dulcimer; which she often played using a feather. She was also a devotee of Bessie Smith; a la “Turtle Blues.” And she also enjoyed country music, hence her acoustic version of “Bobby McGee.” With her death came the unique problem of what to do with these recordings.

The outcome was a posthumous album which would have made Janis proud; “Pearl.” It was named using the nickname she had bestowed upon herself while on the road. It was a way for her friends not to have to call her Jains Joplin. When Kris Kristofferson was invited to the studio to hear the demo of Janis singing “Me and Bobby McGee” he was only able to listen to the first 2 verses before leaving in tears.

This is still my favorite version of the song. It’s exactly the same length as the overdubbed version on “Pearl”. I have included a link to it here;  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5EArR3Qnzg

If you like Janis Joplin you will find this book very enjoyable. If you are interested in the 1960’s there will be much to interest you. And if you enjoy learning about the history of making music this book will fit the bill nicely. 

But the best part of reading this book is that it was written by someone who enjoyed what he was doing then, and is still finding satisfaction in it all these years later. His enthusiasm for his subject is palpable and easily transferred to the reader.

"Hey Joe" - The History of a Song

This is a group you probably never heard of doing a song you probably never remember not hearing. The Leaves were one of the hundreds of "one hit wonder" type of bands; although they never had a hit. But they did secure a place in the history of rock and roll when they released this song in 1966. It didn't get much airplay at the time. That's because it wasn't famous yet.

The Leaves picked the song assuming that it had been written by the copyrighted author of record, Dino Valenti. But in reality, Mr. Valenti, who had been in prison serving time for a drug sentence, lifted the words and music from a performance by the real author, Tim Rose, at San Quentin on January 1, 1965. It was about a year later that Mr. Rose was finally informed of this; just before he was about to record his own solo album, which would include his own version of the song.

His friend, Hillel Resner, asked his father, who was an attorney in San Francisco, what could be done about it. Mr. Resner’s father found that Mr. Valenti actually secured a contract with Third Story Music of Los Angeles. They went into immediate negotiations, and though they did recover all the loss up until that date, there are still recordings out there that are credited to Mr. Valenti, or even sometimes a third party. The song was registered for copyright in 1962 by Mr. Rose, although Scottish poet Len Partridge in Edinburgh in the late 1950’s. Some folks even insist that Mr. Rose signed the song over to him in order to help him out, but there is no real evidence of this. Some folks also attribute the song to William "Bobby" Roberts, but again, there is no hard evidence to support this claim.

Until 1964, Mr. Rose had been working with different bands, most notably with The Big Three, a folk group which included Mama Cass Elliott and a guy named James “Jimmie” Hendricks. They had a following in New York’s Greenwich Village before Mr. Rose moved on to the west coast in 1964, where he performed with a group called The Driftwood Singers, based out of San Francisco. This was the move that landed him in front of Dino Valenti in the first place. Talk about coming full circle!.

These are The Leaves, plugging away at the song on some long forgotten TV show in 1966. 

This is Tim Rose from a TV appearance in 1966 doing the song he would put on his first album "Through Rose Colored Glasses" in 1967. That was the version which Keith Richards claims to have "lent" to Linda Keith, a friend, who then took it over to her friend's house and played it for Jimi Hendrix.

And here is Jimi Hendrix in all his glory, doing "Hey Joe" live sometime in 1968, about a year after first hearing the Tim Rose version of the song from Keith Richards friend. It became his first solo recording, and launched his career.

"Jimi Hendrix - A Brother's Story" by Leon Hendrix with Adam Mitchell (2012)

This will be the closest thing you will ever read to an autobiography of Jimi Hendrix. His brother, Leon, has done a wonderful job of putting into words the experiences of the 2 boys while growing up in Seattle, Washington. Leon and Jimi were born to parents who were so much in love with one another that they couldn’t stand to be together for very long. There were also 3 other children born to the couple; one a stillbirth; along with two boys; one blind and the other clubfooted. They were put up for adoption as a result of financial hardship. His mother was dead by the age of 33, and their father took over from there, doing the best he could.

As a child, Jimi (born James, but called “Buster” by his family after Buster Crabbe of the Flash Gordon Series) was always interested in sounds. Although they lived in a rundown home before being shuttled from foster homes to relatives to live, Jimi had an ear for the magic of music from a very early age. He and Leon used to string wires between the posts of their metal bed, noticing how the sounds changed in pitch according to length.

Alone with Leon, Jimi used to lie on the ground, gazing up at the nighttime sky, telling his brother about the constellations, and making up stories, many of which would become famous as songs later in his life. Songs like “Castles In the Sand” and “The Wind Cried Mary” are autobiographical and were written in his head even before he learned to play guitar. Even “Spanish Magic Castle” is rooted in Jimi Hendrix youth, named, as it is, for the Spanish Castle Ballroom, which was about an hour from his home. In the song it is said to be “half a day away” because that’s how long it took to get there in in the broken down car they used to get there.

Jimi’s first instrument; aside from the bed; was an old ukulele which he was allowed to keep when cleaning out a garage with his father, who did landscaping and odd jobs. It may only have had one string on it, but that was enough to cement young Jimi’s interest in music forever.

His next instrument was an old broken down acoustic guitar which he acquired from a woman down the street. Although it wasn’t much of a guitar, Jimi soon mastered it, playing the melodies to anything he heard on the radio. By this time he had heard electric guitars on the radio and decided he needed to get technical.

He bought a kit to electrify the acoustic guitar, but lacked an amplifier. So, he created one by wiring a cord to the stylus of his father’s record player, which allowed him to play his electrified acoustic guitar. The sound was distorted due to the speaker’s limited capacity, but may have been the catalyst for the sound he was one day to create.

Jim left Seattle to join the Army, serving in the 101^st Airborne. While in the service he played with several different buddies at the various service clubs on base.  After being Honorably Discharged he actually went on the road, playing the old Chitling’ Circuit; which was in its last days at the time; and even toured the Northwest, playing wherever he could, even with Tommy Chong in his band Tommy and The Vancouver’s; although it was Tommy Chong on lead guitar. You can listen to those records on You Tube.

He went on to play with Little Richard, but the arrangements were too tight for his agile mind; and as a result of conflicts with Little Richard; he left the band, headed for New York. His connection to Little Richard actually occurred several years before when Little Richard came to Washington to visit his Aunt, which was down the street from the Hendrix brothers and their Dad. Jimi was 17 at the time and still in high school, which he did not complete, withdrawing in his senior year.

By 1966, Chas Chandler, of the Animals, convinced Jimi to go to England with him, where he finally broke through with his innovative sound. It was there in 1967 that he recorded the iconic “Are You Experienced“ album which would catapult him to worldwide fame beyond his wildest dreams. Leon, and his Dad, first heard this album through the walls of their apartment one morning in May 1967. A neighbor was playing the record over and over. Leon, and his father were both dumbstruck. The music was unlike anything they had ever heard before.

After landing a job as an draftsman for Boeing, drawing the same nuts and bolts over and over again, Leon eventually joined his brother on the road in the late 1960’s, getting an education in life which was not available in school. He was also, when not on the road, becoming increasingly involved in the hustler’s lifestyle on the street, soon becoming acquainted with drugs; as well as dealing and stealing. A break in at a pharmaceutical plant landed him in jail with some of his friends. After bonding out, he returned home to accompany his brother on tour, as he awaited his trial for the robbery.

That trial never came when Leon’s lawyer advised him to join the Army in lieu of being sent to prison. It seemed like a good idea and he joined, knowing that he would be going to Vietnam. With his brother’s reputation shadowing him everywhere he went, the Army found him to be more trouble than he was worth. After enduring all the usual humiliations associated with boot camp; plus some extra “special treatment” for the crime of being Jimi Hendrix’ brother; Leon goes AWOL. This mistake eventually has him sent to prison for the violation of his plea agreement. It is while in prison that he learns of his brother’s death from other inmates who had heard it on the radio.

This is a very straight forward book which doesn’t shy away from the author’s own shortcomings, as well as deal with the issue of who was stealing his brother’s money.

Of great interest to me in this book, are the theories and plans which were underway by Jimi Hendrix at the time of his death. He had a theory about music, which was based on Einstein’s theory of relativity. That formula was E=mc squared. Hendrix’ formula for the relationship between light, color and sound was called Energy Sound Color Dynamics, and he expressed it in a formula, similar to Einstein’s; E=sc squared. We will never know where his musical ambitions would have taken us.

The book even delves into the financial struggles over Jimi’s estate, not only with the record companies, but within his own family. This is an excellent book, which shies away from nothing, and dispels many myths about the famed guitarist. Written with a love for his brother that the reader can actually feel, this may be the best and most personable biographies of Jimi Hendrix to date. Well done, Leon!

"Like A Rolling Stone" - Jimi Hendrix (1967)

With temperatures soaring into the 90’s this week, I thought it was time for a bit of summertime music. This 1967 performance of “Like a Rolling Stone” by Jimi Hendrix certainly qualifies.  Even the dark of night can’t mask the seething delivery of Bob Dylan’s words. And nothing comes close to the mastery Jimi Hendrix had over his guitar. Both his playing, and singing, come across as one. Even at the beginning he is so carried away that he has to excuse himself “while I play my guitar.”

The Monterey Pop Festival was the real precursor to the Woodstock Festival 2 years later. It even had a larger crowd.  Listen carefully at about 5 minutes and 18 seconds into the video, as Hendrix drops an entire verse and comments on it to the rest of the band. This man was so into, and behind, the notes he was playing, that even his mistakes are triumphs.

"You Can't Always Get What You Want" by Sam Cutler

In a real close-up look at the darker side of Rock and Roll, Sam Cutler, former tour manager for the Rolling Stones 1969 tour; which ended in complete disaster at Altamont Speedway in California; asks the hard questions, and provides some of the harder answers to the "how's and why's" behind the disastrous killing of a gun wielding young black man at the hands of the Hell's Angels in December 1969. The resulting furor over the killing, coupled with the trial of Sonny Barger, heralded the end of the Woodstock Nation, which had been born only 4 months earlier in upstate New York.

Mr. Cutler examines the differences, and egos, which formed the disaster, and then simply vanished, leaving him to face the legal issues. With a keen eye for detail, and just enough sex and drugs thrown in to make it interesting, he has covered all the bases, from the security concerns to ticket scalping. The madness of touring with the Stones is apparent in the whirlwind pace of the author's writing.

Also, there is an added bonus for those who did not know, or like me, were unaware of Mr. Cutler's connection to the Grateful Dead. He became, on the strength of their connection through the Altamont Speedway concert, at which the Dead never played, tour manager for the Grateful Dead for decades to come. His accounts of Jerry Garcia, and what the man was really like, are very revealing, and will definitely be of interest to his fans. Although not a huge Dead fan myself, the business end of the Grateful Dead empire was really a fascinating thing to watch grow. It simply happened, which is, of course what that band is all about. Happening.

A great quick read for fans of either band, and illustrated just enough to make it interesting, this is one memoir which will not disappoint the reader.