In Concert - album 1972

In Concert is a live album by Janis Joplin. It was released in 1972 after Joplin's death as a double-LP. The first record contains performances with Big Brother and the Holding Company, recorded at various locations in 1968 and 1970, and the second with the Full Tilt Boogie Band.
Side A
1. "Down On Me" – 3:05
Recorded March 2, 1968, at The Grande Ballroom, Detroit, MI
2. "Bye, Bye Baby" – 4:29
Recorded April 12, 1968, at Winterland, San Francisco, CA
3. "All Is Loneliness" – 5:44
Recorded April 4, 1970, Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA
4. "Piece Of My Heart" – 4:19
Recorded March 2, 1968, at The Grande Ballroom, Detroit, MI

Side B
1. "Road Block" – 2:53
2. "Flower In The Sun" – 3:07
3. "Summertime" – 4:31
1-3 recorded June 23, 1968, The Carousel Ballroom, San Francisco, CA
4. "Ego Rock" – 8:32
Recorded April 4, 1970, Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA

Side C
1. "Half Moon" – 4:36
2. "Kozmic Blues" – 6:05
3. "Move Over" – 5:09

Side D
1. "Try (Just A Little Bit Harder)" – 8:13
2. "Get It While You Can" – 7:04
3. "Ball And Chain" – 9:15
The tracks on the second LP were recorded during the Canadian Festival Express concert tour in mid-1970. The first two songs on Side C are from Toronto, Ontario, on June 28, 1970. The rest were recorded in Calgary, Alberta, on July 4, 1970

Janis Joplin - vocals
Big Brother & The Holding Company:
James Gurley - Guitar
Sam Andrew - Guitar
Peter Albin - Bass
Dave Getz - Drums
Full Tilt Boogie Band:
John Till - Guitar
Richard Bell - Piano
Ken Pearson - Organ
Brad Campbell - Bass
Clark Pierson - Drums

Biography: death

The last recordings Joplin completed were "Mercedes Benz" and a birthday greeting for John Lennon ("Happy Trails", composed by Dale Evans) on October 1, 1970. Lennon, whose birthday was October 9, later told Dick Cavett that her taped greeting arrived at his home after her death. On Saturday, October 3, Joplin visited the Sunset Sound Studios in Los Angeles to listen to the instrumental track for Nick Gravenites' song "Buried Alive in the Blues" prior to recording the vocal track, scheduled for the next day. When she failed to show up at the studio by Sunday afternoon, producer Paul Rothchild became concerned. Full Tilt Boogie's road manager, John Cooke, drove to the Landmark Motor Hotel (since renamed the Highland Gardens Hotel) where Joplin had been a guest since August 24. He saw Joplin's psychedelically painted Porsche still in the parking lot. Upon entering her room, he found her dead on the floor. The official cause of death was an overdose of heroin, possibly combined with the effects of alcohol.

Joplin was cremated in the Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Mortuary in Los Angeles, and her ashes scattered from a plane into the Pacific Ocean and along Stinson Beach. The only funeral service was held at Pierce Brothers and attended by Joplin's parents and maternal aunt.

Career: Pearl

Among her last public appearances were two broadcasts of The Dick Cavett Show. In the June 25, 1970 appearance, she announced that she would attend her ten-year high school class reunion. When asked if she had been popular in school, she admitted that when in high school, her schoolmates "laughed me out of class, out of town and out of the state." In the August 3, 1970 Cavett broadcast, Joplin referred to her upcoming performance at the Festival for Peace to be held at Shea Stadium in Queens, New York on August 6, 1970.

Joplin attended the reunion on August 14, accompanied by fellow musician and friend Bob Neuwirth, road manager John Cooke, and her sister Laura, but it reportedly proved to be a rather unhappy experience for her. Joplin held a press conference in Port Arthur during her reunion visit. Interviewed by Rolling Stone journalist Chet Flippo, she was reported to wear enough jewelry for a "Babylonian whore." When asked by a reporter during the reunion if Joplin entertained at Thomas Jefferson High School when she was a student there, Joplin replied, "Only when I walked down the aisles." Joplin denigrated Port Arthur and the people who'd humiliated her a decade earlier in high school.

Joplin's last public performance, with the Full Tilt Boogie Band, took place on August 12, 1970 at the Harvard Stadium in Boston, Massachusetts. A positive review appeared on the front page of the Harvard Crimson newspaper despite the fact that Full Tilt Boogie performed with makeshift sound amplifiers after their regular equipment was stolen in Boston.


The single cover of "Me & Bobby McGee"During September 1970, Joplin and her band began recording a new album in Los Angeles with producer Paul A. Rothchild, who had produced recordings for The Doors. Although Joplin died before all the tracks were fully completed, there was still enough usable material to compile an LP. "Mercedes Benz" was included despite it being a first take, and the track "Buried Alive In The Blues", to which Joplin had been scheduled to add her vocals on the day she was found dead, was kept as an instrumental.

The result was the posthumously released Pearl (1971). It became the biggest selling album of her career[16] and featured her biggest hit single, a cover of Kris Kristofferson's "Me and Bobby McGee". Kristofferson had been Joplin's lover not long before her death. Also included was the social commentary of the a cappella "Mercedes Benz", written by Joplin, close friend and song writer Bob Neuwirth and beat poet Michael McClure. In 2003, Pearl was ranked #122 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

During the recording sessions for Pearl, Joplin began seeing Seth Morgan, a 21 year-old Berkeley student, cocaine dealer and future novelist; and checked into the Landmark Motel in Los Angeles to begin recording the Pearl album. She and Morgan became engaged to be married in early September and Joplin threw herself into the recording of songs for her new album.