Janis Joplin - 'Pearl' (1971)

Versions:
LP (Australia)
Quadrophonic LP (US)
LP (2012 pressing)
Cassette
CD (Original 80's pressing)
CD (early 90's 24-carat gold edition)
CD (1999 remaster)
CD (2005 Deluxe Edition)
CD (2012 - The Pearl Sessions)
10" (2012 - Highlights From The Pearl Sessions)

Tracklisting:

Side One:
1. Move Over
2. Cry Baby
3. A Woman Left Lonely
4. Half Moon
5. Buried Alive In The Blues

Side Two:
1. My Baby
2. Me & Bobby McGee
3. Mercedes Benz
4. Trust Me
5. Get It While You Can

Best tracks:
Move Over
Get It While You Can
A Woman Left Lonely
Me & Bobby McGee

Currently listening to: Quadrophonic LP

Now, I thought this would be a good place to start. I own more copies of Pearl than I do of any other album. Partly, due to my obsession to collect everything related to my favourites artists. Partly, because it's been re-issued so many fucking times.

And, also, because it's a good place to start in relation to my record collecting. A little bit of background:

Growing up in the early 90's, records weren't particularly cool. I'm sure they were cool with the punk kids who got the latest Melvins record specially ordered to their local record shop, but to me, growing up in a little country town, they weren't cool. They were, like digital music is now, a necessary evil. I first heard this album in 1993, the same year I got my first CD player. I was 11. CD's were, in my eyes, king. But, they were expensive. And, I didn't get them often. Cassettes were how I usually listened to music. And they were $20 each (unless taped from a fellow music fiend). Once I'd started listening to Janis and other bands from the 60's and 70's, records became a cheap and convenient way to get new albums.

The first record I ever bought was Madonna's Like A Prayer. I think it cost me $6. In 1993. Not long after I got Madonna's first album for around $4. Even this early on, I wanted to get every Madonna album on every available format. As I got older, by 14-15 and living back in Adelaide, I became obsessed with music from the 60's and 70's. The Beatles, The Stones, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Black Sabbath, The Grateful Dead - the usual suspects. And, of course, my beloved Janis. I thought, however erroneously, that CD's were the best way to hear any music. But records were the cheaper option. And I started buying a lot. The record store near me sold most second hand albums for around $6. I remember the guy feeling real bad because he charged me $12 for Jefferson Airplane's After Bathing At Baxter's. I got some ridiculous records from his $1-$2 bin. I'm sure this record shop will come up again in this blog, so for now, I'll just say that I got a lot of bargains.

Back to Janis. I first heard this album when I was 11. My step father always had a pile of records (two piles, actually, stacked up under our huge fireplace) that he never listened to. Not while anyone was around, anyway (And that stack would, over the next 18 months, provide me with a wide selection of new musical discoveries that opened new worlds in my mind). Anyway, my parents were having a party one night and someone put Pearl on. The only song I remember hearing was 'Mercedes Benz'. And I loved it. I played it repeatedly. Until, one fateful day, I decided to listen to the rest of the album. Having the short attention span of an 11 year old, I listened to the album in order of shortest song to longest. The track times were printed on the sleeve and I listened to them in that order, from shortest to longest. It took me about a week to get through the whole album. I really liked every song I played, and would focus on one or two songs for a few days. Until I had one song left. 'Me & Bobby McGee'. At 4:28, it was the longest song on the album, and was the last one I listened to. I remember saying to my sister, "This is the last one. It'll probably be the best one". And, for many years to come, it was. From that point on, I became obsessed with Janis. Something struck a chord. Which was odd for an 11 year old kid, obsessed with Madonna. 'Me & Bobby McGee' became a song that meant a lot in my teenage years. It was a favourite and I shared many a special moment with friends and family in the coming years in the name of this great song, including drunkenly singing it with my father to see in the year 2000.

[An aside. The quadrophonic version has finished and I've put on the original Australian LP. Because I don't mind listening to this album more than once. I actually like the sound of this LP better than the quad LP. Maybe because I don't have a wanky 70's quad set up? On my speakers, it just has a distracting amount of echo].

I got this book for my 12th birthday and it became my bible:

Even now, looking at the cover, I'm taken straight back to weekends lying on my bed reading this book. Twenty years later, I'm now on my third copy (don't ask) and I re-read it for the first time in many years last year. It was good.

I always seemed to become obsessed with my favourite bands when I was younger. It started with Madonna. Then moved on to Janis. Then to Patti Smith. Then to PJ Harvey. And no-one's topped Peej. Those four have always been my musical rock. And I could wax poetic about them at length. But, my point is, I fucking loved Janis. And I still do, as much as ever.

Now, back to Pearl. And why I have so many versions. [Side A of the LP has finished and I've switched the 24-carat gold CD version. Because that's the version that hasn't been played the longest. I would have got in in 1995 or 1996. I think I played it once or twice then then put it away for good. It sounds really good. Better than I remember the regular CD sounding. It's also the first time I've played a CD in my stereo for at least 12 months]. The first version of Pearl I owned, aside from the original record I heard (which was my aunty's, which my Mum stole - and didn't like - and I assume my ex-step father still has), was a CD I got in a box set that had Pearl, Cheap Thrills and Kozmic Blues. Not a fancy box set, just the 3 CD's together in a cardboard box. I think the 24-carat gold version was the one I got next - a birthday present when I was 13 or 14, then the vinyl copy, which I paid about $5 for.

It does pain me, the mess that Sony or Columbia or whoever have made of Janis Joplin's back catalogue over the last 20 years. While there have been treats, Pearl has been re-released a frustrating number of times (and that's just the beginning). More times than any other album I love this much. In 1999, Joplin's entire catalogue (and by entire, I mean the four albums she put out) were remastered and issued with bonus tracks as part of the Box Of Pearls set. Then, in 2005, a deluxe edition was released (as was the fashion at the time), with a bonus live disc that would have served better as a remastered version Joplin In Concert. That said, it was a pretty great set, and the one I'd recommend to anyone looking for the definitive re-issue of Pearl. 

The Pearl Sessions from 2012 will probably get it's own entry. I cringed a bit when I saw Pearl was being reissued once again, but there's some real treats on The Pearl Sessions.

Sound-wise, my favourite version is the 2012 vinyl re-issue. My previous vinyl versions were quite well worn. Hearing the album on brand new vinyl for the first time was quite invigorating. It seems to soar and the drums and bass really wrap their arms around you, particularly on 'Move Over', 'A Woman Left Lonely' and 'Get While You Can'. This is one of the few albums that has been re-released numerous times and I actually notice the differences. The 24-carat CD version (which I'm finishing now) has a nice rich sound, too.

It does please me that Janis never seemed to be taken over by hipsters. As far as I know, at least. She's always seemed a bit daggy. Maybe because, for me growing up, everybody's mum loved Janis. But, over the years, I've always known I've met a kindred spirit when I meet a Janis fan that's around my age. Some have gone on to become very dear friends. And I hope they continue to do so.