After the live
Cheap Thrills,
Pearl is undeniably
Janis Joplin's studio classic, and her final recording, released posthumously. She departed the earth at the very top of her game creatively. The album was recorded with a less-is-more approach -- the explosive horn section so prevalent on Kozmic Blues was replaced by a rootsier, more organic studio group called the Full Tilt Boogie Band, with precious few guests in a minimal number of places. The album cooks from the opener, "Move Over," with John Till's jagged, knife-edge guitar playing the lyric line in duet with
Joplin and Ken Pearson's choogling Hammond B-3 stomping on the chorus and the bridge. The emotional intensity actually gets upped on "Cry Baby," where Pearson's organ drives the track, raucously and passionately augmented by Till and Richard Bell's soul cum honky tonk piano. The thing is, the album just doesn't quit from "A Woman Left Lonely" to "Buried Alive in the Blues" to "My Baby" and the closer, "Get It While You Can." The fact that
Pearl's most famous cuts, "Me and Bobby McGee" and "Mercedes Benz," are both here as well and were issued as the album's singles is simply astonishing given they are far form its strongest cuts. On the double-disc
Legacy Edition of
Pearl, some changes were made from earlier CD versions of the album. For starters, the bonus live tracks included on the 1999 version have been relegated to disc two. In their place, six cuts have been added, including three cuts taken from the Love, Janis box set: the demo of "Me and Bobby McGee," an alternate of "Cry Baby," and "Happy Birthday John (Happy Trails)." But there's more: three unissued alternate takes of "Move Over," "My Baby," and Full Tilt Boogie's instrumental tribute to
Joplin called "Pearl." Disc two contains 13 live cuts taken from three different concerts on the Canadian Festival Express tour, recorded between June 28 and July 4, 1970. In addition to the bonus tracks moved from the original CD version of
Pearl and others taken from
Janis Joplin in Concert and
Farewell Song are six more unreleased tunes, including awesome versions of "Try (Just a Little Bit Harder)," "Kozmic Blues," and "Maybe." Oh yeah, there's yet another version of "Piece of My Heart" (can't have too many). In sum, this new version of
Pearl is a gold mine, a treasure trove that juxtaposes the final will and testament of
Joplin with her throwing down live with the same band on the road in electrifying performances. Add to this a wildly intimate and canny essay by
Joplin's road manager, John Byrne Cooke, and a wonderful set of photos in a handsome package and you can safely assume that perfection has been improved upon. ~ Thom Jurek