BIG BROTHER & HOLDING CO.w/o JANIS JOPLIN HOW HARD IT IS RARE SEALED ORIG '72 LP

$

26

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·       BIG BROTHER AND THE HOLDING COMPANY (without JANIS JOPLIN) - HOW HARD IT IS - ORIGINAL COLUMBIA RECORDS 1971 STEREO LP C-30738

·       ORIGINAL U.S. PRESSING

*** STILL SEALED GUARANTEED ORIGINAL FIRST PRESSING ***

·       BELIEVED TO BE PRESSED ON THE ORIGINAL RED COLUMBIA LABEL WITH “COLUMBIA” IN YELLOW LETTERS WRAPPED AROUND THE RIM OF THE LABEL (70’s STYLE)  (NO OTHER LABELS EXIST)

·       THE THICKNESS OF THE VINYL, THE APPEARANCE AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE COVER, LABEL’S LOGO AND OTHER PERIPHERAL ELEMENTS OF THE COVER, ARE ALL PERFECTLY CONSISTENT WITH THE ORIGINAL, FIRST PRESSING OF THIS TITLE.

·       TWO “BREATHE” (AIR) HOLES NOTED ON THE SHRINK WRAP

·       THIS IS THE ORIGINAL, AUTHENTIC, FIRST U.S. PRESSING; THIS IS NOT A REISSUE, AN IMPORT, OR A COUNTERFEIT PRESSING.

·       ORIGINAL GATEFOLD COVER, MADE OF THICK CARDBOARD (AMERICAN STYLE) 

·       THICK, HEAVY VINYL PRESSING

(►PLEASE SEE THE IMAGE OF THE COVER, LABEL OR BOTH, SHOWN BELOW)

(Note: this is a REAL image of the ACTUAL item you are bidding on. This is NOT a "recycled" image from our previous auction. What you see is what you’ll get.  GUARANTEED!)

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The second and final of the post-Janis Joplin Big Brother albums for Columbia looks and sounds like the closing of a chapter. A picture of Big Brother inside the gatefold has the band glowing with heavenly light; the cover photo is more telling, with faceless men standing in the shadows. To realize how good a Big Brother & the Holding Company album this is, all one has to do is play it next to Do What You Love, the group's release from 1998. On that disc, Lisa Battle is a commendable vocalist, but Do What You Love feels strained in both songwriting and performance. How Hard It Is, on the other hand, from 27 years earlier, is right on target. The title track feels like vintage Big Brother. Kathy McDonald is credited as a guest artist on "Black Widow Spider"; she co-sings the lead, but it sure sounds like her on "How Hard It Is" and "House on Fire" as well and, eerily, it is much like when Janis sang in unison with the band. The major difference is that they can play their instruments better here, four years after the Monterey Pop Festival brought them to the attention of Clive Davis. Nick Gravenites and McDonald were the perfect choices to step in, Gravenites having written two tracks on Joplin's Kozmic Blues LP and also having performed with her on Joplin in Concert. McDonald has sweetness, but can reach in and find some gravel to complement Gravenites. Everything on this album is listenable, and the three instrumentals -- "Last Band on Side One," "Maui," and "Promise Her Anything, But Give Her Arpeggio" -- are statements that the band members are real musicians, journeymen with vision. The loss of more recorded music by this group from this point in time is a tragedy. The Gravenites version of "Buried Alive in the Blues," the song he wrote for Joplin's Pearl album, is chilling; her death happened hours before the scheduled session when she was to sing on the Full Tilt Boogie Band's recording. Sony would be wise to include Big Brother's rendition on future copies of Pearl: It completes the circle. Big Brother would do well to continue in the more bluesy direction this album pointed to rather than perform Janis Joplin's hits in small clubs. The instrumental "Maui" and the song "Shine On" are as good as anything Moby Grape and Quicksilver Messenger Service could conjure up. Sam Andrew, James Gurley, Peter Albin, and David Getz cover music from all three phases of Joplin's career. The first song on side two, "Nu Boogaloo Jam," is pure Kozmic Blues Band, which Sam Andrew was part of at the beginning; the aforementioned "Buried Alive in the Blues," as stated, was recorded by the Full Tilt Boogie Band for Pearl. This album covers the gamut of styles that Joplin would bring to the world between 1968 and 1970. It's a catastrophe that this band was waiting for its lead singer to come home for the inevitable reunion; Joplin's death affected many lives and the body of work this band could have amassed. Where the Doors went off into a brief and spirited rock-jazz journey for two albums -- Jim Morrison's band experimenting with ideas they couldn't attempt as a superstar pop group -- Big Brother had lost its Morrison and was lost without its focal point. How Hard It Is and the album that preceded it, Be a Brother, are very musical and very good albums, but they just don't have the electric majesty of Cheap Thrills, an album that took their wildness and used it as an incredible bed for Joplin's truly cosmic vocal work and emotion. If allowed to record as the Grateful Dead and the Jefferson Airplane had despite those bands' personnel changes, there would now be a deep catalog of San Francisco rock from this essential psychedelic/experimental ensemble. Although Janis Joplin had a guest vocal on Be a Brother, her only participation here consists of photos inside the album jacket, a family tree of sorts. This is a striking record by an important band, but Joplin's contributions were so overwhelming that the integrity in these grooves never got the chance to reach a wider audience when it was first released.

 (EXCERPT FROM AN ONLINE REVIEW BY JOE VIGLIONE, ALL MUSIC GUIDE  /ALLMUSIC.COM/)

After they split with Janis Joplin in 1969 and after she passed away the next year, Big Brother & THC struggled on for a few years to maintain their separate career and identity. To no avail. They released only two albums without Janis Joplin in the 1970's (plus one in the 1990’s), both brutally ignored by the general public and next to impossible to find these days. This, the second of the two came out in 1971 and was their true swan song.

For additional historical information on this album, including track listing ►click here

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·                               CONDITION:

·                               THE RECORD

(IMPORTANT NOTE: unless otherwise noted, ALL records are graded visually, and NOT play-graded!; we  grade records under the strong, diffuse room light or discrete sunlight)

(a)          THE ALBUM IS STILL FACTORY SEALED AND IS BELIEVED TO BE PERFECTLY MINT. Please note: sealed items are assumed to be mint and are sold as-is, as we have no way of inspecting them. For our policy on still sealed records ►click here (PLEASE READ BEFORE PLACING A BID).

(b)            The record is  apparently  pressed on a beautiful, thick, inflexible vinyl, which was usually used for the first or very early pressings. Usually, the sound on such thick vinyl pressings is full-bodied, vivid, and even dramatic. Do not expect to obtain such a majestic analog sound from a digital recording!

(c)           The record is believed to come in its original stock inner sleeve.

(d)          Of course, this is a full-bodied ANALOG recording, and not an inferior, digital recording!!!

·                               THE COVER

COVER IS (WEAK) NEAR MINT, STILL SEALED AND COVERED IN ITS ORIGINAL ►SHRINK WRAP  (A SMALL PIECE OF SHRINK WRAP IS MISSING)

The following flaws or imperfections are noted on the cover:

-        Cover has some light ring wear in one small area not covered by the shrink wrap (nothing significant); On the scale from 1 to 10 (1 being the least, and  10 being the most severe), we assess the severity of ring wear as 3.

-         Cover shows JUST A HINT of yellowing on both sides, apparently from aging.

-         Cover has a few tiny wrinkles along the spine  (VISIBLE ON BACK SIDE ONLY)

-         Minor  shelf wear noted on the top seam

-         The cover has a few tiny scratch marks on the front side  (BARELY VISIBLE)

NO OTHER VISIBLE FLAWS OR IMPERFECTIONS ON THE  COVER

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POSTAGE & SHIPPING:

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