Somebody had better send some paramedics over to Renny's house--first the Doors, then Hendrix, now the Joplin family has stirred once again:

Just picked up Janis's "Move Over" set of 45's w/picture sleeves (the Black Friday RSD set), and on the back of the shrinkwrap is a sticker that reads:

renny is the Andy Rooney of ICE.

I'll have some interest in this, but as I recently posted, I tend to prefer Janis live.

Just got finished with playing my way through these four Janis 45's. Since neither this set nor Janis herself seems to have a dedicated thread, I'll just post here.

Disc 1--a studio outtake of "Magic Of Love". In checking across the various BBATHC releases, it appears that this is the first studio version of "Magic Of Love" to see the light of day. The b-side, "Call On Me", recorded live at Winterland on 4/12/68, is said to be previously unreleased, but the "Playlist: The Very Best Of Janis Joplin" comp that came out last year also had a previously unreleased "Call On Me" from Winterland on 4/12/68. The "Playlist" version is 3:51, the label on the 45 states a running time of 3:49. I have not A-B'ed the two songs; it is entirely possible that the band played the song twice on that date (the "Live At Winterland '68" CD contains two different versions of "Down On Me" so...who knows.

Disc 2--live versions of "Piece Of My Heart" and "Summertime" live in Amsrterdam with the Kozmic Blues Band on 4/1/69. IIRC, the documentary "Janis: The Way She Was" contained a KBB version of "Piece Of My Heart"; whether it was the same performance included here, I have no idea. I can't remember if "Summertime" was featured in the film, but a live version from Frankfort on 4/12/69 was on the soundtrack album. Thus, the POMH in the film may well have been from 4/12. If so, it still has yet to appear any place else.

Disc 3--"Raise Your Hand" and "My Baby", live at the Fillmore with the KBB on 10/5/69. These appeared on the "Rare Pearls" disc that came with the :Box Of Pearls" catalog box.

Disc 4--"Move Over"' and "My Baby", alternate versions, recorded in the studio on 8/4/70. The box calls them "unissued early versions, original mono mixes prepared for cancelled single release." I don't know why these have never appeared before, but they are two of the more striking recordings to have popped out of any vault in the past few years. A demo of "Me And Bobby McGee", recorded on 7/28/70, showed up on the "Janis" boxed set nearly 18 years ago, but every other "Pearl" outtake that has surfaced seems to have been recorded in September, 1970 and (very) early October. In August, 1970 Janis famously went on the "Dick Cavett Show" and announced that she would be attending her 10th annual high school reunion, which she did on August 17th.

The fact is, although there have been two expanded versions of "Pearl", only six othher "Pearl" studio outtakes have seen official release (the above two vinyl-only tracks make eight); one was a demo ("MABM"), one was a posthumous instrumental ("Pearl"), and one was an informal throwaway ("Happy Birthday John/Happy Trails"). There's got to be more left in the vault...

She's dead, Geff.

You have a certain point there Chris.................

I would like to hear "Pearl" in mono if one exists. One of my favorite albums from that period.

Rick A.