About half the Festival Express tracks on Disc 2 haven't been released before. The rest have appeared on various live collections over the years. They're a little tinny-sounding overall, but the band's energy and prowess is evident, the quality of the vocals satisfyingly warm and close. The present release is valuable both for the new tracks and for having them all collected in one place in a sensible sequence, giving a better picture of a Full Tilt Boogie Band concert than has been previously available.
The frenetically fast "Tell Mama" is a testament to the band's chops, but also includes a Janis rap that takes the audience up, down, sideways and everywhere in between. Whatever drugs the musicians were taking that made them play that fast didn't interfere with Janis's virtuoso ability to play the audience like an instrument.
"Half Moon," from the same Toronto show, also gets the speed-demon treatment, but ends with a spacy, jazzy twist. Like The Band, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and other top bands of the time, Full Tilt Boogie succeeded (as its predecessor, the Kozmic Blues Band, didn't) in solidifying as a group, melding top-notch musicianship with a loose but controlled energy that matched Janis's.
"Move Over" and "Maybe" got straightforward treatments at the Calgary and Winnipeg concerts respectively, and the previously unreleased "Summertime" from Winnipeg is masterful in its way, though only loosely rooted in Sam Andrew's innovative Big Brother arrangement. Janis's vocals here show her own mature, serious, intensely focused, innovative spirit. Always famous for taking existing songs and making them uniquely her own, Janis with the Full Tilt Boogie Band not only put her own stamp on these compositions but made them into masterpieces of originality, no longer needing the crutch of her old Big Brother and the Holding Company bandmates, who had matched Janis in exploratory spirit but not in genius. Full Tilt Boogie, by contrast, was entirely Janis's vision - this band did exactly and only what she wanted. And with them Janis took rock and blues and soul to places only she could have imagined.
Janis's version of "Little Girl Blue" is so much her own it's practically unrecognizable, but that's well known from the studio version. "That's Rock 'N Roll," a propulsive but unremarkable jam showing off the band, leads into "Try," where, in talking to the audience, Janis sounds stoned or drunk; then she slurs powerfully (a contradiction in terms for anyone but Janis) through an anthemic rendition - already known to fans from the Janis Joplin in Concert album - of her signature compostion, "Kozmic Blues."
Article comments
1 - Laurie
Nice review Jon! I recently picked up the Festival Express DVD. The clips of Janis' performances were electrifying. Perhaps it was the choice of concert footage used for the documentary, but when Janis hit the stage, she outshone all the other acts riding that train. I guess I never truly realized what a charismatic live performer she was. The fact that she didn't look like a mass-produced beauty queen makes her even more appealing and more fascinating to watch.
2 - George
Great information. Does any one know about a demo LP record with a jacket called Janis Joplin "Infinity Blue" The 12" record is clear red with just the #1 and #2 on it no song titles I live near the Woodstock Site in NY and this was given to a local DJ to play Anybody know of this? email me at ghandforth@hvc.rr.com Thanks