Happy New Year to you all!!

First relevant 50 years birthday release in 2021 is this second and final album with Janis Joplin. Pearl was released three months after her death, she was found on the floor in her hotel room, October 4, 1970. Though it is commonly known that she died from an heroin overdose, there was some mystic around her death. According to a book written in 1983 by Joseph DiMona, she was found dead shortly after talking to an employee at the hotel, who changed her money for cigarettes.

Some people find that impossible, since an heroin OD normally occur straight after the injection, and should not give her time to talk with anybody. Nevertheless she passed away at the age of 27, entering the so called 27 Club of musicians who died too early, only 27 years old. Some of them depicted on  this graffiti painting, located in Tel Aviv and painted by an unknown artist.

Pearl was recorded from July 27 until Joplin’s death, October 4, 1970 – at the Sunset Sound Recorders studio in Hollywood, California. Released 3 months later today 50 years ago. The album is more polished and straight forward than her debut studio album, I Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again Mama! Containing soon to come hits like: Move Over, Cry Baby, Me & Bobby McGee and Mercedes Benz. My own version of this album is the German first press, also released 1971.

Janis Joplin participated on 2 former albums though, with Big Brother and the Holding Company:
Big Brother and the Holding Company (1967) and Cheap Thrills (1968)

Full Tilt Boogie Band:
Janis Joplin – vocals, guitar
Richard Bell – piano
Ken Pearson – Hammond organ
John Till – electric guitar
Brad Campbell – bass guitar
Clark Pierson – drums

Additional personnel:
Bobby Womack – acoustic guitar
Bobbye Hall – congas, percussion
Phil Badella – backing vocals
John Cooke – backing vocals
Vince Mitchell – backing vocals
Sandra Crouch – tambourine