ON THIS DATE (45 YEARS AGO) January 20, 1970 - Janis Joplin: Try (Just A Little Bit Harder) b/w One Good Man (Columbia 4-45080) 45 single is released in the US. Written by Chip Taylor and Jerry Ragovoy - from the LP, I Got Dem Ol Kozmic Blues Again Mama! Joe Viglione, allmusic When Clive Davis aired an unreleased live performance of this tune by Janis Joplin, a blitzkrieg Try (Just A Little Bit Harder) on a Friday night TV show in the seventies, most likely The Midnight Special, there was no denying the singers ability to take control of a great composition and give it everything and more on stage. Co-written by Chip Taylor,the author of The TroggsWild Thing and Merrilee Rushs Angel Of The Morning, along with the man whose catalog was single-handedly re-discovered by Janis Joplin, producer Jerry Ragavoy, this song was one of the major moments on the singers vastly underrated I Got Dem Ol Kozmic Blues Again Mama! album. Covers by Cathy Richardson, Pearl Toni and Lorraine Ellison followed in the footsteps of Janis, Chip Taylor offering a little more insight by releasing a three minute six-second version in 1996 on his Hit Man CD, forty seconds shorter than the definitive Janis Joplin rendition. Opening up with percussive shakers and a throbbing bassline, Try (Just A Little Bit Harder) is the most urban of all Joplins workings of Ragavoy compositions. Gabriel Mekler crafts an oozing and spiritual opening track with chirping horns and dynamic rhythms. Its a diving board for Janis Joplins wail, and that televised performance offered more perspective, stunning in its energy and the magnetism of the singers star power. This anthem in the post-Big Brother & The Holding Company phase of her career was more about feeling than the gotta get that guy attitude of the lyrics. We know what Janis is singing about at this point in time, now it is all about how she sings it, and she delivers the goods. Where Blood, Sweat & Tears and Chicago put the horns in your face, here those instruments supplement the great white blues singer without getting in the way of her mission, or her message. A moment unique and riveting in the singers career.
Posted on: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 21:00:05 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015