Be A Brother
Stuart Jefferson | San Diego,Ca | 06/07/2008
(3 out of 5 stars)
"Approximately 34 min. Remastered sound. This,of course, is Big Brother after Janis Joplin left. What we have is a band striving to keep it together after a few brief years of fame. Comprised of the original members of the band with the addition of Chicago blues/Electric Flag vocalist Nick Gravenites. Vocal powerhouse Kathy McDonald is also present on a few tracks. David Shallock (?) was at this time also a member of the band. Apparently James Gurley had moved over to the bass,and by this time the group had learned to actually tune their instruments and the overall sound of the group was much smoother. Keyboardist and vocalist Mike Finnegan was also a new member of the band. Richard Green,formerly of Seatrain,played a bit of fiddle also.
Some people,of course,did not like the "advancement" of the band's playing. The rough,crude sound that so many people liked was gone. Also,another new twist came with the use of The Tower Of Power horns on some cuts. Definitely not your typical "Big Brother" sound. Gone were the Haight Street flashes of psychedelia and the loose,loud guitar sounds of their beginnings.
If all this sounds like I'm hedging a bit,well,I am. This is not where you would begin your introduction to this band. The band we all knew is almost unrecognizable here. Every now and again the old feeling comes through-but not enough to sustain interest. This is something you would listen to every once in a while for the good tracks (and there are some) and as a trip back to this whole era-an era,as the band itself says,when they just wanted to keep things together and keep going."
Track Listings (10) - Disc #1