I wrote the Biography of Big Brother & the Holding Company "Living with the myth of Janis Joplin"

Check out my homepage about the book

This book "Living with the myth of Janis Joplin" tells the band’s story of how difficult it is to find an identity separate from that of Janis Joplin’s overshadowing talent.

As David Getz, the drummer of the band, says: “The fame of Big Brother is like a Golden Albatross. It hangs around your neck like a curse. But the curse is made of gold.”

Big Brother & the Holding Co. were and are far more than a Janis Joplin backup band. The exclusive focus on Janis Joplin distorts the meaning of Big Brother, and, indeed, of the sixties counterculture which was not about single “stars” but about the whole constellation of community.

The biography narrates, from the beginning in 1965, each Big Brother member’s life story. Where they each came from? What are their roots? How they see their time with Janis Joplin? What they experienced after their Janis time? I wrote this biography with the close participation of the musicians themselves.

I sell the book only on my own so if you interested contact me at mspoerke@aol.com

Annotated Table of Contents

Chapter 1: American Society in the Sixties

How and why the Sixties counterculture began in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, political issues—the Kennedys, the New Frontier program, and the Viet Nam war—and the role of such figures as Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary, and Ken Kesey in the growth of the counterculture.

Chapter 2: Blue Yard Hill - Rock & Roll is King

Founding members Peter Albin and Sam Andrew, their origins and musical formation, the Haight-Ashbury beginnings of the band in an earlier configuration called Blue Yard Hill, Chet Helms’ role, and how James Gurley joined.

Chapter 3: Big Brother and the Holding Company: A Legend is Born

The origin of the band’s name, the development of the San Francisco psychedelic scene, the world’s first psychedelic rock concert, the founding of the Psychedelic Shop, the band’s initial musical style and its first gigs, how Dave Getz joined, and the relationship between Chet Helms and Bill Graham, the two main concert promoters on the scene.

Chapter 4: Janis Joplin

How and why Janis Joplin joined, the impressions she made on the others, their first rehearsals and first concert together at the Avalon Ballroom, their first international performance (in Canada), the band’s communal living phase, first band problems, disastrous experience as a “hippie band” during an engagement in Chicago, the capital of blues music, and their first record deal.

Chapter 5: The Monterey Pop Festival

Their breakthrough at the Monterey Pop Festival, fighting with their manager about being filmed there, and the release of the first album.

Chapter 6: Big Brother/Big Business

Why they changed management from Julius Karpen to Albert Grossman, how success brought more problems, their first concert in New York, recording their second LP Cheap Thrills, and the fact that Janis Joplin is loved by the press but the band is not.

Chapter 7: The End of the Big Brother Family

Why and how Janis left the band and how the others dealt with this difficult situation.

Chapter 8: After the Fall from Rock Olympus

What each member did after the band broke up.

Chapter 9: How Hard It Is To Be A Brother - the First Big Brother Reunion

How the band reunited in 1969 and was joined by Kathi McDonald and Nick Gravenites and others to record two new albums that were acclaimed by critics but not big sellers. After a second split, the story again traces each member’s path.

Chapter 10: 1987 - 2005: Big Brother Redux

How the 20th anniversary of the Summer of Love led to the band reuniting, how they dealt with its history and initiated new projects, including recordings and touring all over the world to the present.

Critics about the book

Robert Altmann Chief-Photographer of the Rolling Stone Magazine:"I read from cover to cover your wonderful book. I couldn't put it down. You did a masterful job. I really became immersed in your book."

"Although the author was born after Big Brother and the Holding Company had splintered and its most famous member, Janis Joplin, had died, the affection that Michael Spoerke has for the band and the San Francisco counterculture from whence it emerged has fueled a tremendous project. Interviewing a host of participants and with full cooperation of the band's gentlemen, he has written a detailed, well-researched, sympathetic and well-reasoned account. It covers the entire history, from the formative years of the members to the band's inception, evolution, stardom, tribulations, disintegration, and reformation, all the way to the present.” Review by Craig Morrison (Canadian ethnomusicologist and author of American Popular Music: Rock and Roll)

Sam Andrew of Big Brother & the Holding Co.: "I think it's a good book. Honest and informative."

Greg Shaw founder of the Mojo Navigator:

"This is the only existing work on this seminal band, covering in depth their history before, during and after Janis Joplin. Based on countless interviews and the full cooperation of all surviving band members"