Photographers

10 October 2010

Etelka Garami took this one of Tom Finch and me in Petaluma.

Not sure what the idea was here. Lisa Law captured this moment.

Cathy Richardson and I singing Down On Me. Lilli Heart is becoming a fine photographer.

I wish we had done this with all of our albums. Here are our family and friends. In many cases, this is the only photograph we have of these people. Note that this was produced by “Roscoe,” a collective name for Big Brother and the Holding Company, and Roy Segel. I still see Roy’s son occasionally at Aroma Café. Mike Finnigan is here in these photographs. He did the best version of ever of You’ve Been Talkin’ ‘Bout Me, Baby. We still want to release that someday.

Peter getting his exercise.

Lori Helms, Chet’s wife. Chet and Lori and I were a kind of trinity in early Big Brother days. We were the ones who named Big Brother, for example. We used to sit around and talk about the band and where it could go. Lori loved the song These Boots Were Made For Walking by Nancy Sinatra. I used to think this was strange, but I now realize, with the benefit of hindsight, that the tune was a kind of anthem for women who often felt rather powerless in the 1960s. One of the great things about Janis Joplin was that she showed women a kind of strength in a positive way.

Lilli Heart, the woman who took many of these photographs.

Nine hundred nights, just about the length of time that we spent with Janis.

Maybe Jo Qatana Adell snapped this of Darby Gould, Cathy Richardson and a giantess who looked to me like Jennifer Garner.

We once considered Lynne Hughes as a singer for Big Brother and we once opened for The Charlatans. The Congress of Wonders was a comedy troupe. I remember The Final Solution and yet I don’t remember them too. This looks like a poster by Stanley Miller.

Lilli Heart is learning how to take those glittery black photographs that are so rich looking.

This place was about eighteen miles north of Salt Lake City. Blue Cheer was the loudest band we had heard up to that point. The world’s first metal band.

20 July 1968.

Now, this I have to paint someday. Peter and Nancy Parker.

Everyday I start my practice routine by playing along with James Brown at The Apollo 1963, and specifically his first hit, a ballad, I Wanna Be Around. Such a great tune. Bobby Byrd from North Carolina did that special scratch rhythm guitar behind James, so powerful and propelling.

Rosie McGee and Heather who worked for the Marin Music Museum until quite recently. Heather just moved from the Mission District in San Francisco where she often heard gunshots to Petaluma, California, the Egg Basket of the World, or so it used to be known as anyway. Quite a change.

Elise with her mom and dad, and some other attractive and happy Hawaiians. She’s the youngest person in the room and she’s already a sweet girl.

Marty Balin and I were in an art show together in 1965 or 1966. Marty started the Jefferson Airplane as a way of earning enough money to go to Venice and study painting, but he got sidetracked. So did I.

Hey, The Coo Coo. I played bass on that one which was a lot of fun. I like Light Is Faster Than Sound.

I love this photograph. What a glamorous couple. Donnie Baldwin and Cathy Richardson. Two of my favorite people.

Sam Houston (1793-1863) by Matthew Brady. Houston was a remarkable man for his time and place. He refused to swear allegiance to The Confederate States of America. He lived with the Cherokees for many years. He voted against the expansion of slavery into new states. He was the first President of Texas and a vehement opponent of Secession. These all make him practically a pinko Commie radical for that time.

Tommy Castro, a prince among men. Tommy often comes and talks to me while I paint at Aroma.

Wesley Freeman in a band on Okinawa during the 1960s. We are planning for both of our bands to go to Okinawa and some other places in Japan in 2011. I can’t wait to see the place again. It’s where I had my first love, my first band, and my first record.

Photograph by Kevin Beadles. I am almost finished with Spin of the Sun (Ben Nieves).

Ben Nieves shot this photograph of a poster in Asbury Park, New Jersey.

This is Janis Joplin’s door (4 feet by 7 feet and about three inches thick) to her house in Larkspur, California. I am going to do a painting on it this winter 2010. I am going to try to do a story of our life together in each of the fifteen panels. We’ll see.

Sam Andrew

Big Brother and the Holding Company

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