The Pearl album is one of the most memorable of its generation and features Janis just months before her heroin overdose making the blues her own. It's such an emotional album you can almost hear Joplin's plaintive wailing about the pain and ecstasy of her life experience. The vocals are what really draws you into this album and makes it worth hearing these many decades after it was recorded. Listen to the tortured heartbreak of "
Cry Baby" or the optimistic declarations of Kris Kristofferson's "Me & Bobby McGee" and you'll understand why Joplin remains an essential, though tragic, figure in pop history.
