Be a Brother

File:Alcatraz aerial.jpg island prison located in the same city of San Francisco where Big Brother and the Holding Company was located when writing a concept album with characters residing in different parts of a prison.]]

Be a Brother was originally planned to be a concept album based on characters within a prison of the hippie, San Francisco based, rock band sub-culture called Weird Bummer. Graphic designer Bob Seidemann specifically created a themed cover for it which he described as "a weird, fucked up looking stick figure giving a peace sign," representing Gravenites metaphorical explanation of the characters in the hippie prison with some of the "people using junk", some on "on death row" with "the rest of them on Tier C." The concept was lost when Columbia Records rejected the idea and made them change the album title and obscure it's theme.{{cite book |author1=Alice Echols |title=Scars of Sweet Paradise: The Life and Times of Janis Joplin |date=1999 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=978-0-8050-5394-4 |page=304 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0E5Dc1io_hMC&pg=PA304&dq=bob+seidemann+%22be+a+brother%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi_ke-Qk-6MAxXFmokEHaJjJfEQ6AF6BAgEEAM#v=onepage&q=bob%20seidemann%20%22be%20a%20brother%22&f=false |access-date=23 April 2025 |language=en}}

Creating "the original psychedelic spirit and energy" featuring the guitarists "heavy fuzztone and uncontrollable

amplifier feedback" sounds included the use of the Gibson SG guitars used by both Sam Andrew and James Gurley with Andrew also using at times the Gibson Les Paul Junior.{{cite book |last1=Prown |first1=Pete |last2=Newquist |first2=Harvey P. |title=Legends of Rock Guitar: The Essential Reference of Rock's Greatest Guitarists |date=1997 |publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation |isbn=978-0-7935-4042-6 |page=58 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Legends_of_Rock_Guitar/60Jde3l7WNwC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=big%20brother%20%22be%20a%20brother%22%20album&pg=PA58&printsec=frontcover |language=en |chapter=Psychedelia}} Dave Schallock was documented using a Gibson semi-acoustic guitar with an example being from the bands performance at the 1970 Berkeley Folk Music Festival.{{cite web |author1=John Melville Bishop |title=Dave Schallock, 1970 Berkeley Folk Music Festival |url=https://dc.library.northwestern.edu/items/cfc98bb3-ff7a-4d42-a33e-737be291ed6f |website=Digital Collections - Northwestern University Libraries |access-date=24 May 2025 |language=en |date=9 October 1970}}

In review of a live performance from the tour supporting the album in 1971 the band started the set with songs sung by vocalist and guitarist Sam Andrew and vocalist Kathi McDonald concluding with the instrumental track "Home on the Strange" featuring the bands three guitar lineup consisting of a combination of "solo and rhythm chores ... played together, in harmony and separately." This track served as a segue to the songs from the album featuring lead singer Gravenites. "No More Heartache," "Joseph's Coat," and the set closer, "Be a Brother," which allowed the singer to display his full vocal range with the reviewer noting him as "a very underrated blues artist."{{cite journal |last1=Glassenberg |first1=Robert |title=Talent in Action |journal=Billboard |date=23 January 1971 |volume=83 |issue=4 |page=21 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8ggEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA21&dq=heartache+people+%22big+brother%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiTxOCHtbWLAxVmD1kFHYu9DUAQ6AF6BAgHEAM#v=onepage&q=heartache%20people%20%22big%20brother%22&f=false |access-date=11 February 2025 |publisher=Nielsen Business Media, Inc. |language=en |issn=0006-2510}}

{{Music ratings

| rev1 = Allmusic

| rev1Score = {{Rating|2.5|5}}

|rev2 = Christgau's Record Guide

|rev2Score = A−{{cite book|last=Christgau|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Christgau|year=1981|title=Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies|publisher=Ticknor & Fields|isbn=089919026X|chapter=Consumer Guide '70s: B|chapter-url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/get_chap.php?k=B&bk=70|accessdate=February 21, 2019}}

| rev4 = The Village Voice

| rev4Score = A{{cite news|last=Christgau|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Christgau|date=June 10, 1971|url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/cg/cg18.php|title=Consumer Guide (18)|newspaper=The Village Voice|location=New York|accessdate=February 16, 2013|via=robertchristgau.com}}

}}

Music critic Robert Christgau noted the lyrical theme of Gravenites dealing with the hippie culture as a warning against the people mentioned in "Heartache People" and "Funkie Jim" and concluding with the traditional positive hippie message in the final track "Be a Brother."{{cite web |last1=Christgau |first1=Robert |title=Robert Christgau: CG: Big Brother and the Holding Company |url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=Big+Brother+and+the+Holding+Company |website=www.robertchristgau.com |access-date=11 February 2025 |date=1970}} Louder classified the songs as having a "loose, jam-band feel" with the track "Sunshine Baby" featuring a "stripped-down blues" sound.{{cite web |last1=Johnston |first1=Emma |title=Big Brother And The Holding Company Be A Brother / How Hard It Is album review |url=https://www.loudersound.com/reviews/big-brother-and-the-holding-company-be-a-brother-how-hard-it-is-album-review |website=louder |access-date=11 February 2025 |language=en |date=24 December 2016}} The book All Music Guide to the Blues brought out the "Chicago blues edge courtesy of Gravenites" and although the band was different than previous lineups the "additions of

guitarist David Schallock and singer/songwriter/producer Gravenites" making the band a sextet still retained the band's "psychedelic sound".{{cite book |last1=Bogdanov |first1=Vladimir |last2=Woodstra |first2=Chris |last3=Erlewine |first3=Stephen Thomas |title=All Music Guide to the Blues: The Definitive Guide to the Blues |date=2003 |publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation |isbn=978-0-87930-736-3 |page=40 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/All_Music_Guide_to_the_Blues/qYtz7kEHegEC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=big%20brother%20%22be%20a%20brother%22%20album&pg=PA40&printsec=frontcover |access-date=27 April 2025 |language=en}} Christgau later mentioned that "Big Brother continued to grow as band into the seventies" with the progress recorded on Be a Brother as an example of the "spunky, good nature of the Mainstream album".{{cite book |author1=Robert Christgau |title=Grown Up All Wrong: 75 Great Rock and Pop Artists from Vaudeville to Techno |date=1 November 2000 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-00382-8 |page=65 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Grown_Up_All_Wrong/rXpJEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=big%20brother%20%22be%20a%20brother%22%20album&pg=PA65&printsec=frontcover |access-date=27 April 2025 |language=en |chapter=Where "Rock" Began}}

1. "Keep On" (Sam Andrew, Peter Albin, David Getz, James Gurley, David Schallock) – 4:21
2. "Joseph's Coat" (Nick Gravenites, John Cipollina) – 3:10
3. "Home on the Strange" (Albin, Andrew) – 2:15
4. "Someday" (Andrew) – 2:17
5. "Heartache People" (Gravenites) – 6:36
6. "Sunshine Baby" (Andrew, Albin, Getz, Gurley, Shallock) – 3:30
7. "Mr. Natural" (Andrew) – 3:31
8. "Funkie Jim" (Andrew, Albin, Getz, Gurley, Shallock, Gravenites) – 3:47
9. "I'll Change Your Flat Tire, Merle" (Gravenites) – 3:14
10. "Be a Brother" (Gravenites) – 3:04

{{Track listing

| headline = Side one

| title1 = Combination of the Two

| writer1 = Sam Andrew

| length1 = 5:47

| title2 = I Need a Man to Love

| writer2 = Andrew, Janis Joplin

| length2 = 4:54

| title3 = Summertime

| writer3 = George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, DuBose Heyward

| length3 = 4:01

| title4 = Piece of My Heart

| writer4 = Bert Berns, Jerry Ragovoy

| length4 = 4:15

}}

{{Track listing

| headline = Side two

| title1 = Turtle Blues

| writer1 = Joplin

| length1 = 4:22

| title2 = Oh, Sweet Mary

| writer2 = Peter Albin, Andrew, David Getz, James Gurley, Joplin

| length2 = 4:16

| title3 = Ball and Chain

| writer3 = Big Mama Thornton

| length3 = 9:02

}}

;Big Brother and the Holding Company

• Nick Gravenites – lead (2, 5, 8–10) and backing vocals
• Sam Andrew – guitar, lead (1, 4, 6, 7) and backing vocals
• David Schallock – guitar, backing vocals
• Peter Albin – guitar
• James Gurley – bass, guitar
• David Getz – drums, piano

with:

• Kathi McDonald – Vocals
• Richard Greene – violin
• Mike Finnigan – keyboard
• Tower of Power – horn section
• Ira Kamin
• Mark Naftalin

;Technical

• David Brown, Jerry Hochman, Sy Mitchell – engineer
• Bob Seidemann – album design, photography
• John Van Hamersveld – design concept

{{Reflist|refs=

Campbell, Al. [http://www.allmusic.com/album/be-a-brother-mw0000661676 Be a Brother] at Allmusic. Retrieved August 12, 2013.

}}

{{Big Brother and the Holding Company}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Big Brother and the Holding Company albums

Category:1970 albums

Category:Columbia Records albums

Category:Albums produced by Nick Gravenites