Jefferson Airplane

They're even worse than the Grateful Dead - at least the Dead didn't evolve into some horrible genetic mutation like "Dead Starship."

i heart "white rabbit", its songform is ABCDEFGHI.....

My favourite song of theirs might be "Comin' back to me".

i still say "surrealistic pillow" and "after bathing at baxter's" are masterpieces, nuts to you all.

Grace also beat Courtney to (Man)hole.

Actually, if Grace's autobiography is to be believed, Jack's bits were enormous.

'rejoyce' is incredible, as is 'two heads' (it invents the first throwing muses lp, which is high praise AFAIC)

it's all about slick

also that shrill, treble-bright, highly-strung feel running through the record seems a lot closer to the acid experience than more blissy gambolling through the meadows type stuff

BUT, if you can look beyond what they became and trim away the tripe, there's gems in there. personally, i only have the '66-'70 stuff. so, they go from stoner-hippie to LSD laced acrobatics to neo-revolutionary types in the scope of 4 years and make some great tunes. alot of "takes off" can be forgetable based on the sentiments, but it's actually pretty solid. "pillow", as much as it's overplayed, still has some highlights on it. "baxters" is my favorite, as it's the most tripped out stuff. "crown" has some holdover from that."volunteers" also has moments, but is also the last JA album where everyone's contributing, and for me, that's where it ends.

I love this band, but it’s hard to think of a better example of “spent creative energies” than those two post-Volunteers LPs (notwithstanding the incomparably bitchin’ “Law Man”).

It’s odd they never put “High Flyin’ Bird” on any of their main albums, bc that’s gotta be one of their hottest tracks.

Yeah pretty odd. IIRC they recorded a version of it for their debut (with Signe Toly Anderson on vocals and Skip Spence on drums), but they left it off the album. (The outtake was eventually released in 1974 on Early Flight.) They could've at least re-recorded it for a B-side or something.

xp But yeah, no getting around that steep decline, one that's sadly reflected in any compilation that tries to cover the whole lifespan of the band. I'm not a Jefferson Starship fan, but I can't say their work after Volunteers made a great case for them to continue on.

Not sure I’ve even heard anything post-Volunteers tbh.

I absolutely love (the admittedly bizarre--not for everyone) "Thunk" from Bark.

Even the “best” song, “Eat Starch Mom,” is basically a rewrite of “Plastic Fantastic Lover.”

Is that one of the earliest anti-hippie trolling songs (outside of Zappa)?:

"You say nothing's right but natural things
Ah, you fool
Poison oak is a natural plant
Why don't you put some in your food?
Natural food makes you slow and stupid and it tastes like cabbage
I don't care if there's chemicals in it
As long as my lettuce is crisp"

I absolutely love (the admittedly bizarre--not for everyone) "Thunk" from Bark.

I absolutely love (the admittedly bizarre--not for everyone) "Never Argue with a German If You're Tired or European Song" from Bark. It's admirable how Grace Slick wrote such a beautiful melody and chord progression and then resolved to present it in as obnoxious a manner as possible.

Is that one of the earliest anti-hippie trolling songs

I think I think that verse may be in the voice of the car-loving guy?

this revive inspired me to grab the Complete Monterey bluray from that Criterion B&N sale, so thanks

Early Flight is kind of essential! I am also partial to the mono Takes Off

For a long time, the only LP where you could get "Runnin' Round This World" and "Mexico," two of their greatest.

It’s funny how they put those three later songs on a comp called Early Flight

FWIW, The Essential Jefferson Airplane is actually a really solid overview of their career, even though there's an inevitable dip in quality towards the end. I'd probably add a few more selections from Surrealistic Pillow, Baxter's and Crown of Creation, and I think Surrealistic Pillow and probably Baxter's sound better in their original mono mixes (the stereo mixes feel a bit diffuse and they load too much echo on the former). But beyond that, the two-hour set nearly has all the "essentials."

If you're looking for a really good live period I'd pick sometime in 1968. Seems that they found their flow live then. I think they had started intentionally improvising at some point in 67 and found out how to do it really well by 68. By 69 you get to a point where people are complaining that they play too fast which I think must go against interplay and what's worse by the end of the year they replace one of my all time favourite drummers with someone I just find thudding. I think Joey Covington's replacement John Barbata is better but by then it's no longer the same band.

Spencer Dryden was Charlie Chaplin's nephew oddly enough. I'm not sure if the rest of teh band knew that at the time.
I think he wound up with a drink problem which may be one reason he got replaced. Shame cos I do love his tone. He's one of a few drummers that really stick out for me.

Looks like I was a couple of months out on Dryden's departure it's actually early 70 not late 69.
He's an awesome drummer anyway. I have still never connected with Joey Covington who was supposed to be a harder hitter I think. He'd been in the early stages of the band version of Hot Tuna if I'm remembering right which must mean Cassady and Kaukonen liked him presumably,
I do enjoy hearing Dryden rather than him just being a decent time keeper. oh well.

Does anyone have a copy (digital or otherwise!) of Kantner's self-published science fiction novel...? This is proving really hard to track down.

As far as I can tell it was released as an extra feature on a self-released CDR reissue of his PERRO album, which no one seems to own...

https://www.discogs.com/release/13045080-Paul-Kantner-PERRO

and it seems to have been available at one point as a print-on-demand thing...

https://web.archive.org/web/20081218050357/http://www.planetearthrockandroll.com/

There's a preview, with scans of the entire first "chapter" available here. Looks utterly demented.

https://web.archive.org/web/20080607064028fw_/http://www.jeffersonstarshipsf.com/perro/chpt01.htm

Might be of interest to folks in this thread:

Here is an album reconstruction from the quintessential American psychedelic band, Jefferson Airplane. This is a reconstruction of Jefferson Airplane’s relatively un-made album, intended to be released in 1970. ... The resulting album–which I call Another Missile is Flying–is an excellent upgrade from the oft-dismal Bark, continues the trajectory of Volunteers, and incorporates the best parts of Blows Against The Empire.

Side A:
1. Have You Seen The Saucers?
2. Up or Down
3. Sunrise
4. Starship

Side B:
5. Bludgeon of a Bluecoat
6. Emergency
7. Mexico
8. Pretty As You Feel
9. Mau Mau (Amerikon)

^^ loving that, thanks! that guy is doing the lord's work

where's the link to download that?

buried in an inscrutable Google Doc link in the comments

got it, thanks

Giving a spin to Crown of Creation this past week, I only noticed that Al Schmidt produced that one. That seems a bit of a culture shock type pairing considering the long list of artists he worked with. Hippies meeting the straights I suppose…

Schmitt did several with them (including Volunteers). Here’s what the Jeff Tamarkin book says about how he got started with the group:

https://i.imgur.com/APAN4FF_d.webp?maxwidth=1520&fidelity=grand

Pretty hip. Did not know he was a big part of getting them signed.

Al Schmitt was just the coolest.

That's a good book. I wasn't aware of Bless Its Pointed Little Head until I read Tamarkin's praises of it. It's one of three JA albums that I've always owned, along with Surrealistic Pillow (mono edition) and Volunteers.

Incredible version of "It's No Secret" on there.

I like them a lot better in the studio than live.

― Rock Hardy, Friday, September 14, 2007 8:52 PM (sixteen years ago)

I would just like to say I was otm in this thread.

There are a couple of later vintage Jefferson Airplane Fillmore releases. The one from 68 sounds pretty thin but the 69 one is pretty good.

I think it and Bless Its Pointed… kind of give you an idea what it might liked to be at one of those ballroom shows. Jack Cassady is a beast and those live records get to show more what him and Jorma could do.

I have tried and failed to like Pointed Little Head, but I remember some good live tracks on that 90's box set?

their version of "High Flying Bird" at Monterey is so rad, why the heck was this left off the album

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F51JKnSzjRs

by "the album" I mean that the song itself was never on an LP, why was it not on Surrealistic Pillow or Bathing idk

They even cut it in the studio with Signe for Takes Off!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LL1vGiRYlbA

yeah I think it was (insanely) relegated to a B-side

no I guess an outtake?!? even more insane

btw this is where I mention that Early Flight also rules and is essential

yeah for sure, absolutely love their “high flying bird”, Marty and grace go hard

Also: “HAVE YOU SEEN THE SAUCERS”

Also: JA RULES

The chord progression and feel is so evocative, it seems to me there should have been some long 12 minute modal jam of “White Rabbit”.

The Airplane had the tunes but were a bit more reserved on the jams. Quicksilver had the jams but did not have the tunes.

The Great Society version of "White Rabbit" has extended groove jam opening:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxxnDGWI3e8

If you're a Grace fan, that Great Society live twofer live CD is a must.

Yeah that’s a great disc.

Say, can I have some of your purple berries?
Yes, I've been eating them for six or seven weeks now
Haven't got sick once
Probably keep us both alive

I was thinking about this line from "Wooden Ships" last night; how it represents the strength the counterculture derived from the continuum of rock music history up to that point (from Chuck Berry to Deep Purple.

(fwiw, took some doing, but I tracked down the 516-page Kantner book. b/w scans of 516 8x11 pages of text with drawings (by Kantner), hieroglyphics, etc. in a single PDF. If you need it, get in touch.)

For a quick overview of this acid-deranged/visionary project, which was a sequel to Blows Against the Empire: Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra (album)

Do I need to listen to Live at Monterey Pop?

If I remember the film correctly, "Today" is a highlight.

yeah they rule, a killer "High Flying Bird" as well iirc

As a film, I'd take Monterey over Woodstock.

oh totally!

the Janis footage alone is GOAT

Listening to The Great Society right now instead.

lol I just saw the part of the Sly Stone doc covering those sessions

I'm at work now, but I'll set up a poll later with those two plus Gimme Shelter (JA being in all three).

They were wonderful in Monterey Pop, yes. 1967 was their best year in many ways.