Jefferson Starship: C or D, S & D

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To make it interesting, let's say NOT including Airplane (though simply "Starship" is fair game, since they didn't last long and were shit anyway).

I don't believe we don't have this already, but apparently we don't. Actually, a band that perusing the archives hasn't been discussed here too often.

Search: Especially great during the mid 70s, peaking on Red Octopus. "Miracles" is raunchy 70s goodness, "With Your Love" makes a formidable (and arguably superior) sequel. "Tumblin'" I am convinced also would have made a great and successful lurv ballad single in that tradition, had it ever been released as such. Grace Slick: "Ai Garimasu (There Is Love)" and "Fast Buck Freddy" are both fantastic. "Caroline" just soars, as does "St. Charles". Also, Papa John Creach as full-time rock band member = classic. 80s, AOR phase: I'm sorry but "Find Your Way Back" kicks ass. "Out of Control" as well, just for shock value.

Dud: Most of the rest of the 80s stuff, once Kantner and the other guys (Pete Sears, David Freiberg, etc.) left. "We Built This City" and "It's Not Over (Til It's Over)" are definitely the nails in the coffin, at least to me. "Sara", "No Way Out", "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now"...

― Joe (Joe), Friday, 21 March 2003 03:14 (twenty-three years ago)

"Ride the Tiger" is fucking FABULOUS.

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 21 March 2003 03:15 (twenty-three years ago)

Search: "Jane," "Find Your Way Back" and "Miracles".

Destroy: Everything else.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 21 March 2003 03:16 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh shit! Yes, Jody, I forgot that one!!

― Joe (Joe), Friday, 21 March 2003 03:17 (twenty-three years ago)

Red Octopus is junk. Earth is better but even that's poor. I'm a big Airplane fan, but they lost it after Volunteers. Bark and Long Jonn Silver are a snooze; Blows Against the Empire, please, no matter how high I get I can't make this sound interesting. At their respective worst, at least Grace seemed like she had a personality; Paul just seemed zonked.

― Sean (Sean), Friday, 21 March 2003 03:33 (twenty-three years ago)

When I was in 8th grade, the sexiest girl in our class (Shannon, she had long straight brown hair and piercing sarcastic blue eyes and was very smart and was very knowing because her older brother was a pot dealer and who ended up at Reed although I have no idea what happened to Shannon) got Freedom at Point Zero as a birthday present from her stoner friend Kim during social studies class. (Mr. Patterson, he was about 96, we drove him into retirement by blatantly cheating on everything and then lying about it.) I immediately went out and bought it, and thought it rocked.

I made a tape with that record on one side and Dream Police on the other and cranked it up first week of freshman year of college and everyone looked at me like I was from the sticks somewhere and had no couth and I didn't care. That shit rocked.

Freedom at Point Zero might be fuller of bullshit moments than any other great record in history, but the absolute insane formless wonderfulness of the title cut cannot be beat--it just keeps morphing, changing, refusing to die!--and "Jane" is the second-best hard-pop rock song ever, and the sequencing is perfect.

Plus, Shannon was really really sexy for an 8th grader.

― Neudonym, Friday, 21 March 2003 04:06 (twenty-three years ago)

The exclusion of this record is the #1 reason my top 100 list sucked and needed to be repudiated.

― Neudonym, Friday, 21 March 2003 04:14 (twenty-three years ago)

re: Bark, Royal Trux did make me realize how great that "Lawman" song is. There is some other good stuff on there like "Pretty As You Feel". Long John Silver is pretty torturous to sit through, nothing there.

Er.. this is about Starship sorry. Um, I like "Miracles" and "Jane".

"Rock Music" certainly is remarkable for the slap-your-forhead daftness of the title and the couplet "rock & roll is goodtime music / listen to it!" And the fact that it itself does not in fact rock.

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Friday, 21 March 2003 04:22 (twenty-three years ago)

"Lawman" is a JA song? Holy shit

― dave q, Friday, 21 March 2003 15:01 (twenty-three years ago)

I somehow feel vindicated that Alex in NYC likes "Miracles," since I continue to have a warm spot in my heart for that song.

― Rockist Scientist, Friday, 21 March 2003 16:53 (twenty-three years ago)

(& I wouldn't expect him [you, Alex in NYC] to like it.)

― Rockist Scientist, Friday, 21 March 2003 16:54 (twenty-three years ago)

Well, a good song is a good song -- and this particular song reminds me of my distant youth. It doesn't make Marty Balin any less of a lisping, whiney narcicist, but the song remains a great 70's moment regardless.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 21 March 2003 20:38 (twenty-three years ago)

I actually love Balin's voice, and it sounds equally well-suited to both the ballads and the more upbeat material.

― Joe (Joe), Friday, 21 March 2003 20:47 (twenty-three years ago)

I love Balin's voice; really love it. Of course, that love comes from his Airplane work, but still.

― Sean (Sean), Friday, 21 March 2003 20:54 (twenty-three years ago)

Search: Whatever is released by Jefferson Airplane
Destroy: Everything else.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 21 March 2003 23:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Again, I must voice my surprise, this coming from you. I would think "Miracles" or "With Your Love" or "Count on Me" at the very least would be sterling examples of Geirology?

― Joe (Joe), Saturday, 22 March 2003 02:21 (twenty-three years ago)

A melody doesn't necessarily mean a good melody. Not too fond of the AOR genre, although AOR was better in the 70s than in the 80s.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 22 March 2003 09:55 (twenty-three years ago)

ugh. havent heard anything I liked yet but am still trying (theres some hidden in the back of the stacks)
I also didnt realize Lawman was starship! I had never thought about who sang that

― girl scout heroin (iamamonkey), Saturday, 22 March 2003 14:07 (twenty-three years ago)

Not too fond of the AOR genre, although AOR was better in the 70s than in the 80s.

Well, I think they went AOR with "Jane" and onwards (basically, when the singer who replaced Balin came on board...what was his name? Mickey Thomas?), but I don't know if I'd characterize the music they made before that as AOR...

― Joe (Joe), Saturday, 22 March 2003 14:39 (twenty-three years ago)

Miracles, Count on Me, and (nobody's mentioned this one yet) Run Away all have lead vocals by Marty Balin, btw. Is the main problem having a band led by Paul Kantner, a completely undistinguished singer, songwriter and guitarist? At his best he provided a foundation for the other bandmembers in the Airplane, later the few diverting moments were overwhelmed by meandering, muddle-headed mush.

― Sean (Sean), Sunday, 23 March 2003 16:53 (twenty-three years ago)

Ok, so since this thread popped up I've been trying to download a bunch of their tunes on slsk, as quite honestly I hadn't heard many of them in years. I finally got "Rock Music" and realized that fucking Boogie Down Productions sampled the drum intro for "Illegal Business"! That tune just became cooler.

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Monday, 31 March 2003 06:36 (twenty-three years ago)

!!!!

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 10 April 2003 13:03 (twenty-three years ago)

six months pass...

God, "Count on Me" is such a fantastic song!!

Everything about it, Balin's beautiful vocal, the piano line, the verse melody, the soaring chorus, the WONDERFUL production, is aces. Listen to those background vocals during the verses and chorus! The layering of the instruments is grand - check out that organ which subtly starts playing during the second verse.

I just listened to an Mp3 of it four times in a row. This inspired by hearing it in a Walgreen's drug store last night.

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Sunday, 12 October 2003 01:25 (twenty-two years ago)

one year passes...

"sara" is the soundtrack of my childhood. I remember being moved by the video, which, along with "uptown girl" was the first video i can remember seeing. i watched it again recently and it's still pretty good, but there's a point where the woman has this bizarre and chilling look of psychosis on her face at a point where she's supposed to look happy. creepy.

― richard wood johnson, Tuesday, 27 September 2005 20:33 (twenty years ago)

four years pass...

I finally got Red Octopus after being fascinated by "Miracles" for a little while. It's shockingly good IMO, up there with the best pop albums of the 70s. Should I get the rest? I actually like "Jane" and "Find Your Way Back" as hard rock singles but I like the singers on Red Octopus.

― Sundar, Friday, 5 March 2010 20:53 (sixteen years ago)

I used to own the followups, Spitfire and Earth, but they're pretty patchy.

― Pierced nose! Performs improv! (Dan Peterson), Friday, 5 March 2010 21:19 (sixteen years ago)

This is pretty nice, in a Fleetwood Mac-y kind of way:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4BxmjFuF_0

― Pierced nose! Performs improv! (Dan Peterson), Friday, 5 March 2010 21:26 (sixteen years ago)

I finally got Red Octopus after being fascinated by "Miracles" for a little while. It's shockingly good IMO, up there with the best pop albums of the 70s.

seriously dude? 'cause I have wondered this for YEARS. always thought the cover & the title & the vibe it gave off were awesome, but figured, like, no way. no way this is as good as the vibe it gives off, so let me just leave it in my gallery of "shit I suspect is cool but I don't wanna be disappointed with." seriously that awesome? so stoked if so!

― Lee Dorrian Gray (J0hn D.), Friday, 5 March 2010 21:30 (sixteen years ago)

IMO, yes. It's everything I look for with this stuff. It has bombastic and proggy bits so that might possibly turn you off, I dunno? I'd be interested in what you thought anyway.

― Sundar, Saturday, 6 March 2010 01:28 (sixteen years ago)

three weeks pass...

i think i'm ready to get into starship

― big (surm), Monday, 29 March 2010 04:17 (sixteen years ago)

you should. but also do Hot Tuna concurrently

― Stormy Davis, Monday, 29 March 2010 04:28 (sixteen years ago)

i'm gonna see Hot Tuna for the second time this summer, and couldn't be more excited. simply being in the same small space (which is where they will play) with Jorma and Jack is such a fuckin thrill

― Stormy Davis, Monday, 29 March 2010 04:29 (sixteen years ago)

i always wondered about hot tuna but i really don't think i could listen to a band named Hot Tuna

― big (surm), Monday, 29 March 2010 05:05 (sixteen years ago)

pretty stupid name, yeah. the first album is all acoustic jams. so if you dig like blues music, john fahey, whatever, it should go down easy. next few albums, they got electric. but yeah, hot tuna more on the rougher end of the Jefferson Airplane split-up. If you dig slicker stuff, then Starship is the way to go. 'Red Octopus' for sure, solid album. plus you should be able to find it for like a buck...

― Stormy Davis, Monday, 29 March 2010 05:11 (sixteen years ago)

six years pass...

Love Balin, so smooth

― calstars, Monday, 7 November 2016 00:57 (nine years ago)

classic through '76, haven't heard anything after that (apart from "jane", which rules)

kinda want this shirt: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41yfsdUil5L._SX342_.jpg

― brimstead, Monday, 7 November 2016 03:34 (nine years ago)

one year passes...

Jefferson Starship I'm calling you out:

"Find Your Way Back" is a total Boston ripoff

― It's not delivery, it's Adorno! (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 6 March 2018 21:42 (eight years ago)

"Find Your Way Back"
Is a total Boston ripoff

AMANDA

― ...some of y'all too woke to function (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, 6 March 2018 21:47 (eight years ago)

irl lol

― Johnny Fever, Tuesday, 6 March 2018 22:11 (eight years ago)

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