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.

No. If explained, annoying statements such as "Better than the Beatles" are no longer nearly as annoying.

So, not in explanation of the above, Grace Slick doesn't seem like any other hippie singers, unless you count Ann Wilson and Courtney Love as hippie singers. But then, the hippies were more punk than the punks were anyway.

Jack Casady played bass for James Brown.

(What argument?)

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.

New Grace Slick interview. I've never looked into any background about the band outside of their work so a lot of the info's new to me, but wow is that a succinct yet graphic description of her brief fling with Jim Morrison.

I remember a review of her autobio in Q or Mojo that was basically "...She has unclear memories of many landmark events in Rock history, but she definitely never forgot a penis!"

Am I right that there's never been a JA album poll? If not, I'll have to put one up tomorrow (just a checkbox poll)--seems odd.

Anyway, I'll skip the context, but after tonight's Jays game, Sportsnet's Jamie Campbell said "If I pay to see Jefferson Airplane, I want to hear 'Eskimo Blue Day'..." Wow--that's a fan.

Jorma was so sick widdit

Grace Slick's long character arc, from Bear Melt to Panda

I mean to check out Baron von Tollbooth & the Chrome Nun to see where it falls in the Airplane/Starship continuum.

It's about 58% Airplane to 42% Starship.

with a decent amount of mellotron