Jefferson Airplane

yes and re: Early Flight i'm not sure what it was exactly, cuz i don't remember ever coming across it as an actual studio album -- i found it at a used place once

u know, i think it WAS a comp -- it must have been a comp of the early b-sides

Early Flight was oddities and rarities from '65 to around '70 or '71. Some of that stuff is pre-Volunteers and some of it is post-Volunteers.

It's funny how RCA didn't release one of those early singles (which ended up on "Early Flight") because the lyrics say, "Our nights together will be fantastic TRIPS," or something -- and by "Volunteers," they're singing "motherfucker" and "wouldn't mean shit to a tree"...

I've heard at the end of the '60's there was a kind of "frontier" vibe amongst the counter culture. Like the psychedelic era was a new social/psychological frontier. And there were kind of unconscious parallels with the old frontier proper (i.e. it adopted victorian/edwardian modes of dress, typograhy + the interest in traditional/country musics)

Supposedly the closing of the old frontier was a traumatic time in American history - like the end of a vast potentiality.

"Volunteers" kind of mimics that feeling. A key lyric for me is "We are all outlaws in the eyes of America". Pioneers become outlaws once the frontier closes and the natural order is restored.

I'm sort of groping at this, but someone who's more expert in American history might be able to provide a sounder factual basis.

the countercultural frontier vibe amounted to david crosby wearing a fringe jacket. at the same time an actual new frontier was being explored via astronauts and the moon landing tho the freeks greeted this mostly w/indifference or contempt. I remember the cool recordstore/headshop I used to frequent had a poster of Neil Armstrong taking "one giant step for mankind" w/the caption SO WHAT. but Paul Kanter and Grace Slick followed up Volunteers w/a concept album about rocketing off into space and setting up a new utopia: Blows{ Against The Empire, nominally the first Jeff Starship album. I listened to it a few months ago, wondering if it was another If I Could Only remember My Name but it wasn't that great. Some not bad jamming but the "political" lyrics were annoying and/or absurd in retrospect. in general I'd say JA haven't aged well because of the topical bent their songs took at the dawn of the 70s. real good singers, though.

the countercultural frontier vibe amounted to david crosby wearing a fringe jacket.

The first band to really play the "frontier" role -- 19th century Wild West/gentleman look -- was the Charlatans. They nailed the look as early as '65. Quicksilver soon followed suit, as did the other groups, including Crosby, who actually never played the role nearly as over the top as the Charlatans. The cover art for the Deja Vu LP cover is totally behind the times in this respect.

via astronauts and the moon landing tho the freeks greeted this mostly w/indifference or contempt.

I don't think the counterculture held a consensus attitude towards mankind landing on the moon. "indifference or contempt" simply isn't accurate.

um by the way? the "bridge" in hey fredrick makes it like 9 minutes long? and it's amazing -- i all of a sudden thought i was in another fantastic song

ugh Eskimo Blue Day, we've prolly talked bout that one by now -- i know i saw the lyrics up there. really great

lov the waves of piano.

Finally getting around to the Jef

Takes Off is great, but this extended version of "And I Like It" is killing me in a good way.

Hopefully this isn't predictable to say, but I'm guessing Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 must have heard a lot of Jefferson Airplane? I just this as such a prototype for one major facet of the Fellers.

Listened to the first half of Crown of Creation this afternoon. Has really nice "Soundtrack for Spring turning to Summer" feel. "In Time"...woah.

the countercultural frontier vibe amounted to david crosby wearing a fringe jacket. at the same time an actual new frontier was being explored via astronauts and the moon landing tho the freeks greeted this mostly w/indifference or contempt.

With maybe the exception of Roger McGuinn who was tinkering around with Moogs and songs about Apollo 11 while just before recording Sweetheart Of The Rodeo

Yeah, JA is excellent all the way up through Volunteers... then I got the fuck away.

ack vhere is love for the jorma & jack? und marty balin is excellent crooner on song like "It's No Secret"

but honestly, I like quicksilver, moby grape, the dead and even big brother better than JA.

I always heard them as collegiate folkies who tried (and failed) to learn how to rock. "White Rabbit" is about the only thing I can stomach from them (Sleater-Kinney having given me a new perspective on it). Slick's singing is light-years beyond her band's fumbling.

The only other song of theirs I can get into is "Miracles". No idea why. It just works. But that's Jefferson Starship, so maybe it doesn't count.

Crown Of Creation is so beautiful.

Jorma and Jack are amazing in JA, but I never thought all the Hot Tuna records I bought were all that great. Revisit maybe.

Yeah, JA is excellent all the way up through Volunteers... then I got the fuck away.

The albums that followed were really erratic, but each has its moments, and it's worth seeking out the sometimes-hard-to-find Kantner/Slick/David Freiberg album Baron Von Tollbooth and the Chrome Nun. "Harp Tree Lament," a Robert Hunter lyric, may be the most gorgeous harmony they ever sang.

Avoid the Kantner/Slick Sunfighter, though - nothing to hear there.

The only post-Volunteers by JA i have is the Last Flight 2-CD, which was their complete final show.

It's the most triumphant, climactic, bombastic trainwreck of a rock show i've ever heard, and that's having heard GBV's Crying Your Knife Away.. except Last Flight is extra bloated and less funny. Still trying to convey what the fuck that show was.

Sppokwatch Alert -> anyone notice how the Surmounter answered his/her own question twenty-one posts (and five months) before he or she asked it??...v. suspicious, surmie...

What's the Great Society stuff like?

Is this run off from the krautrock thread?

It's all over the map. A huge chunk of it is post-Yardbirds/post-Spoonful folk-rock with some eastern/garage vibrations. However, there's a core of it that's utterly mind-blowing. As I said in that thread, if you dig psych rock, track down their version of "Sally Go Round the Roses." Utterly hypnotic. In fact, seek out this album:

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/13061.jpg

I actually prefer the Great Society's versions of "White Rabbit" and "Somebody to Love." They're less anthemic, more moody. Of course, not all of their stuff is awesome. But they're definitely a key foundation of psychedelia.

jack vhere is love for the jorma & jack?
Jack is cool. The great Anthony Jackson credits Jack with inspiring him to play bass with a pick.

haha, i added an extra 'j' at the beginning of the italics.

Listening to the 1968 Live at The Fillmore East album tonight. It's sorta this shambling randomness until POW - then it all makes sense.

i tell you, i have listened to after bathing at baxter's like half a dozen times and all i can remember is rhyming 'leopold bloom' with 'the only jew in the room'

I've just started getting into Crown of Creation. My parents always swore by Volunteers.

all your private property
is target for your enemy
and your enemy is
we

dun duh duh dun duh duh

bless its pointed little head has some major jams. jorma is on fire all over "the other side of this life"

loved hearing bits of them all over A Serious Man

Listening to the 1968 Live at The Fillmore East album tonight. It's sorta this shambling randomness until POW - then it all makes sense.

― Chris Barrus (Elvis Telecom), Friday, December 19, 2008 11:11 PM (1 year ago)

Finally got around to listening to The Woodstock Experience (it's basically their complete Woodstock set) and I could say the exact same thing again. Utterly maddening listening as just when you're ready to give up on Balin's prattling you can hear Jorma & Jack agreeing with you from 40 years in the past and putting the hammer down. "Wooden Ships" is 21 minutes long and has everything I love and hate about them.

Worth tracking down for "3/5 of a Mile in 10 Seconds" and "The Other Siade Of This Life" which are both amazingly furious. Amon Duul II comparison completely OTM.

tell me more about this "Wooden Ships": what's great about it? What's lousy? I like the song a lot and am looking for gateways to better appreciation of the Airplane: since I like their komrades at the time e.g. Neil Young, CSN, the Dead, there's got to be more magic in the Airplane than I've been able to hear.

Just got back from "A Serious Man".

"Somebody to Love" really is a fine song. Powerful vocals too, Slick sounds so fierce, so betrayed.

That said, I remember listening to my parent's copy of Surrealistic Pillow way back when and being really disappointed. Still like "Plastic Fantastic Lover" though. Unless my memory deceives me, that song has some funk.

oh waht a great song

the album kills imo. the use of the guitar bits from 'today' when duder is up on the roof in ASM proves it to be so.

Their take of "Other Side of This Life" will probably always be my favorite thing they did. Bless It's Pointed Little Head is a pretty great live record.

"Bear Melt"!

Today is such a jam.

also this photo: http://i48.tinypic.com/16bg4zs.jpg

I saw Jorma with David Bromberg two weeks ago tonight. always a treat. he did "Keep your Lamps" and "Hesitation Blues" for all you Hot Tuna fans out there. listened to that 'Sweeping Up the Spotlight' Cd for a week straight afterward .. so f'n good. The "Good Shepherd" on there is amazing..

Surmounter is right by the way (tends to be right a lot actually); "Hey Fredrick" is godlike.

One of my favorite bands (mostly bcz of Slick.)

after checking out the dead last week thought i should get more into jefferson airplane

picked up volunteers for a couple bucks on vinyl

basically jorma is a guitar god, he is absolutely killing every second he plays on this....the seems like their most dead-like record kinda "back to the country" jive and stuff but parts are downright amazing...it's funny how great grace can be at times and how hectoring and bad she can be at times.

we should be together is a jam....the version of wooden ships rules

Would like to have that version of "Wooden Ships" with the vocals stripped out. Hate the lyrics.

not feeling very free & easy?

yeah JA is almost like a parody of "hippie", they are the most hippie band i think, cassidy looks like a "hippie" halloween costume you buy at a party store on the back cover photo

also kinda weird: not a very well produced album, kinda muddy even on the orig vinyl...which is weird cuz most big rock stuff from that era is so well recorded

Beginning totally sounds like Balin is singing La La Means I Love You by The Delfonics over the chord changes!

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

it kinda blows my mind that jorma isn't mentioned in the best guitarists of the 60s discussions more often. he's just electrifying on volunteers

have you heard after bathing at baxters

that is my jam, sometimes