Jefferson Airplane

blows against... is just awesome.

also this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYr5D4lqC0w

"DCBA-25" is my favorite song by them by a wide margin.

Thought I was the only one that liked that one. The interplay between Marty and Grace is great. It's hard to describe but there's something about those earlier era songs - they're almost straight folk-rock but just turning a little colourful and psychedelic around the edges, giving a sense that things are about to change in a big way. There's a sharpness in those clean ringing guitars (very early solid state amps, believe it or not) that they lost after this album. It's a morning song, a San Francisco spring song - the air is cold but you can feel the sun's warmth on your skin.

re Sahm/Kantner, Sahm had better hair, glasses, more appealing voice, but K's voice, compared to Henry Kissinger's pretty early on, was effective contrast/grounding to Balin and Slick. Speaking of Signe etc., she's also featured on some of the live sets Collectors Choice brought out on CD in 2010, along with Slick's Airplane debut on stage. These discs, sold sep, really seemed like they would have done better as a single, maybe 2-CD release, because you get JA blowing sometimes it out in the first set, not so much in the late show, at least with some songs (as can happen to any band; see even VU's The Matrix Tapes). And some of this might not be as noticeable if we didn't get to do comparative studies. Nevertheless, lots of raw material for your very own Best of Live Series onesy, if you like: https://www.discogs.com/artist/58687-Jefferson-Airplane
After all that, listening to Bless Its Pointed Little Head again was even more amazing; it still seems like one of the very best albums to come out of that tyme & place-space.

I've never really given that live album a chance, I should check it out

When I was in college one of my friends got a compilation called Psychedelia: San Francisco Legends (which actually had very little psychedelia on it) for 4 quid, with 10 songs each by Jefferson Airplane, The Flamin' Groovies, canned Heat, and Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen.

http://cdn.discogs.com/PHinh-UUFTSkGWuXtKT-nOhFAPI=/300x300/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb()/discogs-images/R-468471-1423346154-8430.jpeg.jpg

The Jefferson Airplane songs were nearly all from Bless Its Pointed Little Head. I love the way Somebody To Love coalesces into this loose-limbed, rubbery jam driven by the bass. I think Casady and Kaukonen are more prominent on the live stuff in general than the early studio albums.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yV607yyUkI8

this song smokes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w25xghugIdg

YES

Trying to wrap my head around Volunteers. Seems like by this point the hippie dream was dead, songs veering from flimsy idealism (like the living on a farm track) to the bleak war commentary “hey Frederik”. One of their finest records

The first track also sounds a lot like zappas
“Mother people”

Surrealistic Pillow generally gets the most attention of all the Airplane records, but ...Baxters and Volunteers are more interesting, I think. When I listen to those records, I find it a bit comical and a bit sad that Grace Slick ended up in Starship.

And Crown of Creation!

All the albums through "Volunteers" are incredible. They were "one of those bands"...

(I also don't think "Living on the Farm" = flimsy idealism -- it's an ironic/"funny" song.)

^ yeah Morris I was poorly thinking out loud. It’s a fun song sure

(didn't mean to sound curt!) Listening to "Volunteers" right now -- "Hey, Frederick" is playing -- a thought I'm not sure I've ever written down is how much Grace sounds like Dagmar Krause in the bridge (when she sings, "How many MACHINE MEN will you see.....?").

jorma is such a force on volunteers

i found Volunteers and Bathing At Baxters thru my grandma's record collection (she's a yung one), and it was one of those mind-expanding moments for me—both in terms of my own listening habits and also realizing what my older relatives had been exposed to

like turrican said, neither of them get as much attention as Pillow, but to me they're huge validations of that time when psych was evolving into prog as something more than just "transitional"

Pillow is my least fave of that run actually (and I'm not saying that to be "interesting" or whatever, as I know it's the canonical choice; I've just never listened to it as much as the others). I think "Takes Off" is way underrated, love that one...

Baxters has been one of my favourite lps for the last few decades.
They were pretty great live in 68 too.

& I love the song Good Shepherd from Volunteers. As well as Hey frederick & Eskimo Blue Day. Gun Club covered that last one too.

I think Spencer Dryden is one of my all time favourite drummers. I don't like Joey Covington much seems to be too heavy handed and not as fluid or something.

Spencer was Charlie Chaplin's nephew apparently too.

There's so much to like about them, but I think Paul Kantner's songwriting is really my favorite aspect of the group. I haven't really studied it, but he seems to have a style that is very intricate and very much his own. He is so brilliant throughout the Baxter's album.

Yeah, those vocal lines are so distinctive... I don't think I was really attuned to his songwriting "voice" until I got into the Kantner/Slick/etc. offshoot stuff.

Seems like by this point the hippie dream was dead, songs veering from flimsy idealism (like the living on a farm track) to the bleak war commentary “hey Frederik”.

I think they got even bleaker and better after that: there was their 1970 single "Mexico" (rousing, but also bleak and weary), and--I'm probably alone on this--Bark's "Thunk" is brilliant.

I'm listening to Baxter's right now - the dual gtr break that comes in at 1:16 is so f'n gnarly

("Mexico" is an awesome song, btw -- the bridge kills me. "There are brothers everywhere...!")

I'm listening to Baxter's right now - the dual gtr break that comes in at 1:16 is so f'n gnarly
(^^I was referring to "The Last Wall of the Castle" in this post, btw)

...Baxter's is the one I listen to the most... 'Won't You Try/Saturday Afternoon'!

Can’t say I’ve heard Mexico, will check that out.

Baxter’s is so good - two heads may be my favourite grace vocal other than frederik

Mexico is AMAZING

Grace's piano balladry on Baxter's is also AMAZING. it is oddly one of their albums i listen to most now but in the past i was definitely into the earlier stuff.

sorry no apostrophe intended. "two heads" kills me

omg and actually i meant VOLUNTEERS when i was talking about Grace's piano balladry -- HEY FREDERICK is one of my most memorable moments from her.

#geekingout

All the airplane love makes me happy

Great Society is worth checking out too, I do love Darby Slick's guitar. Wish there was a lot more of it.
The solo Grunt label lps are pretty great too, or maybe that's trio plus and solo.

Hey Fredrick is such a stunner

Surm Im not quite sure this is up yr alley but you ever hear Silver Spoon?

Grace inventing goregrind w a grand piano in 1971, thats all..

https://youtu.be/7Is2OeUZ6Sg

Sunfighter is a great alb

Haven't listened to the whole thing since I bought it (30 years ago?), but the one song I love and keep on the hard drive is "When I Was a Boy I Watched the Wolves."

I was listening to it a couple of years ago around the same time i was listening to Howlin Rain and thinking it shared some qualities like a near gospel feel.
THink I was really thinking Manhole and Baron Von Tollbooth when I was saying Grunt label stuff. So should listen to it some more.

Manhole rules. So does Baron Von Tollbooth. And Dragonfly. And yeah, Sunfighter. I grew up on this stuff.

& the very early live sets by Jefferson Starship have the band playing tracks from at least Manhole live. I'm thinking of a few from 1974 that I have.

I looked at a bunch of albums over the weekend that a friend's brother was scrapping, and ended up taking about 50. Best of all was a perfect copy of Flight Log, poster/book included. I've got all the JA albums except 30 Seconds Over Winterland, so I already have most of it, but it's something I always wanted and never bought at the time. I really noticed "Have You Seen the Saucers" for the first time--I've had Early Flight for ages, but somehow it escaped my attention. (I love "Mexico" so much, I guess I got sidetracked.) Great song. Christgau praises it in one CG entry, makes fun of it the next. He got it right the first time.

Oops--it's not "Have You Seen the Saucers," it's "Have You Seen the Stars Tonite?" from Blows Against the Empire. Which I don't have, so that explains it.

That whole LP is klassic!

that album is great! it's a trip!

Blows really is a great album - I especially get a kick out of 'Mau Mau Amerikon' cause it's like everyone assumed 'We Can Be Together' was the pinnacle of Kantner's revolution-speak lyrics and he went 'pff, I was just getting started', haha. "Rabid lover-feelin' the starch in your grin Callin' for acid cocaine and grass" etc

Just listened to Manhole for the first time. This is killer! I feel as if - especially on the title track - this is how I always wanted to hear Grace Slick sing. Her obsession with Spanish music is right up front on those first two tracks.

RIP Marty Balin

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/jefferson-airplane-guitarist-marty-balin-dead-76-730912/

RIP Marty, goddamn what a voice.

RIP, gonna spin "Coming Back To Me" when I get home