Jefferson Airplane.....One of my introductions to real blues harmonica. 1968 or so went to a Jefferson Airplane concert in Vancouver and Muddy Waters was the opening act. If I remember correctly it was Mojo Buford in the harp seat...
Last Edited by sydeman on Sep 29, 2018 7:46 AM
Jefferson Airplane was a side of psychedelic rock I found most appealing, being in their short-lived prime a volatile and imaginative forced marriage of folk tradition, jazzy "mystery chords", Joycean/Eliot/Huxlyian versifying, and piercing harmonies provided by the bulldozing Grace Slick and Balin's soaring, bittersweet tenor. Their albums were a fascinating, eclectic mess, indulgent and snotty and harsh; I would put them, along with the Stooges, MC5 and the Velvets, as stylistic forerunners of the punk rock anti-aesthetic. Balin was the ballast for the band, a balladeer, a genuine folk singer, a romantic who never abandoned his tendency for the oddly effective lyric that emphasized an actual relationship rather than a worldview. I liked this band up to Volunteers album.Afterward, the devolution set in, when Paul Kanter's sci-fi libertarian fantasizes turned JA into a plodding monstrosity of ego and half-measured music. Those among the readership who followed the career arc of this band through the 60s and the 70s will recall, perhaps stifling a gag reflex, the slew of Jefferson Starship albums that evolved from the original band. It will suffice to say for this short note that the best thing the Starship ever did was recording and releasing Marty Balin's fabulous song "Miracles", a sensuous, radiant paen to making love with a partner. Alluring melody, a vocal aching with a combination of passion and a more primal lust, all of it buffeted by swirling guitar lyricism from the able-fingered Craig Chaquico. It was the best thing Jefferson Starship ever did, a masterpiece of pop-rock sexuality that rose to canonical heights over the increasing vapidity and knuckleheaded irrelevance. The band, or at least the management and record company, hung their heads in shame all the way to the bank, and it remains, I suppose, the supreme irony of things that a band beginning as Jefferson Airplane, counterculture revolutionaries singing of a society without pretense, class structure, false morality and , by implication, cash, evolved into the Jefferson Starship, a cash cow for corporate interests. So yes, money changes everything. That said, it should be mentioned that the guitar work of Jorma and Jack Cassidy's basslines were among the best teams of the era. And Balin was a fine musician, singer, and songwriter who might have done better if he had a less dicey means to bring his music to the public. ---------- www.ted-burke.com
Last Edited by ted burke on Oct 07, 2018 12:18 AM
Growing up in "The City" the Airplane was one of the first San Francisco bands to really hit. I remember going to see the Airplane with Balin and Signe Anderson at Avalon Ballroom and The Matrix prior to their performance at Basin Street West as the opening act for Dizzy Gillespie. Great vocals. RIP. ---------- BnT
Last Edited by BnT on Oct 01, 2018 12:47 AM
@Ted Burke - You love the song "Miracles" and rip the Volunteers album? I will admit that the album was controversial, with all of the profanity and anti-war statements. The flag wavers were upset. But with guest musicians like Graham Nash, David Crosby, Nicky Hopkins, Jerry Garcia, and Jorma Kaukonen jamming his ass off, it is far from "a plodding monstrosity of ego and half-measured music." And FYI, their rendition of "Wooden Ships" was a precurser of the easy listening sell-out represented by "Miracles".
@attychicago:No, I actually the album quite a bit and I'm not shy about admitting I mistyped in my first post.The remarks about plodding monstrosity was meant to refer to Blows Aganst the Empire and allthe J starship albums that followed. Blows against the empire, the first J Starship record , was slogging, grandiose , humorless bloat. Jefferson Starship in general was a cruel evolution, a terrific rock band turning into an egocentric's expression of numbskull fantasy to becoming the worst case of rock musicians pedaling what's left of their charisma in the name of a buck by producing an eviscerated brand of corporate rock. Miracles may have been commercial and a big hit, but it's still a good song, a song Balin wrote. It is the only thing Starship recorded that does make me want to stick a finger down my throat and wretch something awful.
---------- www.ted-burke.com
Last Edited by ted burke on Oct 07, 2018 12:38 AM
The summer had inhaled and held its breath too long The winter looked the same, as if it never had gone And through an open window where no curtain hung I saw you, I saw you comin' back to me
According to Wikipedia: Comin' Back to Me" is a folk rock song by the band Jefferson Airplane. It was written by Marty Balin. The song appeared on Jefferson Airplane's second album, Surrealistic Pillow. Marty Balin recalls that "the song was created while he indulged in some primo-grade marijuana given to him by blues singer Paul Butterfield." So Few degrees of Separation.... RIP Marty Balin
