The band found itself on the covers of magazines, and promotional videos for "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit" in full psychedelic technicolor made them stars. However, the mainsteam's flirtation with the band would be short-lived; the band's openly drug-using image ran counter to prevailing AM-radio mores of the day, and the band itself was too willfully experimental to remain hit-single makers; while their albums would continue to sell robustly, they'd never place a song in the top-40 again until its mid-70's resurrection as Jefferson Starship.
This was apparantly a willful move on the band's part; certainly their next release, After Bathing At Baxter's bore nary a hint of commercial songwriting; the album is as psychedelic as Mr. Natural itself, from the scary, experimental "The Ballad Of You, Me and Pooniel" to the sound collage of freaky conversation snippits, "A Small Package of Value Will Come To You Shortly" to the gentle hippie folk tune "Martha" to the overt LSD endorsement, "Won't You Try/Saturday Afternoon". Nevertheless, RCA released an edited "Ballad of Pooneil" as a single, and it made #42 despite itself. The album itself stands as one of the most adventurous albums of the 60's, at times veering almost into Frank Zappa territory (Slick would in fact cut a track with Zappa in 1968, which remained unreleased until 1992). Beneath the surface, a subtle shift in the power structure of the band was already underway; Kantner had a hand in writing 6 of the song's 11 tracks; leader Balin was limited to half a credit, although he sings throughout the album. Balin claimed he didn't write well on the road, but over the next couple of years he would ultimately lose control of the band to Kantner and Slick.
"Watch Her Ride" was released as a second single, reaching #61, and the album peaked at #17, a significant tailoff from its predecessor. Their next single, "Greasy Heart", a feminist psychedelic number by Slick, was a taster from their fourth album, Crown of Creation, but by then the band's image was too freaky for AM; it peaked at #98. Crown Of Creation, released in September 1968, saw the band evolve even further. It opens with one of Slick's most gentle and beautiful songs, the rumination on aging, "Lather". She also covers the David Crosby original "Triad", a number originally written for the Byrds, but deemed too provocative for release on a Byrds album. "Crown Of Creation", which made it to #64 as a single, is one of the band's key tracks; a rocking psychedelic multi-part harmonic number of semi-veiled anger, putting distance between the optimistic sentiments of 1966-67. The band's avant-garde experimentation continues with "Chushingura". The album is darker and more impatient than their earlier releases; this tension lends it an extra power. It retreated somewhat from the rampant experimentation of Baxters, but was defiantly ambitious and unconventional in its own right. Balin had more of a hand in the songwriting, but Kantner and Slick continue to dominate the album. Jorma Kaukonen also had a hand in writing a couple of songs.
The band's performances in 1968 rank among their best ever, and were chronicled on the album Bless Its Pointed Little Head, released in February 1969. Always a tremendous force live, the band is intense here. Balin sings like a man possessed on "Plastic Fantastic Lover" given a molten metal performance by Kaukonen/Casady. Kantner, never a great solo singer, turns in his best vocal effort ever of the Donovan-penned "Fat Angel", a gentle trip-soundtrack that circles and hovers and swirls on Kaukonen's lead. "Other Side Of This Life" shows more teeth after two years of setlist presence; the band's harmonies mesh with a terrific instrumental assault; again, Kaukonen, Casady, and Dryden hold their own with the vocalists. Folk music for the timid this wasn't. The album reached #17 on the charts.
The band appeared in the morning hours at Woodstock in August 1969 with pianist Nicky Hopkins (their performance, while audio-taped and available on record, was never filmed). The tenor of the times had changed a lot in the two short years between Monterey and Woodstock. While Woodstock was considered the great beginning of a new era at the time, in fact it was the close of an era. The Summer of Love had withered in the face of drug burn-outs, dope rip-offs, and busts. Violence marred the Democratic convention in 1968, and the Enemy of the Counterculture, in the personage of Richard Nixon, occupied the White House. The body count climbed in Vietnam as word of massacres reached home. The hippie Utopian ideal saw its last glimmer of light under rainy skies at Woodstock; countercultural America had positioned itself in an us vs. them stance by late 1969.
Volunteers, released in 1969, is the band's most political offering. Its very existence was a difficult birth; originally to be titled Volunteers of America, the title was nixed by the organization of the same name. RCA threatened to withhold release because of the inclusion of the line "up against the wall motherfuckers" in "We Can Be Together". The band refused to back down, and ultimately RCA released the album. Bookended by the revolutionary rhetoric "We Can be Together" and the jaunty rocker "Volunteers" which share the same essential riff, the album is the Airplane's most varied offering musically. Each cut is a standout, although the best include the post-nuclear apocalyptic nightmare, "Wooden Ships", written by Kantner/David Crosby/Stephen Stills. The song features ambitious three-part harmonies and solos from Balin, Slick, and Kantner, while Kaukonen's razor sharp acid lead cuts ribbons. Crosby, Stills, and Nash's version is leaden in comparison. Kaukonen gets his best-ever Airplane moment on the traditional "Good Shepherd", singing lead with Slick harmonizing. "The Farm" is a rustic back-to-the-earth number featuring Jerry Garcia on pedal steel. "Eskimo Blue Day" is a heavy psychedelic environmental number sung by Slick. Balin lends a sweet vocal to the Kaukonen-penned "Turn My Life Down". The album peaked at #13; the single "Volunteers" reached #65.
The good feeling Woodstock generated evaporated on December 6, 1969 when the Rolling Stones staged what was to be a rival festival to Woodstock at the Altamont Speedway. Naively hiring the biker gang Hell's Angels as security guards in exchange for all the beer they could drink, the concert was disrupted with riots and mayhem, including a murder captured on film in the documentary Gimme Shelter. Jefferson Airplane's set was marred by violence right from the start, with hopped-up Hell's Angels savagely beating concertgoers with pool cues at random. Marty Balin, watching appalled from the stage, jumped into the audience to break up a fight, and was beaten unconscious by marauding Hell's Angels, also captured on film.
This struck the final nail in the coffin of hippiedom, and also seemed to sap something from the band. In early 1970, the band released a non-album single, "Mexico"/"Have You Seen The Saucers?", a marijuana anthem and sci-fi conceit respectively; it didn't chart. Kaukonen and Casady turned more and more of their attentions to the acoustic blues spin-off band they had formed, Hot Tuna, which released a live acoustic debut in May 1970 that charted at a respectable #30. It is in fact an excellent debut, demonstrating the duo's folk-blues that they were unable to work onto Airplane albums. Spencer Dryden, shaken ever since the episode at Altamont, opted to leave the group ("that train without brakes" he called it) in early 1970; he'd eventually join the Grateful Dead offshoot New Riders Of The Purple Sage. He died in 2005 after a long illness.
Losing Dryden began a chain of events that ultimately changed the band in profound ways. The band was no longer getting along, and had split into three factions. In one corner were Slick and Kantner, who by this point were romantically linked. Casady and Kaukonen were in the opposing corner. Odd man out was the band's founder and original visionary, Marty Balin. Still, the band continued to play in 1970, replacing Dryden with 25-year old drummer/songwriter/singer Joey Covington (Joseph Michno), from Johnston, PA. Hot Tuna frequently opened for the Airplane; they were augmented by fiddle player Papa John Creach, 53 years old, from Beaver Falls, PA. A journeyman musician, he ultimately became a permanent member of both Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna. His fiddle would ultimately have a big effect on the band's sound, and became part of what would be the foundation of Jefferson Starship's sound a few years later.
"A sinister cabal of superior writers."
Article comments
1 - Lono
sweet mother of god, that was a long ass post. I am a huge fan of the Airplane, and have both 'box' sets (2400 Fulton St, and Jefferson Airplane Loves You).
I have seen them in a few incarnations in the last 10 years. Lesse, there was Paul Kanter solo, then Paul Kantner with Jack Cassady (both played a great bar in Flagstaff that hosted B list national acts). Also saw Paul Kanter, Jack Cassidy, and Marty Balin.
It's a sad story about Marty. It was his band. He started it, he wrote the songs... the whole deal. However, Grace came in with a couple of huge aces that her brother had written (Somebody to Love and White Rabbit) and the rest is history. The band went to Grace.
As for the whole Starship era, no I will not discuss that.
2 - Victor Plenty
Long, yes, but great work untangling the twisty history of this band, with its many spinoffs and spin-back-ons over the years.
One rather minor change I would suggest concerning a couple of abbreviations I don't immediately recognize. Perhaps "AOR" and "MOR" have obvious meanings for people who read a lot of music criticism, but I lack knowledge of their meaning and did not see them defined anywhere in the article.
Aside from that very minor quibble, all I can say is: rock on, uao.
3 - Jake Brake
It's kind of misleading and unfair to novices and the uninformed to split hairs and say the Jefferson Airplane was the only band to play Monterey, Woodstock and Altamont.
While this is literally true - the Dead did not "play" .. .ltamont - Altamont remains a painful and important part of the Dead's history.
The Airplane is a terrific band. It adds nothing to their extraordinary legacy except confusion to position them as the only band to "play" those three events.
4 - uao
Thanks for the thoughts on this. I realize this is an insanely long post for Blogcritics, but their history is so long and convoluted I wanted to try to fit it all into one piece.
As for the abbreviations, AOR means "Album Oriented Rock" which was a 70's-80's term that refers to commercial classic rock, and MOR means "Middle of the Road" which can also be called pop-rock; it is somewhere between pop and rock.
Regarding the three festivals, I mentioned it only because it seemed an interesting trivia point, and because it is a gauge of the band's indispensibility in the late 60's. I realize the Dead doesn't like to remember Altamont (they were the ones who suggested to the Stones that Hell's Angels would make good security guards), but it is a significant piece of rock history, and Altamont had a direct impact on the Airplane's subsequent biography.
But yes, the Dead was also present at all three festivals. The only real rivals (in a friendly sense) the Airplane had were the Dead.
As for Jefferson Starship, many Airplane fans can't stand them. I confess a fondness for their first two albums, but even a fanatic like me can't defend the Mickey Thomas ones; it's a completely different band. I include them here mainly to provide the complete story; if I ever need to edit this piece, I'll probably cut off the story with the Airplane's last show.
At any rate, thanks for the feedback; it's always appreciated.
5 - uao
Jake-- I did add a parenthetical clarification to that line; re-reading it, I realize how it might have mislead. Thanks!
6 - uao
One other thought:
I really could have made a long post, if I had included some arcana I left out as being of no interest to anyone but maniacal fanatics. To wit:
Hot Tuna albums, Jorma albums, Slick's solo albums, Balin's solo albums, Creach's solo albums, Grunt records by extended "family" members. Many of these albums featured various Airplane members.
There was The Planet Earth Rock And Roll Orchestra, a lousy 1984 sequel to Blows Against The Empire recorded by then-current JS with guest musicians, like the first one.
Kantner, Kaukonen, Balin, and Casady appeared at the 1991 Hall of Fame induction; Slick and Dryden were absent.
Kantner had an acoustic band called Wooden Ships, which sometimes featured Balin, in the wilderness years between the '89 Airplane reunion and the launch of Jefferson Starship: The Next Generation (as Kantner dubs it); they never recorded.
Marty Balin took part in two very strange albums: B.F. Bodacious, released in the early 70's, a one-shot of assorted musicians. I've seldom seen it and never heard it; it has the reputation of being awful. He also took part in a multi-artist concept album/rock opera/planned stage extravaganza Rock Justice, which vanished without a trace in 1979.
A tip of the hat also should go out to Diana Mangano, who has filled Grace Slick's slot in Jefferson Starship: TNG for over a decade, and does a tough job well.
*okay, I'll stop now. When obsessives become fans...
:-D
7 - Eric Olsen
great great job and it couldn't have been done as well at any shorter length. I basically agree with your conclusions, forgot how many good tunes on Red Octopus. I like the later Airplane best, other than the two Slick hits: more rocking and Jorma pushing his agenda a little harder. Their songwriting was variable, but whose isn't?
8 - Eric Olsen
here were some quick thoughts on Volunteers, with a quote or two from producer Al Schmitt
9 - godoggo
I used to see Papa John pretty much every year at the Watts Towers Music festival (which isn't so great anymore since they moved it out of the park into that crappy little concrete ampitheater that was built, it's been superceded by the Central Avenue Festival as the area's big event, but I seem to be digressing) and the old man always put on a great show. I didn't know about the Airplane connection at the time, and still haven't heard anything he did with them. I'm a little curious.
10 - godoggo
Meaning Creach of course. Not the pizza guy, or the other one.
11 - Hazy Dave
Not that it matters, but that group Balin participated in after the Airplane was called "Bodacious DF". I haven't listened to that LP in 20 years, and, yeah, as I recall, you'e not missing anything. I remember reading that the "DF" stands for "dopey fuck", but I don't know if Marty said that or if it was just a Lester Bangs extrapolation.
12 - Bob Harvey
Folk,Psychedelia,Bluegrass,Rock!
Original JEFFERSON AIRPLANE/HOLY MACKERAL bassist Bob Harvey and SPACESEED/SUPERCZAR/JONES AVE. Guitarist,bassist,mandolinist Brian Fowler collide to form SAN FRANCISCO BLUE. This album Hurting For People is a eclectic mix or newgrass and Psychedelic folk music released by the band in April 2005. Pick one up while available sure to be a collectors item.
San Francisco/Georgia Blue discography
1. Idiots Vision 2000
2. Live Cartersville 2004
3. Hurting For People 2005
4. Seeds of Revolution 2005
Pick these cd's up while available.
San Francisco Blue: The 9 studio song album "Hurting For People" clocks in at 43 minutes and has a myriad of instruments mandolin,gtr,auto-harp, Acoustic bass,violin. This album's title cut written by Bob Harvey,Skip Spence and Brian Fowler.This album will be available in April 2005 so make sure you get a copy. The first Pressing is 200 copies.The cd has Spaceseed/Superczar drummer Hank Tart, and Jones Ave.'s Dr. David Wisdo.
HURTING FOR PEOPLE (3:52) performed by Bob Harvey & Brian Fowler
Bob Harvey : Vocals, acoustic guitar
Brian Fowler : Mandolin, electric bass
Bob Harvey:
In August of 1965, Matthew Katz, the manager, took Jefferson Airplane to Los Angeles to audition for several labels. He got us rooms at the Palms, a secluded lodge in the Hollywood hills. Skip Spence and I had a room together. We spent that first night getting high and writing a song called "Hurting For People".
I wrote the lyrics in my journal, and have hung on to them for 39 years, but the melody was never recorded and was lost in the mists of time, so when I decided to use it for the latest Moby Grape tribute album, I got together with Brian Fowler and we put new music to the lyrics. the one part of Skip's melody that I could remember was to the line, "love is just reaching out while someone else is reaching in". It fit perfectly with the new chord structure.
13 - Wolfmoon
Interesting tidbit, if you look at Airplaines preformance on the Ed Sull. show when they did "Somebody to love", if you look close, Grace is singing into a powercord, you can actually see the two prongs. Kinda funny.
14 - Geoff Dean
Great article, uao! Thanks! I've always been and still am a pretty huge Airplane fan. But not a Kantner fan (more on why later), and I've always been saddened by the media hype that grew from Grace, leaving Marty underservedly in the shadows, to which he seems to have retreated entirely over the last thirty-six years or so. Great talent, mostly lost, dammit! As to Kantner, he's a thief. He stole lyrics. I well remember, at college in the late '60s, reading John Wyndham's Re-Birth (or The Chrysalids) while listening to Crown of Creation - and falling out of my chair when the lines I was reading were also being sung by Kantner. The whole song is taken from a page or two of this great SF book, but no credit was ever given. Ditto The Ballad of You, Me and Pooneil and The House at Pooneil Corners, from AA Milne of course - here the plagiarism is a little more obvious and upfront, but again no recognition given to the original author. I wouldn't be surprised if much of Kantner's other work was similarly stolen; I haven't done a plagiarism search on his lyrics, but I bet it could be done. If in fact JA did have a competition for worst songwriter in the band, no doubt Kantner should have won that title. It saddens me that so many other great musicians and songwriters in the Bay Area have worked and played with him over the years. And having said all that, JA (at least Marty's end of it) is still among the greatest.
15 - uao
Hey thanks for the kind words and fascinating post, Geoff.
Balin really was a great talent. It's kind of sad that he's mostly remembered (if at all) by non Airplane fanatics for "Hearts". "Folkie" and "Soul" are two words that never go together. But Balin was one of the rarest of species: a folkie with soul.
As for the Kantner info...
I certainly don't know the man, and wouldn't want to say anything bad about him myself; although the Airplane was Balin's bird, it wouldn't have been the Airplane without Kantner.
As for stealing lyrics; I don't like it when I see it, but in the 1960's it happened a lot. Some thefts were outrageous, robbing songs from living musicians, like "Whole Lotta Love". Some were more subtle, like the Beatles using the Tebetian Book of the Dead for "Tomorrow Never Knows".
"Crown of Creation" is a great little sci-fi tune, and hearing that it had its roots in an uncredited sci-fi book disappoints me, but doesn't surprise me.
Certainly in the later days of the first-generation Jefferson Starship, it became apparant that writing original material wasn't Kantner's strong suit.
I agree with your assessment of Kantner ranking 4th among the songwriters in the band.
But I don't want to be too hard on the guy; the Airplane means too much to me. And I was on his side when he fueded with Mickey Thomas...
At any rate, thanks for the fascinating post, I really appreciate it.
16 - cri
Jefferson Airplane....is my life!!!thank you to axist!!!
17 - scotty
blows against the empire was stellar, that's where we blew through the atmosphere and made it out here into the colonies. too bad you missed the exit.
18 - Bill Danford
There were "three" albums that took me to the first initial actual glimpses of what "psychedic rock" meant as the summer of 1967 unfolded. "The Doors", "Electric Music for the Mind and Body", by Country Joe and the Fish, and foremost, Jefferson Airplane's "Surrealistic Pillow". So much passion; so much raw vocal power....Kaukonen's leads; Balin/Slick fearlessly vocally in love throughout....the album was "dripping" with acid...nothing touched it. It WAS and ALWAYS WILL BE...California, 1966/1967, coming straight out of that small moment in time like a flash of bright silver light. Sure...."Seargent Pepper's" then took what was left of my brain, and transported it to the other side of the universe; and it still might be there, for all I know...but that's a whole nother trip. Of course, the Byrds did mind damage as well, as did many other bands that year. Hendrix. (Phew!) Big Brother. Too many to name. But the Airplane's "Pillow" injected love into my soul that summer; a very strong love, that I like to think has lasted....and I haven't gotten over it since. It's still a classic monster of an LP, straight from the Haight. Geezers like me who toked and tripped to it on the sun-soaked beaches of Southern California back in the day, will always hear those harmonies and guitar notes resonate....forever. B.D.
19 - uao
For the Fourth of July, I'll bum my favorite band just once. I always thought that in some ways, JA epitomized the 4th of July...
Best wishes to those who might remember me; I've just had to do other things than blog for awhile.
I'll be a better blogger when I get back to it ;-)
...oh, and god bless bitttorrent; I finally got a replacement for Planet Earth Rock 'n' Roll Orchestra, which I think has been out of print since 1984...
20 - uao
"bump" not "bum" Always was a lousy typist; where's Kaukonen's ex when you need her?
21 - JC Mosquito
Hi, uao - I most certainly do remember you - I always enjoyed your articles and wondered where you'd got off to. Do what you need to do - just like my old friend Vern Halen - he went into what's likely a long retirement and left me this job as his parting gift. He says Hello and best wishes, and he wouldn't at all be surprised if you're back reviewing and writing on BC soon.
Skeeter.