Music Review: Jefferson Airplane - The Woodstock Experience - Page 2

Even though the two songs are the ones most people remember from the album, they are essentially one and the same anyway. Marty Balin, who would later become better known for his love ballads, is also in fine rocking form here as he screams "Got a revolution" on the title track.

Lesser known than those two tracks, however, are the tracks spotlighting guitarist Jorma Kaukonen and bassist extraordinaire Jack Casady. Kaukonen's "Good Shepard" features some of his finest wah-wah guitar playing on record (not to mention a damn fine vocal), as Casady's spellbinding bass runs circles around it. On Grace Slick's little remembered "Hey Frederick," the Hot Tuna pair likewise turn a skeletal song idea into an improvisational wonder of jamming goodness.

The Woodstock performance captured on this set is likewise notable, first of all for it's length. Unlike the other bands captured on these Woodstock Experience CDs, the Airplane's set spans part of the first disc, as well as all of the second.

Heard for the first time here are concert staples like "The Other Side Of This Life," where Casady's thunderous bass is wisely put front and center in the mix. The band comes out as hot as the sun that was just rising, as Grace declares the band will be playing "morning maniac music."

They had stayed up all night waiting for their turn to play, and on the just-released DVD deluxe boxed-set edition of the film, Grace in particular also looks pretty stoned.

Although the performance here doesn't always quite measure up to Airplane's great 1969 live album, Bless its Pointed Little Head, the band still sounds great — especially Kaukonen, Casady and sixties session keyboard great, Nicky Hopkins. The one sore spot here is in the vocal mix, which at times sounds like it's coming through a transistor radio — or a pair of those iPod ear thingies. The sound is tinny to the point of being downright irritating.

But at least they got those Casady bass runs down right. Casady sounds amazing on the hit "Somebody To Love," although Grace is already running out of gas by the time of this, the second song of their set. To her credit, she does sound a lot better on the version of "White Rabbit" which comes later. But by the time of "3/5 Of A Mile in 10 Seconds," Casady and Kaukonen pretty much have taken over anyway, with the rest of the band doing whatever they can just to keep up.

Article Author: Glen Boyd

You'll find Blogcritics assistant music editor Glen Boyd sharing his Thoughtmares on his personal blogs The World Wide Glen, and The Rockologist. In a previous life, Glen was a music professional and journalist whose work has appeared in The Rocket, SPIN, Pulse!, and The Source. …

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