Blows Against the Empire
Encyclopedia
Blows Against the Empire is a concept album by Paul Kantner
and Grace Slick
, released under the name Paul Kantner and Jefferson Starship
, the first album to use the "Starship" name, although the personnel line-up was not the same as would appear on the first actual Jefferson Starship
album.
, but by 1970 internal problems began taking their toll on the band, including the departure of drummer Spencer Dryden
in 1970 and a rift that was forming between founder Marty Balin
and the rest of the band that would lead to Balin's departure in 1971.
In 1970 the Airplane released only one single, and Kantner took advantage of the hiatus to work on a solo album. Blows Against the Empire is his concept album recorded and released in 1970, credited to Paul Kantner and Jefferson Starship. This marks the debut of the Jefferson Starship moniker, though not of the band of that name itself, since Blows predates the actual formation of the band Jefferson Starship
by four years.
The album was recorded in at Pacific High Recording Studios and Wally Heider
Recording Studios in San Francisco by Kantner and Slick with a collection of musician friends that included members of Jefferson Airplane
(Jack Casady
and Joey Covington
), The Grateful Dead (Jerry Garcia
, Bill Kreutzmann
and Mickey Hart
), Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (David Crosby
and Graham Nash
), David Freiberg
of Quicksilver Messenger Service
and Harvey Brooks
of Electric Flag
. Also appearing was Jorma Kaukonen
's brother Peter Kaukonen
, and Phill Sawyer, the engineer at Pacific High Recording studios. The credit to Jefferson Starship reflected many things – the ad-hoc all-star line-up, the album being an evolutionary progression from Jefferson Airplane, and finally the story it relates of the hijacking of a starship.
Stylistically, the songs range from the light folk of "The Baby Tree" to the "musique concrète" passages "Home" and "XM". Kantner even presents a kind of proto-grunge in "Mau-Mau (Amerikon)". Mostly, however, the songs are delivered in the kind of improvised, free-form rock & roll representative of the Bay Area bands of the day. Lyrically, the album celebrates countercultural idealism; it is set in a future where the counterculture is able to unite and decide their own fate far away from planet Earth. Written in 1970, Kantner describes in "Hijack" the construction of a starship beginning in 1980, which "ought to be ready by 1990."
It celebrates late-sixties counter-culture, depicting people celebrating mind expansion and free love, "We'll ball in your parks, insane with the flash of living...calling for acid, cocaine and grass." They've had enough of the military, domestic and abroad, "You unleash the dogs of a grade-B movie star Governor's war...so drop your fuckin' bombs, burn your demon babies, I will live again!" They condemn the divisive strictures of conservative society, and dream of finding a Utopia.
"The Baby Tree", written by Rosalie Sorrels
, is about an imaginary island where babies grow on trees and are collected by happy couples when they fall. The scene develops over the remaining album side, in "Let's Go Together" and "A Child Is Coming," that a couple is among the gathering in a park outside Chicago the night before the hijacking, tripping on acid as dawn approaches. She reveals that she's pregnant, and predictably they resolve to free their child from the government's "files and their numbers game" by joining the hijackers. In this setting, "The Baby Tree" can be seen as their acid-induced daydream about pregnancy, and so fits neatly into the narrative. The allegory of "Let's Go Together" and "A Child Is Coming" symbolizes Paul Kantner and Grace Slick's romantic relationship and Slick's pregnancy by Kantner, which would result in the birth of their daughter, China Kantner
, the following year.
Side Two is an integrated suite of songs which opens with "Sunrise", Grace Slick's allegory describing the breaking dawn the couple was awaiting, while also symbolizing the dawn of an Utopian civilization, freed from conservative mores and violent influences. "Sunrise" leads directly into "Hijack," in which the revolutionaries storm the transport to the orbiting starship and head off into space, boarding the ship by the end of "Hijack" and leaving orbit in "Home." As the story progresses with "Have You Seen the Stars Tonite," hopes and misgivings are revealed. After the ship's engines and systems are readied in "X-M," "Starship" relates a mutiny fought for control of the ship, to determine whether to surrender and return or to continue. Eventually the idealists win control and the ship is flung by gravity sling-shot around the sun and out of the solar system.
By Kantner's admission, the underlying premise of the narrative was derived in part from the works of science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein
, particularly the novel Methuselah's Children
. Kantner went so far as to write to Heinlein to obtain permission to use his ideas. Heinlein wrote back that over the years, many people had used his ideas but Paul was the first one to ask for permission, which he granted. Blows was the first rock album to ever be nominated for a Hugo Award
, in 1971 in the category of Best Dramatic Presentation.. In voting, the album garnered the second most votes for the award, losing to "No Award", which received the most votes.
The original cassette and CD releases contained alternate lyrics for :Let's Go Together" that differed from the vinyl version. The remastered CD restored the original lyrics as track 3 and included the alternate lyric version as a bonus track
during his many recordings with the Airplane. Most of the tracks add standard rock instrumentation to her piano, including electric and acoustic guitars, drums and bass. Thick vocal harmonies backing Kantner and Slick in duet are a signature quality of many of the songs.
A notable exception is "The Baby Tree", which has Kantner singing to solo banjo accompaniment. "Sunrise" is Grace Slick's self-penned solo vocal showcase, in part a duet with herself thanks to multitracking. Here she is predominantly accompanied by Jack Casady playing bass in a series of overdubs. "Have You Seen the Stars Tonite?" features lush vocal harmonies over acoustic instruments with subdued electric guitar overlays. The acoustic parts are centered around Kantner's detuned guitar, using a tuning consisting of octaves and fifths of open C, which David Crosby likens in sound to the droning tones of bagpipes.
Two tracks of the side 2 suite consist entirely of sound effects simulating the starship engines and the flight through space. Scattered among the other songs of the Suite are heavily processed background vocal tracks and sound bites. During the hijack scene, an audio excerpt from the 1953 George Pal
film version of War of the Worlds is used to good effect: a woman is heard to call out "Let me through!" followed immediately by the sound of a ray gun firing.
Paul Kantner
Paul Lorin Kantner is an American rock musician, known for co-founding the psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane and its spin-off band Jefferson Starship.- Overview :...
and Grace Slick
Grace Slick
Grace Slick is an American singer and songwriter, who was one of the lead singers of the rock groups The Great Society, Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, and Starship, and was a solo artist, for nearly three decades, from the mid-1960s to the mid-1990s...
, released under the name Paul Kantner and Jefferson Starship
Jefferson Starship
Jefferson Starship is an American rock band formed in the early 1970s. The group is a spin-off from the iconic 1960s psychedelic/folk group Jefferson Airplane. The band has undergone several major changes in personnel and genres through the years while retaining the same Jefferson Starship name...
, the first album to use the "Starship" name, although the personnel line-up was not the same as would appear on the first actual Jefferson Starship
Jefferson Starship
Jefferson Starship is an American rock band formed in the early 1970s. The group is a spin-off from the iconic 1960s psychedelic/folk group Jefferson Airplane. The band has undergone several major changes in personnel and genres through the years while retaining the same Jefferson Starship name...
album.
Overview
Beginning in 1965, Paul Kantner had recorded five studio albums with Jefferson AirplaneJefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band formed in San Francisco in 1965. A pioneer of the psychedelic rock movement, Jefferson Airplane was the first band from the San Francisco scene to achieve mainstream commercial and critical success....
, but by 1970 internal problems began taking their toll on the band, including the departure of drummer Spencer Dryden
Spencer Dryden
Spencer Dryden was an American musician best known as the longest-serving drummer for Jefferson Airplane. He also played with New Riders of the Purple Sage, The Dinosaurs, and The Peanut Butter Conspiracy.-Early life:...
in 1970 and a rift that was forming between founder Marty Balin
Marty Balin
Marty Balin is an American musician. He is best known as the founder and one of the lead singers of the psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane.-Early life:Martyn Buchwald was born in Cincinnati, Ohio...
and the rest of the band that would lead to Balin's departure in 1971.
In 1970 the Airplane released only one single, and Kantner took advantage of the hiatus to work on a solo album. Blows Against the Empire is his concept album recorded and released in 1970, credited to Paul Kantner and Jefferson Starship. This marks the debut of the Jefferson Starship moniker, though not of the band of that name itself, since Blows predates the actual formation of the band Jefferson Starship
Jefferson Starship
Jefferson Starship is an American rock band formed in the early 1970s. The group is a spin-off from the iconic 1960s psychedelic/folk group Jefferson Airplane. The band has undergone several major changes in personnel and genres through the years while retaining the same Jefferson Starship name...
by four years.
The album was recorded in at Pacific High Recording Studios and Wally Heider
Wally Heider
Wally Heider was an American recording engineer and recording studio owner - History :After a distinguished career as an engineer in the 1940s and 1950s, he was instrumental in recording the San Francisco Sound in the late 60s and early 70s...
Recording Studios in San Francisco by Kantner and Slick with a collection of musician friends that included members of Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band formed in San Francisco in 1965. A pioneer of the psychedelic rock movement, Jefferson Airplane was the first band from the San Francisco scene to achieve mainstream commercial and critical success....
(Jack Casady
Jack Casady
Jack Casady , is an American musician considered one of the foremost bass guitarists of the rock music era and best known as a member of Jefferson Airplane. First playing as a lead guitarist with the Washington D.C...
and Joey Covington
Joey Covington
Joseph "Joey" Edward Covington is a US drummer, best known for his involvements with Hot Tuna and Jefferson Airplane.-Brief biography:...
), The Grateful Dead (Jerry Garcia
Jerry Garcia
Jerome John "Jerry" Garcia was an American musician best known for his lead guitar work, singing and songwriting with the band the Grateful Dead...
, Bill Kreutzmann
Bill Kreutzmann
Bill Kreutzmann is an American drummer who played with the rock band the Grateful Dead for their entire thirty-year career...
and Mickey Hart
Mickey Hart
Mickey Hart is an American percussionist and musicologist. He is best known as one of the two drummers of the rock band the Grateful Dead. He was a member of the Grateful Dead from September 1967 to February 1971, and from October 1974 to August 1995...
), Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (David Crosby
David Crosby
David Van Cortlandt Crosby is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of three bands: The Byrds, Crosby, Stills & Nash , and CPR...
and Graham Nash
Graham Nash
Graham William Nash, OBE is an English singer-songwriter known for his light tenor vocals and for his songwriting contributions with the British pop group The Hollies, and with the folk-rock band Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Nash is a photography collector and a published photographer...
), David Freiberg
David Freiberg
David Freiberg is an American musician. He was vocalist and/or bass guitar player with Quicksilver Messenger Service, Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship.-Career:...
of Quicksilver Messenger Service
Quicksilver Messenger Service
Quicksilver Messenger Service is an American psychedelic rock band, formed in 1965 in San Francisco.-Introduction:Quicksilver Messenger Service gained wide popularity in the Bay Area and, through their recordings, with psychedelic rock enthusiasts around the globe and several of their albums ranked...
and Harvey Brooks
Harvey Brooks
Harvey Brooks is an American bassist. He has played in many styles of music...
of Electric Flag
Electric Flag
The Electric Flag was a blues rock soul group, led by guitarist Mike Bloomfield, keyboardist Barry Goldberg and drummer Buddy Miles, and featuring other well-known musicians such as vocalist Nick Gravenites and bassist Harvey Brooks. Bloomfield formed the Electric Flag in 1967, following his stint...
. Also appearing was Jorma Kaukonen
Jorma Kaukonen
Jorma Ludwik Kaukonen Jr. is an American blues, folk, and rock guitarist, best known for his work with Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna.-Biography:...
's brother Peter Kaukonen
Peter Kaukonen
Peter Kaukonen is a San Francisco bay area guitarist/multi-instrumentalist/songwriter. He is the younger brother of Jorma Kaukonen from Jefferson Airplane/Hot Tuna...
, and Phill Sawyer, the engineer at Pacific High Recording studios. The credit to Jefferson Starship reflected many things – the ad-hoc all-star line-up, the album being an evolutionary progression from Jefferson Airplane, and finally the story it relates of the hijacking of a starship.
Stylistically, the songs range from the light folk of "The Baby Tree" to the "musique concrète" passages "Home" and "XM". Kantner even presents a kind of proto-grunge in "Mau-Mau (Amerikon)". Mostly, however, the songs are delivered in the kind of improvised, free-form rock & roll representative of the Bay Area bands of the day. Lyrically, the album celebrates countercultural idealism; it is set in a future where the counterculture is able to unite and decide their own fate far away from planet Earth. Written in 1970, Kantner describes in "Hijack" the construction of a starship beginning in 1980, which "ought to be ready by 1990."
Concept
The album is a narrative concept album that tells the story of a counter-culture revolution against the oppressions of "Uncle Samuel" and a plan to steal a starship from orbit and journey into space in search of a new home. The original vinyl release is divided into two album sides. "Mau Mau (Amerikon)" launched Side One, a counter-culture manifesto and call to arms. In the context of the narrative, this is the free music being performed in the park, drawing everyone together.-
- "Put your old ladies back into bed,
- Put your old men into their graves,
- Cover their ears so they can't hear us sing,
- Cover their eyes so they can't see us play."
-
- "Get out of the way, let the people play,
- We gotta get down on you,
- Come alive all over you,
- Dancing down, into your town."
It celebrates late-sixties counter-culture, depicting people celebrating mind expansion and free love, "We'll ball in your parks, insane with the flash of living...calling for acid, cocaine and grass." They've had enough of the military, domestic and abroad, "You unleash the dogs of a grade-B movie star Governor's war...so drop your fuckin' bombs, burn your demon babies, I will live again!" They condemn the divisive strictures of conservative society, and dream of finding a Utopia.
"The Baby Tree", written by Rosalie Sorrels
Rosalie Sorrels
Rosalie Sorrels is an American folk singer-songwriter who resides in the mountains near Boise, Idaho. She began her public career as a singer and collector of traditional folksongs in the late 1950s. During the early 1960s she left her husband and began traveling and performing at music festivals...
, is about an imaginary island where babies grow on trees and are collected by happy couples when they fall. The scene develops over the remaining album side, in "Let's Go Together" and "A Child Is Coming," that a couple is among the gathering in a park outside Chicago the night before the hijacking, tripping on acid as dawn approaches. She reveals that she's pregnant, and predictably they resolve to free their child from the government's "files and their numbers game" by joining the hijackers. In this setting, "The Baby Tree" can be seen as their acid-induced daydream about pregnancy, and so fits neatly into the narrative. The allegory of "Let's Go Together" and "A Child Is Coming" symbolizes Paul Kantner and Grace Slick's romantic relationship and Slick's pregnancy by Kantner, which would result in the birth of their daughter, China Kantner
China Kantner
China Wing Kantner , is an American actress of television, theatre and the cinema. She is also a former MTV VJ.-Biography:...
, the following year.
Side Two is an integrated suite of songs which opens with "Sunrise", Grace Slick's allegory describing the breaking dawn the couple was awaiting, while also symbolizing the dawn of an Utopian civilization, freed from conservative mores and violent influences. "Sunrise" leads directly into "Hijack," in which the revolutionaries storm the transport to the orbiting starship and head off into space, boarding the ship by the end of "Hijack" and leaving orbit in "Home." As the story progresses with "Have You Seen the Stars Tonite," hopes and misgivings are revealed. After the ship's engines and systems are readied in "X-M," "Starship" relates a mutiny fought for control of the ship, to determine whether to surrender and return or to continue. Eventually the idealists win control and the ship is flung by gravity sling-shot around the sun and out of the solar system.
By Kantner's admission, the underlying premise of the narrative was derived in part from the works of science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
, particularly the novel Methuselah's Children
Methuselah's Children
Methuselah's Children is a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein, originally serialized in Astounding Science Fiction in the July, August, and September 1941 issues. It was expanded into a full-length novel in 1958....
. Kantner went so far as to write to Heinlein to obtain permission to use his ideas. Heinlein wrote back that over the years, many people had used his ideas but Paul was the first one to ask for permission, which he granted. Blows was the first rock album to ever be nominated for a Hugo Award
Hugo Award
The Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
, in 1971 in the category of Best Dramatic Presentation.. In voting, the album garnered the second most votes for the award, losing to "No Award", which received the most votes.
Track listing
NotesThe original cassette and CD releases contained alternate lyrics for :Let's Go Together" that differed from the vinyl version. The remastered CD restored the original lyrics as track 3 and included the alternate lyric version as a bonus track
Personnel
- Paul KantnerPaul KantnerPaul Lorin Kantner is an American rock musician, known for co-founding the psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane and its spin-off band Jefferson Starship.- Overview :...
– vocals, electric guitars, acoustic guitars, banjo, bass machine - Grace SlickGrace SlickGrace Slick is an American singer and songwriter, who was one of the lead singers of the rock groups The Great Society, Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, and Starship, and was a solo artist, for nearly three decades, from the mid-1960s to the mid-1990s...
– piano, vocals - Jerry GarciaJerry GarciaJerome John "Jerry" Garcia was an American musician best known for his lead guitar work, singing and songwriting with the band the Grateful Dead...
– banjo on "Let's Go Together", pedal steel guitarPedal steel guitarThe pedal steel guitar is a type of electric guitar that uses a metal bar to "fret" or shorten the length of the strings, rather than fingers on strings as with a conventional guitar. Unlike other types of steel guitar, it also uses pedals and knee levers to affect the pitch, hence the name "pedal"...
on "Have You Seen the Stars Tonite", sound effects and vocals on "XM", lead guitar on "Starship" - Bill KreutzmannBill KreutzmannBill Kreutzmann is an American drummer who played with the rock band the Grateful Dead for their entire thirty-year career...
– drums on "Let's Go Together" - Mickey HartMickey HartMickey Hart is an American percussionist and musicologist. He is best known as one of the two drummers of the rock band the Grateful Dead. He was a member of the Grateful Dead from September 1967 to February 1971, and from October 1974 to August 1995...
– percussion on "Have You Seen the Stars Tonite", sound effects and vocals on "XM" - Joey CovingtonJoey CovingtonJoseph "Joey" Edward Covington is a US drummer, best known for his involvements with Hot Tuna and Jefferson Airplane.-Brief biography:...
– drums and vocals on "Mau Mau", congas on "Hijack" - Jack CasadyJack CasadyJack Casady , is an American musician considered one of the foremost bass guitarists of the rock music era and best known as a member of Jefferson Airplane. First playing as a lead guitarist with the Washington D.C...
– bass on "A Child Is Coming" and "Sunrise" - David CrosbyDavid CrosbyDavid Van Cortlandt Crosby is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of three bands: The Byrds, Crosby, Stills & Nash , and CPR...
– vocals and guitar on "A Child Is Coming" and "Have You Seen the Stars Tonite", background vocals on "Starship" - Graham NashGraham NashGraham William Nash, OBE is an English singer-songwriter known for his light tenor vocals and for his songwriting contributions with the British pop group The Hollies, and with the folk-rock band Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Nash is a photography collector and a published photographer...
– congas on "Hijack", sound effects on "Home", background vocals on "Starship" - David FreibergDavid FreibergDavid Freiberg is an American musician. He was vocalist and/or bass guitar player with Quicksilver Messenger Service, Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship.-Career:...
– background vocals on "Starship" - Harvey BrooksHarvey BrooksHarvey Brooks is an American bassist. He has played in many styles of music...
– bass on "Starship" - Peter KaukonenPeter KaukonenPeter Kaukonen is a San Francisco bay area guitarist/multi-instrumentalist/songwriter. He is the younger brother of Jorma Kaukonen from Jefferson Airplane/Hot Tuna...
– lead guitar on "Mau Mau" - Phill Sawyer – sound effects on "Home" and "XM"
Production
- Paul Kantner – producer, design
- CCCP – cover
- Patti Landres – books
- Jim Goldberg – space, design, all the work
- Tony Nagamuma – title
- Allan Zentz, Pat Ieraci, Graham Nash, David Crosby, Phill Sawyer, Bob Shoemaker – engineers
- Thanks to Kurt VonnegutKurt VonnegutKurt Vonnegut, Jr. was a 20th century American writer. His works such as Cat's Cradle , Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of Champions blend satire, gallows humor and science fiction. He was known for his humanist beliefs and was honorary president of the American Humanist Association.-Early...
, Robert A. HeinleinRobert A. HeinleinRobert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
, Michael Cooney, Jean GenetJean GenetJean Genet was a prominent and controversial French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. Early in his life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but later took to writing...
, Mike Lipskin, Buckminster FullerBuckminster FullerRichard Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller was an American systems theorist, author, designer, inventor, futurist and second president of Mensa International, the high IQ society....
, Theodore SturgeonTheodore SturgeonTheodore Sturgeon was an American science fiction author.His most famous novel is More Than Human .-Biography:...
, A. A. MilneA. A. MilneAlan Alexander Milne was an English author, best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh and for various children's poems. Milne was a noted writer, primarily as a playwright, before the huge success of Pooh overshadowed all his previous work.-Biography:A. A...
, John Lear and The Bear – thanks
Arrangements and instrumentation
Throughout the album, Slick's acoustic piano is highlighted. She has said that her chord-heavy technique at the time developed from watching session player Nicky HopkinsNicky Hopkins
Nicholas Christian "Nicky" Hopkins was an English pianist and organist.He recorded and performed on noted British and American popular music recordings of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s as a session musician....
during his many recordings with the Airplane. Most of the tracks add standard rock instrumentation to her piano, including electric and acoustic guitars, drums and bass. Thick vocal harmonies backing Kantner and Slick in duet are a signature quality of many of the songs.
A notable exception is "The Baby Tree", which has Kantner singing to solo banjo accompaniment. "Sunrise" is Grace Slick's self-penned solo vocal showcase, in part a duet with herself thanks to multitracking. Here she is predominantly accompanied by Jack Casady playing bass in a series of overdubs. "Have You Seen the Stars Tonite?" features lush vocal harmonies over acoustic instruments with subdued electric guitar overlays. The acoustic parts are centered around Kantner's detuned guitar, using a tuning consisting of octaves and fifths of open C, which David Crosby likens in sound to the droning tones of bagpipes.
Two tracks of the side 2 suite consist entirely of sound effects simulating the starship engines and the flight through space. Scattered among the other songs of the Suite are heavily processed background vocal tracks and sound bites. During the hijack scene, an audio excerpt from the 1953 George Pal
George Pál
George Pal , born György Pál Marczincsak, was a Hungarian-born American animator and film producer, principally associated with the science fiction genre...
film version of War of the Worlds is used to good effect: a woman is heard to call out "Let me through!" followed immediately by the sound of a ray gun firing.