Jefferson Airplane
Encyclopedia
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.
The band performed at the three most famous American rock festival
s of the 1960s—Monterey
(1967), Woodstock
(1969) and Altamont (1969)—as well as headlining the first Isle of Wight Festival
. Their recordings were internationally successful, and they scored two US Top 10 hit singles and a string of Top 20 albums. Their 1967 record Surrealistic Pillow
is regarded as one of the key recordings of the so-called Summer of Love
and brought the group international recognition. Two chart hits from the album, "Somebody to Love
" and "White Rabbit
", are listed in Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".
Successor bands to Jefferson Airplane include Jefferson Starship
and Starship; spinoffs include Hot Tuna
and KBC Band
. Jefferson Airplane was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
in 1996.
folk music
boom (see American folk music revival
).
The group's founder was 23-year-old vocalist Marty Balin
(born Martyn Jerel Buchwald in Cincinnati, Ohio, January 30, 1942, but raised in San Francisco), who had established a minor career as a pop singer in the early 1960s and had made several recordings under his own name. Balin recorded (without commercial success) for Challenge Records
in 1962, releasing two singles, the most notable being "I Specialize In Love," and was a member of a folk group called the Town Criers in 1963–1964. After the Beatles
-led British Invasion
of 1964, Balin was inspired by the merging of folk with rock, spearheaded by the success of The Byrds
and Simon & Garfunkel, and decided to form a group in 1965 to play this hybrid style. With a group of investors, Balin purchased a former pizza parlor on Fillmore Street
, which he transformed into a music club, The Matrix
, and began searching for members for his group.
Balin met folk musician Paul Kantner
at another local club, The Drinking Gourd. Kantner, a native San Franciscan, had started out performing on the Bay Area folk circuit in the early 1960s, alongside fellow folkies Jerry Garcia
, David Crosby
and Janis Joplin
. Kantner has cited folk groups like The Kingston Trio
and The Weavers
as strong early influences. He briefly moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1964 to work in a folk duo with future Airplane/Starship member David Freiberg
(who subsequently joined Quicksilver Messenger Service
).
Balin and Kantner then set about recruiting other musicians to form the house band at the Matrix. After hearing female vocalist Signe Toly Anderson
at the Drinking Gourd, Balin invited her to be the group's co-lead singer. Anderson sang with the band for a year and performed on their first album, departing in October 1966 after the birth of her first child.
Kantner next recruited an old friend, blues
guitarist Jorma Kaukonen
. Originally from Washington, D.C., Kaukonen had moved to California in the early 1960s and met Kantner while at Santa Clara University
in 1962. Kaukonen was invited to jam with the new band and although initially reluctant to join he was won over after playing his guitar through a tape delay
device that was part of the sound system used by Ken Kesey
for his Acid Test
parties. Drummer Jerry Peloquin and acoustic bassist Bob Harvey completed the original lineup.
The origin of the group's name is often disputed. "Jefferson airplane" is slang
for a used paper match split to hold a marijuana
joint that has been smoked too short to hold without burning the fingers - an improvised roach clip. An urban legend
claims this was the origin of the band's name, but according to band member Jorma Kaukonen
, the name was invented by his friend Steve Talbot as a parody of blues names such as Blind Lemon Jefferson
. A 2007 press release quoted Kaukonen as saying:
The group made its first public appearance as Jefferson Airplane at the opening night of The Matrix on August 13, 1965. The band expanded from its folk roots, drawing inspiration from The Beatles
, The Byrds
and The Lovin' Spoonful
, and gradually developed a more pop-oriented electric sound.
A few weeks after the group was formed, Jerry Peloquin departed, in part because of his disdain for the others' drug use. Although he was not a drummer, singer-guitarist Skip Spence
(who later founded Moby Grape
) was then invited to replace Peloquin. In October 1965, after the other members decided that Bob Harvey's bass playing was not up to par, he was replaced by guitarist-bassist Jack Casady
, an old friend of Kaukonen's from Washington D.C. Casady played his first gig with the Airplane at a college concert in Berkeley, California
, two weeks after he arrived in San Francisco.
The group's performing skills improved rapidly and they soon gained a strong following in and around San Francisco, aided by reviews from veteran music journalist Ralph J. Gleason
, the jazz critic of the San Francisco Chronicle
who, after seeing them at the Matrix in late 1965, proclaimed them "one of the best bands ever." Gleason's support raised the band's profile considerably, and within three months their manager Matthew Katz was fielding offers from recording companies, although they had yet to perform outside the Bay Area.
Two significant early concerts featuring the Airplane were held in late 1965. The first was the historic dance at the Longshoremen's Hall in San Francisco on October 16, 1965, the first of many 'happenings' in the Bay Area, where Gleason first saw them perform. At this concert they were supported by a local folk-rock group, The Great Society, which featured Grace Slick
as lead singer and it was here that Kantner met Slick for the first time. A few weeks later, on November 6, they headlined a benefit concert for the San Francisco Mime Troupe
, the first of many promotions by rising Bay Area entrepreneur Bill Graham
, who later became the band's manager.
In November 1965, Jefferson Airplane signed a recording contract with RCA Victor, which included an unheard-of advance
of US$25,000. Prior to this, they had recorded a demo for Columbia Records of "The Other Side Of This Life" with Bob Harvey on bass, which was immediately shelved by the label. On December 10, 1965 the Airplane played at the first Bill Graham-promoted show at the Fillmore
auditorium, supported by The Great Society and others. The Airplane also appeared at numerous Family Dog shows promoted by Chet Helms
at the Avalon Ballroom.
The group's first single was Balin's "It's No Secret" (a tune he wrote with Otis Redding
in mind); the B-side was "Runnin' Round The World", the song that led to the band's first clash with RCA, over the lyric "The nights I've spent with you have been fantastic trips." After their debut LP was completed in March 1966, Skip Spence quit the band and he was eventually replaced by Spencer Dryden
, who played his first show with the Airplane at the Berkeley Folk Festival on July 4, 1966. Dryden had previously played with a Los Angeles group called the Ashes, who would later become The Peanut Butter Conspiracy
.
Original manager Matthew Katz
was fired in August, sparking a long-running legal battle that continued until 1987, and Balin's friend and roommate Bill Thompson
was installed as road manager and temporary band manager. It was Thompson, a friend and staunch supporter of the band and a former Chronicle staffer, who had convinced reviewers Ralph Gleason and John Wasserman to see the band at the Longshoreman's Hall. Thanks to Gleason's influence, Thompson was able to book the group for appearances at the Berkeley Folk Festival and at the Monterey Jazz Festival
.
The group's debut LP Jefferson Airplane Takes Off was released in September 1966. The folk-music-influenced album included John D. Loudermilk
's "Tobacco Road
" and Dino Valente's "Let's Get Together", as well as original ballads "It's No Secret" and "Come Up the Years." Despite the fact that the group had neither performed outside the Bay Area nor appeared on TV, the album garnered considerable attention in the USA and sold well enough to earn a gold record award. RCA initially pressed only 15,000 copies, but it sold more than 10,000 in San Francisco alone, prompting the label to reprint it. For the re-pressing, the company deleted "Runnin' Round This World" (which had appeared on early mono pressings), because executives objected to the word "trip" in the lyrics. For similar reasons, RCA also substituted altered versions for two other tracks: "Let Me In", changing the line "you shut your door; you know where" to "you shut your door; now it ain't fair." In the same song, they also switched the lyric "Don't tell me you want money" to "Don't tell me it ain't funny." "Run Around" was also edited, changing the line "flowers that sway as you lay under me" to "flowers that sway as you stay here by me". The original pressings of the LP featuring "Runnin' 'Round The World" and the uncensored versions of "Let Me In" and "Run Around" are now worth thousands of dollars on the collectors' market.
made her first appearance. Slick was already well known to the band—she had attended the Airplane's debut gig at the Matrix in 1965 and her previous group, The Great Society, had often supported the Airplane in concert.
Slick's recruitment proved pivotal to the Airplane's commercial breakthrough—she possessed a powerful and supple contralto
voice that complemented Balin's and was well-suited to the group's amplified psychedelic music, and as a former model, her good looks and stage presence greatly enhanced the group's live impact.
The Great Society had recorded an early version of "Somebody to Love" (under the title "Someone to Love") as the B-side of their only single, "Free Advice", produced by Sylvester Stewart (soon to become famous as Sly Stone
). It reportedly took more than 50 takes to achieve a satisfactory rendition. The Great Society decided to split up in late 1966 and played its last show on September 11. Soon after, Slick was asked to join Jefferson Airplane by Jack Casady (whose musicianship was a major influence on her decision) and her Great Society contract was bought out for $750.
article about the booming San Francisco music scene, one of the first in a welter of similar media reports that prompted a massive influx of young people to the city and contributed to the commercialization and exploitation of the hippie culture.
Around the beginning of 1967 Bill Graham
took over from Bill Thompson as manager. In January the group made their first visit to the East Coast. On January 14, alongside The Grateful Dead
and Quicksilver Messenger Service
, Jefferson Airplane headlined the now-legendary "Human Be-In
", the famous all-day 'happening' staged in Golden Gate Park
, one of the key events leading up to the "Summer of Love
".
During this period the band gained their first international recognition when rising British pop star Donovan
, who saw them during his stint on the US West Coast in early 1966, mentioned the Airplane in his song "The Fat Angel," which subsequently appeared on his Sunshine Superman
LP.
The group's second LP, Surrealistic Pillow
, recorded in Los Angeles with producer Rick Jarrard
in only thirteen days at a cost of $8000, launched the Airplane to international fame. Released in February 1967, the LP entered the Billboard 200
album chart on March 25 and remained there for over a year, peaking at #3. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc
. The name "Surrealistic Pillow" was suggested by the 'shadow' producer of the album, Jerry Garcia
, when he mentioned that, as a whole, the album sounded "as Surrealistic as a pillow is soft." Although RCA Victor would not acknowledge Garcia's considerable contributions to the album with a "Producer" credit, he is listed in the album's credits as "spiritual advisor."
In addition to the group's two best-known tracks, "White Rabbit
" and "Somebody to Love
", the album featured "My Best Friend" by former drummer Skip Spence, Balin's driving "Plastic Fantastic Lover," and the atmospheric Balin-Kantner ballad "Today
". A reminder of their earlier folk incarnation was Kaukonen's solo acoustic guitar tour de force, "Embryonic Journey
" (his first composition), which referenced contemporary acoustic guitar masters such as John Fahey
and helped to establish the popular genre exemplified by acoustic guitarist Leo Kottke
.
The first single from the album, Spence's "My Best Friend," failed to chart, but the next two singles rocketed the group to prominence. Both "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit" became major US hits, the former reaching #5 and the latter #8 on the Billboard singles chart. By late 1967 the Airplane were national and international stars and had become one of the hottest groups in America.
This phase of the Airplane's career peaked with their famous performance at the Monterey International Pop Festival
in June 1967. Monterey showcased leading bands from several major music "scenes" including New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and the United Kingdom, and the resulting TV and film coverage gave national (and international) exposure to groups that had previously had only regional fame. Two songs from the Airplane's set were subsequently included in the D. A. Pennebaker
film documentary of the event.
The Airplane also benefited greatly from appearances on national network TV shows such as Johnny Carson
's Tonight Show on NBC and The Ed Sullivan Show
on CBS. The Airplane's famous appearance on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour
performing "White Rabbit" and "Somebody to Love" was videotaped in color and augmented by developments in video techniques. It has been frequently re-screened and is notable for its pioneering use of the Chroma key
process to simulate the Airplane's psychedelic light show.
, however. Key influences on the group's new direction were the popularity and success of Jimi Hendrix
and the British supergroup Cream
, which prompted the Airplane (like many other groups) to adopt a 'heavier' sound and to place a greater emphasis on improvisation.
The band's third LP, After Bathing at Baxter's
, was released on November 27, 1967 and eventually peaked in the charts at #17. Its famous cover, drawn by renowned artist and cartoonist Ron Cobb
depicts a Heath Robinson-inspired flying machine (constructed around an idealised version of a typical Haight-Ashbury district house) soaring above the chaos of American commercial culture.
Recorded over a period of more than four months, with little input from nominal producer Al Schmitt
, the new album demonstrated the group's growing engagement with psychedelic rock
. Where the previous LP had consisted entirely of "standard-length" pop songs, Baxter's was dominated by long multi-part suites, while the track "A Small Package of Value Will Come To You Shortly" was a musique concrete
style audio collage inspired by Frank Zappa
's avant-garde
work on side four of Freak Out!
Baxter's also marked the ascendency of Kantner and Slick as the band's chief composers and the concurrent decline in the influence and involvement of founder Marty Balin. The other members, gravitating toward a harder-edged style, openly criticized Balin for his ballad-oriented compositions. Balin was also reportedly becoming increasingly disenchanted with the "star trips" and inflated egos generated by the band's runaway commercial success.
Baxter's also marked the end of the Airplane's brief run of success on the singles chart. While both "White Rabbit" and "Somebody To Love" were US Top 10 hits, "The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil", peaked at #43 and "Watch Her Ride" stalled at #61, though both were listed as being in the top forty in Cash Box. None of the band's subsequent singles made it into the Top 40 and several did not chart at all. AM Top 40 radio, in particular, became wary of a group that had scored a hit with a song that contained thinly-veiled drug references and whose singles were often deemed too controversial, so Jefferson Airplane never again enjoyed the kind of widespread radio support they would have needed to score more Top Ten hits.
Despite this, Jefferson Airplane continued to enjoy tremendous success as "album" artists. Between 1967 and 1972 they scored a run of eight consecutive Top 20 albums in the USA, with both Surrealistic Pillow
and Crown of Creation
making the Top 10. Furthermore, many of their singles did manage to make minor chart positions in the singles chart due in part to the growing influence of FM radio, which would play many rock songs that AM radio refused to.
set about consolidating the group's financial security, establishing Icebag Corp. to oversee the band's publishing interests and purchasing a 20-room mansion at 2400 Fulton Street across from Golden Gate Park
near the Haight-Ashbury district, which became the band's office and communal residence. Bill Laudner was hired as road manager.
In mid-1968, the group was photographed for a Life
magazine story on "The New Rock," appearing on the cover of the June 28, 1968 edition. They undertook their first major tour of Europe in August-September of 1968, playing alongside The Doors
in the Netherlands, England, Germany, and Sweden. In a notorious incident at a concert in Amsterdam
, while the Airplane was performing "Plastic Fantastic Lover," Doors singer Jim Morrison
, stoned on some hash
given to him by a fan, appeared on stage and began dancing. As the group played faster and faster, Morrison spun around wildly until he finally fell senseless on the stage at Marty Balin's feet. Morrison was unable to perform his set with the Doors and was hospitalized while keyboardist Ray Manzarek
was forced to sing all the vocals. It was also during this tour that Slick and Morrison allegedly engaged in a brief sexual relationship, described in Slick's 1998 autobiography.
Jefferson Airplane's fourth LP, Crown of Creation
(released in September 1968), was a commercial success, peaking at #6 on the album chart. Grace Slick's "Lather
," which opens the album, is said to be about her affair with drummer Spencer Dryden and his 30th birthday. "Triad," a David Crosby
piece, had been rejected by The Byrds
because they deemed its subject matter (a ménage à trois
) to be too "hot" to record. Slick's searing sexual and social commentary anthem "Greasy Heart" was released as a single in March 1968. A few tracks recorded for the LP were left off the album, but later included as bonus tracks, including the Grace Slick/Frank Zappa
collaboration "Would You Like A Snack?"
The Airplane's appearance on The Smothers Brothers in the fall of that year caused a minor stir when Grace Slick appeared in blackface (she claimed she simply wanted to wear all the makeup she saw in her dressing room) and raised her fist in the Black Panther Party
's salute after singing "Crown of Creation."
In February 1969 RCA released the live album Bless Its Pointed Little Head
, which was culled from late 1968 live concert performances at the Fillmore West
on October 24–26 and the Fillmore East
on November 28–30. It became the Airplane's fourth Top 20 album, peaking at #17.
In April 1969, sessions began for their next album, Volunteers
, using new 16-track facilities at the Wally Heider
Studio in San Francisco. This proved to be the last album by the "classic" lineup of the group. The album's release was delayed when the band ran into conflict with their label over the content of songs such as "We Can Be Together" and "Uncle Sam Blues" and the planned titled of the album, Volunteers of Amerikkka.
In August 1969, a few days after the band headlined at a free concert in New York's Central Park
, they performed in what Grace Slick called an early "morning maniac music" slot at the Woodstock festival
, for which the group was joined by noted British session keyboard player Nicky Hopkins
. When interviewed about Woodstock by Jeff Tamarkin in 1992, Paul Kantner still recalled it with fondness, whereas Grace Slick and Spencer Dryden had less than rosy memories.
Immediately after their Woodstock performance, the band appeared on The Dick Cavett Show
and played a few songs. Other guests on that same episode were David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and Joni Mitchell. The new album was finally released in the USA in November 1969 with the title shortened to Volunteers. The song "Uncle Sam Blues" did not appear but was later released on the eponymous Hot Tuna
album. Volunteers continued the Airplane's run of Top 20 LPs, peaking at #13 and going gold early in 1970. It was their most political venture, showcasing the group's vocal opposition to the Vietnam War
and documenting their reaction to the changing political atmosphere in the United States. The best-known tracks include "Volunteers
," "We Can Be Together," "Good Shepherd
," and the post-apocalyptic "Wooden Ships
," which Paul Kantner co-wrote with David Crosby
and Stephen Stills
, and which Crosby, Stills & Nash also recorded on their debut album.
RCA raised objections to the phrase "up against the wall, motherfucker" in the lyrics of Kantner's "We Can Be Together," but the group managed to prevent it from being censored on the album, pointing out that RCA had already allowed the offending word to be included on the cast album of the rock musical Hair
. In addition, the song "Volunteers" had the line "in order to survive, we steal, cheat, lie, forge, fuck, hide, and deal," which was also kept on the album (and which they sang on broadcast TV during their appearance on the Dick Cavett show). For the single versions of these songs, "motherfucker" (in "We Can Be Together") was changed to a long, drawn out "Ma," and "fuck" (in "Volunteers") was changed to "fred."
In December, the Airplane played at the Altamont Free Concert at Altamont Speedway in California, thus becoming the only band to perform at all three of the iconic rock festival
s of the 1960s, along with Monterey Pop
and Woodstock
. Headlined by The Rolling Stones
, the concert was marred by violence. Marty Balin was knocked out during a scuffle with Hells Angels
members who had been hired to act as "security." The event became notorious for the "Gimme Shelter Incident": the fatal stabbing of black teenager Meredith Hunter
in front of the stage by Hells Angels "guards" after he pulled out a revolver during the Stones' performance. This incident was the centerpiece of the documentary film Gimme Shelter
.
Spencer Dryden was dismissed from the band in February 1970 by a unanimous vote of the other members. He felt burned out by four years on the "acid
merry-go-round" and deeply disillusioned by the events of Altamont, which, he later recalled, "did not look like a bunch of happy hippies in streaming colors. It looked more like sepia-toned Hieronymus Bosch." He took time off and later returned to music in 1972 as a drummer for New Riders of the Purple Sage
, a Grateful Dead spin-off band . Dryden's replacement as the Airplane's drummer was Joey Covington
, an L.A. musician who had been sitting in with Hot Tuna
during 1969.
Touring continued throughout 1970, but the group's only new recording that year was the single, "Have You Seen the Saucers?" b/w "Mexico
." "Mexico" was an attack on then-President Richard Nixon
's Operation Intercept, which had been implemented to curtail the flow of marijuana into the United States. "Have You Seen the Saucers" marked the beginning of a science-fiction theme that Kantner would explore in Blows Against the Empire
, his first solo album, released in 1970, and with many of his songs in the 70s and 80s.
. This began as a duo, with the pair performing short sets before the main Airplane concert, but over the ensuing months other members of the Airplane, as well as outside musicians (including Joey Covington), often sat in for Hot Tuna performances.
During late 1969 Casady and Kaukonen recorded an all-acoustic blues album, which was released in the spring of 1970. This initial Hot Tuna album was remarkably successful, reaching #30 on the US album chart. Over the next two years, Hot Tuna began to occupy more and more of Casady's and Kaukonen's time, contributing to the growing divisions within Jefferson Airplane that would come to a head during 1972.
The Hot Tuna project also led to the addition of a new band member. Covington had met veteran jazz-blues violinist Papa John Creach
in Los Angeles in the mid-1960s; he invited Creach to sit in with the Airplane for a concert at Winterland in San Francisco on October 5, 1970. As a result, Creach was immediately invited to join Hot Tuna and became a permanent member of the Airplane in time for their fall tour.
The Winterland concert also marked a turning point of another kind for the Airplane—it was a memorial for their old friend Janis Joplin
, who had died in Los Angeles from a heroin overdose the previous day. Because of her death, her close friend Marty Balin refused to perform with the band that night.
During this period, Paul Kantner had been working on his first solo album, a science fiction-themed project recorded with members of the Airplane and other friends. It was released in October 1970 under the title Blows Against The Empire
, and credited to "Paul Kantner/Jefferson Starship". This "prototype" version of Jefferson Starship
included David Crosby
and Graham Nash
, Grateful Dead
members Jerry Garcia
, Bill Kreutzmann
, and Mickey Hart
, and Airplane members Grace Slick
, Joey Covington
, and Jack Casady
. Blows Against the Empire was the first rock album to be nominated for the Hugo science fiction award.
Jefferson Airplane ended 1970 with their traditional Thanksgiving Day engagement at the Fillmore East (the final performance of the short-lived Kantner/Balin/Slick/Kaukonen/Casady/Creach/Covington line-up) and the release of their first compilation album, The Worst of Jefferson Airplane
, which continued their unbroken run of chart success, reaching #12 on the Billboard album chart.
("Wing" was Slick's maiden name) was born. Grace's divorce from her first husband had come through shortly before this, but she and Kantner agreed that they did not wish to marry.
In March 1971, Airplane's founder and co-lead singer Marty Balin decided to leave the band officially after months of isolation from the others. Although he had remained part of the band's live performances after the band's creative direction shifted from the brooding love songs that he specialized in, an emerging drinking problem, compounded by the evolution of the polarized Kantner/Slick and Kaukonen/Casady cliques, had finally left him the odd man out. He had also been deeply affected by the death of his friend Janis Joplin and had begun to pursue a healthier lifestyle; Balin's study of yoga and abstention from drugs and alcohol further distanced him from the other members of the group, whose drug intake continued unabated. This further complicated the recording of their long-overdue follow-up to Volunteers. Balin had recently completed several new songs, including "Emergency" and the elongated R&B-infused "You Wear Your Dresses Too Short," both of which would later appear on archival releases.
On May 13, 1971, Grace Slick was injured in a near-fatal automobile crash when her car slammed into a wall in a tunnel near the Golden Gate Bridge
in San Francisco. The accident happened while she was drag racing with Jorma Kaukonen; both were driving at over 100 miles per hour, and Kaukonen claims that he "saved her life" by pulling her from the car. Slick's recuperation took a few months, forcing the Airplane to curtail their concert and touring commitments. In the meantime, Slick recorded a comic song about this incident, "Never Argue With A German If You're Tired," which appeared on Bark
.
The band still managed studio dates during 1971. Their next LP was Bark
, which was issued in September 1971 with cover art depicting a dead fish wrapped in an A&P-style grocery bag. It was both the final album owed to RCA under the band's existing contract and the inaugural release on the band's Grunt Records vanity label. Manager Bill Thompson had struck a deal with RCA to allow Jefferson Airplane to run Grunt Records as they saw fit, but still use RCA's distribution.
The single "Pretty As You Feel," excerpted from a longer jam on the LP with lead vocals by Joey Covington, its composer, was the last Jefferson Airplane single to place on the US singles chart, peaking at #60. The album rose to #11, higher than Volunteers.
Even after the departure of Balin, major creative and personal divisions persisted between Slick and Kantner on the one side and Kaukonen and Casady on the other. (Jorma Kaukonen's song "Third Week In The Chelsea," from Bark, chronicles the thoughts he himself was having about leaving the band.) These problems were exacerbated by escalating drug use—especially Slick's alcoholism—which caused the Airplane to become increasingly unreliable in their live commitments and led to some chaotic situations at concerts.
The band held together long enough to record one more LP, entitled Long John Silver
, begun in April 1972 and released in July. By this time the various members were also engaged with their various solo projects. Hot Tuna, for instance, had released a second (electric) LP during 1971, First Pull Up, Then Pull Down
which proved even more successful than its predecessor. Though still a nominal member of the band, Joey Covington had immersed himself in the production of his own album with Peter Kaukonen and Black Kangaroo on Grunt; consequently, John Barbata
(formerly of The Turtles
and CSNY) played on most of the album and continued on for the promotional tour that followed. The Long John Silver LP is notable for its cover, which folded out into a humidor, which the inner photo depicted as storing cigars (which may have been filled with marijuana). The album rose to #20.
With the formal departure of Covington and addition of Kantner's old friend David Freiberg
on vocals, Jefferson Airplane began a tour to promote the Long John Silver LP in the summer of 1972, their first concerts in over a year. This tour included a major free concert in Central Park that drew more than 50,000 people.
They returned to the West Coast in September, playing concerts in San Diego, Hollywood
and Albuquerque
. The tour culminated in two shows at Winterland in San Francisco (September 21–22), both of which were recorded. At the end of the second show the group was joined on stage by Marty Balin, who sang lead vocals on "Volunteers" and the final song, "You Wear Your Dresses Too Short."
Although no official announcement was ever released, the Winterland shows proved to be the last live performances by Jefferson Airplane until their restoration and reunion in 1989. By the end of 1972 Casady and Kaukonen had left the group to concentrate on Hot Tuna and their recently acquired love of speed skating
, which David Freiberg had reluctantly taken up in an attempt to bolster group camaraderie. With Kantner and Slick, Freiberg would record Baron Von Tollbooth and the Chrome Nun in 1973 and Dragon Fly
in 1974. Both Kantner and Slick also recorded additional solo albums in the early 1970s.
Jefferson Airplane's second live album, Thirty Seconds Over Winterland
, was released in April 1973. Its cover art depicts a squadron of flying toasters, a design that the band later alleged was plagiarized for the famous "After Dark" computer screensaver
design. In 1974, a collection of previous unreleased material and the single "Mexico" and "Have You Seen The Saucers" was released as Early Flight, the last official Jefferson Airplane album until the self-titled reunion album of 1989.
After the acrimonious events that resulted in Jefferson Starship’s 1984 breakup, Paul Kantner reunited with Balin and Jack Casady in 1985 to form the KBC Band
. They released their only album, KBC Band
(which included Kantner's hit, "America"), in 1987 on Arista Records. The KBC Band also featured keyboardist Tim Gorman
, who had played with The Who
, and guitarist Slick Aguilar
, who had played with David Crosby's band.
With Kantner reunited with Balin and Casady, the KBC Band opened the door to a full-blown Jefferson Airplane reunion. On March 4, 1988, during a Hot Tuna San Francisco gig at the Fillmore (with Paul Kantner, as well as Papa John Creach joining in) Grace Slick made a cameo appearance. This led to a formal reunion of the original Jefferson Airplane, featuring nearly all the main members, including founder Marty Balin, but without Spencer Dryden. A self-titled album
was released by Columbia Records to modest sales but the accompanying tour was a success. In 1996, Jefferson Airplane was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
, with Balin, Casady, Dryden, Kantner & Kaukonen attending & performing at the ceremony. Grace Slick was absent, as she was unable to travel due to medical reasons.
Also in 2004, a film was released on DVD entitled Fly Jefferson Airplane (directed by Bob Sarles
). It covers the years 1965–1972 and includes recent interviews with band members and thirteen complete songs (almost all are vintage performances). The one recent performance is a solo "Embryonic Journey" by Jorma Kaukonen (from a 1996 New York City reunion for the Airplane's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame).
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
band formed in San Francisco in 1965. A pioneer of the psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom...
movement, Jefferson Airplane was the first band from the San Francisco scene
San Francisco Sound
The San Francisco Sound refers to rock music performed live and recorded by San Francisco-based rock groups of the mid 1960s to early 1970s. It was associated with the counterculture community in San Francisco during these years.- Stylistic Dimensions :...
to achieve mainstream commercial and critical success.
The band performed at the three most famous American rock festival
Rock festival
A rock festival, or a rock fest, is a large-scale rock music concert, featuring multiple acts.The first rock festivals were put on in the late 1960s and were important socio-cultural milestones. In the 1980s a minor resurgence of festivals occurred with charity as the goal.Today, they are often...
s of the 1960s—Monterey
Monterey Pop Festival
The Monterey International Pop Music Festival was a three-day concert event held June 16 to June 18, 1967 at the Monterey County Fairgrounds in Monterey, California...
(1967), Woodstock
Woodstock Festival
Woodstock Music & Art Fair was a music festival, billed as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music". It was held at Max Yasgur's 600-acre dairy farm in the Catskills near the hamlet of White Lake in the town of Bethel, New York, from August 15 to August 18, 1969...
(1969) and Altamont (1969)—as well as headlining the first Isle of Wight Festival
Isle of Wight Festival
The Isle of Wight Festival is a music festival which takes place every year on the Isle of Wight in England. It was originally held from 1968 to 1970. These original events were promoted and organised by the Foulk brothers under the banner of their company Fiery Creations Limited...
. Their recordings were internationally successful, and they scored two US Top 10 hit singles and a string of Top 20 albums. Their 1967 record Surrealistic Pillow
Surrealistic Pillow
Surrealistic Pillow is the second album by American psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane, released in February 1967.Original drummer Alexander 'Skip' Spence had left the band in mid-1966, replaced by a jazz drummer from Los Angeles, Spencer Dryden, a nephew of Charlie Chaplin. New lead vocalist...
is regarded as one of the key recordings of the so-called Summer of Love
Summer of Love
The Summer of Love was a social phenomenon that occurred during the summer of 1967, when as many as 100,000 people converged on the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco, creating a cultural and political rebellion...
and brought the group international recognition. Two chart hits from the album, "Somebody to Love
Somebody to Love (Jefferson Airplane song)
"Somebody to Love" is a rock song that was written by Darby Slick and originally recorded by 1960s folk rock band The Great Society and later by the psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane...
" and "White Rabbit
White Rabbit (song)
"White Rabbit" is a song from Jefferson Airplane's 1967 album Surrealistic Pillow. It was released as a single and became the band's second top ten success, peaking at #8 on the Billboard Hot 100...
", are listed in Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".
Successor bands to Jefferson Airplane include 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...
and Starship; spinoffs include Hot Tuna
Hot Tuna
Hot Tuna is an American blues-rock band formed by bassist Jack Casady and guitarist Jorma Kaukonen as a spin-off of Jefferson Airplane. It plays acoustic and electric versions of original and traditional blues songs.- Jefferson Airplane side project :...
and KBC Band
KBC Band
The KBC Band was formed in 1985 by former Jefferson Airplane members Paul Kantner , Marty Balin and Jack Casady . Other members included Keith Crossan , Tim Gorman , Mark "Slick" Aguilar and Darrell Verdusco...
. Jefferson Airplane was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way,...
in 1996.
Formation and early career
Jefferson Airplane was formed in San Francisco during the summer of 1965, emerging from the San Francisco BaySan Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
boom (see American folk music revival
American folk music revival
The American folk music revival was a phenomenon in the United States that began during the 1940s and peaked in popularity in the mid-1960s. Its roots went earlier, and performers like Josh White, Burl Ives, Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Richard Dyer-Bennett, Oscar Brand, Jean Ritchie, John Jacob...
).
The group's founder was 23-year-old vocalist 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...
(born Martyn Jerel Buchwald in Cincinnati, Ohio, January 30, 1942, but raised in San Francisco), who had established a minor career as a pop singer in the early 1960s and had made several recordings under his own name. Balin recorded (without commercial success) for Challenge Records
Challenge Records
Challenge Records has been the name of at least three different record labels in the 20th century:* Challenge Records - a US based company* Challenge Records - a US based company* Challenge Records - a Netherlands based company...
in 1962, releasing two singles, the most notable being "I Specialize In Love," and was a member of a folk group called the Town Criers in 1963–1964. After the Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
-led British Invasion
British Invasion
The British Invasion is a term used to describe the large number of rock and roll, beat, rock, and pop performers from the United Kingdom who became popular in the United States during the time period from 1964 through 1966.- Background :...
of 1964, Balin was inspired by the merging of folk with rock, spearheaded by the success of The Byrds
The Byrds
The Byrds were an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964. The band underwent multiple line-up changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn remaining the sole consistent member until the group disbanded in 1973...
and Simon & Garfunkel, and decided to form a group in 1965 to play this hybrid style. With a group of investors, Balin purchased a former pizza parlor on Fillmore Street
Fillmore Street
Fillmore Street is a street in San Francisco, California, named after American President Millard Fillmore which starts in the Lower Haight neighborhood, and travels northward through the Fillmore District and Pacific Heights and ends in the Marina District...
, which he transformed into a music club, The Matrix
The Matrix (club)
The Matrix, a renovated former pizza shop, was a nightclub in San Francisco from 1965 to 1972 and was one of the keys to what eventually became known as the "San Francisco Sound" in rock music...
, and began searching for members for his group.
Balin met folk musician Paul Kantner
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 :...
at another local club, The Drinking Gourd. Kantner, a native San Franciscan, had started out performing on the Bay Area folk circuit in the early 1960s, alongside fellow folkies 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...
, 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 Janis Joplin
Janis Joplin
Janis Lyn Joplin was an American singer, songwriter, painter, dancer and music arranger. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist with her backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band...
. Kantner has cited folk groups like The Kingston Trio
The Kingston Trio
The Kingston Trio is an American folk and pop music group that helped launch the folk revival of the late 1950s to late 1960s. The group started as a San Francisco Bay Area nightclub act with an original lineup of Dave Guard, Bob Shane, and Nick Reynolds...
and The Weavers
The Weavers
The Weavers were an American folk music quartet based in the Greenwich Village area of New York City. They sang traditional folk songs from around the world, as well as blues, gospel music, children's songs, labor songs, and American ballads, and selling millions of records at the height of their...
as strong early influences. He briefly moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1964 to work in a folk duo with future Airplane/Starship member 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:...
(who subsequently joined 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...
).
Balin and Kantner then set about recruiting other musicians to form the house band at the Matrix. After hearing female vocalist Signe Toly Anderson
Signe Toly Anderson
Signe Toly Anderson is an American singer who was one of the founding members of the American rock band Jefferson Airplane.-Early life and joining Jefferson Airplane:...
at the Drinking Gourd, Balin invited her to be the group's co-lead singer. Anderson sang with the band for a year and performed on their first album, departing in October 1966 after the birth of her first child.
Kantner next recruited an old friend, blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
guitarist 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:...
. Originally from Washington, D.C., Kaukonen had moved to California in the early 1960s and met Kantner while at Santa Clara University
Santa Clara University
Santa Clara University is a private, not-for-profit, Jesuit-affiliated university located in Santa Clara, California, United States. Chartered by the state of California and accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, it operates in collaboration with the Society of Jesus , whose...
in 1962. Kaukonen was invited to jam with the new band and although initially reluctant to join he was won over after playing his guitar through a tape delay
Delay (audio effect)
Delay is an audio effect which records an input signal to an audio storage medium, and then plays it back after a period of time. The delayed signal may either be played back multiple times, or played back into the recording again, to create the sound of a repeating, decaying echo.-Early delay...
device that was part of the sound system used by Ken Kesey
Ken Kesey
Kenneth Elton "Ken" Kesey was an American author, best known for his novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest , and as a counter-cultural figure who considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s. "I was too young to be a beatnik, and too old to be a...
for his Acid Test
Acid Tests
The Acid Tests were a series of parties held by Ken Kesey in the San Francisco Bay Area during the mid 1960s, centered entirely around the use of, experimentation with, and advocacy of, the psychedelic drug LSD, also known as "acid."...
parties. Drummer Jerry Peloquin and acoustic bassist Bob Harvey completed the original lineup.
The origin of the group's name is often disputed. "Jefferson airplane" is slang
Slang
Slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's language or dialect but are considered more acceptable when used socially. Slang is often to be found in areas of the lexicon that refer to things considered taboo...
for a used paper match split to hold a marijuana
Cannabis (drug)
Cannabis, also known as marijuana among many other names, refers to any number of preparations of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug or for medicinal purposes. The English term marijuana comes from the Mexican Spanish word marihuana...
joint that has been smoked too short to hold without burning the fingers - an improvised roach clip. An urban legend
Urban legend
An urban legend, urban myth, urban tale, or contemporary legend, is a form of modern folklore consisting of stories that may or may not have been believed by their tellers to be true...
claims this was the origin of the band's name, but according to band member 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:...
, the name was invented by his friend Steve Talbot as a parody of blues names such as Blind Lemon Jefferson
Blind Lemon Jefferson
"Blind" Lemon Jefferson was an American blues singer and guitarist from Texas. He was one of the most popular blues singers of the 1920s, and has been titled "Father of the Texas Blues"....
. A 2007 press release quoted Kaukonen as saying:
The group made its first public appearance as Jefferson Airplane at the opening night of The Matrix on August 13, 1965. The band expanded from its folk roots, drawing inspiration from The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
, The Byrds
The Byrds
The Byrds were an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964. The band underwent multiple line-up changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn remaining the sole consistent member until the group disbanded in 1973...
and The Lovin' Spoonful
The Lovin' Spoonful
The Lovin' Spoonful is an American pop rock band of the 1960s, named to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. When asked about his band, leader John Sebastian said it sounded like a combination of "Mississippi John Hurt and Chuck Berry," prompting his friend, Fritz Richmond, to suggest the name...
, and gradually developed a more pop-oriented electric sound.
A few weeks after the group was formed, Jerry Peloquin departed, in part because of his disdain for the others' drug use. Although he was not a drummer, singer-guitarist Skip Spence
Skip Spence
Alexander Lee "Skip" Spence was a Canadian-born musician and singer-songwriter. He was co-founder of Moby Grape, and played guitar with them until 1969. He released one solo album, 1969's Oar, and then largely withdrew from the music industry...
(who later founded Moby Grape
Moby Grape
Moby Grape is an American rock group from the 1960s, known for having all five members contribute to singing and songwriting and that collectively merged elements of folk music, blues, country, and jazz together with rock and psychedelic music...
) was then invited to replace Peloquin. In October 1965, after the other members decided that Bob Harvey's bass playing was not up to par, he was replaced by guitarist-bassist 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...
, an old friend of Kaukonen's from Washington D.C. Casady played his first gig with the Airplane at a college concert in Berkeley, California
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
, two weeks after he arrived in San Francisco.
The group's performing skills improved rapidly and they soon gained a strong following in and around San Francisco, aided by reviews from veteran music journalist Ralph J. Gleason
Ralph J. Gleason
Ralph Joseph Gleason was an influential American jazz and pop music critic. He contributed for many years to the San Francisco Chronicle, was a founding editor of Rolling Stone magazine, and cofounder of the Monterey Jazz Festival.-Biography:Gleason was born in New York City and attended Columbia...
, the jazz critic of the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
who, after seeing them at the Matrix in late 1965, proclaimed them "one of the best bands ever." Gleason's support raised the band's profile considerably, and within three months their manager Matthew Katz was fielding offers from recording companies, although they had yet to perform outside the Bay Area.
Two significant early concerts featuring the Airplane were held in late 1965. The first was the historic dance at the Longshoremen's Hall in San Francisco on October 16, 1965, the first of many 'happenings' in the Bay Area, where Gleason first saw them perform. At this concert they were supported by a local folk-rock group, The Great Society, which featured 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...
as lead singer and it was here that Kantner met Slick for the first time. A few weeks later, on November 6, they headlined a benefit concert for the San Francisco Mime Troupe
San Francisco Mime Troupe
The San Francisco Mime Troupe is a theatre of political satire which performs free shows in various parks in the San Francisco Bay Area and around California. The Troupe does not, however, perform silent mime, but each year creates an original musical comedy that combines aspects of Commedia...
, the first of many promotions by rising Bay Area entrepreneur Bill Graham
Bill Graham (promoter)
Bill Graham was an American impresario and rock concert promoter from the 1960s until his death.-Early life:...
, who later became the band's manager.
In November 1965, Jefferson Airplane signed a recording contract with RCA Victor, which included an unheard-of advance
Advance payment
An advance payment, or simply an advance, is the part of a contractually due sum that is paid in advance for goods or services, while the balance included in the invoice will only follow the delivery. It is called a prepaid expense in accrual accounting.-See also:*Advance against royalties*Pay or...
of US$25,000. Prior to this, they had recorded a demo for Columbia Records of "The Other Side Of This Life" with Bob Harvey on bass, which was immediately shelved by the label. On December 10, 1965 the Airplane played at the first Bill Graham-promoted show at the Fillmore
The Fillmore
The Fillmore Auditorium is a historic music venue in San Francisco, California, made famous by Bill Graham. Named for its original location at the intersection of Fillmore Street and Geary Boulevard, it lies on the boundary of the Western Addition and the Pacific Heights neighborhoods.In 1968,...
auditorium, supported by The Great Society and others. The Airplane also appeared at numerous Family Dog shows promoted by Chet Helms
Chet Helms
Chester Leo "Chet" Helms , often called the father of San Francisco's "1967 Summer of Love," was a music promoter and a cultural figure in San Francisco during its hippie period in the late Sixties....
at the Avalon Ballroom.
The group's first single was Balin's "It's No Secret" (a tune he wrote with Otis Redding
Otis Redding
Otis Ray Redding, Jr. was an American soul singer-songwriter, record producer, arranger and talent scout. He is considered one of the major figures in soul and R&B...
in mind); the B-side was "Runnin' Round The World", the song that led to the band's first clash with RCA, over the lyric "The nights I've spent with you have been fantastic trips." After their debut LP was completed in March 1966, Skip Spence quit the band and he was eventually replaced by 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:...
, who played his first show with the Airplane at the Berkeley Folk Festival on July 4, 1966. Dryden had previously played with a Los Angeles group called the Ashes, who would later become The Peanut Butter Conspiracy
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy was an American psychedelic pop/rock group in the 1960s.They formed in Los Angeles in August 1966 out of the folk-rock group "The Ashes", who included John Merrill , Barbara "Sandi" Robison , Alan Brackett , Spencer Dryden , and Jim Cherniss...
.
Original manager Matthew Katz
Matthew Katz
Matthew Katz is a music manager and producer, most notable as the former manager of Jefferson Airplane, Moby Grape and It's A Beautiful Day. Katz was also one of the vanguard litigants in the famous Napster litigation, where he fought to protect property rights of music publishers.-History:Matthew...
was fired in August, sparking a long-running legal battle that continued until 1987, and Balin's friend and roommate Bill Thompson
Bill Thompson
Bill Thompson may refer to:*Bill Thompson , 42nd New York City Comptroller and Democratic nominee for New York City Mayor*Bill Thompson , voice actor who played Droopy Dog and in a number of Disney films...
was installed as road manager and temporary band manager. It was Thompson, a friend and staunch supporter of the band and a former Chronicle staffer, who had convinced reviewers Ralph Gleason and John Wasserman to see the band at the Longshoreman's Hall. Thanks to Gleason's influence, Thompson was able to book the group for appearances at the Berkeley Folk Festival and at the Monterey Jazz Festival
Monterey Jazz Festival
The Monterey Jazz Festival is one of the longest consecutively running jazz festivals. It debuted on October 3, 1958 and was founded by San Francisco jazz radio broadcaster Jimmy Lyons.-History:...
.
The group's debut LP Jefferson Airplane Takes Off was released in September 1966. The folk-music-influenced album included John D. Loudermilk
John D. Loudermilk
John D. Loudermilk is an American singer and songwriter.-Biography:Born in Durham, North Carolina, Loudermilk grew up in a family who were members of the Salvation Army faith and was influenced by the church singing. His cousins Ira and Charlie Loudermilk were known professionally as the Louvin...
's "Tobacco Road
Tobacco Road (song)
"Tobacco Road" is a song written and first recorded by John D. Loudermilk in 1960 that was a hit for The Nashville Teens in 1964 and has since become a standard across several musical genres....
" and Dino Valente's "Let's Get Together", as well as original ballads "It's No Secret" and "Come Up the Years." Despite the fact that the group had neither performed outside the Bay Area nor appeared on TV, the album garnered considerable attention in the USA and sold well enough to earn a gold record award. RCA initially pressed only 15,000 copies, but it sold more than 10,000 in San Francisco alone, prompting the label to reprint it. For the re-pressing, the company deleted "Runnin' Round This World" (which had appeared on early mono pressings), because executives objected to the word "trip" in the lyrics. For similar reasons, RCA also substituted altered versions for two other tracks: "Let Me In", changing the line "you shut your door; you know where" to "you shut your door; now it ain't fair." In the same song, they also switched the lyric "Don't tell me you want money" to "Don't tell me it ain't funny." "Run Around" was also edited, changing the line "flowers that sway as you lay under me" to "flowers that sway as you stay here by me". The original pressings of the LP featuring "Runnin' 'Round The World" and the uncensored versions of "Let Me In" and "Run Around" are now worth thousands of dollars on the collectors' market.
Arrival of Grace Slick
Signe Anderson gave birth to her daughter in May 1966, and in October she announced her departure from the band. Her final gig with the Airplane took place at the Fillmore on October 15, 1966. The following night, her replacement Grace SlickGrace 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...
made her first appearance. Slick was already well known to the band—she had attended the Airplane's debut gig at the Matrix in 1965 and her previous group, The Great Society, had often supported the Airplane in concert.
Slick's recruitment proved pivotal to the Airplane's commercial breakthrough—she possessed a powerful and supple contralto
Contralto
Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above...
voice that complemented Balin's and was well-suited to the group's amplified psychedelic music, and as a former model, her good looks and stage presence greatly enhanced the group's live impact.
The Great Society had recorded an early version of "Somebody to Love" (under the title "Someone to Love") as the B-side of their only single, "Free Advice", produced by Sylvester Stewart (soon to become famous as Sly Stone
Sly Stone
Sly Stone is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer, most famous for his role as frontman for Sly & the Family Stone, a band which played a critical role in the development of soul, funk and psychedelia in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1993, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of...
). It reportedly took more than 50 takes to achieve a satisfactory rendition. The Great Society decided to split up in late 1966 and played its last show on September 11. Soon after, Slick was asked to join Jefferson Airplane by Jack Casady (whose musicianship was a major influence on her decision) and her Great Society contract was bought out for $750.
Surrealistic Pillow and commercial breakthrough
In December 1966, Jefferson Airplane was featured in a NewsweekNewsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
article about the booming San Francisco music scene, one of the first in a welter of similar media reports that prompted a massive influx of young people to the city and contributed to the commercialization and exploitation of the hippie culture.
Around the beginning of 1967 Bill Graham
Bill Graham (promoter)
Bill Graham was an American impresario and rock concert promoter from the 1960s until his death.-Early life:...
took over from Bill Thompson as manager. In January the group made their first visit to the East Coast. On January 14, alongside The Grateful Dead
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock, and for live performances of long...
and 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...
, Jefferson Airplane headlined the now-legendary "Human Be-In
Human Be-In
The Human Be-In was a happening in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, the afternoon and evening of January 14, 1967. It was a prelude to San Francisco's Summer of Love, which made the Haight-Ashbury district a symbol as the center of an American counterculture and introduced the word 'psychedelic'...
", the famous all-day 'happening' staged in Golden Gate Park
Golden Gate Park
Golden Gate Park, located in San Francisco, California, is a large urban park consisting of of public grounds. Configured as a rectangle, it is similar in shape but 20% larger than Central Park in New York, to which it is often compared. It is over three miles long east to west, and about half a...
, one of the key events leading up to the "Summer of Love
Summer of Love
The Summer of Love was a social phenomenon that occurred during the summer of 1967, when as many as 100,000 people converged on the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco, creating a cultural and political rebellion...
".
During this period the band gained their first international recognition when rising British pop star Donovan
Donovan
Donovan Donovan Donovan (born Donovan Philips Leitch (born 10 May 1946) is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist. Emerging from the British folk scene, he developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelia, and world music...
, who saw them during his stint on the US West Coast in early 1966, mentioned the Airplane in his song "The Fat Angel," which subsequently appeared on his Sunshine Superman
Sunshine Superman
"Sunshine Superman" is a song written and recorded by Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. The "Sunshine Superman" single was released in the United States through Epic Records in July 1966, but due to a contractual dispute the United Kingdom release was delayed until December 1966, where it...
LP.
The group's second LP, Surrealistic Pillow
Surrealistic Pillow
Surrealistic Pillow is the second album by American psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane, released in February 1967.Original drummer Alexander 'Skip' Spence had left the band in mid-1966, replaced by a jazz drummer from Los Angeles, Spencer Dryden, a nephew of Charlie Chaplin. New lead vocalist...
, recorded in Los Angeles with producer Rick Jarrard
Rick Jarrard
Rick Jarrard was a staff producer for RCA Records during the 1960s. Artists he worked with included Jose Feliciano, The Family Tree, Harry Nilsson, Stone Country, The Loading Zone and Jefferson Airplane. In the earlier part of that decade, Jarrard was a member of the Greenwood County Singers, a...
in only thirteen days at a cost of $8000, launched the Airplane to international fame. Released in February 1967, the LP entered the Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
album chart on March 25 and remained there for over a year, peaking at #3. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc
Music recording sales certification
Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
. The name "Surrealistic Pillow" was suggested by the 'shadow' producer of the album, 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...
, when he mentioned that, as a whole, the album sounded "as Surrealistic as a pillow is soft." Although RCA Victor would not acknowledge Garcia's considerable contributions to the album with a "Producer" credit, he is listed in the album's credits as "spiritual advisor."
In addition to the group's two best-known tracks, "White Rabbit
White Rabbit (song)
"White Rabbit" is a song from Jefferson Airplane's 1967 album Surrealistic Pillow. It was released as a single and became the band's second top ten success, peaking at #8 on the Billboard Hot 100...
" and "Somebody to Love
Somebody to Love (Jefferson Airplane song)
"Somebody to Love" is a rock song that was written by Darby Slick and originally recorded by 1960s folk rock band The Great Society and later by the psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane...
", the album featured "My Best Friend" by former drummer Skip Spence, Balin's driving "Plastic Fantastic Lover," and the atmospheric Balin-Kantner ballad "Today
Today (Jefferson Airplane song)
"Today" is a folk rock ballad written by Marty Balin and Paul Kantner from the band Jefferson Airplane. It first appeared on their breakthrough album, Surrealistic Pillow, with a live version later appearing on the expanded rerelease of Bless Its Pointed Little Head. Marty Balin said, "I wrote it...
". A reminder of their earlier folk incarnation was Kaukonen's solo acoustic guitar tour de force, "Embryonic Journey
Embryonic Journey (instrumental)
The acoustic instrumental Embryonic Journey composed by Jefferson Airplane / Hot Tuna guitarist Jorma Kaukonen originally appeared as the ninth track on Jefferson Airplane's second album Surrealistic Pillow but has been often anthologized, and multiple takes were released as an album also entitled...
" (his first composition), which referenced contemporary acoustic guitar masters such as John Fahey
John Fahey (musician)
John Fahey was an American fingerstyle guitarist and composer who pioneered the steel-string acoustic guitar as a solo instrument. His style has been greatly influential and has been described as the foundation of American Primitivism, a term borrowed from painting and referring mainly to the...
and helped to establish the popular genre exemplified by acoustic guitarist Leo Kottke
Leo Kottke
Leo Kottke is an acoustic guitarist. He is widely known for his innovative fingerpicking style, which draws on influences from blues, jazz, and folk music, and his syncopated, polyphonic melodies...
.
The first single from the album, Spence's "My Best Friend," failed to chart, but the next two singles rocketed the group to prominence. Both "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit" became major US hits, the former reaching #5 and the latter #8 on the Billboard singles chart. By late 1967 the Airplane were national and international stars and had become one of the hottest groups in America.
This phase of the Airplane's career peaked with their famous performance at the Monterey International Pop Festival
Monterey Pop Festival
The Monterey International Pop Music Festival was a three-day concert event held June 16 to June 18, 1967 at the Monterey County Fairgrounds in Monterey, California...
in June 1967. Monterey showcased leading bands from several major music "scenes" including New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and the United Kingdom, and the resulting TV and film coverage gave national (and international) exposure to groups that had previously had only regional fame. Two songs from the Airplane's set were subsequently included in the D. A. Pennebaker
D. A. Pennebaker
Donn Alan Pennebaker is an American documentary filmmaker and one of the pioneers of Direct Cinema/Cinéma vérité. Performing arts and politics are his primary subjects.-Biography:...
film documentary of the event.
The Airplane also benefited greatly from appearances on national network TV shows such as Johnny Carson
Johnny Carson
John William "Johnny" Carson was an American television host and comedian, known as host of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson for 30 years . Carson received six Emmy Awards including the Governor Award and a 1985 Peabody Award; he was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1987...
's Tonight Show on NBC and The Ed Sullivan Show
The Ed Sullivan Show
The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June 20, 1948 to Sunday June 6, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan....
on CBS. The Airplane's famous appearance on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour
The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour
The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour is an American comedy and variety show hosted by the Smothers Brothers and initially airing on CBS from 1967 to 1969.-History:...
performing "White Rabbit" and "Somebody to Love" was videotaped in color and augmented by developments in video techniques. It has been frequently re-screened and is notable for its pioneering use of the Chroma key
Chroma key
Chroma key compositing is a technique for compositing two images together. A color range in the top layer is made transparent, revealing another image behind. The chroma keying technique is commonly used in video production and post-production...
process to simulate the Airplane's psychedelic light show.
Change of direction
The membership of Jefferson Airplane remained stable from 1967 to early 1970. During that period they recorded five more albums and performed extensively in the USA and Europe. The group's music underwent a significant transformation after Surrealistic PillowSurrealistic Pillow
Surrealistic Pillow is the second album by American psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane, released in February 1967.Original drummer Alexander 'Skip' Spence had left the band in mid-1966, replaced by a jazz drummer from Los Angeles, Spencer Dryden, a nephew of Charlie Chaplin. New lead vocalist...
, however. Key influences on the group's new direction were the popularity and success of Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
and the British supergroup Cream
Cream (band)
Cream were a 1960s British rock supergroup consisting of bassist/vocalist Jack Bruce, guitarist/vocalist Eric Clapton, and drummer Ginger Baker...
, which prompted the Airplane (like many other groups) to adopt a 'heavier' sound and to place a greater emphasis on improvisation.
The band's third LP, After Bathing at Baxter's
After Bathing at Baxter's
After Bathing at Baxter's was released in 1967 and is the third album by the San Francisco rock band Jefferson Airplane.Unlike Surrealistic Pillow, released earlier the same year, After Bathing at Baxter's is classified as psychedelic rock because it eschews the more commercial type pop songs, such...
, was released on November 27, 1967 and eventually peaked in the charts at #17. Its famous cover, drawn by renowned artist and cartoonist Ron Cobb
Ron Cobb
Ron Cobb is an American cartoonist, artist, writer, film designer, and film director.By the age of 18, with no formal training in graphic illustration, Cobb was working as an animation "inbetweener" artist for Disney Studios in Burbank, California. He progressed to becoming a breakdown artist on...
depicts a Heath Robinson-inspired flying machine (constructed around an idealised version of a typical Haight-Ashbury district house) soaring above the chaos of American commercial culture.
Recorded over a period of more than four months, with little input from nominal producer Al Schmitt
Al Schmitt
Al Schmitt is a recording engineer and record producer.-Early career:Schmitt grew up in New York City. After serving in the U.S. Navy he began working at Apex Recording Studios at the age of 19. In the late 1950's Schmitt moved to Los Angeles and became a staff engineer at Radio Recorders on Santa...
, the new album demonstrated the group's growing engagement with psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom...
. Where the previous LP had consisted entirely of "standard-length" pop songs, Baxter's was dominated by long multi-part suites, while the track "A Small Package of Value Will Come To You Shortly" was a musique concrete
Musique concrète
Musique concrète is a form of electroacoustic music that utilises acousmatic sound as a compositional resource. The compositional material is not restricted to the inclusion of sounds derived from musical instruments or voices, nor to elements traditionally thought of as "musical"...
style audio collage inspired by Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
's avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
work on side four of Freak Out!
Freak Out!
Freak Out! is the debut album by American band The Mothers of Invention, released June 27, 1966 on Verve Records. Often cited as one of rock music's first concept albums, the album is a satirical expression of frontman Frank Zappa's perception of American pop culture...
Baxter's also marked the ascendency of Kantner and Slick as the band's chief composers and the concurrent decline in the influence and involvement of founder Marty Balin. The other members, gravitating toward a harder-edged style, openly criticized Balin for his ballad-oriented compositions. Balin was also reportedly becoming increasingly disenchanted with the "star trips" and inflated egos generated by the band's runaway commercial success.
Baxter's also marked the end of the Airplane's brief run of success on the singles chart. While both "White Rabbit" and "Somebody To Love" were US Top 10 hits, "The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil", peaked at #43 and "Watch Her Ride" stalled at #61, though both were listed as being in the top forty in Cash Box. None of the band's subsequent singles made it into the Top 40 and several did not chart at all. AM Top 40 radio, in particular, became wary of a group that had scored a hit with a song that contained thinly-veiled drug references and whose singles were often deemed too controversial, so Jefferson Airplane never again enjoyed the kind of widespread radio support they would have needed to score more Top Ten hits.
Despite this, Jefferson Airplane continued to enjoy tremendous success as "album" artists. Between 1967 and 1972 they scored a run of eight consecutive Top 20 albums in the USA, with both Surrealistic Pillow
Surrealistic Pillow
Surrealistic Pillow is the second album by American psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane, released in February 1967.Original drummer Alexander 'Skip' Spence had left the band in mid-1966, replaced by a jazz drummer from Los Angeles, Spencer Dryden, a nephew of Charlie Chaplin. New lead vocalist...
and Crown of Creation
Crown of Creation
-Personnel:*Marty Balin – vocals, rhythm guitar*Grace Slick – vocals, piano, organ*Paul Kantner – rhythm guitar, vocals*Jorma Kaukonen – lead guitar, electric chicken, vocals*Spencer Dryden – drums, piano, organ, steel balls, vocals...
making the Top 10. Furthermore, many of their singles did manage to make minor chart positions in the singles chart due in part to the growing influence of FM radio, which would play many rock songs that AM radio refused to.
1968–1970
In February 1968, manager Bill Graham was fired after Grace Slick delivered an "either he goes or I go" ultimatum to the group. Bill Thompson took over as permanent manager andset about consolidating the group's financial security, establishing Icebag Corp. to oversee the band's publishing interests and purchasing a 20-room mansion at 2400 Fulton Street across from Golden Gate Park
Golden Gate Park
Golden Gate Park, located in San Francisco, California, is a large urban park consisting of of public grounds. Configured as a rectangle, it is similar in shape but 20% larger than Central Park in New York, to which it is often compared. It is over three miles long east to west, and about half a...
near the Haight-Ashbury district, which became the band's office and communal residence. Bill Laudner was hired as road manager.
In mid-1968, the group was photographed for a Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
magazine story on "The New Rock," appearing on the cover of the June 28, 1968 edition. They undertook their first major tour of Europe in August-September of 1968, playing alongside The Doors
The Doors
The Doors were an American rock band formed in 1965 in Los Angeles, California, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, drummer John Densmore, and guitarist Robby Krieger...
in the Netherlands, England, Germany, and Sweden. In a notorious incident at a concert in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
, while the Airplane was performing "Plastic Fantastic Lover," Doors singer Jim Morrison
Jim Morrison
James Douglas "Jim" Morrison was an American musician, singer, and poet, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the rock band The Doors...
, stoned on some hash
Hashish
Hashish is a cannabis preparation composed of compressed stalked resin glands, called trichomes, collected from the unfertilized buds of the cannabis plant. It contains the same active ingredients but in higher concentrations than unsifted buds or leaves...
given to him by a fan, appeared on stage and began dancing. As the group played faster and faster, Morrison spun around wildly until he finally fell senseless on the stage at Marty Balin's feet. Morrison was unable to perform his set with the Doors and was hospitalized while keyboardist Ray Manzarek
Ray Manzarek
Raymond Daniel Manzarek, Jr., better known as Ray Manzarek , is an American musician, singer, producer, film director, writer, co-founder and keyboardist of The Doors from 1965 to 1973, Nite City from 1977–1978 and Manzarek-Krieger since 2001.Manzarek is listed #4 on Digital Dreamdoor's "100...
was forced to sing all the vocals. It was also during this tour that Slick and Morrison allegedly engaged in a brief sexual relationship, described in Slick's 1998 autobiography.
Jefferson Airplane's fourth LP, Crown of Creation
Crown of Creation
-Personnel:*Marty Balin – vocals, rhythm guitar*Grace Slick – vocals, piano, organ*Paul Kantner – rhythm guitar, vocals*Jorma Kaukonen – lead guitar, electric chicken, vocals*Spencer Dryden – drums, piano, organ, steel balls, vocals...
(released in September 1968), was a commercial success, peaking at #6 on the album chart. Grace Slick's "Lather
Lather (song)
Lather is a song by the American rock band Jefferson Airplane. It is the opening track on the 1968 album Crown of Creation and was the B-Side for the single of the same name.- Meaning :...
," which opens the album, is said to be about her affair with drummer Spencer Dryden and his 30th birthday. "Triad," a 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...
piece, had been rejected by The Byrds
The Byrds
The Byrds were an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964. The band underwent multiple line-up changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn remaining the sole consistent member until the group disbanded in 1973...
because they deemed its subject matter (a ménage à trois
Ménage à trois
Ménage à trois is a French term which originally described a domestic arrangement in which three people having sexual relations occupy the same household – the phrase literally translates as "household of three"...
) to be too "hot" to record. Slick's searing sexual and social commentary anthem "Greasy Heart" was released as a single in March 1968. A few tracks recorded for the LP were left off the album, but later included as bonus tracks, including the Grace Slick/Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
collaboration "Would You Like A Snack?"
The Airplane's appearance on The Smothers Brothers in the fall of that year caused a minor stir when Grace Slick appeared in blackface (she claimed she simply wanted to wear all the makeup she saw in her dressing room) and raised her fist in the Black Panther Party
Black Panther Party
The Black Panther Party wasan African-American revolutionary leftist organization. It was active in the United States from 1966 until 1982....
's salute after singing "Crown of Creation."
In February 1969 RCA released the live album Bless Its Pointed Little Head
Bless Its Pointed Little Head
Bless Its Pointed Little Head is a live album by Jefferson Airplane recorded at both the Fillmore East and West in the fall of 1968 and released in 1969. Five songs on the album had not appeared on any of the band's previous studio recordings. The songs that did appear on previous albums, however,...
, which was culled from late 1968 live concert performances at the Fillmore West
Fillmore West
The Fillmore West was an historic music venue in San Francisco, California made famous by concert promoter Bill Graham. Named after Graham's original "Fillmore" location at the intersection of Fillmore Street and Geary Boulevard, it stood at Market Street and South Van Ness Avenue and was formerly...
on October 24–26 and the Fillmore East
Fillmore East
The Fillmore East was rock promoter Bill Graham's rock venue on Second Avenue near East 6th Street in the East Village neighborhood of the Manhattan borough of New York City. It was open from 1968 to 1971, and featured some of the biggest acts in rock music at the time...
on November 28–30. It became the Airplane's fourth Top 20 album, peaking at #17.
In April 1969, sessions began for their next album, Volunteers
Volunteers (Jefferson Airplane album)
-Personnel:*Grace Slick – vocals, piano on "The Farm", "Hey Fredrick", "Eskimo Blue Day", and "Volunteers", organ on "Meadowlands", recorder on "Eskimo Blue Day"*Paul Kantner – vocals, rhythm guitar*Marty Balin – vocals, percussion...
, using new 16-track facilities at the 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...
Studio in San Francisco. This proved to be the last album by the "classic" lineup of the group. The album's release was delayed when the band ran into conflict with their label over the content of songs such as "We Can Be Together" and "Uncle Sam Blues" and the planned titled of the album, Volunteers of Amerikkka.
In August 1969, a few days after the band headlined at a free concert in New York's Central Park
Central Park
Central Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...
, they performed in what Grace Slick called an early "morning maniac music" slot at the Woodstock festival
Woodstock Festival
Woodstock Music & Art Fair was a music festival, billed as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music". It was held at Max Yasgur's 600-acre dairy farm in the Catskills near the hamlet of White Lake in the town of Bethel, New York, from August 15 to August 18, 1969...
, for which the group was joined by noted British session keyboard player Nicky Hopkins
Nicky 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....
. When interviewed about Woodstock by Jeff Tamarkin in 1992, Paul Kantner still recalled it with fondness, whereas Grace Slick and Spencer Dryden had less than rosy memories.
Immediately after their Woodstock performance, the band appeared on The Dick Cavett Show
The Dick Cavett Show
The Dick Cavett Show has been the title of several talk shows hosted by Dick Cavett on various television networks, including:* ABC daytime ...
and played a few songs. Other guests on that same episode were David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and Joni Mitchell. The new album was finally released in the USA in November 1969 with the title shortened to Volunteers. The song "Uncle Sam Blues" did not appear but was later released on the eponymous Hot Tuna
Hot Tuna (album)
Hot Tuna is the self-titled debut album by the blues-rock band Hot Tuna, released in 1970 on RCA Records, catalogue LSP 4550. It was recorded live at the New Orleans House in Berkeley, California in September of 1969. It peaked at #30 on the Billboard 200 album chart...
album. Volunteers continued the Airplane's run of Top 20 LPs, peaking at #13 and going gold early in 1970. It was their most political venture, showcasing the group's vocal opposition to the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
and documenting their reaction to the changing political atmosphere in the United States. The best-known tracks include "Volunteers
Volunteers (song)
"Volunteers" is a Jefferson Airplane single that was released to promote the album Volunteers two months before its release. It was written by Marty Balin and Paul Kantner together. Marty was woken up by a truck one morning, which happened to be a truck with Volunteers of America painted on the...
," "We Can Be Together," "Good Shepherd
Good Shepherd (song)
"Good Shepherd" is a traditional song, most known as recorded by Jefferson Airplane on their 1969 album Volunteers. It was arranged and sung by the group's guitarist Jorma Kaukonen, who described their interpretation of it as psychedelic folk-rock....
," and the post-apocalyptic "Wooden Ships
Wooden Ships
"Wooden Ships" is a rock song written and composed by David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Paul Kantner in the late 1960s. The song was written and composed in Florida on Crosby's boat...
," which Paul Kantner co-wrote with 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 Stephen Stills
Stephen Stills
Stephen Arthur Stills is an American guitarist and singer/songwriter best known for his work with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills & Nash . He has performed on a professional level in several other bands as well as maintaining a solo career at the same time...
, and which Crosby, Stills & Nash also recorded on their debut album.
RCA raised objections to the phrase "up against the wall, motherfucker" in the lyrics of Kantner's "We Can Be Together," but the group managed to prevent it from being censored on the album, pointing out that RCA had already allowed the offending word to be included on the cast album of the rock musical Hair
Hair (musical)
Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical is a rock musical with a book and lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni and music by Galt MacDermot. A product of the hippie counter-culture and sexual revolution of the 1960s, several of its songs became anthems of the anti-Vietnam War peace movement...
. In addition, the song "Volunteers" had the line "in order to survive, we steal, cheat, lie, forge, fuck, hide, and deal," which was also kept on the album (and which they sang on broadcast TV during their appearance on the Dick Cavett show). For the single versions of these songs, "motherfucker" (in "We Can Be Together") was changed to a long, drawn out "Ma," and "fuck" (in "Volunteers") was changed to "fred."
In December, the Airplane played at the Altamont Free Concert at Altamont Speedway in California, thus becoming the only band to perform at all three of the iconic rock festival
Rock festival
A rock festival, or a rock fest, is a large-scale rock music concert, featuring multiple acts.The first rock festivals were put on in the late 1960s and were important socio-cultural milestones. In the 1980s a minor resurgence of festivals occurred with charity as the goal.Today, they are often...
s of the 1960s, along with Monterey Pop
Monterey Pop Festival
The Monterey International Pop Music Festival was a three-day concert event held June 16 to June 18, 1967 at the Monterey County Fairgrounds in Monterey, California...
and Woodstock
Woodstock Festival
Woodstock Music & Art Fair was a music festival, billed as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music". It was held at Max Yasgur's 600-acre dairy farm in the Catskills near the hamlet of White Lake in the town of Bethel, New York, from August 15 to August 18, 1969...
. Headlined by The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
, the concert was marred by violence. Marty Balin was knocked out during a scuffle with Hells Angels
Hells Angels
The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club is a worldwide one-percenter motorcycle gang and organized crime syndicate whose members typically ride Harley-Davidson motorcycles. In the United States and Canada, the Hells Angels are incorporated as the Hells Angels Motorcycle Corporation. Their primary motto...
members who had been hired to act as "security." The event became notorious for the "Gimme Shelter Incident": the fatal stabbing of black teenager Meredith Hunter
Meredith Hunter
Meredith Curly Hunter was a male spectator at the Altamont Free Concert. During the performance by The Rolling Stones, Hunter pulled out a gun after being punched by a Hells Angel and was then stabbed to death by a Hells Angel serving as a security guard...
in front of the stage by Hells Angels "guards" after he pulled out a revolver during the Stones' performance. This incident was the centerpiece of the documentary film Gimme Shelter
Gimme Shelter (documentary)
Gimme Shelter is a 1970 documentary film directed by Albert and David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin, chronicling the last weeks of The Rolling Stones' 1969 US tour, which culminated in the disastrous Altamont Free Concert. The film is named after "Gimme Shelter", the lead track from The Rolling...
.
Spencer Dryden was dismissed from the band in February 1970 by a unanimous vote of the other members. He felt burned out by four years on the "acid
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...
merry-go-round" and deeply disillusioned by the events of Altamont, which, he later recalled, "did not look like a bunch of happy hippies in streaming colors. It looked more like sepia-toned Hieronymus Bosch." He took time off and later returned to music in 1972 as a drummer for New Riders of the Purple Sage
New Riders of the Purple Sage
New Riders of the Purple Sage is an American country rock band. The group emerged from the psychedelic rock scene in San Francisco, California in 1969, and its original lineup included several members of the Grateful Dead. Their best known song is "Panama Red"...
, a Grateful Dead spin-off band . Dryden's replacement as the Airplane's drummer was 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:...
, an L.A. musician who had been sitting in with Hot Tuna
Hot Tuna
Hot Tuna is an American blues-rock band formed by bassist Jack Casady and guitarist Jorma Kaukonen as a spin-off of Jefferson Airplane. It plays acoustic and electric versions of original and traditional blues songs.- Jefferson Airplane side project :...
during 1969.
Touring continued throughout 1970, but the group's only new recording that year was the single, "Have You Seen the Saucers?" b/w "Mexico
Mexico (Jefferson Airplane song)
"Mexico" is a single released in May 1970 by the San Francisco rock band Jefferson Airplane, produced by the band at Pacific High Recording Studios with Phill Sawyer as the recording engineer...
." "Mexico" was an attack on then-President Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
's Operation Intercept, which had been implemented to curtail the flow of marijuana into the United States. "Have You Seen the Saucers" marked the beginning of a science-fiction theme that Kantner would explore in Blows Against the Empire
Blows Against the Empire
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...
, his first solo album, released in 1970, and with many of his songs in the 70s and 80s.
Side projects
During 1969 Jack Casady and Jorma Kaukonen launched their side project, a return to their blues roots, which they eventually dubbed Hot TunaHot Tuna
Hot Tuna is an American blues-rock band formed by bassist Jack Casady and guitarist Jorma Kaukonen as a spin-off of Jefferson Airplane. It plays acoustic and electric versions of original and traditional blues songs.- Jefferson Airplane side project :...
. This began as a duo, with the pair performing short sets before the main Airplane concert, but over the ensuing months other members of the Airplane, as well as outside musicians (including Joey Covington), often sat in for Hot Tuna performances.
During late 1969 Casady and Kaukonen recorded an all-acoustic blues album, which was released in the spring of 1970. This initial Hot Tuna album was remarkably successful, reaching #30 on the US album chart. Over the next two years, Hot Tuna began to occupy more and more of Casady's and Kaukonen's time, contributing to the growing divisions within Jefferson Airplane that would come to a head during 1972.
The Hot Tuna project also led to the addition of a new band member. Covington had met veteran jazz-blues violinist Papa John Creach
Papa John Creach
Papa John Creach played for Jefferson Airplane , Hot Tuna, Jefferson Starship, Jefferson Starship - The Next Generation, the San Francisco All-Stars , The Dinosaurs , and Steve Taylor...
in Los Angeles in the mid-1960s; he invited Creach to sit in with the Airplane for a concert at Winterland in San Francisco on October 5, 1970. As a result, Creach was immediately invited to join Hot Tuna and became a permanent member of the Airplane in time for their fall tour.
The Winterland concert also marked a turning point of another kind for the Airplane—it was a memorial for their old friend Janis Joplin
Janis Joplin
Janis Lyn Joplin was an American singer, songwriter, painter, dancer and music arranger. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist with her backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band...
, who had died in Los Angeles from a heroin overdose the previous day. Because of her death, her close friend Marty Balin refused to perform with the band that night.
During this period, Paul Kantner had been working on his first solo album, a science fiction-themed project recorded with members of the Airplane and other friends. It was released in October 1970 under the title Blows Against The Empire
Blows Against the Empire
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...
, and credited to "Paul Kantner/Jefferson Starship". This "prototype" version of 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...
included 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...
, Grateful Dead
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock, and for live performances of long...
members 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...
, and Airplane members 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...
, 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:...
, and 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...
. Blows Against the Empire was the first rock album to be nominated for the Hugo science fiction award.
Jefferson Airplane ended 1970 with their traditional Thanksgiving Day engagement at the Fillmore East (the final performance of the short-lived Kantner/Balin/Slick/Kaukonen/Casady/Creach/Covington line-up) and the release of their first compilation album, The Worst of Jefferson Airplane
The Worst of Jefferson Airplane
The Worst of Jefferson Airplane is the first ever compilation album from the rock band Jefferson Airplane, released in November 1970. The album features all of Jefferson Airplane's hit singles up to that point...
, which continued their unbroken run of chart success, reaching #12 on the Billboard album chart.
Decline and dissolution
1971 was a year of major upheaval for Jefferson Airplane. Grace Slick and Paul Kantner had begun a relationship during 1970, and on January 25, 1971, their daughter China Wing KantnerChina Kantner
China Wing Kantner , is an American actress of television, theatre and the cinema. She is also a former MTV VJ.-Biography:...
("Wing" was Slick's maiden name) was born. Grace's divorce from her first husband had come through shortly before this, but she and Kantner agreed that they did not wish to marry.
In March 1971, Airplane's founder and co-lead singer Marty Balin decided to leave the band officially after months of isolation from the others. Although he had remained part of the band's live performances after the band's creative direction shifted from the brooding love songs that he specialized in, an emerging drinking problem, compounded by the evolution of the polarized Kantner/Slick and Kaukonen/Casady cliques, had finally left him the odd man out. He had also been deeply affected by the death of his friend Janis Joplin and had begun to pursue a healthier lifestyle; Balin's study of yoga and abstention from drugs and alcohol further distanced him from the other members of the group, whose drug intake continued unabated. This further complicated the recording of their long-overdue follow-up to Volunteers. Balin had recently completed several new songs, including "Emergency" and the elongated R&B-infused "You Wear Your Dresses Too Short," both of which would later appear on archival releases.
On May 13, 1971, Grace Slick was injured in a near-fatal automobile crash when her car slammed into a wall in a tunnel near the Golden Gate Bridge
Golden Gate Bridge
The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the opening of the San Francisco Bay into the Pacific Ocean. As part of both U.S. Route 101 and California State Route 1, the structure links the city of San Francisco, on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula, to...
in San Francisco. The accident happened while she was drag racing with Jorma Kaukonen; both were driving at over 100 miles per hour, and Kaukonen claims that he "saved her life" by pulling her from the car. Slick's recuperation took a few months, forcing the Airplane to curtail their concert and touring commitments. In the meantime, Slick recorded a comic song about this incident, "Never Argue With A German If You're Tired," which appeared on Bark
Bark
Bark is the outermost layers of stems and roots of woody plants. Plants with bark include trees, woody vines and shrubs. Bark refers to all the tissues outside of the vascular cambium and is a nontechnical term. It overlays the wood and consists of the inner bark and the outer bark. The inner...
.
The band still managed studio dates during 1971. Their next LP was Bark
Bark (album)
-Personnel:* Jack Casady – bass* Joey Covington – percussion, drums, vocals* Paul Kantner – guitar, vocals* Jorma Kaukonen – lead guitar, vocals* Grace Slick – piano, vocals- Additional personnel :...
, which was issued in September 1971 with cover art depicting a dead fish wrapped in an A&P-style grocery bag. It was both the final album owed to RCA under the band's existing contract and the inaugural release on the band's Grunt Records vanity label. Manager Bill Thompson had struck a deal with RCA to allow Jefferson Airplane to run Grunt Records as they saw fit, but still use RCA's distribution.
The single "Pretty As You Feel," excerpted from a longer jam on the LP with lead vocals by Joey Covington, its composer, was the last Jefferson Airplane single to place on the US singles chart, peaking at #60. The album rose to #11, higher than Volunteers.
Even after the departure of Balin, major creative and personal divisions persisted between Slick and Kantner on the one side and Kaukonen and Casady on the other. (Jorma Kaukonen's song "Third Week In The Chelsea," from Bark, chronicles the thoughts he himself was having about leaving the band.) These problems were exacerbated by escalating drug use—especially Slick's alcoholism—which caused the Airplane to become increasingly unreliable in their live commitments and led to some chaotic situations at concerts.
The band held together long enough to record one more LP, entitled Long John Silver
Long John Silver (album)
-Personnel:*Grace Slick – vocals, piano*Jack Casady – bass*Paul Kantner – vocals, rhythm guitar*Jorma Kaukonen – lead guitar, vocals*Papa John Creach – electric violin*John Barbata – drums, tambourine, "against the grain stubble scraping"...
, begun in April 1972 and released in July. By this time the various members were also engaged with their various solo projects. Hot Tuna, for instance, had released a second (electric) LP during 1971, First Pull Up, Then Pull Down
First Pull Up, Then Pull Down
First Pull Up, Then Pull Down was the second album by Hot Tuna. The album was recorded live with electric instruments, instead of the acoustic instruments used on the previous album, Hot Tuna. The album rose to #43 on the Billboard charts...
which proved even more successful than its predecessor. Though still a nominal member of the band, Joey Covington had immersed himself in the production of his own album with Peter Kaukonen and Black Kangaroo on Grunt; consequently, John Barbata
John Barbata
John Barbata is an American drummer, born in Passaic, New Jersey, active especially in pop and pop/rock bands in the 1960s and 1970s, both as a band member and as a session drummer.-Biography:...
(formerly of The Turtles
The Turtles
The Turtles are an American rock group led by vocalists Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman. The band became notable for several Top 40 hits beginning with its cover version of Bob Dylan's "It Ain't Me Babe" in 1965...
and CSNY) played on most of the album and continued on for the promotional tour that followed. The Long John Silver LP is notable for its cover, which folded out into a humidor, which the inner photo depicted as storing cigars (which may have been filled with marijuana). The album rose to #20.
With the formal departure of Covington and addition of Kantner's old friend 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:...
on vocals, Jefferson Airplane began a tour to promote the Long John Silver LP in the summer of 1972, their first concerts in over a year. This tour included a major free concert in Central Park that drew more than 50,000 people.
They returned to the West Coast in September, playing concerts in San Diego, Hollywood
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
Hollywood is a famous district in Los Angeles, California, United States situated west-northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word Hollywood is often used as a metonym of American cinema...
and Albuquerque
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Albuquerque is the largest city in the state of New Mexico, United States. It is the county seat of Bernalillo County and is situated in the central part of the state, straddling the Rio Grande. The city population was 545,852 as of the 2010 Census and ranks as the 32nd-largest city in the U.S. As...
. The tour culminated in two shows at Winterland in San Francisco (September 21–22), both of which were recorded. At the end of the second show the group was joined on stage by Marty Balin, who sang lead vocals on "Volunteers" and the final song, "You Wear Your Dresses Too Short."
Although no official announcement was ever released, the Winterland shows proved to be the last live performances by Jefferson Airplane until their restoration and reunion in 1989. By the end of 1972 Casady and Kaukonen had left the group to concentrate on Hot Tuna and their recently acquired love of speed skating
Speed skating
Speed skating, or speedskating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors race each other in traveling a certain distance on skates. Types of speed skating are long track speed skating, short track speed skating, and marathon speed skating...
, which David Freiberg had reluctantly taken up in an attempt to bolster group camaraderie. With Kantner and Slick, Freiberg would record Baron Von Tollbooth and the Chrome Nun in 1973 and Dragon Fly
Dragon Fly
- Personnel :*Grace Slick – vocals, piano on "Be Young You"*Paul Kantner – vocals, rhythm guitar*John Barbata – drums, percussion*Craig Chaquico – lead guitar*Papa John Creach – electric violin...
in 1974. Both Kantner and Slick also recorded additional solo albums in the early 1970s.
Jefferson Airplane's second live album, Thirty Seconds Over Winterland
Thirty Seconds Over Winterland
-Personnel:Personnel credits from original Vinyl release.*Jack Casady – bass*Paul Kantner – vocals, rhythm guitar*Jorma Kaukonen – lead guitar, vocals*Grace Slick – vocals*Papa John Creach – electric violin*John Barbata – drums, percussion...
, was released in April 1973. Its cover art depicts a squadron of flying toasters, a design that the band later alleged was plagiarized for the famous "After Dark" computer screensaver
Screensaver
A screensaver is a type of computer program initially designed to prevent phosphor burn-in on CRT and plasma computer monitors by blanking the screen or filling it with moving images or patterns when the computer is not in use...
design. In 1974, a collection of previous unreleased material and the single "Mexico" and "Have You Seen The Saucers" was released as Early Flight, the last official Jefferson Airplane album until the self-titled reunion album of 1989.
Jefferson Starship, reunion and recent events: 1974 to present
In 1974, four years after Blows Against The Empire (the Jefferson Starship-prototype album with Paul Kantner and Grace Slick), Jefferson Starship was formally launched with the release of the album Dragon Fly and its single “Ride The Tiger”. Balin sang on one song, "Caroline," and in addition to Kantner and Slick the band consisted of David Freiberg (keyboards, bass), Craig Chaquico (lead guitar), Pete Sears (bass, keyboards), John Barbata (drums) and Papa John Creach (electric violin). Jefferson Starship continued in one form or the other into the 80s, but never achieved the critical acclaim of its predecessor band.After the acrimonious events that resulted in Jefferson Starship’s 1984 breakup, Paul Kantner reunited with Balin and Jack Casady in 1985 to form the KBC Band
KBC Band
The KBC Band was formed in 1985 by former Jefferson Airplane members Paul Kantner , Marty Balin and Jack Casady . Other members included Keith Crossan , Tim Gorman , Mark "Slick" Aguilar and Darrell Verdusco...
. They released their only album, KBC Band
KBC Band (album)
KBC Band is KBC Band's only album, featuring Paul Kantner, Marty Balin, and Jack Casady from Jefferson Airplane. The single "It's Not You, It's Not Me" was released shortly before the album's release...
(which included Kantner's hit, "America"), in 1987 on Arista Records. The KBC Band also featured keyboardist Tim Gorman
Tim Gorman
Tim Gorman is a rock keyboardist born and based in San Francisco. He has worked as a session musician from the 1980s until the present, his most notable collaborations being with Duane Eddy, Paul Kantner and The Who....
, who had played with The Who
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...
, and guitarist Slick Aguilar
Slick Aguilar
Mark "Slick" Aguilar is an American guitarist. He has worked with a number of notable musicians but is probably best known as a member of Jefferson Starship. His son Mark Aguilar is an upcoming rapper from New Jersey....
, who had played with David Crosby's band.
With Kantner reunited with Balin and Casady, the KBC Band opened the door to a full-blown Jefferson Airplane reunion. On March 4, 1988, during a Hot Tuna San Francisco gig at the Fillmore (with Paul Kantner, as well as Papa John Creach joining in) Grace Slick made a cameo appearance. This led to a formal reunion of the original Jefferson Airplane, featuring nearly all the main members, including founder Marty Balin, but without Spencer Dryden. A self-titled album
Jefferson Airplane (album)
Jefferson Airplane is the reunion album of San Francisco rock band Jefferson Airplane, released on Epic Records in 1989.-Overview:Marty Balin, Paul Kantner, Grace Slick, Jorma Kaukonen, and Jack Casady, who had played together on Surrealistic Pillow, After Bathing at Baxters, Crown of Creation and...
was released by Columbia Records to modest sales but the accompanying tour was a success. In 1996, Jefferson Airplane was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way,...
, with Balin, Casady, Dryden, Kantner & Kaukonen attending & performing at the ceremony. Grace Slick was absent, as she was unable to travel due to medical reasons.
Also in 2004, a film was released on DVD entitled Fly Jefferson Airplane (directed by Bob Sarles
Bob Sarles
Bob Sarles is a film & television editor, producer & director based in San Francisco and Los Angeles.-Biography:Bob Sarles began making films in 8mm and Super8, and videos on half inch reel to reel video in the early 1970s as a teen in the suburbs of Buffalo, New York...
). It covers the years 1965–1972 and includes recent interviews with band members and thirteen complete songs (almost all are vintage performances). The one recent performance is a solo "Embryonic Journey" by Jorma Kaukonen (from a 1996 New York City reunion for the Airplane's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame).
Members
Discography
- Jefferson Airplane Takes OffJefferson Airplane Takes OffJefferson Airplane Takes Off is the debut album of San Francisco rock band Jefferson Airplane, released on RCA Victor Records in September 1966. The personnel differ from the later "classic" lineup and the music is more folk-rock than the harder psychedelic sound for which the band later became...
(1966) - Surrealistic PillowSurrealistic PillowSurrealistic Pillow is the second album by American psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane, released in February 1967.Original drummer Alexander 'Skip' Spence had left the band in mid-1966, replaced by a jazz drummer from Los Angeles, Spencer Dryden, a nephew of Charlie Chaplin. New lead vocalist...
(1967) - After Bathing at Baxter'sAfter Bathing at Baxter'sAfter Bathing at Baxter's was released in 1967 and is the third album by the San Francisco rock band Jefferson Airplane.Unlike Surrealistic Pillow, released earlier the same year, After Bathing at Baxter's is classified as psychedelic rock because it eschews the more commercial type pop songs, such...
(1967) - Crown of CreationCrown of Creation-Personnel:*Marty Balin – vocals, rhythm guitar*Grace Slick – vocals, piano, organ*Paul Kantner – rhythm guitar, vocals*Jorma Kaukonen – lead guitar, electric chicken, vocals*Spencer Dryden – drums, piano, organ, steel balls, vocals...
(1968) - VolunteersVolunteers (Jefferson Airplane album)-Personnel:*Grace Slick – vocals, piano on "The Farm", "Hey Fredrick", "Eskimo Blue Day", and "Volunteers", organ on "Meadowlands", recorder on "Eskimo Blue Day"*Paul Kantner – vocals, rhythm guitar*Marty Balin – vocals, percussion...
(1969) - BarkBark (album)-Personnel:* Jack Casady – bass* Joey Covington – percussion, drums, vocals* Paul Kantner – guitar, vocals* Jorma Kaukonen – lead guitar, vocals* Grace Slick – piano, vocals- Additional personnel :...
(1971) - Long John SilverLong John Silver (album)-Personnel:*Grace Slick – vocals, piano*Jack Casady – bass*Paul Kantner – vocals, rhythm guitar*Jorma Kaukonen – lead guitar, vocals*Papa John Creach – electric violin*John Barbata – drums, tambourine, "against the grain stubble scraping"...
(1972) - Jefferson AirplaneJefferson Airplane (album)Jefferson Airplane is the reunion album of San Francisco rock band Jefferson Airplane, released on Epic Records in 1989.-Overview:Marty Balin, Paul Kantner, Grace Slick, Jorma Kaukonen, and Jack Casady, who had played together on Surrealistic Pillow, After Bathing at Baxters, Crown of Creation and...
(1989)