The Great Society
Encyclopedia
The Great Society were a 1960s San Francisco rock
band
that existed between 1965 and 1966, and were closely associated with the burgeoning Bay Area
acid rock
scene. Best known as the original group of model turned singer, Grace Slick
, the initial line-up of the band also featured her then-husband Jerry Slick on drums
, his brother Darby Slick
on guitar
, David Miner
on vocals
and guitar, Bard DuPont on bass
, and Peter van Gelder on flute
, bass
, and saxophone
. Miner and DuPont would not remain with the band for the duration of its existence.
to start their own group, assembling it fairly quickly. Grace has also said that seeing Jefferson Airplane
perform for the first time was an influence as well. The band made its debut at the Coffee Gallery in San Francisco's North Beach section on October 15, 1965 and continued to perform throughout 1966.
The band released only one single during its lifetime, the Darby Slick penned "Someone to Love
" (b/w "Free Advice"). The single was issued in February 1966 on Autumn Records
' tiny Northbeach subsidiary label and made little impact outside of the Bay Area. While signed to Autumn Records, the band worked with the label's staff producer
, Sylvester Stewart
(better known as Sly Stone), who at the time was still in the process of forming his own band, Sly and the Family Stone. Purportedly, Stewart would eventually walk out as the band's producer after it took The Great Society over fifty take
s to record a version of the song "Free Advice" that was suitable for release.
Momentum for the band began to build as they started opening for Jefferson Airplane
and other successful local bands, with Columbia Records
offering The Great Society a recording contract
. By the time the contract arrived in the mail, however, Grace had been spirited away to replace departing vocalist Signe Toly Anderson
in the Airplane, taking "Someone to Love" and her own composition, "White Rabbit
", one of Great Society's live showcases, with her. Jefferson Airplane went on to record "Someone to Love" (retitled as "Somebody to Love") and "White Rabbit" themselves, with both songs being issued by the band as singles during 1967, reaching #5 and #8 on the Billboard Hot 100
respectively. As both the visual and musical focal point, the band could not survive without Grace Slick and disbanded in the fall of 1966. Grace and Jerry Slick would divorce as well.
After Grace Slick had found fame with Jefferson Airplane, Columbia Records released tapes of live performances by The Great Society in 1968, on the albums Conspicuous Only in its Absence
and How It Was. These two albums were later repackaged as a double LP
named Collector's Item in 1971. This double album has been issued twice on CD
, once by Edsel Records in 1989, under the title Live at the Matrix, and again in 2008 under its original title. In 1995 Sundazed Records
released the Born to Be Burned compilation
, featuring both sides of the band's debut single along with a number of previously unreleased studio recordings.
"The Great Society" was a popular name for musical groups in the 1960s, due to the popularity of the term as used by the then President of the United States
, Lyndon B. Johnson
's administration. On one occasion, in Fort Worth, Texas
, The Great Society (with Grace Slick) and a similarly named four-man group performed on opposite sides of the city on the same evening.
1A live concert version of "Somebody to Love
" from this album was included on the 1968 Columbia Records' sampler, Rock Machine - I Love You.
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
Musical ensemble
A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...
that existed between 1965 and 1966, and were closely associated with the burgeoning Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
acid rock
Acid rock
Acid rock is a form of psychedelic rock, which is characterized with long instrumental solos, few lyrics and musical improvisation. Tom Wolfe describes the LSD-influenced music of The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Pink Floyd, The Doors, Iron Butterfly, Big Brother & The Holding Company, Cream,...
scene. Best known as the original group of model turned singer, 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...
, the initial line-up of the band also featured her then-husband Jerry Slick on drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, his brother Darby Slick
Darby Slick
Darby Slick is an American guitarist and songwriter, best known as a member of The Great Society, and as the writer of the Jefferson Airplane song "Somebody to Love". In 1965 he co-founded The Great Society with Jerry Slick, Jenn Piersol, and Grace Slick...
on guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, David Miner
David Miner (musician)
David Miner , sometimes credited as David Minor, is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter, perhaps best known as a member of Grace Slick's The Great Society in the 1960s. He actually co-founded The Great Society along with Jerry, Darby, and Grace Slick as well as Bard Du Pont, in the sense...
on vocals
Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
and guitar, Bard DuPont on bass
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, and Peter van Gelder on flute
Flute
The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
, bass
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, and saxophone
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
. Miner and DuPont would not remain with the band for the duration of its existence.
History
In the late summer of 1965, Grace, Darby, and Jerry were inspired by The BeatlesThe 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...
to start their own group, assembling it fairly quickly. Grace has also said that seeing Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band formed in San Francisco in 1965. A pioneer of the psychedelic rock movement, Jefferson Airplane was the first band from the San Francisco scene to achieve mainstream commercial and critical success....
perform for the first time was an influence as well. The band made its debut at the Coffee Gallery in San Francisco's North Beach section on October 15, 1965 and continued to perform throughout 1966.
The band released only one single during its lifetime, the Darby Slick penned "Someone 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...
" (b/w "Free Advice"). The single was issued in February 1966 on Autumn Records
Autumn Records
Autumn Records was a 1960s San Francisco-based pop record label. Its most prominent contract was considered The Beau Brummels, a band who released a pair of top 20 singles, "Laugh, Laugh" and "Just a Little"....
' tiny Northbeach subsidiary label and made little impact outside of the Bay Area. While signed to Autumn Records, the band worked with the label's staff producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
, Sylvester Stewart
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...
(better known as Sly Stone), who at the time was still in the process of forming his own band, Sly and the Family Stone. Purportedly, Stewart would eventually walk out as the band's producer after it took The Great Society over fifty take
Take
A take is a single continuous recorded performance. The term is used in film and music to denote and track the stages of production.-Film:In cinematography, a take refers to each filmed "version" of a particular shot or "setup"...
s to record a version of the song "Free Advice" that was suitable for release.
Momentum for the band began to build as they started opening for Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band formed in San Francisco in 1965. A pioneer of the psychedelic rock movement, Jefferson Airplane was the first band from the San Francisco scene to achieve mainstream commercial and critical success....
and other successful local bands, with Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
offering The Great Society a recording contract
Recording contract
A recording contract is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording artist , where the artist makes a record for the label to sell and promote...
. By the time the contract arrived in the mail, however, Grace had been spirited away to replace departing 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:...
in the Airplane, taking "Someone to Love" and her own composition, "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...
", one of Great Society's live showcases, with her. Jefferson Airplane went on to record "Someone to Love" (retitled as "Somebody to Love") and "White Rabbit" themselves, with both songs being issued by the band as singles during 1967, reaching #5 and #8 on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
respectively. As both the visual and musical focal point, the band could not survive without Grace Slick and disbanded in the fall of 1966. Grace and Jerry Slick would divorce as well.
After Grace Slick had found fame with Jefferson Airplane, Columbia Records released tapes of live performances by The Great Society in 1968, on the albums Conspicuous Only in its Absence
Conspicuous Only in its Absence
Conspicuous Only in Its Absence is an album by the American psychedelic rock band The Great Society and was released in 1968 by Columbia Records. The album consists of recordings made during a live concert performance by the band at The Matrix club in San Francisco in 1966. Additional recordings...
and How It Was. These two albums were later repackaged as a double LP
Double album
A double album is an audio album which spans two units of the primary medium in which it is sold, typically records and compact discs....
named Collector's Item in 1971. This double album has been issued twice on CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
, once by Edsel Records in 1989, under the title Live at the Matrix, and again in 2008 under its original title. In 1995 Sundazed Records
Sundazed Records
Sundazed Records is a record label based in Coxsackie, in the Catskills of New York. It specializes in obscure and rare recordings from the 1950s to the 1970s.Label founders Bob Irwin and his wife Mary started the label in 1989...
released the Born to Be Burned compilation
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
, featuring both sides of the band's debut single along with a number of previously unreleased studio recordings.
"The Great Society" was a popular name for musical groups in the 1960s, due to the popularity of the term as used by the then President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
, Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
's administration. On one occasion, in Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. Located in North Central Texas, just southeast of the Texas Panhandle, the city is a cultural gateway into the American West and covers nearly in Tarrant, Parker, Denton, and...
, The Great Society (with Grace Slick) and a similarly named four-man group performed on opposite sides of the city on the same evening.
Members
- Darby SlickDarby SlickDarby Slick is an American guitarist and songwriter, best known as a member of The Great Society, and as the writer of the Jefferson Airplane song "Somebody to Love". In 1965 he co-founded The Great Society with Jerry Slick, Jenn Piersol, and Grace Slick...
- guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, backing vocalsBacking vocalistA backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists... - Grace SlickGrace SlickGrace Slick is an American singer and songwriter, who was one of the lead singers of the rock groups The Great Society, Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, and Starship, and was a solo artist, for nearly three decades, from the mid-1960s to the mid-1990s...
- vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
, recorderRecorderThe recorder is a woodwind musical instrument of the family known as fipple flutes or internal duct flutes—whistle-like instruments which include the tin whistle. The recorder is end-blown and the mouth of the instrument is constricted by a wooden plug, known as a block or fipple...
, organOrgan (music)The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
, guitar, bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick.... - David MinerDavid Miner (musician)David Miner , sometimes credited as David Minor, is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter, perhaps best known as a member of Grace Slick's The Great Society in the 1960s. He actually co-founded The Great Society along with Jerry, Darby, and Grace Slick as well as Bard Du Pont, in the sense...
- vocals, guitar - Jerry Slick - drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
- Bard Dupont - bass, harmonicaHarmonicaThe harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
- Jean Piersol - vocals (for a short time in 1965)
- Peter Vandergelder (van Gelder) - bass, fluteFluteThe flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
, saxophoneSaxophoneThe saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846... - Oscar Daniels - guitar
Albums
| Album | Label | Year Released | Year Recorded |
| Conspicuous Only in Its Absence Conspicuous Only in its Absence Conspicuous Only in Its Absence is an album by the American psychedelic rock band The Great Society and was released in 1968 by Columbia Records. The album consists of recordings made during a live concert performance by the band at The Matrix club in San Francisco in 1966. Additional recordings... 1 |
Columbia Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company... |
1968 | 1966 |
| How It Was | Columbia | 1968 | 1966 |
| Collector's Item | Columbia | 1971 | 1966 |
| Live at the Matrix | Edsel/Demon | 1989 | 1966 |
| Born to Be Burned | Sundazed | 1995 | 1965 |
1A live concert version of "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...
" from this album was included on the 1968 Columbia Records' sampler, Rock Machine - I Love You.
Singles
- "Someone to LoveSomebody 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...
"/"Free Advice" (Northbeach #1001) February 1966 - "Sally, Go 'Round The RosesSally Go 'Round the Roses"Sally Go 'Round the Roses" is the name of a 1963 hit by the Jaynetts, a Bronx-based one-hit wonder girl group, released by J&S Records on the Tuff label.-Background:...
"/"Didn't Think So" (CBS 44583) 1968