Rock and roll island (Jefferson Airplane) (LP 2829 - 2834)

Jefferson Airplane  Up Against The Wall (Vinyl, Bootleg, no date) ***  

Jefferson Airplane  Bark (Vinyl, Grunt Records, 1971) ****  

Jefferson Airplane  Long John Silver (Vinyl, Grunt Records, 1972) ***  

Jefferson Airplane  Thirty Seconds Over Winterland (Vinyl, Grunt Records, 1973) *****  

Jefferson Airplane  Last Flight (CD, Charly Records, 1973 gig, released 2007) **** 

Jefferson Airplane  Jefferson Airplane (Vinyl, Epic Records, 1989) ***  

Genre: Pop rock, Grunt Records

Places I remember: Amoeba Records, Real Groovy Records, JB Hi Fi, Marbecks Records.

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Have You Seen The Saucers (30 Seconds Over Winterland), Common Market Madrigal (JA)

Gear costume: War Movie (Bark), Summer of Love (JA)

Active compensatory factors: It's a bit of a moot point where Jefferson Airplane ends and Jefferson Starship starts. Plus, there's Starship.

I'm going to split this part of my collection into seventies Jefferson Airplane, then Jefferson Starship, and finally Starship. Buckle up, settle in, grab a coffee! Gonna be a long haul flight.

It does get complicated - Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship had a murky start with some overlap.

It didn't help that Paul Kantner's 1970 'solo' album Blows Against The Empire is credited to Paul Kantner/ Jefferson Starship.

Jefferson Airplane continued to tour and record into the seventies. Bark came in 1971, and Long John Silver and Thirty Seconds Over Winterland are from 1972 and both are credited to Jefferson Airplane.

So, I'm kicking off with a bootleg featuring the 1970 version of JA - Up Against The Wall..., as I ended the last sixties Jefferson Airplane post with a bootleg - Almost Starshipshape (a 1970 concert).

It covers similar material to Almost Starshipshape, and is in good shape soundwise and performance wise. Grace still sings Eskimo Blue Day with passion!

The seventies JA studio albums (and their sixth studio album) start with 1971's Bark. I've included the brown paper cover that then exposes the fish head record cover. 

Marty Balin has gone since those bootlegged concerts and new members Papa John Creach and drummer Joey Covington are now on board the airplane (so - to recap - no Balin or Spencer Dryden from the original JA).

Grunt Record's first album (Bark) is a mixed stylistic bag: Kantner provides three Sci-Fi gems - When the Earth Moves Again, Rock and Roll Island and War Movie; Grace has three weird songs; Jorma has a country/bluesy few and Joey Covington also contributes. 

Sidebar: Concurrent with the emergence of the seventies JA and Jorma and Jack's growth would be the formation of Hot Tuna - their first album Hot Tuna came out in 1970.

Call me perverse but I love Bark's eclectic nature. It kicks off with Papa John announcing his presence with his singular fiddle sound on When the Earth Moves Again. Paul and Grace harmonise perfectly and we're off and running!

This was probably their last album where they pushed the envelope with experimentation. It rewards their efforts too.

Long John Silver was their last album as Jefferson Airplane before they reunited briefly in 1989 for an album. It was a messy time for the band. Joey Covington is on some tracks but he's replaced by John Barbata for others.

The positive is that Grace gets the lion's share of the vocals and Milk Train is a standout song with a driving fiddle riff from Papa John. However, it's easy to see in hindsight that the band had run out of ideas and needed the break. The material is comparatively weak with the worst song being The Son of Jesus.

The live version of the band at this time (with David Freiberg now in the band) was absolutely on fire!  Thirty Seconds Over Winterland is epic with the band in peak form. Highlights abound and this is one of my JA go-to albums.

Jorma's songs (Feel So Good and Trial By Fire) are particularly impressive, much better than the Long John Silver versions, and point toward how exciting Hot Tuna would be. 

The Last Flight double CD chronicles their complete Winterland gig from late September 1972 - some of which appeared on Thirty Seconds Over Winterland.

The band definitely went out on peak form as a live band. This is a continuation of the superb sound from Thirty Seconds. Why the terrible cover though? Very shoddy!

The comeback album of 1989 gets a bad press but I really like a lot of it. I mean the album contains the combined voices of Marty, Grace and Paul Kantner! What's not to love! Two of those voices have passed away and Grace has been retired for a long time, so I eagerly embrace this album for that reason.

The songs are pretty solid and some are even great Jefferson Airplane songs - particularly Marty's Summer of Love and Grace's Common Market Madrigal.

Where do they all belong? Next up - the airplane becomes the Jefferson Starship.

2/3 of a mile in 10 seconds (Jefferson Airplane) (LP 2750 - 2756)

BLɅϽKPIИK  Born Pink (Vinyl, YG Entertainment, 2023) ****  

Jefferson Airplane  Live at the Fillmore Auditorium 10/15/66 (CD, Sony Music, 2010) **** 

Jefferson Starship  Vinoy Park (CD, Elleu Multimedia, 2003) ***  

Jefferson Starship  Performing Jefferson Airplane @ Woodstock June 12 2009 (CD, Bear Records, 2009) **

Tony Williams Lifetime  (turn it over) (CD, Verve Records, 1970/ reissue 1997) ****  

Jimmy Buffett  Living and Dying in 3/4 Time (Vinyl, ABC Records, 1974) ****

Jimmy Buffett  You Had To Be There (Vinyl, ABC Records, 1978) *** 

Genre: K-Pop, rock, jazz fusion. easy going Americana (a.k.a. country rock)

Places I remember: JB Hi Fi, Slow Boat Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Pink Venom (Black Pink)

Gear costume: Big Nick (Tony Williams Lifetime), Come Monday (Jimmy Buffett), Margaritaville (Jimmy Buffett)

Active compensatory factors: A round up of new purchases for this post, thanks to recent visits to Slow Boat Records in Wellington and JB Hi Fi in Palmy.

Again, the eclectic nature of my interests is the main take away! From K-pop to country rock to sixties psychedelia and on to jazz fusion. I love 'em all.

Blackpink is a South Korean all girl pop group that have become huge outside of South Korea thanks to the hit song Pink Venom. It even was number one in Australia!

Recently, I was researching songs with pink in the title when I stumbled upon this song on Spotify. It's instantly infectious, so when I saw the album in the sale bins at JB Hi Fi it was a no brainer.

Pink Venom dominates the album but only just. There are plenty of other perfect pop songs on there. The Madonna, Lady Gaga influence is noticeable, but this is 2020's pop music with a shiny new sheen.

Next - it's back into the dim past for Jefferson Airplane's late show in October 1966 - the last show with Signe Anderson as part of the band.

It's pretty damn stunning! The sound is pristine and the performance is bang on. Marty and Paul are in great voice and although the band is in transition, they are tight! Incredible that they'd only been together for a year. Jack is forever cool - his bass lines drive the plane, even then.

Sound wise, these sound board recordings of the post 2000 versions of Jefferson Starship (Kantner and Balin plus others on Vinoy Park; Kantner and Frieberg on the 2009 version) are mostly* good as gold (a little bass heavy) and the performances are fine, but Kantner and Balin/ Kantner and Frieberg are far from their peak but still recognisably them.

The stand ins for Grace Slick - Diana Mangano and Cathy Richardson, are okay but there ain't nobody like Grace!

*Deal on the 2009 one cuts out vocals which is unfortunate as Know You Rider displays some fine harmonies.

Tony Williams Lifetime's Turn It Over, their second album, is from 1970 and features Larry Young on organ, Jack Bruce on bass and John McLaughlin on guitar. Phew! What a line-up. 

Those guys couldn't make a dud record if they tried! Intense sheets of sound rule the day as Tony Williams pounds the drums throughout with purpose and the John McLaughlin/Jack Bruce combo pin their ears back and go for it. Vital!

The opposite extreme is Jimmy Buffett and his easy-going laid-back dude routine that I also love! I picked up two of his seventies albums from Slow Boat (how appropriate is that?!).

Living and Dying in 3/4 Time was his fourth studio album, and You Had To Be There was his first live album (a double at that).

There is something extremely appealing about his country rock style. It's taken me a while to appreciate him, though. 

I was of course aware of Margaritaville back in the seventies, and Roger Marbeck was a big fan. For some reason I ignored the appeal until Jimmy's passing last September. Should have listened to Roger a long time ago. He's always right!

Nevermind, I'm making up for lost time now. These are both great for different reasons. And I'll even accept the yodeling at the end of Brand New Country Star.

Where do they all belong? Still keen to track down a copy of Emergency! by Tony Williams' Lifetime.

Let me in (Jefferson Airplane) (LP 2044 - 2054)

Jefferson Airplane  Jefferson Airplane Takes Off (Vinyl, RCA Records, 1966) ****  

Jefferson Airplane    Surrealistic Pillow (Vinyl, RCA Records, 1967) *****  

Jefferson Airplane   After Bathing At Baxter's (Vinyl, RCA Records, 1967) ***  

Jefferson Airplane   Crown Of Creation (Vinyl, RCA Records, 1968) *****  

Jefferson Airplane   Volunteers (Vinyl and CD, RCA Records, 1969) *** 

Jefferson Airplane   Bless It's Pointed Little Head (Vinyl and CD, RCA Records, 1969) *****  

Jefferson Airplane   The Woodstock Experience (CD, RCA, August 17, 1969 released 2009) ****  

Jefferson Airplane   White Rabbit. Live. (CD, Master Tone, recorded sometime in the sixties) *  

Jefferson Airplane   Live At The Fillmore East (CD, RCA, May-June 1968 released 1998) ***  

Jefferson Airplane   At Golden Gate Park May 7 1969 (Vinyl, Charly, 2015) ***  

Jefferson Airplane   Almost Starshipshape (Vinyl, Bootleg) ****  

Genre: San Francisco rock 

Places I remember: Marbecks Records (for all the studio records); Toad Hall (for the bootleg); JB Hi Fi (Golden Gate); Real Groovy (for the CDs)

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Let Me In (Takes Off)

Gear costume: It's No Secret (Takes Off); Won't You Try/Saturday Afternoon (After Bathing At Baxter's)

Active compensatory factors: This band is one of my favs of all time; I long ago became a completist for their albums. 

This first part takes in their sixties' output. A bumper edition, in other words.

First album, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off, and the sound is right there!  

The album builds strongly on a folky base, there's the male and female interplay that Paul loved, the sinewy guitar lines from Jorma and there's Jack (he carries it, according to Marty).

The unique sound of the magic combination between Jorma, Jack, Marty and Paul (with Skip Spense on drums briefly and Signe Anderson providing the female foil in the harmonies) defines Jefferson Airplane.

It's a great start - most of the songs are brilliant and fully realized. Takes off is right!!

Second album, Surrealistic Pillow, sees the entrance of the force of nature that is Grace Slick, and new drummer Spencer Dryden.

The Jefferson Airplane folk rock sound from Takes Off is still there but with a different level of confidence, and there's a rockier edge now (3/5 of a Mile in 10 Seconds). Grace takes over the Signe role and is a presence but this is still Marty's band. Although less than half of the songs are his this time out.

Grace's sublime Somebody To Love finishes off the album, and although there was a bit of a wait, she's signaling her presence. Big time!

Side note: My copy is a UK one which repeats a couple of tracks from Takes Off and ignores White Rabbit and Plastic Fantastic Lover! Weird.

Third album, After Bathing At Baxter's, and we're not in Kansas anymore. Given it's their second album of 1967, it's quite some evolution.

Starting with some wild feedback, the album takes us all on a trip in the newly psychedelic Airplane. 

Even though it's clearly influenced by LSD, the songs are still there and it's much more democratic now - everybody gets in on the act. Overall though, it's dominated by Paul Kantner rather than Marty (who only contributes one song). Paul's Won't You Try/Saturday Afternoon is pure class! Big shout out to Jack Cassidy on this album and those last two songs.

As for Grace on this album? Rejoyce gives a glimpse of her maniacal sensibilities. It's plain scary! And utterly brilliant!

In 1968 the band produced Crown of Creation and it feels like a quantum leap in terms of sound design and songs. Lather kicks off the album and is just extraordinary in so many ways. Grace in top form!

From there on it's one great song after another with highlights thick and fast: Grace's version of Crosby's Triad (wohsers!!); Jorma's Star Track is an early pointer to Hot Tuna; Crown Of Creation; Greasy Heart; and finally, the majestic album closer - The House at Pooneil Corners.

Volunteers, from late 1969, is the last studio album to feature Marty and Spencer, as the band went into a hiatus for two years.  It has its moments (We Can Be Together, Wooden Ships, Eskimo Blue Day) but it's more uneven than Crown Of Creation. Garcia's pedal steel, for instance, on countryish The Farm doesn't quite work for me. Nor does the honky tonk-ish A Song For All Seasons.

As an album it's quite a muddle of styles - at times too bombastic, at others the country influence sits alongside science fiction or calls to man the barricades. I guess it's of its time but it does point to a certain fracturing of intent.

Live albums from the sixties: 

JA were a great live band. Not only did they sound great but they looked like a sixties psychedelic rock band should look.

There was only one live album released at the time - 1969's Bless Its Pointed Little Head, but there have been a number of excellent live albums released since then. Here's a run down:

Bless Its Pointed Little Head has a great intro from King Kong - the bit about the airplanes, beauty and the beast, gets a roar. 

The sound is tough, no nonsense (like the cover featuring just Jack). 

Highlight - 3/5's Of A Mile In 10 Seconds. Jack's bass and Spencer's drive kick off the 1968 live version of JA superbly. Not only that, Grace soars, Marty has that wide open voice, the harmonies are spectacular and we're off!

N.b. The CD version has three extra tracks.

The Woodstock Experience will forever be imprinted on my brain! 

There's Grace in bare feet and her white dress with fringes, her chirpy  'Good morning people', Jack looking like he'd just alighted from a Viking longship, Jorma/Marty/ Paul in shirt sleeves and Spencer with his natty cowboy hat on drums. Yeah - the regular guys and Nicky Hopkins. What a band!

Highlights - The Other Side Of This Life (first song, it's morning and they tear into it like people possessed!! The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil (Jack and Spencer on fire stoked by Grace!) - it peaks and peaks and then Paul throws in some stuff from Starship. Unbelievably great!

White Rabbit. Live. This one's provenance is unclear as the package doesn't reveal much and online sources only say that it's from sometime in the sixties.

It looks budget with that terrible cover and title, and while the music is sometimes great (and mostly recorded well - doesn't sound like a radio broadcast), it isn't a cohesive concert - applause fades until the next song starts. It even includes a song called Ride that is clearly NOT Jefferson Airplane, and even though the band did do a version of Get Together on Takes Off, the version here sounds more like The Youngbloods. All very strange and shonky.

Highlight: She Has Funny Cars

Live at the Fillmore East contains a compilation of the best performances from four shows May 3 and 4 (early and late show). It's still a bit hit and miss (hit - Fat Angel and It's No Secret; miss - The Other Side Of This Life)

Highlight: Fat Angel

At Golden Gate Park May 7 1969 is a looser Airplane playing in a polo field. It's basically a bootleg, but a superior quality one. The band sound blissed out - Somebody To Love is  slowed down and woozy.

Highlight: Good Shepherd - Grace asks Jorma at the end if he wrote it or if it's a traditional arrangement. He confirms Trad. The sincerity of his playing inspires the band on this one. A beautiful moment - would have been a great moment in the park.

Finally, Almost Starshipshape and this one is a bootleg. It includes Have You Seen The Saucers? and Mexico on the track listing but nothing from Bark - and, according to Discogs comes from a concert at Winterland, 1970, so it's well named as it straddles the sixties JA and the emerging new version of JA.

The sound is pretty good for a bootleg. Clear and on the whole better than Golden Gate Park. Marty is still a presence but he'd split the scene fairly soon (April '71 in fact).

Highlights: One of my favourite Airplane songs - Have You Seen The Saucers?; Somebody To Love (a very spirited, together, performance).

Where do they all belong? A lot more JA to come. Next up: The seventies albums.

Supplementing the records there are a couple of other things worth mentioning: Richard Butterworth's effort in the On Track... series looks at every album, every song by Jefferson Airplane. It's an invaluable source of information. I got this from Foyles in Charing Cross.

A visual delight that I have in the DVD collection is Fly Jefferson Airplane - a collection of complete performances from various sources. It's wonderful seeing the band in all their colourful glory!

Moonbeam (Joe E Covington) (LP 618)

Joe E Covington Fat Fandango (Vinyl, Grunt Records, 1973) ***

Genre: Grunt Records (American pop/rock) 

Places I remember: Real Groovy Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Hideout (A Crook's Best Friend)

Gear costume: Country Girl

Active compensatory factors: I knew of Covington mainly as the Jefferson Airplane's drummer between Spencer Dryden and John Barbata. A brief time span that included work on only one and a half JA albums.

I wasn't aware of the solo album until I did some research on the Grunt catalogue to see what I was missing. Real Groovy came to the rescue with Jack Bonus and this, and so now I only have two Grunt albums to find (by One and Jack Traynor).

Joe's solo work isn't much in keeping with the JA stuff (his Pretty As You Feel is a standout on Bark). Instead there are homages to doo-wop and more experimental song styles/formats. Hideout, for instance, grooves along and ends with a drum solo!! Cool!

Where do they all belong? This was only solo album - tragically he was killed in a car accident in 2013. 

For his work with Jefferson Airplane (where he's known as Joey Covington) I can recommend: Bark, and Long John Silver.

The little boy who flew away (Jack Bonus) (LP 538)

Jack Bonus Jack Bonus (Vinyl, Grunt, 1972) ** 

Genre: Grunt Records (I've now grouped all my non Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship/Starship Grunt albums into a section à la Apple Records). Hence this album that I wouldn't know about (or buy) if it wasn't for the fact that it was on the Grunt label!

Places I remember: Real Groovy Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Pecan Pie (Extract) (sadly, it's not available as a single track on YouTube but you can find it at the 15.37 mark as you listen to the whole album here)

Gear costume: The Little Boy Who Flew Away; St Louis Missouri Boy

Active compensatory factors: San Franciscan musician Jack Bonus is a weird one - he sings in a kind of folk/country style (his vocals are an acquired taste), plays sax and flute really well (see Pecan Pie above), writes some interesting songs on this album, and obviously interested someone within Jefferson Starship.

Where do they all belong? This is the only solo album that I'm aware of. It's best described as quirky - with shades of Dan Hicks on some songs. Pecan Pie is my standout track but it's not representative of the album.

That's it for the vinyl section for a while - time to return to the CD collection.

You left your mark on me (Marty Balin) (LP 426 - 428)

Bodacious DF Bodacious DF (Vinyl, RCA, 1973) ***

Marty Balin Balin (Vinyl, EMI America, 1981) ***

Marty Balin Lucky (Vinyl, EMI America, 1982) ***

 
Genre: American pop/rock

Places I remember: Marbecks (Balin), Amoeba Records - San Francisco (Lucky, Bodacious DF)

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Hearts (Balin)

Gear costume: I Do Believe In You (Balin), Heart Of Stone (Lucky) 

Active compensatory factors: When Marty Balin left Jefferson Airplane in 1971, he embarked on other projects until rejoining in 1975 (he left again in '78). 

One such activity was this one off album by a loose supergroup called Bodacious DF. What a ridiculous name. I never would have found this if it hadn't been positioned in the Airplane/Balin racks at Amoeba Records.

Other members of the band included personel from other San Francisco bands (Quicksilver Messenger Service, Country Joe and The Fish). 

Thanks to the bass moves, the music is funkier than Airplane's early style of folk/rock music. Marty is the lead vocalist and he proves he can do funk as well.

After leaving Airplane that second time, he went solo and produced regular solo albums right up until 2016. 

Balin was the first and Lucky the second; they are close in style - mianstream rock, and could be Volume 1 and 2 of a double album. 

Each has some great moments, with his trademark quality vocals. They utilise his strengths in a glossier package but class will out!

Where do they all belong? Sadly Marty passed away in 2018. It was a shock. I read about it on the train into London and gasped. Jacky asked me what was wrong - that sort of shock. 

No more creamy Balin vocals and wonderful music from this San Franciscian legend. 

RIP Marty.

Don't tell me things will work out fine, cos I know the truth and I'm running out of time (Marty Balin) #70 of 300 ish singles

Marty Balin Hearts/ Freeway (EMI F 8084,  1981)

Arr - the eighties.

Not a very forgiving decade to the Jefferson Airplane alumni like Starship and Marty Balin.

Marty is a colourful character: an original member of the Airplane, he's floated in and out of the Paul Kantner dominated picture during the years but the eighties was largely an unsuccessful attempt at a solo career.

In 1981, things looked okay for a start. He released his first solo album, Balin, featuring two Top 40 hits, Hearts (#8) and Atlanta Lady (#27). This was followed in 1983 by a second solo album, Lucky, along with a Japanese-only EP called There's No Shoulder. Lucky did not match the performance of Balin; it suffers from the worst kinds of eighties synth(etic) excess and his contract with EMI ended.

Hearts though is a nice melodic stab at the charts and deserved its success. Marty has such a great voice it's really unfortunate that his solo attempt coincided with the plastic decade.

Hidden gem: Freeway doesn't appear on the album Balin for some utterly bizarre reason. It's a great rocker. Hearts is a ballad so gets the A side obviously, that was what he had become known for, but Freeway is the better side. Yes it has the dreaded synths but it also has, shock horror, a GUITAR SOLO!!!!! 

What do you get when you fall in love? (Isaac Hayes)

I'm back in Al Ain with my horde of CDs from the trip to UK and France.

I've written already about the sad, and increasing, trend for CD stores to wither and die, but I did have success as well as the disappointment of finding favourite stores closed down.

I managed to knock a few titles off my wants list: Keith Jarrett's Koln Concert and Riverside (Virgin Megastore France); Josh T Pearson and the 6 CD Woodstock box set (Fives in Leigh-on-Sea); DJ Shadow (FOPP in London) and Symphony X (HMV in Oxford St) were some of the harder to find things. Other titles that I can't get in Dubai or Abu Dhabi like the latest from Bon Iver, Wild Beasts and Fleet Foxes were also in the haul.

I'm working through the purchases and so far only one dud to report - Billy Cobham's Shabazz. And even then - maybe not a dud. When I put it on Jacky hated it so I whipped it out of the machine to try in the car sometime when she's not around.

I was amazed to find a lot of live archival CDs by bands like Jefferson Airplane on my travels. [Maybe a niche to explore. I know there is a website that just has old convert tapes to download]. One of my favourite all time albums is their 30 Seconds Over Winterland. I found a double live CD by JA at Winterland in 1972 that I've had on repeat for days.

It's not brilliantly recorded but it does shine a light on some neglected back catalogue jems from Long John Silver and Bark. It's great to hear Paul Kantner and Grace Slick soar through songs like When The Earth Moves Again (from Bark). Their voices combine so well! Amazingly Jack Cassidy gets the biggest cheer from the fans!

I'm currently grooving to Black Moses by Isaac Hayes. Another great (under rated) vocalist. The dude could really sing!!

Burn me in hell but as long as it pays (10CC)

Okay - so the final post in my album cover series and it's the second, best of the rest and last one on the arty farty theme. Next post - the Big Man remembered.

Aren't these covers awesome??!!

Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea

King Crimson - In The Court of the Crimson King

Frank Zappa - The Grand Wazoo



My series ends with the first cover that really zapped me between the eyeballs.

 Love and peace - Wozza