It's only music (Grace Slick) (LP 2247 - 2250)

Grace Slick  Manhole (Vinyl, Grunt Records, 1973) ****  

Grace Slick  Dreams (Vinyl, RCA Records, 1980) ***  

Grace Slick  Welcome To The Wrecking Ball (Vinyl, RCA Records, 1981) ***  

Grace Slick  Software (Vinyl, RCA Records, 1984) ****  

Genre: pop rock; Grunt Records 

Places I remember: Marbecks Records 

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles:  Better Lying Down (Manhole)

Gear costume: El Diablo (Dreams); Me and Me (Software)

Active compensatory factors: I love Grace's attitude (Manhole? Really?) and her abilities/skills. She is a force!! Take a listen to Better Lying Down if in doubt.

All four of these albums present a different Slick face and she has many more potentially, but this is it for her solo career (she's now retired so zero chance of anything new these days).

Manhole is her only album on Grunt, made with help from the usual suspects: Freiberg; Kantner; Kaukonen; Crosby; Casady; Barbata, plus new boy - Craig Chaquico who would figure in the reconstituted Jefferson Starship.

Her second solo album came out seven years later. Dreams was more of a mainstream effort, and without the usual suspects! It even had a couple of singles on it: Seasons and Dreams.

Scott Zito makes his first appearance instead, amid the lush new arrangements. Grace carries it all off well with her strong vocals front and centre, but it's not her strongest work. Side two songs all sound too similar to me and not her usual inspired effort.

Scott Zito is allowed to take Grace into arena rock-ville for Welcome To The Wrecking Ball, some of which hasn't aged all that well (unlike Manhole). But in typical Grace style she's in boots and all (check out that cover) and I like a lot of the album.

Grace clearly felt in the mood to rock out and she's always convincing in that mode - she rejoined Jefferson Starship after this album.

Her final solo album came out three years later. Software has Grace modelling a chic new look (great cover to Software too) and aiming to get with the hip new sounds of 1984, such as synths and drum machines. Not an ideal situation in my world you'd think - but this is Grace being brave and she deserves credit for trying something new wave-ish here and, indeed, a new look for each album.

Where do they all belong? One more Grunt record to go - Jack Traylor (who actually co-writes a song on Manhole).