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.