Love rusts (Starship) (LP 2848 - 2850)

Starship  Knee Deep in the Hoopla (Vinyl, Grunt Records, 1985) **

Starship  No Protection (Vinyl, Grunt Records, 1987) ***

Starship  Love Among the Cannibals (Vinyl, RCA Records, 1989) ***

Genre: Pop, rock, Grunt Records 

Places I remember: Marbecks Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: We Built This City

Gear costume: We Dream In Color

Active compensatory factors: At the time (mid to late eighties), I didn't mind these albums because they had a few tracks with Grace doing her thing (let's ignore the embarrassing Rock Myself To Sleep).

Now, it's hard to listen to them. All the synths and, worst of all, the drum sounds, combine to make it a slog. Mickey Thomas' voice works well against Paul and David in Jefferson Starship, but with Grace in Starship it's a similar higher register that doesn't particularly do it for me.

Mostly I think it's the weaker material that affects Knee Deep in the Hoopla the most. Sara and We Built This City were good commercial singles but then the album enters areas not really in keeping with the back catalogue.

No Protection holds up better as an album and Peter Wolf dials back the smoke and mirrors a bit (a bit). It was Grace's final album for Starship and also the final album on Grunt Records, so I've awarded an extra star to celebrate that great label.

My final Starship album was from the Mickey Thomas led outfit from 1989 (I don't own the band's final album - 2013's Loveless Fascination). Thankfully the synth pop of the first two albums had been abandoned for a more AOR (Adult Oriented Rock) sound for Love Among the Cannibals. It's a marginal improvement and without Grace it becomes almost like a Bryan Adams album.

Where do they all belong? That's it for the marathon Jefferson Airplane/ Jefferson Starship/ Starship/ Grunt Records series of posts. No time for a lie down though. Jellyfish is up next!

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.

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!!!!!