'Jefferson Airplane: Flight Log' is a quintessential compilation. I would like to have that one back again! I'd like to see you do a review of just the authentic Jefferson Starship discs... Blows Against the Empire, Sunfighter, and Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra.. wonderful revolutionary stuff.
Last Wall never gets enough love. Brilliant! You always have a way of bringing up the gems. Unearthing the nuggets. Great ranking! And (in response to the comment on pronunciation of names) I think Jorma is the only person who knows the correct way. So, keep on.
Early Flight from 74 is a great compilation. It has 3 songs from theTakes Off sessions, B sides and extras from other albums. My favorite live album is Thirty Seconds Over Winterland.
I am glad to see After Bathing Baxters at the top of the list. To me, it is the most inventive as well as psychedelic albums. It really was a radical shift from Surrealistic Pillow with the use of feedback and you really can tell that the amps are turned up. I had begun playing bass in the 1960s so after hearing what Jack Casady was doing it was game over. I was really into the jam Spare Chaynge because to Jack's use of use of chording and his back and forth between him and Jorma. He also made use of really pushing his amp to the edge of distortion. HIs right hand technique is not like any other bassist at the time. All of the band members were at the top of their game.
Volunteers was their first album I got. But I so associated their sound with Hopkins on piano, that i was disappointed when I saw them live in May 1970. Later I bought Baxters which became my favorite.
Rejoyce is about James Joyce and the novel Ulysses which is appropriate the day after Bloomsday. I would love to know who the musicians were on that song such as the oboe player. The legend is that Grace Slick took acid and listened to Miles Davis' Sketches of Spain album for 24 hours straight. She then wrote "White Rabbit". "You and Me and the Ballad of Pooneil" is an awesome jam with the urgent harmonies and Jorma's hot guitar. Martha is about a teenage girl who was hanging around the band all the time.
i just bought The Worst of The Jefferson Airplane on vinyl and love every cut. i got an original copy a long time ago with a subscription to Rolling Stone magazine but sold it when CDs came out. The album features the best of their core albums along with a live version of Plastic Fantastic Lover from Bless Its Little Head which is my favorite song on that album.
Thank you so much for this video about Jefferson Airplane. When I was about to become a teenager I had the opportunity to join my older cousins when they bought tickets to Woodstock, they knew I loved The Airplane so they bought me a ticket and convinced my parents that they wouldn't let anything happen to me at the festival.....ha! Needless to say that between Saturday night through to Sunday morning when they performed at 8:00 am the San Francisco sound was well represented. When the Airplane addressed the crowd with Grace Slick wishing the crowd a good morning they when into nearly a 2 hour playlist which had everyone loving every moment. It was a muddy and tired crowd, but we were loving their sounds. At that festival was my introduction to psychedelic drugs, and it was also the first time I saw the Grateful Dead live (after which I saw them 152 more times), but Jefferson Airplane were still my favourite band. I didn't care for many of the JS albums (Dragonfly and Red Octopus are they only two worth hearing again, but the rest are garbage), and I hated Starship. It's cool that I still have my entire vinyl collection of J.A. albums. Also, the cool part about Bless It's Pointed Little Head is that those recording were made during the same time that the Grateful Dead recorded their famous first live album Live/Dead. It's a cool comparison about which band sounded better live at that time, and I think Bless It's Pointed Little Head indicates that JA were the better live band at that time. I love your videos.
That is so cool you were at Woodstock. What an amazing experience that must have been. I always thought The Who’s set was monumental from the various clips I’ve seen. How was it to be there live witnessing it? Also Hendrix, Joplin, Sly….did you catch most of the sets?
I'm glad you gave a mention to 'Bless it's Pointed Little Head'. If you were to include studio and live albums, this would have to rank very high IMO. The soaring vocals between Balin and Slick are unmatched here. Also wanted to throw in '30 Seconds over Winterland' as another great live recording.
If you poke around the internet, you might be able to find the tape that Jorma recorded with Janis Joplin of blues and such in a living room on one of her early trips to San Francisco. I have a copy somewhere but haven't listened in years.
Ah, great - a band that’s definitely on my radar but I have no real previous knowledge of. Very helpful, I have learned to respect your opinions. Thanks!
My favourite of the SF psychedelic bands (even though my pick for best psychedelic album of '67 is Country Joe & the Fish 'Electric Music for The Mind and Body' - just barely edging out the two Airplane albums from that year, 'Baxter's' being their psychedelic peak). You're absolutely right about that 'Fulton St' compilation; it was stellar at the time of release in '87...
Many thanks CF! Really enjoyed your insightful, incisive evaluation - saw Monterey Pop 1977 age 18 - only knew JF from a gag reference in a Get Smart episode - just a few bars into High Flying Bird - it really was a case of Lord, look at me, I'm rooted like a tree...
I picked up the Takes Off LP in a Vietnam PX in 1967. I played it often while there. I found it to be an excellent folk rock album. Upon arriving back in the states, I bought Surrealistic Pillow and After Bathing At Baxter's. It might be nostalgia but I'd rank Pillow first, Takes Off second, Baxter's third.
Marty was the founder of the band and when he left I thought they definitely went down the hill. I saw them many many times at the Fillmore. I was there the first night Grace replaced Signe and there were quite a few boos in the audience because they didn’t like her as much as Signe. Marty’s voice was truly unique as well as Grace.
I have Surrealistic Pillow and Volunteers and I think I like latter a bit more. Been a while since I've listened. Thanks for going through their discography. That comp you talked about looks cool. Back in the 90s I lived on Fulton St
Over the decades i slowly lost interest in the Airplane. Had a few of the early albums at one time. The only one i still own is Volunteers. My favorite. I agree with your assessment on the album. It's perfect!
I love Bark. I think it's a great album. Baxter's is also my favorite JA album. I remember the first time I heard it under the influence of a hit of orange sunshine.
1974, I was in 7th grade and found a copy of Baxter's in a box of records my older brother left in a closet at my parents' house. Only knew the Go Ask Alice song of theirs so I gave it a listen. Truly mind blowing album. The gatefold photos are really strange, almost disturbing. Darkly psychedelic. My favorite song was Young Girl Sunday Blues, the only Marty Balin song. Most of the others are Kantner or Slick or Kantner/Slick co-writes. Rejoyce arguably an early example of 'art rock' with its flute and piano and stunning bass guitar. Incredible unheralded tune. This is their masterpiece, and I TOTALLY agree with you about Spare Chaynge (sic)--great Cassidy/Kaukanon (sic?) 'jam' that goes on way too long. Really enjoy your videos! Thank you!
My dad was the furthest thing from a rock music fan, but he really liked Grace Slick. “Pillow” and “Baxter” are the two albums I have; couldn’t afford to get them all! Great tracks. Thanks for details on the others.
Funny note about Grace -- the Airplane wanted to borrow some ideas from SF writer Robert Heinlein, so they wangled an interview. He was flattered that they actually asked for permission. When they met, the old horn-dog Bob fell in love with Grace and have them carte blanche.
Interest factoid about the evolution of the song Get Together. Remarkable group history! I was referring to my 45-year old 45 Record Guide as you were ticking off their singles. Your discussion here has inspired me to check out all their singles!
Takes Off is a terrific album filled with great songs, singing and playing. Very very underrated cause Grace is not on it. It holds up remarkably well today. Jack took me in with him twice at the Fillmore East here in NYC when we poor boys were begging for spare tickets. A righteous dude!
I had tickets to see that reunion tour at the Santa Barbara County Bowl in 1989. Got to the show and it was canceled. Nothing was mentioned in the paper about it being canceled. Bizarre. I wonder if not enough tickets had been sold?..
@@tomrobinson5776 Grace got drunk, threatened a deputy sheriff with a gun and got arrested, just like in the song Law Man. Don't know about your show specifically, but that actually happened. They were supposed to play near me as Paul had married a local girl, but it was cancelled also.
Hey Tom - not sure if you know this, but if you can find a QUAD copy of the Volunteers album, you will be amazed at some of the differences. That's because the entire album is composed of either alternate takes or alternate mixes. The real standout to me is the alternate version of "Hey Frederick". The vocals are incredible and so is the guitar solo. Jorma himself once said it beat the regular version. An easy way to get it would be on the 3-CD box set Jefferson Airplane Loves You. It is on disc 3. I like your ranking videos, by the way. Cheers!
I find it amazing that all you Airplane review guys skip Bless its Pointed Little Head - as being irrelevant or something because its a live album. Aside from Baxter's, it's the one album they made where what they actually did comes through - more so than their studio releases.
Hi, I have only one Jefferson Airplane, "Surrealistic Pillow" without "White Rabbit" and that's a scandal, I have the song on the "Platoon OST", it's a kind of records I don't see very often around here, but I have a Jefferson Starship "Blows against The Empire" and that's a record I play quiet often. Great job, many thanks
When Surrealistic Pillow was released in the UK, both sides of their first two singles with Grace Slick including the track you mentioned were replaced with four tracks from their first U.S. album Takes Off, which was not released in the UK.
Hi Tom, I was at a record fair yesterday and (with this video still in mind) I came across a minty copy of “Conspicuous Only In Its Absence” (The Great Society With Grace Slick). I have played it a couple times already and it’s a superb live recording from 1966 at the Matrix in SF. Wondered if you are also familiar with it? Anyway, thanks for the Grace Slick heads up!
The song you mentioned, Get Together was written by Dino Valente, but first given to The Kingston Trio who recorded the first vocal version on the 1964 live album, Back In Town. There was an instrumental version recorded around that time by a group called The Folk Swingers. Not long after, Dave Crosby did a demo version, not then released, but appears on The Byrds' double CD of their 1964 demos called The Pre-Flyte Sessions. Dino's original demo of it appeared years later on a various artists' CD in the States on the Rhino label, San Francisco Nuggets. The group you mentioned that Grace Slick came from, The Great Society only had one single released in their group career, the original of Somebody To Love. But they left loads of unreleased tracks. Their entire 1965 studio tracks appear on a CD Born To Be Burned. They have two CDs containing two different live sessions from 1966. Some of the songs on both are the same, but in different live versions. But if you want more pre-Jefferson Airplane, back in the early sixties, Marty Balin released two singles in the States on the Challenge label, Nobody But You/You Made Me Fall, and I Specialize In Love/You Are The One. But both sounded very early sixties High School Pop, with no hint of his future Psychedelic work with Jefferson Airplane. He explained in an interview that I found on RUclips that at that time, he had the privilege of sharing the stage with early Soul singer Sam Cooke. All four tracks were recorded in one session, and are now on a download release by Sony. But hearing them will make you wonder how he ever got into a group like Jefferson Airplane, or what he did during the intervening years. ruclips.net/video/9z93bSRPUU4/видео.html
@@seed_drill7135 I knew We Five recorded a version. But I did not know John Stewart's brother was in that group. When The Kingston Trio broke up, John went on to write a hit for The Monkees, Daydream Believer, and then a minor hit for The Lovin' Spoonful, Never Going Back, both of which he eventually recorded himself. But Surrealistic Pillow was my favorite Jefferson Airplane album. But better still was the CD reissue, with great bonus tracks.
@@paulgoldstein2569 Yeah, though it's more correct to say John left the Kingston Trio. He wasn't an original and they had a revolving door of members throughout the year. I was a huge fan of his 1979 hit "Gold" that he recorded with Stevie and Lindsey.
I have to admit, if I had ever heard *of* this, I forgot it long ago. I doubt that I ever heard it, and would be suspicious of anything involving Toto.
The live albums by the Airplane certainly stand out as worthy documents of the era. Even 30 Seconds Over Winterland is better than Bark or Long John Silver, especially Jorma's "Trial By Fire", which is basically an electric Hot Tuna tune. And yes, I am very much a fan of Hot Tuna. Your top four JA records could be jumbled in a different order and I wouldn't complain -- they're all the best. Ah, 1972, the golden age of gimmicky record jackets; there was Alice Cooper's School's Out (the opening school desk with the paper panties), Dan Hicks And His Hot Licks' Striking It Rich (opening match book), and Long John Silver. I'm sure there are others -- Alice Cooper had a gimmick for every record from Killer to Muscle Of Love. Anybody got any favorites?I As I stated previously, duos of male/female lead singers are my favorites. Amon Duul II and Gong mined this lode extensively. My impression is that the Neil referenced in two Airplane song titles is Fred Neil, author of "The Other Side Of This Life" -- not Neil Cassidy, who got some mentions in Grateful Dead songs because of the Merry Prankster connection.
Oh, and Bob Marley and The Wailers' Catch A Fire, with the hinged cigarette lighter. Record companies were just burning up the dollars in those days. Forgot David and Linda LaFlamme in It's A Beautiful Day. Hard to believe that everybody from the Airplane except Grace, Jack and Jorma is dead now. I know it's been a long time, but still...
Surrealistic Pillow is #1 for me and may be my 2nd favorite album of the 1960s. I love the mix of folk and psyche. Marty’s ballads are bottled San Francisco of that era. The whole album is magic to me. I wish they had been able to make Surrealistic Pillow, volume 2, but that would have required that Kantner hadn’t grabbed the helm already. There’s nothing wrong with Baxter’s and what followed but they are almost a different and by then.
My favorite '60s albums include... The Doors / (Self-Titled) The Velvet Underground & Nico Jimi Hendrix / Are You Experienced? The Stooges / (Self-Titled) The Fugs / Second Album
Love Jefferson Airplane but have to say they do sound a little outdated. The song "Lather"scared me as a kid. The Rolling Stone Record Guide gave Volunteers 5 stars.
Unfortunately Starship 😂 Running round this World/Run around from Takes Off (about Sex with LSD) is a classic, not to be found on all versions of this record.
The clip in Monterey Pop that starts out with Grace playing piano and singing, when only Marty Balin's voice was heard lifted the concert film to a new level, revealing the band in a new and very different way, Volunteers was, to me, a swan song, following on the heels of Bless Its Pointed Little Head, near the end of 1969. The album featured three great songs, two less than greats, and the rest filler. It was better than Bark, but not great. It would be almost two years before the next JA album arrived, and that one, Bark, was a mess, the worst Jefferson Airplane LP, yet. An even worse debacle waited in the wings, when the intricately-packaged Long John Silver arrived, as unlistenable as it was collectible, in its mint form. Kantner and Slick had launched Jefferson Starship in 1970, with an interesting single, Mexico, b/w Have You Seen the Saucers, so it seemed the band would carry on, in some form, but not as it had. The first album released under the new name wouldn't arrive until 1974, the new band issuing two good LPs, Dragonfly and the multi-platinum Red Octopus. The latter went to the tops of the charts, off the Miracles single, and it seemed the group had solved some of its issues. It was not to be, as Jefferson Starship recorded a series of lackluster LPs. Grace Slick left, returned, left again. the band struggled along, until 1984, when the group dropped the "Jefferson" part of its name, to become Starship, but the originals were all gone. These are the 30 LPs they recorded, the Top Ten well worth one's time, the second ten less so, and the final ten for completists, only. The Airplane and the Dead were families, with artists from other San Francisco bands often joining in, for a song, an album, or a tour, so separating them into one incarnation doesn't serve any useful purpose. Best of Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship/Starship 01 S U R R E A L I S T I C P I L L O W ★★★★★ 02 A F T E R B A T H I N G A T B A X T E R ' S ★★★★★ 03 C R O W N O F C R E A T I O N ★★★★½ 04 V O L U N T E E R S ★★★★½ 05 R E D O C T O P U S ★★★★½ 06 E A RL Y F L I G H T ★★★★½ 07 D R A G O N F L Y ★★★★ 08 J E F F E R S O N A I R P L A N E T A K E S O F F ★★★★ 09 B L O W S A G A I N S T T H E E M P I R E ★★★★ 10 B L E S S I T S P O I N T E D L I T T L E H E A D ★★★★ 11 T H I R T Y S E C O N D S O V E R W I N T E R L A N D ★★★★ 12 F R E E D O M A T P O I N T Z E R O ★★★½ 13 K N E E D E E P I N T H E H O O P L A ★★★½ 14 W I N D S O F C H A N G E ★★★ 15 B A R K ★★★ 16 L O V E A M O N G T H E C A N N I B A L S ★★★ 17 M O D E R N T I M E S ★★★ 18 S P I T F I R E ★★★ 19 J E F F E R S O N A I R P L A N E ★★★ 20 S U N F I G H T E R ★★★ 21 P L A N E T E A R T H R O C K A N D R O L L O R C H E S T R A ★★★ 22 E A R T H ★★½ 23 W I N D O W S O F H E A V E N ★★½ 24 B A R O N V O N T O L L B O O T H & T H E C H R O M E N U N ★★½ 25 N O P R O T E C T I O N ★★ 26 J E F F E R S O N ' S T R E E O F L I B E R T Y ★★ 27 N U C L E A R F U R N I T U R E ★★ 28 M O T H E R O F T H E S U N ★★ 29 L O N G J O H N S I L V E R ★ 30 L O V E L E S S F A S C I N A T I O N ★
Hey man-if you’re going to review a band’s musical output, it would be great if you pronounced their names correctly. You mangled Yorma’s last name, dude. Love your videos, but get the names right.
The box set ‘Jefferson Airplane Loves You’ put out in the early 90s is phenomenal w/ unreleased tracks and live jams. Highly recommended
Jefferson Airplane--Live at Woodstock, is an excellent album. I think its a must have.
Yes, it’s great.
'Jefferson Airplane: Flight Log' is a quintessential compilation. I would like to have that one back again! I'd like to see you do a review of just the authentic Jefferson Starship discs... Blows Against the Empire, Sunfighter, and Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra.. wonderful revolutionary stuff.
Saw Monterey Pop, bought Flight Log the next day. Difficult to think of a better official compilation and does justice to the post-1970 material
'The Worst of Jefferson Airplane' is my favorite; especially in its expanded CD edition... a decent compilation!
I agree. 😉
only PLATINUM ja album
Last Wall never gets enough love. Brilliant! You always have a way of bringing up the gems. Unearthing the nuggets. Great ranking! And (in response to the comment on pronunciation of names) I think Jorma is the only person who knows the correct way. So, keep on.
Early Flight from 74 is a great compilation. It has 3 songs from theTakes Off sessions, B sides and extras from other albums. My favorite live album is Thirty Seconds Over Winterland.
I am glad to see After Bathing Baxters at the top of the list. To me, it is the most inventive as well as psychedelic albums. It really was a radical shift from Surrealistic Pillow with the use of feedback and you really can tell that the amps are turned up. I had begun playing bass in the 1960s so after hearing what Jack Casady was doing it was game over. I was really into the jam Spare Chaynge because to Jack's use of use of chording and his back and forth between him and Jorma. He also made use of really pushing his amp to the edge of distortion. HIs right hand technique is not like any other bassist at the time. All of the band members were at the top of their game.
I agree. Cassidy is one of the greats. Unique combo of players in the Airplane.
Your Baxter’s LP is as battered as my copy. Good rundown on a great band. Thanks
Volunteers was their first album I got. But I so associated their sound with Hopkins on piano, that i was disappointed when I saw them live in May 1970.
Later I bought Baxters which became my favorite.
Rejoyce is about James Joyce and the novel Ulysses which is appropriate the day after Bloomsday. I would love to know who the musicians were on that song such as the oboe player.
The legend is that Grace Slick took acid and listened to Miles Davis' Sketches of Spain album for 24 hours straight. She then wrote "White Rabbit".
"You and Me and the Ballad of Pooneil" is an awesome jam with the urgent harmonies and Jorma's hot guitar. Martha is about a teenage girl who was hanging around the band all the time.
i just bought The Worst of The Jefferson Airplane on vinyl and love every cut. i got an original copy a long time ago with a subscription to Rolling Stone magazine but sold it when CDs came out. The album features the best of their core albums along with a live version of Plastic Fantastic Lover from Bless Its Little Head which is my favorite song on that album.
only PLATINUM JA
Thank you so much for this video about Jefferson Airplane. When I was about to become a teenager I had the opportunity to join my older cousins when they bought tickets to Woodstock, they knew I loved The Airplane so they bought me a ticket and convinced my parents that they wouldn't let anything happen to me at the festival.....ha!
Needless to say that between Saturday night through to Sunday morning when they performed at 8:00 am the San Francisco sound was well represented. When the Airplane addressed the crowd with Grace Slick wishing the crowd a good morning they when into nearly a 2 hour playlist which had everyone loving every moment.
It was a muddy and tired crowd, but we were loving their sounds. At that festival was my introduction to psychedelic drugs, and it was also the first time I saw the Grateful Dead live (after which I saw them 152 more times), but Jefferson Airplane were still my favourite band. I didn't care for many of the JS albums (Dragonfly and Red Octopus are they only two worth hearing again, but the rest are garbage), and I hated Starship.
It's cool that I still have my entire vinyl collection of J.A. albums.
Also, the cool part about Bless It's Pointed Little Head is that those recording were made during the same time that the Grateful Dead recorded their famous first live album Live/Dead. It's a cool comparison about which band sounded better live at that time, and I think Bless It's Pointed Little Head indicates that JA were the better live band at that time.
I love your videos.
That is so cool you were at Woodstock. What an amazing experience that must have been. I always thought The Who’s set was monumental from the various clips I’ve seen. How was it to be there live witnessing it? Also Hendrix, Joplin, Sly….did you catch most of the sets?
I'm glad you gave a mention to 'Bless it's Pointed Little Head'. If you were to include studio and live albums, this would have to rank very high IMO. The soaring vocals between Balin and Slick are unmatched here.
Also wanted to throw in '30 Seconds over Winterland' as another great live recording.
If you poke around the internet, you might be able to find the tape that Jorma recorded with Janis Joplin of blues and such in a living room on one of her early trips to San Francisco. I have a copy somewhere but haven't listened in years.
I’ll check it out. I’ve heard about that..
Ah, great - a band that’s definitely on my radar but I have no real previous knowledge of.
Very helpful, I have learned to respect your opinions. Thanks!
Thank you 😉
My favourite of the SF psychedelic bands (even though my pick for best psychedelic album of '67 is Country Joe & the Fish 'Electric Music for The Mind and Body' - just barely edging out the two Airplane albums from that year, 'Baxter's' being their psychedelic peak). You're absolutely right about that 'Fulton St' compilation; it was stellar at the time of release in '87...
Many thanks CF! Really enjoyed your insightful, incisive evaluation - saw Monterey Pop 1977 age 18 - only knew JF from a gag reference in a Get Smart episode - just a few bars into High Flying Bird - it really was a case of Lord, look at me, I'm rooted like a tree...
Love your channel.
I picked up the Takes Off LP in a Vietnam PX in 1967. I played it often while there. I found it to be an excellent folk rock album. Upon arriving back in the states, I bought Surrealistic Pillow and After Bathing At Baxter's. It might be nostalgia but I'd rank Pillow first, Takes Off second, Baxter's third.
Marty was the founder of the band and when he left I thought they definitely went down the hill. I saw them many many times at the Fillmore. I was there the first night Grace replaced Signe and there were quite a few boos in the audience because they didn’t like her as much as Signe. Marty’s voice was truly unique as well as Grace.
That’s a great story. 😉
JEFFERSON STARSHIP Marty BALIN get it
I have Surrealistic Pillow and Volunteers and I think I like latter a bit more. Been a while since I've listened. Thanks for going through their discography. That comp you talked about looks cool. Back in the 90s I lived on Fulton St
Over the decades i slowly lost interest in the Airplane. Had a few of the early albums at one time. The only one i still own is Volunteers. My favorite. I agree with your assessment on the album. It's perfect!
You are correct, they performed on a roof top 2 years before the Beatles I recall in an article I read .
Airplane played on the rooftop of the Hotel Schuyler on December 7,1968. The Beatles did it on the rooftop of Apple Headquarters January 30,1969.
I love Bark. I think it's a great album. Baxter's is also my favorite JA album. I remember the first time I heard it under the influence of a hit of orange sunshine.
1974, I was in 7th grade and found a copy of Baxter's in a box of records my older brother left in a closet at my parents' house. Only knew the Go Ask Alice song of theirs so I gave it a listen. Truly mind blowing album. The gatefold photos are really strange, almost disturbing. Darkly psychedelic.
My favorite song was Young Girl Sunday Blues, the only Marty Balin song. Most of the others are Kantner or Slick or Kantner/Slick co-writes.
Rejoyce arguably an early example of 'art rock' with its flute and piano and stunning bass guitar. Incredible unheralded tune. This is their masterpiece, and I TOTALLY agree with you about Spare Chaynge (sic)--great Cassidy/Kaukanon (sic?) 'jam' that goes on way too long.
Really enjoy your videos! Thank you!
Thanks. Those gatefold photos are totally bizarre indeed. 😉
My dad was the furthest thing from a rock music fan, but he really liked Grace Slick.
“Pillow” and “Baxter” are the two albums I have; couldn’t afford to get them all! Great tracks. Thanks for details on the others.
Funny note about Grace -- the Airplane wanted to borrow some ideas from SF writer Robert Heinlein, so they wangled an interview. He was flattered that they actually asked for permission. When they met, the old horn-dog Bob fell in love with Grace and have them carte blanche.
Interest factoid about the evolution of the song Get Together. Remarkable group history! I was referring to my 45-year old 45 Record Guide as you were ticking off their singles. Your discussion here has inspired me to check out all their singles!
Awesome 😉
Hey Tom!!! love All Through Volunteers!! Being A Psych Guy " Baxters" My Fav!!!
Nice 😉
Takes Off is a terrific album filled with great songs, singing and playing. Very very underrated cause Grace is not on it. It holds up remarkably well today. Jack took me in with him twice at the Fillmore East here in NYC when we poor boys were begging for spare tickets. A righteous dude!
That’s awesome!
You could have added the reunion album, dead last, of course, but it did give us one final great Grace Slick song, Freedom.
I had tickets to see that reunion tour at the Santa Barbara County Bowl in 1989. Got to the show and it was canceled. Nothing was mentioned in the paper about it being canceled. Bizarre. I wonder if not enough tickets had been sold?..
@@tomrobinson5776 Grace got drunk, threatened a deputy sheriff with a gun and got arrested, just like in the song Law Man. Don't know about your show specifically, but that actually happened. They were supposed to play near me as Paul had married a local girl, but it was cancelled also.
common market madrigal my favorite on the album
Early Flight is a good comp that came out in 74.
Hey Tom - not sure if you know this, but if you can find a QUAD copy of the Volunteers album, you will be amazed at some of the differences. That's because the entire album is composed of either alternate takes or alternate mixes. The real standout to me is the alternate version of "Hey Frederick". The vocals are incredible and so is the guitar solo. Jorma himself once said it beat the regular version. An easy way to get it would be on the 3-CD box set Jefferson Airplane Loves You. It is on disc 3. I like your ranking videos, by the way. Cheers!
Sounds cool, thanks for the tip😉
Absolutely fantastic i am a fan of the first album also the second album to be honest ❤😊
I had no idea Hot Tuna was formed by members of JA. See I learn something every time I watch. I have three Hot Tuna lps, there ok.
I find it amazing that all you Airplane review guys skip Bless its Pointed Little Head - as being irrelevant or something because its a live album. Aside from Baxter's, it's the one album they made where what they actually did comes through - more so than their studio releases.
I agree with you wholeheartedly about Jorma. He is a very original player.
Also Nikki Hopkins wonderful piano.
I believe his name was NICKY Hopkins.
@@paulgoldstein2569 Stand corrected
Hi, I have only one Jefferson Airplane, "Surrealistic Pillow" without "White Rabbit" and that's a scandal, I have the song on the "Platoon OST", it's a kind of records I don't see very often around here, but I have a Jefferson Starship "Blows against The Empire" and that's a record I play quiet often. Great job, many thanks
When Surrealistic Pillow was released in the UK, both sides of their first two singles with Grace Slick including the track you mentioned were replaced with four tracks from their first U.S. album Takes Off, which was not released in the UK.
@@paulgoldstein2569 Thank you, I have a UK version, so I understand now. Peace
Interesting…..
Hi Tom, I was at a record fair yesterday and (with this video still in mind) I came across a minty copy of “Conspicuous Only In Its Absence” (The Great Society With Grace Slick). I have played it a couple times already and it’s a superb live recording from 1966 at the Matrix in SF. Wondered if you are also familiar with it? Anyway, thanks for the Grace Slick heads up!
@@mike_burke That’s awesome. I’ve never heard of that recording. Sounds interesting. 😉
Jefferson Airplane is one of my favorite 60’s bands. My order is a bit different.
What’s your number one?
@@tomrobinson5776 without going through and giving them all a listen I would go with Pillow.
Carlos Santana plays on "Pretty As You Feel".
The song you mentioned, Get Together was written by Dino Valente, but first given to The Kingston Trio who recorded the first vocal version on the 1964 live album, Back In Town. There was an instrumental version recorded around that time by a group called The Folk Swingers. Not long after, Dave Crosby did a demo version, not then released, but appears on The Byrds' double CD of their 1964 demos called The Pre-Flyte Sessions. Dino's original demo of it appeared years later on a various artists' CD in the States on the Rhino label, San Francisco Nuggets.
The group you mentioned that Grace Slick came from, The Great Society only had one single released in their group career, the original of Somebody To Love. But they left loads of unreleased tracks. Their entire 1965 studio tracks appear on a CD Born To Be Burned. They have two CDs containing two different live sessions from 1966. Some of the songs on both are the same, but in different live versions.
But if you want more pre-Jefferson Airplane, back in the early sixties, Marty Balin released two singles in the States on the Challenge label, Nobody But You/You Made Me Fall, and I Specialize In Love/You Are The One. But both sounded very early sixties High School Pop, with no hint of his future Psychedelic work with Jefferson Airplane. He explained in an interview that I found on RUclips that at that time, he had the privilege of sharing the stage with early Soul singer Sam Cooke. All four tracks were recorded in one session, and are now on a download release by Sony. But hearing them will make you wonder how he ever got into a group like Jefferson Airplane, or what he did during the intervening years.
ruclips.net/video/9z93bSRPUU4/видео.html
And The Kingston Trio’s John Stuart’s brother was in We Five, who cut the first studio version of Get Together.
@@seed_drill7135 I knew We Five recorded a version. But I did not know John Stewart's brother was in that group. When The Kingston Trio broke up, John went on to write a hit for The Monkees, Daydream Believer, and then a minor hit for The Lovin' Spoonful, Never Going Back, both of which he eventually recorded himself. But Surrealistic Pillow was my favorite Jefferson Airplane album. But better still was the CD reissue, with great bonus tracks.
Very interesting, worlds away from the Airplane.
@@paulgoldstein2569 Yeah, though it's more correct to say John left the Kingston Trio. He wasn't an original and they had a revolving door of members throughout the year. I was a huge fan of his 1979 hit "Gold" that he recorded with Stevie and Lindsey.
I like the 1989 reunion album.
I have to admit, if I had ever heard *of* this, I forgot it long ago. I doubt that I ever heard it, and would be suspicious of anything involving Toto.
Never heard it. Had tickets to the 1989 reunion show in Santa Barbara, but the show was canceled at the last minute.
The live albums by the Airplane certainly stand out as worthy documents of the era. Even 30 Seconds Over Winterland is better than Bark or Long John Silver, especially Jorma's "Trial By Fire", which is basically an electric Hot Tuna tune. And yes, I am very much a fan of Hot Tuna.
Your top four JA records could be jumbled in a different order and I wouldn't complain -- they're all the best.
Ah, 1972, the golden age of gimmicky record jackets; there was Alice Cooper's School's Out (the opening school desk with the paper panties), Dan Hicks And His Hot Licks' Striking It Rich (opening match book), and Long John Silver. I'm sure there are others -- Alice Cooper had a gimmick for every record from Killer to Muscle Of Love. Anybody got any favorites?I
As I stated previously, duos of male/female lead singers are my favorites. Amon Duul II and Gong mined this lode extensively.
My impression is that the Neil referenced in two Airplane song titles is Fred Neil, author of "The Other Side Of This Life" -- not Neil Cassidy, who got some mentions in Grateful Dead songs because of the Merry Prankster connection.
Oh, and Bob Marley and The Wailers' Catch A Fire, with the hinged cigarette lighter. Record companies were just burning up the dollars in those days.
Forgot David and Linda LaFlamme in It's A Beautiful Day.
Hard to believe that everybody from the Airplane except Grace, Jack and Jorma is dead now. I know it's been a long time, but still...
@@simonagree4070 The Catch A Fire cover with the lighter is awesome.
Surrealistic Pillow is #1 for me and may be my 2nd favorite album of the 1960s. I love the mix of folk and psyche. Marty’s ballads are bottled San Francisco of that era. The whole album is magic to me. I wish they had been able to make Surrealistic Pillow, volume 2, but that would have required that Kantner hadn’t grabbed the helm already. There’s nothing wrong with Baxter’s and what followed but they are almost a different and by then.
My favorite '60s albums include...
The Doors / (Self-Titled)
The Velvet Underground & Nico
Jimi Hendrix / Are You Experienced?
The Stooges / (Self-Titled)
The Fugs / Second Album
@@aisforapple2494 VU&Nico, yes!
I know it's not the Airplane, but I love Kantner/Slick Sunfighter. As good,if not better, than a few Airplane albums.
I had a used copy of that at one time, but it was too scratched to play. I’ll have to revisit that one. 😉
Love Jefferson Airplane but have to say they do sound a little outdated.
The song "Lather"scared me as a kid.
The Rolling Stone Record Guide gave Volunteers 5 stars.
Grace's cigarettes and whiskey vocal on "Triad" is better than Viagra. I shall say no more.
Well said 😉
Unfortunately Starship 😂
Running round this World/Run around from Takes Off (about Sex with LSD) is a classic, not to be found on all versions of this record.
The clip in Monterey Pop that starts out with Grace playing piano and singing, when only Marty Balin's voice was heard lifted the concert film to a new level, revealing the band in a new and very different way, Volunteers was, to me, a swan song, following on the heels of Bless Its Pointed Little Head, near the end of 1969. The album featured three great songs, two less than greats, and the rest filler. It was better than Bark, but not great.
It would be almost two years before the next JA album arrived, and that one, Bark, was a mess, the worst Jefferson Airplane LP, yet. An even worse debacle waited in the wings, when the intricately-packaged Long John Silver arrived, as unlistenable as it was collectible, in its mint form. Kantner and Slick had launched Jefferson Starship in 1970, with an interesting single, Mexico, b/w Have You Seen the Saucers, so it seemed the band would carry on, in some form, but not as it had.
The first album released under the new name wouldn't arrive until 1974, the new band issuing two good LPs, Dragonfly and the multi-platinum Red Octopus. The latter went to the tops of the charts, off the Miracles single, and it seemed the group had solved some of its issues. It was not to be, as Jefferson Starship recorded a series of lackluster LPs. Grace Slick left, returned, left again. the band struggled along, until 1984, when the group dropped the "Jefferson" part of its name, to become Starship, but the originals were all gone.
These are the 30 LPs they recorded, the Top Ten well worth one's time, the second ten less so, and the final ten for completists, only. The Airplane and the Dead were families, with artists from other San Francisco bands often joining in, for a song, an album, or a tour, so separating them into one incarnation doesn't serve any useful purpose.
Best of Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship/Starship
01 S U R R E A L I S T I C P I L L O W
★★★★★
02 A F T E R B A T H I N G A T B A X T E R ' S
★★★★★
03 C R O W N O F C R E A T I O N
★★★★½
04 V O L U N T E E R S
★★★★½
05 R E D O C T O P U S
★★★★½
06 E A RL Y F L I G H T
★★★★½
07 D R A G O N F L Y
★★★★
08 J E F F E R S O N A I R P L A N E T A K E S O F F
★★★★
09 B L O W S A G A I N S T T H E E M P I R E
★★★★
10 B L E S S I T S P O I N T E D L I T T L E H E A D
★★★★
11 T H I R T Y S E C O N D S O V E R W I N T E R L A N D
★★★★
12 F R E E D O M A T P O I N T Z E R O
★★★½
13 K N E E D E E P I N T H E H O O P L A
★★★½
14 W I N D S O F C H A N G E
★★★
15 B A R K
★★★
16 L O V E A M O N G T H E C A N N I B A L S
★★★
17 M O D E R N T I M E S
★★★
18 S P I T F I R E
★★★
19 J E F F E R S O N A I R P L A N E
★★★
20 S U N F I G H T E R
★★★
21 P L A N E T E A R T H R O C K A N D R O L L O R C H E S T R A
★★★
22 E A R T H
★★½
23 W I N D O W S O F H E A V E N
★★½
24 B A R O N V O N T O L L B O O T H & T H E C H R O M E N U N
★★½
25 N O P R O T E C T I O N
★★
26 J E F F E R S O N ' S T R E E O F L I B E R T Y
★★
27 N U C L E A R F U R N I T U R E
★★
28 M O T H E R O F T H E S U N
★★
29 L O N G J O H N S I L V E R
★
30 L O V E L E S S F A S C I N A T I O N
★
Hey man-if you’re going to review a band’s musical output, it would be great if you pronounced their names correctly. You mangled Yorma’s last name, dude. Love your videos, but get the names right.