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JEFFERSON AIRPLANE
In November 1965, Jefferson Airplane received a $20,000 advance
from RCA Records - the largest advance ever paid to any rock band
at that time. Their career went on to document the 1960s adventure
from naive optimism through excited experiment to messianic
self-indulgence.</p>rn<p>Following their folk rock
debut, <em>Takes Off</em> (1966), the arrival of
former model Grace Slick brought a new musical - and sexual -
excitement. The resultant <em>Surrealistic Pillow</em>
was psychedelia at its best, practically inventing the idea of San
Francisco back in 1967.</p>rn<p
style="text-align: center;"><img
src="images/stories/artists_us/jeffairplane.jpg"
/></p>rn<p>Songs such as
<em>Today</em>, <em>Somebody To Love</em>
and <em>White Rabbit</em> said and did more in two and
a half minutes than the same year's <em>After Bathing At
Baxters</em> would manage in endless formless jams. With
Jerry Garcia credited on the album cover as "spiritual
advisor" and Grace Slick's repeated instruction on
<em>White Rabbit </em>to "feed your head",
this album soundtracked San Francisco's summer of cosmic love and
piloted acid-rock on an improbable trip into the unsuspecting
mainstream of American primetime.</p>rn<p>The
Airplane played at Monterey, Woodstock and Altamont, but their
huge hit singles meant that they also got to appear on prime time
TV shows like <em>The Smothers Brothers Comedy
Hour</em> and <em>The Perry Como Special</em>.
Drummer Spencer Dryden (who had an intense on-off affair with
Grace Slick) left the band in 1970 and played with the New Riders
Of The Purple Sage and, in the 80s, Californian supergroup,
Dinosaur.</p>rn<p>In September 1972, the band played
their final gig and divided into two bands: Hot Tuna and Jefferson
Starship.</p>rn<p>Jefferson Airplane reformed in
September 1989, instantly winning <em>Rolling
Stone</em>'s Most Unwelcome Comeback Award. The classic but
now wizened line-up of Grace Slick, Paul Kantner, Marty Balin,
Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady recorded many of the tracks of
their new album separately and mailed them in to their
producer.</p>rn<p style="text-align:
center;"><img
src="images/stories/jeffersonairplane_842.jpg"
/></p>rn<p>Former <em>Sounds
</em>journalist Jon Savage recently wrote "few big
names from the late 60s have dated worse than Jefferson
Airplane" - reflecting a widely-held prejudice that, apart
from a couple of spectacular early singles, the group that offered
the Yin to The Grateful Dead's Yang in San Francisco's hippie
cosmos was ultimately little more than an exercise in bloated
ego-tripping and drugged-out self-indulgence. But for a
superb window on a band that flew higher than most, get thee to a
copy of the <em>Fly Jefferson Airplane</em> DVD and
judge for yourself.</p>rn<p>Papa John Creach died on
22 February 1994 in hospital in Los Angeles, aged 76, while being
treated for heart and respiratory
ailments.</p>rn<p>Jefferson Airplane were inducted
into the US Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in
1996.</p>rn<p>Following a hip replacement, house
fire and heart attack, Spencer Dryden died on 12 January 2005 at
his California home after a three-month battle with colon cancer.
He was 66.</p>rn<p><b><b>Grace
Slick </b></b>Vocals; <b><b>Marty
Balin </b></b>Vocals, guitar;
<b><b>Paul
Kantner </b></b>Guitar, vocals;
<b><b>Jorma
Kaukonen </b></b>Guitar, vocals;
<b><b>Jack Casady </b></b>Bass;
<b><b>Spencer
Dryden </b></b>Drums; <b><b>Papa
John Creach </b></b>Fiddle;
<b><b>Skip Spence </b></b>Drums;
<b><b>Signe
Anderson </b></b>Vocal<b>s</b>; <strong>Joey
Covington </strong>Drums; <strong>John
Barbata </strong>Drums; <strong>David
Freiberg </strong>Vocals
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