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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 60s adventure from
naive optimism through excited experiment to messianic
self-indulgence.
Following their folk rock debut, Takes Off (1966), the
arrival of former model Grace Slick brought a new musical (and
sexual) excitement. The resultant Surrealistic Pillow was
psychedelia at its best, practically inventing the idea of San
Francisco back in 1967.
Songs such as Today, Somebody To Love and White
Rabbit said and did more in two and a half minutes than the
same year's After Bathing At Baxter's would manage in
endless formless jams. The Airplane played at Monterey,
Woodstock
and Altamont,
but these huge hit singles meant that they also got to appear on
prime time TV shows like The
Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and The Perry Como
Special. In September 1972, the band played their final gig
and divided into two bands: Hot Tuna and
Jefferson Starship.
Jefferson Airplane reformed in September 1989, instantly
winning Rolling Stone'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!
 Former
Sounds 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 Fly Jefferson Airplane DVD and
judge for yourself.
Video Clips
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Grace Slick
Vocals
Marty Balin
Vocals, guitar
Paul Kantner
Guitar, vocals
Jorma Kaukonen
Guitar, vocals
Jack Casady
Bass
Spencer Dryden
Drums
Papa John Creach
Fiddle
Skip Spence
Drums
Signe Anderson
Vocals
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