Jefferson Airplane

 

Was there a change of personnel and style each time?

 

The biggest change between Jefferson Starship and Airplane is that both Jack Casady and Jorma Kaukonen (the better musicians in the band) had left and formed Hot Tuna.

 

I wasn't around, but I heard this from Casady himself: Jack and Jorma loved to play for hours on end and usually extended JA concerts beyond reasonable point, that they first started to have their own slot during the JA concerts, then when Hot Tuna was a side project, they opened for JA, and since they kept playing, apparently they were holding JA to appear. So they were told to play after JA also if they wished. The duo could go on to play some six or seven hours/night.

 

 

Jefferson Starship's name first appeared in the first Kantner solo album (this was much better than the remaining two JA studio albums) Blows Against The Empire  when he started including Sci-Fi  texts into his songs (well before Yes' Starship Trooper) and his album got a nomination for the Hugo Sci-Fi awards (the only time that a record was up for ballots back then). This album was a who's who in Frisco and the first of three albums which should be included as prog-related. Sunfighter (again loaded with Sci-Fi) and Baron Tollboth And The Chrome Nun are both excellent. The last one is loaded with Mellotron and the line-up is almost the same than the future JS (including teen ager Craig Chaciquo on lead guitar).

 

Grace Slick's first solo album Manhole is also brilliant prog-related and 1980's Dreams  is in the same vein. 

 

 

But when JA's final moments did come in 73, Jack and Jorma's Hot Tuna (first name was hot sh*t >> vetoed) was a complete group, pumping out some very solid album (Phosphorescent Rat and Burgers), but Hot Tuna is nothing prog except the brilliant virtuosi qualities from the duo.

 

So when the rest of group did get back together, they changed the name to Jefferson Starship (for contractual and human reasons.

 

They actually played some pretty good RnR in their first two albums, (with original singer Marty Balin back in the fold) but the weak point is that there were so many songwriters trying to get their songs in the albums that this was creating tensions, so they started writing communally, unfortunately taking away the personal sides of most songs. They quickly became one of the leader of AOR of the late 70's.  Listen to Miracles for the template AOR.

 

Jefferson Starship is mostly AOR and never had a stable line-up (Journey, also a Frisco band rising from the ashes of the first Santana group, learned everything from them, after Rollie and Dunbar left), but in general Jeffesron Starship is the logical continuation of the last two Airplane studio albums and the Kantner-Slick solo albums, but I do not favor JS in the Archives at all.

 

 

When Kantner got really sick of touring in 83 and quite a few increasingly less interesting albums, he was the only old guy around: Freiberg (ex-QMS, not productive), Balin (also not productive and bored) and Slick (substances and alcohol)  were gone for various reasons, he tried to stop JS. The rest of the group (all young guys busy to make a career) tried to kick him out highjacked the Jefferson Starship name, got Slick to clean up and come back and started to tour. Kantner won his lawsuit, and the group had to drop the Jefferson part, so then went on as Starship.

 

But everything Starship has ever done is destroy the Jefferson legacy. Calling them corporate rock is rather correct description, because anything went with them, their were for full exploitation.

 

We Build This City On RnR was voted as the worst N° 1 ever, a few years back  and I really believe this is so. I hated Grace for singing that! She was an icon in my eyes until then, but she destroyed her legend around that time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If memory serves, that comes either from America's Choice or Yellow Fever album (that one borders on metal).

 

But nowadays Hot Tuna is playing acoustic US folk, ranging from Appalachian Folk to Cajun andf from Acadian to Bluegrass and Hillbilly. Not fascinating but both are from West Virginia, which is stuck in the middkle of the Appalachian mountain range (they might even have electricity there nowadays ).

 

Yes Jorma was ever a follower of the Rev Gary Davis and his finger picking style of blues.  This is not your three chord blues structure of most blues groups of the day.  The idea was to pick not just a melody but a contrasting, for lack of a better term, bass line as well.  Sort of a counterpoint.  Davis was a master of it.   Jorma runs a school now called the Fur Peace Ranch where and Jack among others teach this style to a new generation of players.

 

 

 

I thought the Water Song on Burgers and a couple of the songs on Phosphorescenct Rat were pretty stellar if not Prog.  Some great playing on those.  Jack and Jorma call the albums after that such as America's Choice Hopkorv and Yellow Fever  as Hot Tuna the Metal years.

 

I have seen both versions of Tuna electric and acoustic and I like both but I prefer the acoustic. 

 

One another note in your commentaries Hughes you mentioned that fist band actually called theJefferson Starship.  I saw that band perform in 1975.  The band consisted of Kantner/Slick and David Frieburg, Peter Sears (Jeff Beck Group) on bass and keys, John Barbata on drums and Chaquico on lead guitar,.  (Grace introduced him as Jail Bait) They played the second side of Blows against the Empire in entirety.  As much a prog suite as anything.

 

Great thread.