JEFFERSON AIRPLANE

To me, this is the 1st in a series of 3 albums ( the others being "Pointed Little Head" and "Volunteers") that are the Airplane's creative peak.

Unfortunately, the seeds of their disintegration are also more evident here as Balin's grip on the band he founded loosens even further. This album begins the period when every album MUST have songs written and sung by 4 different people featured.

It starts well with Slick's "Lather" a tribute to Spencer Dryden's (her then fella) 30th birthday before the subtle grower "In Time" is sung by Kantner with help from Slick and Balin.

"Triad", the Crosby song is then sung beautifully by Grace, a real highlight of the album before Kaukonen's first song "Star Track" appears. I rate Jorma very highly as a guitarist but not as a singer or songwriter. This song is NOT one of his best.

"Share a Little Joke" is Balin's 1st lead vocal and is a bit syrupy for my ears and the brief instrumental "Chushingura" completes the first side. A great start to the side but it fizzles out a bit.

Side2, however, is much more evenly good. "If you feel like china breaking" is Balin's next vocal lead and features a great bass line by Casady (who was brilliantly effective on the better tracks of side 1). "Crown of Creation" is a classic Kantner song before Kaukonen's 2nd contribution "Ice Cream Phoenix" shows us he can write a decent song.

Slick's "Greasy Heart" and the ensemble on "House at Pooneil Corners" give the album a storming finish.

A very good album just worth 5 stars as its strengths compensate for some weak material on side 1.

This is Slick's album methinks but Balin is already being overshadowed by her and Kaukonen is beginnnig to make his presence felt as their 4th lead singer/writer. Too many creative forces within the band are starting to rub against each other.

Balin will only last 1 more studio album until their 1989 reunion and the future Hot Tuna are already showing themselves. Enjoy it for what it is - a great but slightly flawed work.

On November 27, 1968, RCA Victor released JEFFERSON AIRPLANE's third album, After Bathing at Baxter's. This was their second studio album release in the same year, the follow-up to their hugely popular platinum selling album, Surrealistic Pillow and its monster hits, "Somebody to Love," and "White Rabbit." This was fully intended to be a very experimental album: the band was consciously trying to break the mold of their previous albums--purposely trying to push their sound and songwriting beyond the proscribed formula of the album serving as hit-generators surrounded by fluff or fill. Each song, even the flow of the album, is finely crafted, with not one but five multi-song themed suites-- all at a level of consistency as to make the entire listening experience engaging and immersive--like Sgt. Pepper's Loney Hearts Club Band, providing the listener with a rewarding and theatric sight-seeing journey. I gladly call this album one of the first true examples of progressive rock music: the album as a whole being transcendently more important than just serving as provider of hits and AM radio attention.

Many people having explored this album due to the presence of the two iconic Grace Slick-led performances of "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit"--two songs that happened to have been brought to the Airplane by Ms. Slick from her now disbanded former band, The Great Society. On January 14, the band's new lineup performed at Bill Graham's now-iconic "Human Be-in," an all-day "happening" in Golden Gate Park alongside the Grateful Dead and Quicksilver. After this hugely successful event, an album was in demand--for which Dead leader Jerry Garcia championed and even provided "background production" talents--which the band gratefully acknowledged with their "spiritual guru" credit on the album's liner notes. Recorded and produced in 13 days, the album was released in February. It's single releases, the first, former drummer Skip Spence (now with MOBY GRAPE)'s "My Best Friend," failed miserably before "Somebody to Love" (with "She Has Funny Cars" as its B-side) and "White Rabbit" (backed w/"Plastic Fantastic Lover") sky-rocketed up the charts. Radio play and influential television performances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, The Ed Sullivan Show, and The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour prompted a meteoric rise in public awareness. Their new type of unapologetic electronic psychedelic rock 'n' roll defied all trends in that it felt comforting and even romantic--bridging a gulf that no band before had been able to so successfully and ably reconcile. In June, the band was asked to help headline the Monterey International Pop Festival, being billed for the headliner spot of Saturday night. Though the festival was greeted with mixed reviews, many critics and audience members recognized the contrast between the "old" artists and their kind of music--which was "on their way out"--and the new artists--the "future"--of which the performance of the Airplane--and especially the mesmerizing (some called it "possessed") presence and performance of Ms. Slick. Unfortunately, despite growing comaraderie and creative energy, this period may have been the band's peak in popularity (at least, that is, until they re-formed as Jefferson Starshp).

After becoming America's most popular band in 1967--an achievement fueled by their significant contributions to their own West Coast's "Summer of Love": a rigorous schedule of touring, two Top 20 Album releases (one platinum selling) and four top 60 singles (two Top 10)--the band was able to continue to create and serve at this peak level with this, their one and only album release of 1968 (and two minor hit singles). A whole-band collaborative effort, almost all the songs were composed or arranged as a collective though some outsiders were allowed in (David Crosby, Tim Davis, Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention, Gary Blackman, Bill Goodwin) for their valued contributions.

1. "Lather" (2:55) the B-side to the album's second single release, the album's title song, it is based in acoustic guitar and electric bass with a rather unusually vulnerable vocal from lead singer and composer Grace Slick. "Nose" player Gary Blackman presents his unusual talents after the first verse. Grace's feigned Irish accent is fine but the constant stream of theatric musique concrète voices and effects going on beneath are not only distracting but diminishing to her own performance. (8.875/10)

2. "In Time" (4:10) acoustic guitars highlight this Paul Kantner and Marty Balin composition while Marty sings the lead with some insistence. This is the second song in a row that feels as if the band are trying to emulate folk rockers from the British Isles--here SPIROGYRA (Martin Cockerham) or COMUS (Roger Wootton). (8.875/10)

3. "Triad" (4:50) a wonderfully-nuanced acoustic guitar-based folk-rock song about polyamorous relationships (composed by The Byrds' David Crosby but rejected by his own band) with a great Grace Slick performance as the lone vocalist. My favorite song on the album. (9.5/10)

4. "Star Trek" (3:08) back to the electric side of things, with Paul Kantner getting extensive play on his newly-acquired wah-wah pedal. Fair but nothing so very remarkable (even considering the title and implied subject matter). Marty Balin's lead vocal is just too dull. (8.66667/10)

5. "Share A Little Joke" (3:07) the B-side to the album's first single release, "Greasy Heart," the Balin-penned song gets a nice vocal performance from its composer and some interesting multi-motif music. Those toms that Spencer Dryden has been hammering for the past two songs are getting very annoying. In fact, his drums in general are recorded a little too brightly or forward or something. Still, I like the song shows a little of the band's experimental side, which I like--and its ending. (9/10)

6. "Chushingura" (1:16) Paul Kantner's response to the Japanese film of the same name. Oscillators, hand drums, manipulated guitar strings. (4.25/5)

7. "If You Feel" (3:21) another Marty Balin contribution--this time with friend Gary Blackman's help--it sounds almost as if he's trying to create an anthemic song for some kind of human potential rally or church revival. The drums are overboard, the bass rather loose, and too much leeway is given to Paul Kantner's play on his new toy (the wah-wah pedal). (8.33333/10)

8. "Crown Of Creation" (2:53) the second single release. Unfortunately, the song is trying too hard to be driven more by its high-brow philosophical human-potential ideas rendered in obtuse Jon Anderson-like lyrics than melodies or earworm hooks. Horribly sloppy drumming, disappointingly simple bass and rhythm guitar work with okay lead guitar work and nice multi-voice vocal performances and arrangements just don't all gel the way one would hope. (8.75/10)

9. "Ice Cream Phoenix" (3:02) a song that feels as if the band is "going back" to its blues- and folk-rock roots shows a little maturity and experience but at the same time suffers from the pervasive anti-establishment attitudes of the zeitgeist of San Francisco in 1968. I wonder what the band members would think when they listened to these songs in their middle and elder ages. Probably a lot of embarrassed cringing. (8.66667/10)

10. "Greasy Heart" (3:19) the first single released from the album. It and its companion song, "Lather," were recorded in February at RCA studios, while the rest of the album's songs were more carefully pieced together between March and June in the new basement studio of the band's newly acquired communal home, called "The Mansion," located directly across from San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. The song sounds very much as if Grace is trying to capture the power and force that she projected in her breakthrough performances from Surrealistic Pillow. (8.75/10)

11. "The House At Pooneil Corners" (5:48) striving for more return to the heavier side of rock 'n' roll the band turn on (and up) the amps and fill the sonic field with controlled chaos and multiple voice vocals from the famed tandem of Grace and Marty. The lyrics seem to express a kind of prophetic/apocryphal vision that is probably intended to raise anti-war sentiment. Not a bad song made better for the lyrics. (8.875/10)

Total time 37:49

B/four stars; a collection of diverse songs from a fully-functioning if slightly-fogged collective of rock stars riding high on their newly acquired fame. Not for everyone--and not much of a forward contribution to the birth of progressive rock music--but a satisfactory representation of its time.

The year 1967 was America's Summer of Love, a time when idealistic youth fled the doldrums of their conservative communities all across the USA and flocked to the city of San Francisco in droves in order to find a piece of all that peace, love and free drug-fueled sex emulating out of the city's Haight-Ashbury district. While many bands are associated with the time and place where it all played out, JEFFERSON AIRPLANE remains the band that many first think of when referring to this particular music scene and indeed the year 1967 was the AIRPLANE's peak as it started it out with its amazingly popular "Surrealistic Pillow" which yielded two top 10 singles and ended with its complete transmogrification into a bonafide art rock band. In between the band engaged in a massive touring schedule and even played at the Monterrey Pop Festival in June. In fact, JEFFERSON AIRPLANE was the most popular act in the USA in 1967 and even found its popularity spreading all across the world.

The band didn't squander its success either as it engaged in its massive tour circuit and TV appearances from the release of "Surrealistic Pillow" in February, 1967 all throughout the year while the band members were enthusiastically working on a followup album. While initially JEFFERSON AIRPLANE was quite content with the psychedelic pop direction that propelled the band's music into the limelight, the members of the band like many musicians of the day were profoundly impacted by the release of The Beatles' game-changing album "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club" which was heard like a shot around the world that pop single oriented albums were out and that the era of conceptually focused art rock albums that offered more freedom were in. JEFFERSON AIRPLANE like many of the era immediately scrapped all its plans and started anew and fearlessly moved on well beyond its pop rooted comfort zone.

The band wasted no time and crafted its first art rock album in time to release at the end of the year in November. The results amounted to the first of its most interesting period and AFTER BATHING AT BAXTER'S came out only nine months after "Surrealistic Pillow" but saw the band maturing from its psychedelic singer's oriented pop simplicity to a bonafide proto-progressive art rock band. With a nebulous album title that referred to the group's code work for LSD and provocative counterculture album cover that satirized the shallowness of American consumer culture, JEFFERSON AIRPLANE hadn't abandoned its hippie ideals and revolutionary thinking that were drowned out with in heavy doses of drug use but rather took it all to the next level. While the band's pop single days were over and the band never scored another top 10 in its career, the album was touted by critics as one of the West Coast psychedelic rock scene's most mature undertakings finding praise as far afield as the hi-brow musical world of the UK.

The first impression AFTER BATHING AT BAXTER'S will give you is that JEFFERSON AIRPLANE had embarked on a journey of a newfound artistic freedom and breaking the shackles of the whims and profit seeking margins of the record label (RCA in this case) although it is true that the fast-changing music scene had record companies thrown off their game in the late 60s and RCA was gambling on the "Sgt Pepper's" effect that AFTER BATHING AT BAXTER'S would be met with the same chart success but unfortunately America wasn't quite ready for such heady art rock and the album was a disappointment in terms of initial sales despite raving critical reviews. To many this album will sound a bit amateurish with sloppy musical performances that embraced a bit of dissonance and off-kilter vocal harmonies which were in stark contrast to the slick pop aesthetics of "Surrealistic Pillow." Soulful lyrical content back by extended folk rock backing and slightly askew guitar accompaniments were prognosticating the world of post-punk and avant-prog long before either genre came to be.

Another aspect that made BAXTER's substantially different was the fact Paul Kantner picked up the songwriting slack as Marty Balin became ever disillusioned by the band's drug use antics. Kantner offered a much looser form of songwriting that found greater doses of garage rock nonchalantness to the mix however Grace Slick proved herself to have a much greater range on her vocal abilities and delivered some of the best performances of her career. Overt anti-war lyrical content had evolved beyond the "tune out, drop out" years of hippie ideals and taken into the realms of pure protest in the vein of many folkies of the era such as Phil Ochs, Tom Paxton and Pete Seeger. The album also featured more anarchic sounds with acid rock guitar sounds let off the leash as well as the highly experimental 9-minute track "Spare Chaynge" that sounded like an early Krautrock offering that would eventually become popularized by Germany's Amon Duul II" with its thundering bass rolls and provocatively dissonantly hypnotic guitar riffing.

When all is said and done, AFTER BATHING AT BAXTER'S proved to be an extremely influential album on many of the progressive rock bands that would emerge in a few short years and what the album lacked in terms of popularity at the time, it more than made up for in ingenuity and maturity that steered the band into the direction of one of the 60s most forward thinking bands which kept the band relevant well beyond the fleeting year of The Summer of Love. AFTER BATHING AT BAXTER'S is without a doubt an acquired taste as it lacks the instant liability factor that its processor endeared fans with. On the contrary, this album is a dark and brooding social critique steeped in harsher tones and musical delivery systems. It's a fascinating work that while not exactly perfect showcased many of the elements that would become progressive rock staples. Loose freeform compositional structures finding unpredictabilities and moments of non-rock instrumentation such as a flute only elevated its art rock status into one of the most innovative albums of 1967. It took me a while to warm up to this phase of JEFFERSON AIRPLANE but in the end this album has become more interesting the more i've listened to it.

JA's 3rd album and totally different from the previous 2. The songs are organised into suites but feel like they're sometimes stitched together to form a suite rather than because they are overly connected. For that reason, I'll review by song rather than by suite to be fair to each song.

This collection is more consistent than their first 2 which, to my ears contained a few songs off the (high) standard they set with their classic songs.

The album starts with sustained feedback that breaks into "Ballad of Me and You and Pooneil", a great opener containing some Casady fuzz bass to enjoy. The suite continues with the strange "A Small Package of Value" before "Young Girl Sunday Blues" lead sung by Balin (and very well too).

"Martha" is a lovely song to start the next suite. A Kantner song with good bass line and recorder? played by Grace when she isn't singing the chorus. Good guitar break from Jorma too. "Wild Thyme" follows and is the first item with Grace leading the choir on the album.

"The Last Wall of the Castle" opens the 3rd suite strongly with the choir now led by Jorma. In future Jorma would tend to sing his contributions sans choir but he sounds better on this track with the stronger voices behind him. Grace's "rejoyce" is a great side closer with the immortal line "I'd Rather Have My Country Die For Me". You tell 'em Grace!

Side 2 opened with the driving "Watch Her Ryde" with another great Casady bass line before the real gem on this record starts. "Spare Chaynge" is a long instrumental starting with Casady playing flamenco on his bass with Jorma contributing feedback and Dryden some cymbals before erupting into a full guitar/bass/drums frenzy. Dryden never drummed better than on the second half of this track. The Airplane always had some Spanish/Mexican influences but never more than here.

The final suite opens with "Two Heads", another Grace lead vocal before closing with the "double song" of "Won't You Try/Saturday Afternoon" written by Kantner.

My CD version also has a long excellent live version of "Pooneil" and altenative versions of "Martha" and "Two Heads" as bonus tracks with a Balin -penned rarity "Things Are Better in the East" finishing off the album.

Overall, much more consistent than their 1st 2 albums with a stronger presence of the instrumental side of the band. Casady's bass is superb throughout (I am an unashamed fan of his) and, noticeably, Balin seems to be less prominent than before, both as writer and lead singer. There was too much talent in this band!

A deserved 4 stars for the most proggy thing they did.

The late 60s were upon the world and with it, the popularity of psychedelia bloomed to new heights. The early forms of psych rock in the 60s were in their infancy, with many elements that are taken from folk, blues, and jazz, being precursors to many traits genres like Neo-Psychedelia, Krautrock, and Progressive Rock would utilize. Psych could be considered the precursor to many of those genres, especially concerning albums like The Psychedelic Sounds of The 13th Floor Elevators, Electric Ladyland, and The Doors' self-titled release. While those are influential throughout the world, it should also be noted that in these early days the more pop-centered rock was still in a state of a high, especially if we take into account the popularity The Beatles and The Rolling Stones had on the world through this decade. This meant that in a confused state, psychedelic rock and psychedelic pop were almost indistinguishable, however, after the 70s we would see the separation be made, especially about acts like Pink Floyd, and Gong. With that, it'd go without saying that this release by Jefferson Airplane has a striking influence on the whole of psych rock, while also on the whole of psych-pop.

She Has Funny Cars start the album off proper, and with it, we get that classic 60s pop rock in full. Lots of vibrant guitars and melodies shape the song into a sparkling mass of feel-good emotions. By this time in the 60s, this type of music was still fresh in people's minds since when this was recorded, The Beatles would release their album, Revolver, and The Beach Boys would release Pet Sounds, so this more typical pop rock music would still be all the rage. In it, we do get a sort of peak in that style of music, where you can tell that they are still within the blindfolds of the eccentric pop era, but they start to see out the window more and see more of the world's colors. A fun, yet still a bordered-up song of this era.

This album contains 2 hits, with Somebody To Love being the first one. This is more of a lovey-dovey-type song that is meant to all feel good. Out of the 2 hits on this album, this is the weakest one. Not that it is bad, it's super fun and has a great melody and chorus, but it is meant to be exceptionally commercial. The commercial doesn't mean it's bad, but it does mean some artistic liberties have been lost.

Besides rock, psychedelic music has had some folk influences, and this stays true with the track My Best Friend. The lack of electric guitars does make this a fairly interesting listen, since when I think of psych rock and psych-pop I think of more distorted guitars and wild and crazy sounds, but here when it is set back a bit with more acoustic instruments we get a new flavor of the psyche that I also enjoy. A very lush and pretty sound that does make for an instantly more enjoyable experience.

That is only the bridge to the more folk adjacent sound since Today carries it even more. The only thing here in the instrumentation is the acoustic guitar, with only a few percussion instruments in the back. This is where the band lets their voices soar. Lush Beatles-like vocals take you back into the fresh hippie era of the United States. Back when Woodstock was fresh in people's minds and the best way to experience music is to puff a blunt and let your mind soar. It isn't nostalgic for me since I wasn't born into that era, but I can get the feeling that might've been when that type of stuff was going on. Super well made, and I think it is the highlight of this record.

Comin' Back To Me is also a more folky song, heck in the same caliber. There are two sides to this record, not in the literal sense but there are the more rock-oriented songs and the folk-oriented songs. This leaves the band having two different moods, the calm and cool folk and the bouncy rock. These were sort of the mindsets the 60s era of rock had where bands were experimenting with different genres to produce different sounds, this is as evident with acts like The Doors. It doesn't have the same punch that Today has, but it still is a pretty folk song that I do think can have a good deal of love and appreciation in it.

We get back into the pop-psych with ⅗ of a Mile in 10 Seconds. This song I noticed does allow the instruments to talk the talk so to speak more than not, with a mini guitar anthem after the middle part. It is fully developed too, not just a one-note thing but something that takes a few seconds to develop, and honestly, I like this about Jefferson Airplane. They know how to make some stellar poppy but great songs that can develop into something even more stellar.

We get more of this stellar portrayal of music with D. C. B. A.-25. This bizarre title of a song is another of the band's highlights. How the song starts slow and starts to go faster and faster, not too fast to be intense, but fast enough for you to notice and groove along to. Not only that but the more bluesy atmosphere this song radiates makes it even more fun, and unique. Weird how the album is a bit more bottom-heavy, but that is a no-brainer when most record companies would put the more poppy songs upfront on the records before the ones with the most uniqueness.

We get back to the folk territory, now mixed with some of the blues with How Do You Feel. We get some interesting guitar strumming and vocalizations from the singers of the band. It radiates a sort of worker song that people would sing for hours and hours on end, breaking their back to labor after labor. It is a song that can be used effectively in a setting like that, and I think it does work for what it is intended to be. It is vibrant, yet almost melancholic song that I think works incredibly well. It can also be considered a melody with the short 1-minute guitar strumming song of Embryonic Journey being right after, having a similar feel yet with no lyrics. It is short and sweet but does deliver the feels quite nicely.

It would be a shame to not talk about the starlight of this album, White Rabbit. This Alice in Wonderland, drug and insane trip of a song has a chokehold on me at the current moment. I am surprised this song still sounds so relevant even today, despite the production being less clean. It holds so much in so little time and how it just evolves into more and more brilliance elevates this song for me. I can say it is one of psychedelic rock's many masterpieces throughout the years and one that is a no-brainer for being the band's most popular and influential song.

The album end's on a pretty high note with Plastic Fantastic Lover. Ending with a more bluesy song is a good choice in my opinion since it expresses all three of the key features this album deploys. The fun rock songs, the calm folk twists, and the psychedelic wonderlands end up creating a pretty great experience overall. At the end of the day, Plastic Fantastic Lover does a good job of being a good song and a good ending to this good album.

One of the key bands of the psych-rock movement, Jefferson Airplane is one that I did not expect to find so enjoyable. Their work will influence more generations of psychedelic fans to come, and while this is an imperfect album, it does leave a lot to enjoy. Some really good stuff on here, despite it being more bottom-heavy on the record.

The Airplane's second album and one that introduced Grace Slick and Spencer Dryden as their new singer and drummer respectively. Both were good acquisitions.

The cover once again (as per their 1st album) shows what looks like a group of college kids carrying odd instruments (nothing too" rocky") as if they were waiting for their music teachers to appear and had a photo taken to pass the time.

Slick brought with her the 2 best songs on this effort and the one that switched me on to this great band. More of that soon.

Again, Balin dominates this album with some of his best vocals (he was always better in the studio) and he co-penned the opener "She Has Funny Cars" with Kaukonen. This song opens with a Dryden drumbeat before Balin takes on the lead vocal with the choir backing him well.

But then comes the tune that first made me an Airplane passenger - "Somebody To Love". Driven by Cassidy's bass line Grace belts this out as if she means it - so much better than the version she used to sing with the Great Society. Kaukonen's guitar also excels.

"My Best Friend" is a twee little tune before Balin and Kantner's "Today" which quietens down the album at this point. Sadly, the closer on the original Side 1, "Comin' Back To Me" is an overlong dirge to my ears. I often feel that Balin's songs with the Jefferson Starship's backing were better arranged (Listen to "Miracles" or "Caroline"). This one loses me less than halfway through as it seems to have the weakest melody on the album.

"3/5 of a Mile in 10 Seconds" opened side 2 on the original and points the way for REM's wierd titles (The Airplane loved strange titles) years later. Not bad as are the next two tracks "DCBA-25" and "How Do You Feel", the latter showing a relaxed Caribbean feel to it that would later also show on their live version of "Fat Angel".

"Embryonic Journey" is a Kaukonen driven short instrumental and is the best track other than "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit" on the album.

Then comes the innovative and haunting "White Rabbit" with Grace again bringing this from her old band and making it an Airplane classic. Wonderful atmosphere created by Kaukonen and Cassidy allowing Slick's vocie to dominate an unusual tune - great stuff.

Balin's "Plastic Fantastic Lover" concludes the album solidly.

The instrumental side of the band was definitely more prominent than on their debut and the presence of 2 early Airplane classics makes this a good album to have but I feel the term "Not Bad" applies to too many items on it for it to be better than 3 stars.

The Airplane were to make better albums than this.

First, I am a self-confessed big fan of the Airplane from the moment I bought "Bless Its Pointed Little Head" their classic live album.

I didn't even know this album existed until a friend alerted me to it by which time it was deleted in the UK. When it was re-releasedin the early 70s I immediately bought it on vinyl.

Let's start with the cover which shows what looks like a bunch of college students standing in front of an old propeller plane. Typical cover for the 1st LP but showing no signs of the hippy darlings they'd become a year or so later.

Marty Balin formed the band as a vehicle for his songs and voice so his presence is much stronger here than on later albums when everybody in the band wanted to sing their own songs on each album. I love his studio voice which is great on this release but always felt that he tried too hard to outdo Grace Slick on live recordings.

His voice introduces track 1 "Blues From an Airplane" a strong opener in which Signe Anderson's voice provides good support. She was the original girl singer for the band but only featured on this release before leaving to have a baby. The song was cowritten by drummer Skip Spence who was really a guitarist who became a drummer short term.

The next 2 tracks "Let Me In" and "Bringing Me Down" were cowritten by Balin and Kantner who shared lead vocals before a pure Balin composition "It's No Secret" sung by Marty. The original album then ended Side 1 with "Tobacco Road" ( a rather limp version) and "Come Up the Years" a pleasant ditty about love for a younger (presumably underage) girl.

I haven't lavished praise on the 5 songs after the opener because they feel pleasant without being outstanding. However, side 2 picks up strongly after its opener "Run Around".

"Let's Get Together", a song written by Chet Powers (aka Dino Valente) is another real highlight as Signe gets her best chance yet to show her singing prowess. "Don't Slip Away" feels a bit twee but is really enjoyable.

"Chauffeur Blues" allows Signe to truly show the power in her voice on a fast blues well driven by the band before Balin sings "And I Like It" a lovely ballad. In all side 2 is stronger than side 1and makes this album more than a curiosity for collectors only.

The album shows early signs of musical prowess with Cassady's bass already shining through on most tracks, the powerful female voice, the choir-like chorusses on some tracks. Kaukonen would come through more strongly in the future. The band would go on to make much better albums with Grace Slick, who also brought some great songs to the band, replacing Signe.

Balin would slide down the pecking order for lead vocals and eventually leave the band he formed but this is his album really. Torn between 3 and 4 stars but, since i feel there are a few songs here not up to their usual high bar, it must be 3.

RIP Balin, Kantner and Anderson

— First review of this album —

Recently I realized I've never had a closer look at Jefferson Airplane, the legendary American psych rock band whose biggest hits ('White Rabbit' and 'Somebody to Love') were pretty much all I knew. This situation was best repaired by borrowing a multi-disc compilation from library. This 3-disc set is among the latest ones released, and it turned out to be a more suitable choice for my purpose than I thought in advance.

Why so? Because of the way this set represents the majority of the band's studio album material from 1966 to 1972. On the outside this set is rather cheapish and minimalistic which would have been so easily avoided. The package itself misses the album source information (and the track lengths as usual), but I did some research and found out that it proceeds chronologically in an album by album manner, even so symmetrically that discs 1 and 2 draw from two albums each, while disc 3 is almost of the same approach except for ending with three tracks from the seventh studio album. Each disc has 15 tracks, no live cuts or rarities are included. So, for the actual contents it's almost ideal for a newcomer -- a pity for the missing information though. Under the transparent disc holders you can try and read the recording years and composers for tracks, and there are no supplementary leaflets or anything like that.

Of course being unfamiliar with the original albums I cannot very deeply evaluate the track choices, but as the number of songs per album is around seven, one can assume that the compilation gives a fairly good picture of those albums. The debut Takes Off (1966) is musically dominated by guitarist Marty Balin who both wrote and sang the majority of the material. Surrealistic Pillow (1967) is by far the most celebrated and most interesting of JA's albums as the new member Grace Slick proved to be not only a phenomenal performer but also a gifted songwriter. The two big hits mentioned above were hers.

The following albums After Bathing at Baxter's (1967) and Crown of Creation (1968) represented on disc 2 seem to be more uneven to me. The group's sound turned a bit heavier, influenced by Jimi Hendrix and Cream. Slick's songs such as 'Lather' tend to be the best ones. As a side note, let it be mentioned that the blues oriented guitarist Jorma Kaukonen -- whose name is purely Finnish -- has Finnish grandparents. He and the Jefferson bassist Jack Casady formed Hot Tuna in '69/70. By the third disc here I began to feel some disappointment of this band being less about Grace Slick's vocals and songwriting than I had wished. Volunteers (1969) has two highlights, Slick's lengthy 'Hey Frederick', and 'Wooden Ships' that Paul Kantner co-wrote with David Crosby and Stephen Stills. The final albums Bark (1971) and Long John Silver (1972) are considerably less interesting, mostly devoid of any psychedelic flavour.

Despite the cheap outlooks this compilation functions very well as a representation of Jefferson Airplane's original existence (they reunited in the late 80's but that's another story). 3½ stars rounded down for the missing information.