- Bless its Pointed Little Head
Jefferson Airplane. A bunch of dirty hippies or some of the
best bands of 60’s psychedelic era? The world is still debating on that one,
but I definitely choose the later. Airplane is one of the best late-60’s bands
ever came from the very eastern coast of the USA. Doors? Way too dark, hopelessly
boring, amazingly pretentious and unmelodic. The Byrds? Boring as hell, and
even they were innovative as hell, I still don’t give a damn. By the way, incredibly,
Jefferson Airplane began as one of The Byrds’ clones, doing almost exactly the
same stuff as Clark, Crosby and McGuinn have done. But, later, as Summer Of
Love and other important thing came along, the band changed their style and
became a great, dark, Apocalyptic psychedelic band. They may sound dated and
boring nowadays, but it’s a fact that they’ve written some of the best songs
of that era.
The band’s core were always four people – Jorma Kaukonen (lead guitar, occasional
singing), Marty Balin (lead vocals and sometimes rhythm guitar), Jack Casady
(bass guitar) and Paul Kantner (rhythm guitar and singing). These three were
completely different from each other. Jorma was (and still) a great guitarist,
a great bluesman who know how to throw in a great tune or two and to do a great
solo. He is, without a doubt, my fave member of the band. Marty is a pop mind
of the band – he never cared too much for psychedelic experiments, damn, he
never cared for experimenting – he usually sticked to the simple catchy pop
tunes. Paul was an absolute counterpoint to Marty, he was the force behind the
band’s psychedelic period. His songwriting almost never sticks to a normal “verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-solo-chorus-verse-
chorus” formula, the guy wrote very twisted tunes that were really hard to get.
He is a real fuck in the life behind music, though, so he must burn in hell.
Jack Casady is simply the bassist. One of the world’s best, that’s for sure.
I mean, his basslines are maybe the best thing Airplane can boast of. He has
never done too much songwriting, but he was the inventor of the band’s psychedelic
jamming, the thing that Grateful Dead would later take and develop to extreme.
Of course, Phish will beat them in that, but Phish never were the psychedelic
band and they don’t belong to 60’s (even to 70’s), so I’d better stop it.
Apart from these four guys, the classic period Jefferson Airplane had two more
people in the line-up. Grace Slick (vocals and flutes) and Spencer Dryden (drums
and sound collages). Grace is probably one of the best female vocals in rock,
second only to Annie Haslam or someone. She is also a good songwriter, somewhat
similar to Kantner (they later married, by the way). Spencer is just a drummer.
Before these two were in the band, their places were taken Signe Anderson (vocals)
and Skip Spence (drums).
Marty and Spencer left in 1969; Marty was never replace (he would later return
to the second incarnation of the band – Jefferson Starship), Dryden’s position
was taken over by Joey Covington. Plus, they added Papa John Creach on violin
for the last pair of albums. For the last tour, John Barbata replaced Joey,
and David Freiberg was added on vocals. Then, they re-named into Jefferson Starship
and the whole new story has began…
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At the beginning, Jefferson Airplane was a folk-pop band, led by Marty Balin who wrote almost all of the songs on here. These songs are cute, catchy, short and energetic, but they’ve got one big problem. They all sound identically the same. Anybody who can tell me when one song begins and the other one ends without looking at the information screen must be explored by some scientists for having BIG memory. I haven’t got memory that is good as THAT one, and I don’t even pray for it, so it’s impossible to recognize songs. I DO remember “It’s No Secret” has some kind of middle part and “Tobacco Road” has some hook when al members of the band sing together, but that’s all. This stuff bores the shit out of me. It’s good, anyway, because none of the songs stinks – just bores and bores. And I don’t get the presence of Signe Anderson in the band – most of the time, she appears to sing one word as a back vocalist and she sings lead for about one minute out of the record’s thirty. And she’s got a great voice! What the fuck? The album still has the most hilarious song Airplane have ever done – “Come Up In Years”. No, the song is boring and samey as everything on here, but the lyrical concept of the song is just laughable. If the line “come up in years and love me” doesn’t mean a thing for ya, go check up the lyrics on some Jefferson Airplane fan site. If you still don’t get it, ask me. If I would explain it BADLY, go to George Starostin’s website, check out the Music Babble message board, find a guy called “Fredrik”, and ask him. I’m sure he knows. He also knows many things about Grateful Dead, Yes and Genesis, so you can ask him about Jerry Garcia’s underwear or Jon Anderson’s problems with women or Phil Collins’ obsession of Irish medical herbs or other stuff that have been bothering you for years, feel free to ask him about that too. And excuse me for a bad joke – I NEEDED to mention Fredrik Tydal somewhere at my JA’s reviews, so… Ok, end of the fuckin’ review.
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This album is often considered to be the band’s best and it’s
easily to see why – beside having two of the Airplane’s most famous songs, the
album is a mix between Marty’s catchy pop songwriting and not less catchy (at
that point of time) bunch of psychedelic songs from Grace and Paul. In result,
we have band that stands on a crossroads, but somehow manages to write excellent
songs. It’s not their best, in my opinion, but certainly very strong one.
You’ve heard a lot of times two main hits from the record – “Somebody To Love”
and “White Rabbit”, both penned by members of Slick family. The former is by
Grace’s brother Darby and the later is, well, by Grace herself. It’s hard to
tell which one I prefer. On the one hand, there is “Somebody To Love”, and it
sounds like SF The Who high on acid with female vocal, and it simply rocks and
is incredibly catchy. And the vocal energy is, of course, beyond all possible
levels. But, on the other hand, “White Rabbit” is just scary. Spencer sets in
dark marching rhythm, Casady brings some of his best basslines ever (oh man,
were these two guys cool rhythm section), and the song simply builds up, with
Grace’s mysterious vocals, psychedelic guitars and all that stuff. And I swear
you’ve never heard nothing like final “FEEED YOUR HEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAD” part
in your life. It’s just that cool.
Apart from two hits, the album includes some more obvious highlights: Marty’s
“3/5 Of A Mile In One Second” is a great psychedelic rock’n’roller with great,
furious attack from the band. It isn’t “The Last Wall Of The castle” or “Volunteers”,
but it still kicks ass. His “Comin’ Back To Me” is a big epic ballad and it’s,
actually, touching. “How Do You Feel” and “Today” are even better ballads. “How
Do You feel” has flutes and stuff, and “Today” is so beautiful that it leaves
me speechless. Dryden’s “My Best Friend” is certainly his best song and it is
so poppy and pretty that it’s impossible to dislike. And of course there is
the second rap song ever “Plastic fantastic Lover” which rules, and completely
AWESOME, FINISHED AND BREATHTAKING Jorma’s solo acoustic instrumental “Embryonic
Journey”. If this man isn’t underrated, that nobody is. “D.C.B.A.-25” is a nice
slice of cute psychedelic pop from Paul and “She Has Funny Cars” (killer title),
built on the great counterpoint of fast verses and sloe choruses. Great. No
weak tune on here, you know! That’s why the album gets 8.5. The album certainly
lacks something in production, but it’s good. Get it right now.
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And so, Paul stole the show. He took the band’s leadership
away from Marty, wrote seven of the album’s twelve songs and forced the band
to move into new directory – simple SF psychedelic music. Actually, that’s not
a bad thing, if you want to know. The hippie psychedelic movement isn’t the
worst thing in the world, and, what’s the most important thing, Paul was a good
songwriter. His songs may not follow ordinary pop song structure and they may
lack hooks, but almost all of them are, for some reason, memorable. And so,
the album is actually better than Surrealistic Pillow. Out of all songs on here,
I can find only two really sucky. Nine minutes of space jamming in “Spare Chaynge”
isn’t interesting at all (though Jorma’s guitar is great), and Dryden’s collage
“A Small Package Of Value Will Come To You Shortly” is a straight filler (but
the ending is nothing but hilarious). But that’s all – all other songs are great,
and almost any of them are better than your random pick from previous albums.
Paul’s opener, “The Ballad Of Me And You And Pooneil” is very dark, repetitive,
but good and even catchy rocker with Grace gives really great, Eastern-flavored
performance. She sings even better on “Young Girl Sunday Blues” (the only Marty’s
co-credit on here), and that song is awesome infective and has a great hook
(that “yesterday... and TOMORROW, tomorooooooow” line is nothing but brilliant).
“Won’t You Try”/”Saturday Afternoon” is one of the best songs on album, and
it shows the band’s vocal harmonies at its’ peak, and “Martha” is a beautiful
psychedelic ballad. “Wild Tyme (H)” and “Watch Her Ride” are rocking and good
too.
Two best cuts off the album, however, aren’t credited to Kantner. Jorma simply
shine son here with his fast blues “The Last Wall Of The Castle” that has raw
soloing, listenable noise part, great drum break and, of course, catchy and
simple vocal melody (I simply can’t put that “You can teach me how to love,
if you only try... So PLEASE, don’t give up so soooooon” line from my head).
Grace pens her BEST song on here – “ReJoyce” – long, mysterious composition
that I adore. The song has a load of different vocal melodies and they all are
catchy; Casady plays genius atmospheric bass and Grace herself plays on a bunch
of different brass instruments at the background. Her second song, a re-write
of “White Rabbit” called “Two Heads”, is not as good as “ReJoyce”, of course,
but it’s excellent anyway. To sum all the things, Baxter’s is a great album
and a must buy for sure.
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And so, it was 1968, and the hippie movement reached its’ peak. And in the middle of it, Jefferson Airplane has released an extremely dark album with songs about death, the end of the world, the end of hippie movement (already) and group sex. They decided to make it atmospheric, rather than meldoic, and it shows. Almost all of these songs don’t even try to pretend they have a melody. Pretty much everything on here sets on scary atmosphere. I’m a big fan of atmospheric records, but this one simply bores me, for some reason. For instance, Kantner’s “In Time” and “The House At Pooneil’s Corners” are all big and unmemorable. “The House” is memorable, but mostly of boring two-chord melody, stones vocal harmonies and various spooky effects all over the track. Fortunately, Paul also writes the title track – and that one is a pretty song. “You areeeeeeeeee the crown of creation!” Gotta love those scary harmonies and good melody. Back to the mediocre songs, I still can’t understand why did they place Dryden’s stupid electronica collage “Chushingura” and a bunch of background music called “Ice Cream Pheonix”. And Marty spoils the whole show with “Share A Little Joke”
All other songs are, however, varue from perfect to simply very good. Marty Balin contributes “If You Feel” – and that one is a great song. The melody is simply excellent, infectious Marty’s vocals are crazy and it’s a fantastic song overall. Jorma has his “Star Track”, and though the version on here is not as good as live version from Live At The Fillmore East, it’s still great. But the star of the album is, without a doubt, Grace. “Greasy Heart” is as good as it was live and her cover of David Crosby’s “Triad” demonstrates how it’s cool to cover a long acoustic song about group sex. I know that stuff like that just screams for some jizz, but Grace gives it some kind of energy. But her best song on here is the opening “Lather” – another great acoustic song, with excellent lyrics, various sound effects (some of which are the same as in “Chushingura”, but used much better) and awesome singing (as usual).
Overall, this album is the weakest one in the whole classic Jefferson Airplane period, but it’s not exactly weak. Get it someday.
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Released after thirty years after its’ recording, this live album capture Jefferson Airplane flying in, well, Fillmore East, at the spring of good ol’ ’68. Of course, I wasn’t there to tell you if it’s really truth, but the band seemed to be just stoned while playing. Somehow, it doesn’t really shows on playing on the instruments, but the singing is awful. Marty screams, wails and does a lot of other unpleasant things; Kantner never hits right notes; Grace sings too slow or too fast sometimes. There’s only Jorma to stand there, but, you know, Jorma was the worst vocalist in the band, so whatever. The band still gives a great performance, so the singing don’t kill everything. Airplane performs some older hits, stuff from Baxter’s, stuff from upcoming Crown Of Creation, one big jam and a bunch of weird covers, but they all do it with energy and actually care for public, so you can expect to get something more than just a casual listen from this album.
There IS actually one REALLY draggy track, however – their cover of Donovan’s “Fat Angel”, and even that one is a good song, actually, but spoiled by a lot of slow weirdass psychedelic jamming. Psychedelic jamming shows again on eleven-minute improv “Thing”, but, this time, it’s good. I know I’m alone in that, but I love that track. The first, eh, “part”, when Jorma gets some wild slow screamy notes with his guitar is scary as hell, and the second part may be an ideal soundtrack for Hell. In a good way, of course. It’s clearly the best Airplane’s psychedelic jam I’ve ever heard, and it can challenge a pair of Grateful Dead jams, if you ask me.
Stuff from three albums the band had released to the date is re-arranged and kicks ass even more than it did in studio. Heavy rendition of “The Ballad Of Me And You And Pooneil” has a great Casady’s solo in the middle and lasts for friggin’ eight minutes! And it rules! “Won’t You Try/Saturday Afternoon” is quite probably the only song on here when the band suddenly remember how to sing and makes these harmonies of the studio version sound pretty good on stage. Both “Watch Her Ride” and “Wild Tyme” are rocking and powerful as nothing else from Baxter’s. Marty’s pro-cock rock screams may irritate, but the songs are great anyway. “White Rabbit” and “Somebody To Love” are “White Rabbit” and “Somebody To Love”. Finally, there’s a bunch of Balin songs on here: “She Has Funny Cars”, “It’s No Secret” and “Today”.
Songs from Crown Of Creation are good too. Grace’s “Greasy Heart”, while being messed, rocks hard and is performed greatly by the band and Jorma proves that he’s a great songwriter and guitarist in his slow, but very energetic blues “Star Track”. Finally, there’s a version of Fred Neil’s “The Other Side Of The Life”, and that one rocks pretty good too. Version on Bless Its’ Pointed Little Head is better, though.
Overall, this album is pretty good, and I suppose it’s one of the better 60’s life albums. Plus, the songs are excellent, so you’d better grab it someday.
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Hippie gurus Jefferson Airplane are forever gone, welcome Jefferson Airplane, the political heroes! Yup, you’ve heard right. The whole album is, actually, conceptual: the band against all sings of America: capitalism, bureaucracy, killing of nature and so on and so on. The only one who was out of the stream was Jorma, and he still writes pretty songs about love. But, hell, even Spencer Dryden goes on and writes a song about evil of importance of the charts. But, I’ll talk about that later, and now let me tell you one thing: that was a unique step for those times – making an album almost entirely devoted to politics. The protest song and anti-government anthems were long before Marty Balin first got the idea of making a band, but the album about politics was the unique for 1969, I repeat. So, here, Clash, are your origins!
As for the music, it’s awesome. I’d better go by track-by-track analysis. The first song, “We Can be Together”, is definitely one of the best on here. Great riff, smoking solos from Jorma and catchy vocal parts: some are beauiful, some are rocking and simply interesting. It may be overlong a little bit, but it still kicks ass. The next song is Jorma’s re-work of the old traditional song “Good Shepherd” which I have never heard, but this version is awesome. Jorma’s vocals are pretty, with a great background ones by Grace and Marty. The melody itself is excellent, and the man gives out a pair of really good solos. Great stuff so far. What’s next?
The next song is “The Farm” and that one is surely better than two first songs. Paul and Grace can’t sing in unison at all, but, man, the song has a great melody and atmosphere (made by warm guitar lines of guest Jerry Garcia). And the lyrics are hilarious! Gotta love this song. But then, after the prettiest song on here, comes the heaviest one – Grace’s “Hey Fredrik”. Eight minutes of heavy psychedelic jamming with MAD Nicky Hopkins on piano and even crazier Jorma on guitar. The vocal part isn’t very memorable (although I, personally, still can’t throw that “You go on through” line from my head), but it’s Grace who sings it, so whatever!
“Turn My Life Down” is a gospel-country ballad by Jorma (sung by Marty, though), and that one is great. The background choir is awesome, organ-led melody is very pretty and these solos are nothing but genius. It leads us to the real classic – “Wooden Ships”, a song, that became popular by Crosby, Stills And Nash, but it was Kantner who wrote it. The song is gorgeous, just gorgeous. The band’s singing is fantastic and touching, Jorma’s guitar just cries and... Well, all that I can say is that this song is great, just great.
“Eskimo Blue Day” is, like “Hey Fredrik”, a jam, but, this time a slow one, and, actually, gives a lot more space for Grace’s vocal part, and that one is great too. Dryden’s “A Song For All Seasons” is a hilarious hardcore country song, with awesome piano from Nicky Hopkins and sing-along melody. After a short organ ditty “Meadowlands” (taken directly from Russian folk song “Polushko-pole”), the last track comes – “Volunteers”. It takes its’ riff from “We Can Be Together”, but it’s shorter and catchier, with yet another appearance of women background chorus on Marty-sung track. And this one simply ROCKS!
That’s all, now, so, overall, this album is awesome. It may seem dated right
now, when the hippie epoch and politics of that time aren’t actual anymore,
but the music is great all over. That’s my pick for Jefferson Airplane’s best
album.
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See, it’s a compilation of various live performances Airplane did at the end of ’68. But, you know, somebody there chose WRONG tracks! Why do we have top listen to seven minutes of “Fat Angel” when we could listen to, I don’t know, “White Rabbit”? Or why did they put that stupid jam “Bear Melt” on here, which is the same old “Thing”, but with a little bit more improv and GRACE SLICK RAMBLINGS ABOUT ANIMALS. Fuck. Finally, live version of “Somebody To Love” sucks ass, because Grace turns it into a disaster with her soul (!!!) vocals. And what is “Clergy” and “Turn Out The Lights”? Useless minutes of stage banter? Dump that shit, simply dump it.
Fortunately, all other songs rule. By that time, it seems, Jeffersons’ life gigs were mostly concentrated on adding some Jorma’s soloing into the songs, and I like it! He plays really cool solo at the beginning of “Plastic Fantastic Lover”! And “3/5 Of A Mile In 10 Seconds” kicks ass even more than the studio version! And “The Other Side Of The Life” has riffs, solos and all that crap which ROCKS! And there is “It’s No Secret” and that one isn’t really different from the studio version, but it kicks ass anyway! But the best song on here is “Rock Me Baby” – a Jorma/Jack/Spencer rendition of old blues standard. Jorma’s guitar solos are fantastic, Jack’s bass lines are incredible and Spencer’s drums are... eh, good. Jorma’s singing is funny too. Worth enough for getting the album.