Let Us Now Praise Jefferson Airplane

[dbt]

The 1967 version as pictured here:



(Top L-R) Jack Casady, Grace Slick, Marty Balin
(Bottom L-R) Jorma Kaukonen, Paul Kantner, Spencer Dryden

"Somebody To Love" roared out of my teenage radio speaker and Grace Slick tore my head off from the inside:

"When the truth is found to be lies
And all the joy within you dies"

"White Rabbit" gleefuly dragged me Through the Looking Glass:

"One pill makes you larger and one pill makes you small
And the ones that Mother gives you
Don't do anything at all"

"Volunteers" confirmed my fears:

"One generation got old
One generation got soul
This generation got no destination to hold"

So much delicious weirdness, so much merry subversion, so many Dada tunes from the Runes. Just when we could use another Airplane, big corporations will see to it that one doesn't get off the ground!

:loveya:
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[ikojo]

1. Surrealistic Pillow is an awesome album!!

They were also very close friends of another San Francisco band, The Grateful Dead.

[dbt]

4. I remember Jorma speaking of the Dead

"They're a great band, but they are the most outrageous-looking people you ever saw. I mean, I'm completely conservative compared to any one of them."

That's when I knew the Dead must be okay, too!

Thank you ikojo.

:hi:
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[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

2. Oh, that bass intro...

On the beginning of "3/5 of a Mile in 10 Seconds" on "Bless Their Pointed Little Heads"!

[dbt]

5. Casady WAS the End Of The World on bass

For my money, it was the lines right before the guitar solo at the end of "Somebody To Love."

Thank you, T_S. How are you keeping your head from exploding these days?

:evilgrin:
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[DBoon]

3. From one in "After Bathing at Baxters"

War's good business so give your son
But I'd rather have my country die for me

[dbt]

7. 'Baxter's' was a woefully overlooked GEM of an album

And Grace's "Two Heads" spoke right to mine:

"Two heads can be put together.
And you can fill both your feet with sand.
No one will know you've gutted your mind
but what will you do with your bloody hands?
Your lions are fighting with chairs,
your arms are incredibly fat;
Your women are tired of dying alive
if you've had any women at that."

Cheers, Dboon
:smoke:
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[Xandor]

9. Maybe my very favorite of all time...

And with headphones you could listen over and over and keep discovering more details that you hadn't heard before.

Like: the intro to Young Girl Sunday Blues is monaural, and after a few bars it explodes into stereo. If you're listening with 'phones, your head explodes too. A subtle but wonderful touch.

Winnie-the-Pooh lyrics in You & Me & Pooneil. Heh!

[Xandor]

6. After Bathing at Baxters...

GAWD! What a performance. Listen carefully to what Casady is playing on rejoyce and Two Heads. Then listen to how he coaxes and cajoles Jorma along in Spayre Change. This man was an incredible, incredible bass player. Still is. For me, there were a lot of interesting dimensions to the Airplane's music, but I always listened most carefully to Casady. He would be playing odd intervals way up on the neck and then suddenly dive into a big fat open 5th in the lowest register, and it would send chills up your spine. GREAT STUFF!

[dbt]

8. Thank you, Xandor

To this day, I cannot believe how pleasantly the Airplane rearranged my molecules without the use of drugs on my part.

:hi:
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[Xandor]

10. There's a video on the web...

I think it may actually be on the "official" Airplane site -- don't know the URL offhand. It's Airplane performing on a rooftop somewhere - maybe NYC. Casady is wearing some kinda... hat. Maybe a joker's cap. He's bopping around all over, like he used to do. It's worth the trouble to find it, for Casady's hat if nothing else.

Enjoy!

And thanks for getting me into JA reminiscence mode!