JEFFERSON AIRPLANE / JEFFERSON STARSHIP / STARSHIP

I write them this way because these are three VERY DIFFERENT GROUPS.

VERY VERY VERY VERY DIFFERENT, OKAY?

First of all it MUST BE SAID that Jefferson Airplane which will be heretofore referred to as (JA) was a bona fide awesome, gnarly, _____insert your favorite outdated phrase here______

but most of all they WEerrre GRrrrrooOOoVvvyy Man! The darlings of the town that was the psychedic San Francisco Sixties.

JEFFERSON AIRPLANE (1967-1971) recorded for the RCA Victor Label

They were inducted into the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 along with..

DAVID BOWIE > (whose cameo on the HBO series "EXTRAS" is one of the funniest things I have ever seen. He sings a song about Ricky Gervais called "Little Fat Man with a Pug-Nosed Face" that gives me perma-grin thinking about it.)

LITTLE WILLIE JOHN > (whose "Need Your Love So Bad" is Paula & My WEDDING SONG. Can I Get an AAAwwwww?) AAAWWW!

GLADYS KNIGHT & THE PIPS

PINK FLOYD

THE SHIRELLES

THE VELVET UNDERGROUND

and PETE SEEGER.

Jefferson Airplane was originally led by Marty Balin (who left in '71 and rejoined in '75 by which time they were already (JS)) and Grace Slick (who left in June '78 and returned in January '81) and featured guitarist Paul Kantner (who left in '84 taking the JEFFERSON out of the name with him-due to legal details), guitarist Jorma Kaukonen, bassist Jack Casady, and their newly found second drummer Spencer Dryden who eventually found his way into Slick if ya know what I mean.

~~ Original Drummer Skip Spence formed MOBY GRAPE.

~~ Dryden left in 1970 to join NEW RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE and was consequently replaced by Joey Covington.

~~ Kaukonen & Casady left in '74 to go full-time with HOT TUNA

songs we love by Jefferson Airplane are...

1967s

>> SOMEBODY TO LOVE (went to #5) >> WHITE RABBIT (went to #8)

They never again reached the TOP 40 (probably because they were too high but who am I to judge?) but they did have other songs we know like...

BALLAD OF YOU & ME & POONEIL

WATCH HER RIDE

GREASY HEART

CROWN OF CREATION

the tremendous VOLUNTEERS in '69

and finally PRETTY AS YOU FEEL in 1971 (right around the time I was born....once again. AAAAWWW!)

ALBUMS WE LOVE...

Surrealistic Pillow >> After Bathing At Baxter's >> Volunteers

"IN THE 1960S THEY ALL TREATED US LIKE WE WERE GREAT PHILOSOPHER GODS THAT KNEW ALL THE ANSWERS....(obscenity)....WE WERE THE FLYING SAUCERS."

~~ Paul Kantner

Jefferson Airplane was named after a spliff or what kids today call a blunt. Some band members would later say that they named themselves after Blues Guitarist BLIND LEMON JEFFERSON, but come on. Everybody knew what it meant back then.

SURPRISING FACTS about Jefferson Airplane!

1) Grace Slick was NOT the original female vocalist, Signe Toly Anderson was. However when the summer of love came too soon for her and she got pregnant with her Love Child she also got canned in favor of Slick who was at the time playing with a band called THE GREAT SOCIETY.

2) Paul Kantner is the ONLY native San Franciscan in the group.

3) The Alice in Wonderland On Acid Themed "White Rabbit" appeared on the album Sgt. Pepper as well as Surrealistic Pillow.

4) In April 1980 GRACE SLICK had a solo single called SEASONS that peaked on the charts at........fake drumroll.........#95. Ha!

5) Somebody To Love was originally recorded by The Great Society on NORTH BEACH RECORDS in '66 and it was actually called SOMEONE TO LOVE!

6) While we know Grace Slick slept with Dryden and Had a long relationship with Kantner, she certainly never got close to Balin who once said, "I 'WOULDN'T LET GRACE BLOW ME." Ouch.

7) Believe it or not Jefferson Starship did not always SUCK!

follow me..

JEFFERSON STARSHIP (1974-1984) Recorded for GRUNT RECORDS

BY 1974 THE LINEUP...

Slick & Kantner whose musical partnership sometimes rivaled their intense emotional relationship. Guitarist Craig Chaquico, Bassist Pete Sears, Drummer John Barbata and like I said Balin came back.

The Songs we still kinda like by Jefferson Starship are..

RIDE THE TIGER >> MIRACLES >> PLAY ON LOVE >> ST, CHARLES >> WITH YOUR LOVE >> COUNT ON ME >> RUNAWAY >> CRAZY FEELIN' >> LIGHT THE SKY ON FIRE >> now if the JS legacy ended there they might have incuded the Starship half of the group into The RnR HOF as well but they weren't because of the crap I will now list and subtitle

.. The Downward Spiral to Indignity...

BUT FIRST WE HAVE SOME MORE...drumroll please...

MORE LINE-UP CHANGES!!

IN 1979 JEFFERSON STARSHIP MADE THE TERRIBLE HORRIBLE NO GOOD VERY BAD DECISION TO.....oh god! -- if we could just stop this from happening -- REPLACE BALIN AND SLICK WITH..........please somebody make me s t o p t y p i n g this.....

MICKEY THOMAS .."aaaaaAAAAARRRGGGGLLL! aaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH! nO!

<DEEP DEEP SIGH> lil toke... As I was saying about LINEUP CHANGES.. <exhaaaaaaaaale>

~~ Paul Kantner, Marty Balin & Jack Casady formed the KBC BAND in '86

~~ Aynsley Dunbar replaced Barbata on Drums.

~~ Aynsley Dunbvar was also in JOHN MAYALL'S BLUESBREAKERS, THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION & sadly later JOURNEY and like all glorified but disposable musicians he too was in WHITESNAKE.

The songs that this demon seed produced were..

JANE >> GIRL WITH THE HUNGRY EYES >> Grace's song "Seasons" came out around this time. >> FIND YOUR WAY BACK >> STRANGER >> BE MY LADY >> WINDS OF CHANGE >> NO WAY OUT >> LAYIN' IT ON THE LINE

Which mercifully (or unmercifully, I'm not really sure) brings us to the sad third act of the tragic play we know all too well.

THE SELL OUT!

STARSHIP (1985-1990) recorded for GRUNT RECORDS too.

LINEUP AT THIS POINT IS...

Mickey Thomas and Grace Slick (Vocals)

Pete Sears (Bass) Craig Chaquico (Guitar)

and the newly acquired drummer formerly of SNAIL, Mr. DON BALDWIN.

STARSHIP HAD 3 #1 SONGS that were each worse than the previous one....before reading on you might wanna get a bucket.

WE BUILT THIS CITY (2 weeks at #1) which super cheezily featured actual S.F. icon D.J. LES GARLAND doing a commercial during the part of a song where other groups would put a guitar solo.

SARA (1 week) makes you wanna puke on line at the store every time. and whether we want to or not.....we have to acknowledge the song that solidified the fact that they sold their soul to the devil and lived to sing about it....

NOTHINGS GONNA STOP US NOW (theme to the ANDREW McCARTHY / KIM CATTRALL non-romantic, non-comedy, romantic comedy "Mannequin") and then some meaningless minor hits I'm ashamed to know like "Tomorrow Doesn't Matter Tonight" and "It's Not Over (Til It's Over)" in '87 almost closed the book on this disaster but not quite.

GRACE SLICK FINALLY LEAVES! <Mock Applause>

They added two more suckers to the sinking ship with Bassist Brett Bloomfield and Keyboardist Mark Morgan.

They recorded "Wild Again" for the soundtrack to the TOM CRUISE movie "Cocktail" and then...

Last AND Least.. "It's Not Enough" (an ironic title at least because clearly it was quite enough. Is that irony?) went to #12 in the fall of 1989.

LATER IN 1989 perhaps to celebrate the death of STARSHIP (to The Borg, no doubt) The Original JEFFERSON AIRPLANE re-united with Balin, Slick, Kantner, Kaukonen, Casady and KENNY ARANOFF

of John Mellencamp's Band filling in for Dryden on DRUMS.

Not one word of this was Cut & Pasted or looked up online.

Just me and my books and the will to serve the public.