Jefferson Airplane
(Collector's Choice)
Live at the Fillmore Auditorium 10/15/66 Late Show - Signe's Farewell (7 stars)
Live at the Fillmore Auditorium 10/16/66 Early & Late Shows - Grace's Debut (6 stars)
Live at the Fillmore Auditorium 11/25/66 & 11/27/66 - We Have Ignition (8 stars; 2CD)
Return to the Matrix 2/1/68 (8 stars; 2CD)
If Grace Slick hadn't replaced Signe Anderson in Jefferson Airplane, that modest little folk rock band might only be remembered as the band that once included "the crazy guy from Moby Grape" on drums (also known as Skip Spence). Maybe Paul Kantner would be better remembered as an American doppelganger of English nerds Gordon Waller (of Peter & Gordon) and Chad Stuart (of Chad & Jeremy). Marty Balin might've found a different place to chew up the scenery or gotten sensitive years before he released "Hearts." Acid rock would not have crystallized and women singers would have had to look elsewhere for a fearless role model who could both articulate the revolution and rock out.
At least, it's easy to ponder these and other possibilities while making your way through four new, and at times riveting, releases from Collector's Choice (Live at the Fillmore Auditorium 10/15/66 Late Show - Signe's Farewell; Live at the Fillmore Auditorium 10/16/66 Early & Late Shows - Grace's Debut; Live at the Fillmore Auditorium 11/25/66 & 11/27/66 - We Have Ignition, 2CD; Return to the Matrix 2/1/68, 2CD). Together they document the Airplane's rather quick evolution from a folk rock band with potential to figureheads in the San Francisco scene of the late '60s. Perhaps only die-hard Airplane fans will find all four sets mandatory, since many songs overlap and the arrangements don't vary too much from set to set. The extended jams and blues excursions have their moments but they're fairly dispensable. Taken individually, though, each volume has more than enough to merit listening.
Signe's Farewell proves that the band that made 1966's Jefferson Airplane Takes Off already had a lot going for it before Slick came along. Recorded at Anderson's farewell show with the band, it stands up as more than just a historical curiosity. By this time, original drummer Spence had moved on to the guitar and Moby Grape and his clunky beats were replaced by Spencer Dryden's steady but basic work.
The band had yet to shed their folkie earnestness for something more radical: "Tobacco Road" was nowhere near as raucous as the version recorded by the Blues Magoos, but the fire was there throughout the set. Anderson was a belter similar in style to brassy Judy Henske, though her role was limited to harmonies, a verse here and there and one or two spotlight songs. In fact, when Balin announces that "our girl singer" is leaving the band towards the end of the night, it sounds like she isn't even on the stage at the time. When she steps up, her wishes to the audience evoke something much more innocent that what was the come. "I want you all to wear smiles and daisies and bounce balloons. I love you," she says. Decked out on the cover in ponytails, matching poncho and mini-skirt and white go-go boots, she was no Slick.
The set leans heavily on the debut album and a few songs that were left off and released years later. The opening nine minute "Jam" holds up fairly well due in no small part to Jorma Kaukonen's patent on psychedelic blues guitar and the underrated bass work of Jack Casady, who consistently blends melodic lines with a beautifully overdriven tone similar to Jack Bruce on all four collections.
The band didn't waste any time and the following evening; former Great Society vocalist Slick made her debut with the band, which appears on the next CD. She initially stuck close to Anderson's approach, even using the same style of belting in tunes like "High Flyin' Bird." The band sounds like they're still adjusting to the new addition through the two sets. Some of the harmonies go south on "Let's Get Together," but "It's No Secret," (a song that appears on all but one of these volumes) comes together. The spirit gets the better of Balin, who seems like he wants to channel Otis Redding, making some of the tracks get a little tedious. "3/5 of a Mile in Ten Seconds," which debuted the night before, is a casualty of his plastic soul, though the band attacks it with more precision than the previous evening's plodding version. More impressive is Balin's show of restraint in "And I Like It." Kaukonen's take on "Kansas City," credits songwriters Leiber and Stoller, but his lyrics barely touches on any version of their original, and Dryden's drumming keeps this blues jam from very getting far off the ground.
The two nights on We Have Ignition jump ahead less than six weeks, but by then the group was putting the finishing touches on Surrealistic Pillow, their sophomore breakthrough and they knew they were on to something big. Surprisingly, neither of these two nights at the Fillmore included a performance of "Somebody to Love," one of the album's most popular songs. "White Rabbit," however, appears twice, both sounding similar but both also capturing all the tension-and-release qualities that make it such an enduring classic. Each night still leaned heavily on their early material: Fred Neil's "The Other Side of This Life," stretched out by Kaukonen; Donovan's "Fat Angel," a one-chord snooze that probably only stayed in the book because Mr. Leitch namechecked the band in the lyrics. The band only performed Pillow's "DCBA-25" once, which is odd since this deep cut offered a perfect blend of the band's folk harmonies and rock arrangement, so it's especially disappointing that p.a. feedback puts a damper on the track. But Spence's rare "JPP McStep B. Blues" and several aggressive versions of "She Has Funny Cars" balance out the pluses and minuses.
Return to the Matrix finds the band in February of 1968 at the height of their powers. They had just released After Bathing At Baxter's two months prior, and Pillow's not-as-successful follow-up makes up a good deal of these two sets. Despite that studio album's shakiness, the tunes sound great in person, especially the 10-minute, mind-blowing rendition of "The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil" that closes the second disc. At the other end of the evening, "Somebody to Love" kicks things off at a slower tempo without diminishing its punch. Even Dryden sounds looser and kicks things up a notch. In the surprise department, the band pulled out the solid "Blues from an Airplane," a Balin/Spence tune that began their first album, which Slick admits she didn't know the words; "Ice Cream Phoenix," which later showed up on Crown of Creation gets started here as another 10-minute instrumental. This set has been highly regarded by Airplane fanatics, according to the liner notes, and the brute force they reveal explains why.
It goes without saying that the legacy of this band was eventually pissed away by the self-importance of some members of the band, not to mention dog poop like Starship's "We Built This City," which is still connected to the band's DNA despite a lame name change. But any and all of these discs indicate that there was a time when these six musicians were spearheading that revolution they would very soon sing about in "Volunteers."
DOWNLOAD: Signe's Farewell: "Chauffeur Blues," "Runnin' Round This World." Grace's Debut: "High Flyin' Bird," "Bringing Me Down." We Have Ignition: "She Has Funny Cars," (all three versions), "White Rabbit." Return to the Matrix: "Somebody to Love," "The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil." MIKE SHANLEY
