The forthcoming film Taking Woodstock closes with the song “Volunteers” by Jefferson Airplane. While modern music fans may know the band’s name and even recognize two of its other songs (“Somebody to Love” and “White Rabbit”), few may be aware that the ever-evolving band had a significant impact on music during the 1970s and 1980s, as well.
Jefferson Airplane Takes Off
Jefferson Airplane began in 1965, when San Francisco folk singer Marty Balin, who was inspired by the Byrds, decided to form his own folk rock band. Folk musicians in those days often detested electric music (in the same year, Bob Dylan was booed off the stage at the Newport Folk Festival for going electric), so Balin struck out until he met Paul Kantner, a folk singer and guitarist, who was intrigued by the idea and agreed to co-found the band.
Balin and Kantner recruited other musicians, including blues guitarist Jorma Kaukonen and female folk singer Signe Toly Anderson for a lineup with diverse musical backgrounds. Original bassist Bob Harvey and drummer Jerry Peloquin didn’t last long and were soon replaced by Jack Casady on bass and Alex “Skip” Spence on drums, thereby initiating a long-standing Airplane/Starship tradition of changing lineups.
The new lineup debuted on the Airplane’s first album, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off (1966). It became a modest national success.
Enter: Grace Slick
Shortly after, Spence left to form a band called Moby Grape and was replaced by jazz and rock drummer Spencer Dryden. Then, Anderson, who had recently had a baby, left to take care of her family; her replacement was Grace Slick.
Slick brought to the group a unique singing voice and far more assertive stage presence than most female pop singers before her. She completed the Airplane's most successful and creative lineup, listed with their primary instruments:
- Grace Slick, vocals
- Marty Balin, vocals
- Paul Kantner, rhythm guitar/vocals
- Jorma Kaukonen, lead guitar
- Jack Casady, bass
- Spencer Dryden, drums
Slick also brought two songs from her former band, the Great Society: “Somebody to Love” and her self-composed “White Rabbit.” Both songs, as well as the new lineup, were featured on the Airplane’s second album, Surrealistic Pillow (1967).
In a year in which rock ‘n’ roll expanded from teenage songs to more mature themes and experimental music, “Somebody to Love” and “White Rabbit” both became major U.S. hits. The latter engendered controversy due to its vague drug lyrics and references to “Alice In Wonderland.” But controversy was becoming increasingly acceptable in rock music, and Jefferson Airplane provided its fair share.
Psychedelics, Counterculture, and Volunteers
The Airplane’s classic lineup remained intact for four more albums:
- After Bathing at Baxter’s (1967)
- Crown of Creation (1968)
- Bless Its Pointed Little Head [recorded live] (1969)
- Volunteers (1969)
During this era, the band’s music became increasingly psychedelic and experimental, and they pushed the buttons of mainstream mores whenever they could. On Crown, Slick sings “Triad,” a song about a ménage à trois written by former Byrd David Crosby. On that album’s title track, Kantner draws a line in the sand between the youth movement and the values of the older generation. He then celebrates the counterculture’s outlaw status in “We Can Be Together” on Volunteers.
Musical experimentation was also a hallmark of Jefferson Airplane. Driven by Kaukonen and Casady, the group veered into freeform blues, as exemplified by “Spare Chaynge,” a nine-minute-long jam on Baxter’s.
Blows Against the Musical Empire
Unfortunately, the group’s devotion to wild creativity led to divergent musical ambitions, drug abuse, and personality conflicts among its members. Balin, the group’s founder, felt marginalized in the songwriting process and overshadowed by Slick’s stardom; he left the group in 1971. A year earlier, Dryden had been asked to leave after a series of disagreements.
The Airplane continued with replacements, but three subsequent albums—Bark (1971), Long John Silver (1972), and the live Thirty Seconds Over Winterland (1973) —showed that the band had spread itself very thin.
Band members had already started to explore separate musical interests. In 1969, Kaukonen and Casady formed a spin-off blues band, Hot Tuna. In 1970, Kantner released a science fiction-themed solo album, Blows Against the Empire (co-credited to "Jefferson Starship," then an ad hoc group that included David Crosby, Graham Nash, and others).
With the launching of the Airplane’s own record label, Grunt Records, in 1971, various band members became preoccupied with solo albums; as a result, the Airplane grew apart as a band. The departures in 1972 of Kaukonen and Casady, who left to concentrate on Hot Tuna, unofficially dismantled Jefferson Airplane.
Jefferson Airplane began as a folk rock ensemble in San Francisco and quickly evolved into an acid rock band that encouraged the entire world to (in the words of "White Rabbit") "feed your head." Their ability to weather change enabled them to survive personnel defections and rise above musical trends, as demonstrated in next step of their evolution: Jefferson Starship.
Greg Gildersleeve - Greg Gildersleeve teaches composition and GED writing at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, KS. He holds an M.A. in ...
