Jefferson Airplane/Starhip Biography

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Jefferson Airplan/Starship
Classic Rock | 3 CD Set
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The hotbed of activity that San Francisco spawned in the mid-‘60s may have included several bands, but the two most enduring groups were the Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead. Other bands connected to the San Francisco Sound, either physically or musically, included Great Society, It’s a Beautiful Day, Sopwith Camel, Quicksilver Messenger Service and Big Brother and the Holding Company among others. The Airplane came together in 1965 and included founding members Marty Balin, Paul Kantner and Jorma Kaukonen. As in many bands searching for the right karma, several players were recruited but fell off before the initial solid lineup came into being. The band recorded with the above, plus Skip Spence, Jack Casady and Signe Toly Anderson. This was the lineup that blended folk and rock into what became known as the San Francisco or West Coast sound. The city was slowly (in the early ‘60s) becoming the focal point of the Hippie culture that took over the Haight Ashbury district. By 1967 came the center of a mass invasion of youth wearing flowers in their hair and flooding the Fillmore and Avalon ballrooms. Balin had been with the Town Criers and also owned the popular Matrix Club, one of several clubs that catered to the evolving sound. Kantner was gaining popularity on the folk circuit and Bill Graham’s rising star as a promoter gave impetus to this growing Bay Area sound. Graham would go on to manage the band briefly before becoming one of the most powerful music promoters in the land. He died in an air accident in 1991. The Airplane in 1965 became the first San Francisco band to sign a record contract with a major label, RCA. Although it received a paltry sum (about $20,000) for signing, it was not long after the SF bands were taking advantage of the competition and getting into the $100,000-plus territory. The debut album was called JEFFERSON AIRPLANE TAKES OFF and while it did not soar into mega sales and acclaim, it did do modest business and certainly helped attract attention nationally to what was going on in San Francisco. However, Anderson’s marriage and subsequent pregnancy forced her to leave the band, opening the cockpit to that more forceful vocal presence, Grace Slick, who left the Great Society and brought with her two of that band’s hits, "White Rabbit" and "Somebody to Love." The band played the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 and later the legendary 1969 Woodstock Music Festival. If those two shows were paeans to the growing musical and political subculture, it all fell away when the later 1969 Altamont Festival in California saw violence reign supreme. A spectator was killed and Balin was attacked, both events said to be caused by the Hell’s Angels. The Airplane continued to grow as Slick and Kantner became lovers and played the major roles in the band’s existence while Balin faded away and eventually quit. Kaukonen and Casady began work in their band, Hot Tuna, and Kantner released his album, BLOWS AGAINST THE EMPIRE, with the band called Jefferson Starship, in 1970. But the Airplane stayed alive through the early ‘70s with VOLUNTEERS, a greatest hits collection, WORST OF, and BARK, now part of the band’s own label, Grunt. LONG JOHN SILVER was followed by a live set, 30 SECONDS OVER WINTERLAND, the last LP to use the Airplane name, although a collection of out-takes and singles came on later as EARLY FLIGHT. The Airplane was resurrected in 1989 with Kantner, Slick, Kaukonen, Casady and Balin aboard but the album JEFFERSON AIRPLANE met with little acclaim. The Starship took off in 1974 and continued for years amid many changes.

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