The Worst Of Jefferson Airplane

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Wikipedia English: The Worst of Jefferson Airplane is the first ever compilation album from the rock band Jefferson Airplane, released in November 1970. The album features all of Jefferson Airplane’s hit singles up to that point. It peaked at #12 on the Billboard 200 in 1971 and has since gone platinum. In 1970, the band underwent a period of inactivity because of internal personnel conflict and pursuit of individual project. Drummer Spencer Dryden was ousted from the group, Marty Balin found his commitment to the band he had started becoming tenuou, Grace Slick was pregnant with her daughter for a good part of the year, Paul Kantner released his solo album "Blows Against the Empire," and Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady busied themselves with their side project, Hot Tuna. With no group project in sight, RCA assembled this album centered upon the group’s hit single, with input from the band. “The Ballad of You & Me & Pooneil,” “Crown of Creation,” and “Volunteers” all made the lower reaches of the Billboard Hot 100. “Somebody to Love” and “White Rabbit” were the band’s only Top 40 hit, reaching #5 and #8 respectively. To ensure a full picture of the group’s musical interest, and possibly to ensure solidarity in the publishing income, the band included instrumentals by Dryden and Kaukonen, a country blues/gospel cover arranged by Kaukonen, and Balin’s straightforward ballad “Today.” This would be the final album featuring what is considered the “classic” line-up of the band, after Slick and Dryden joined, and before Balin and Dryden left. Original pressings had a 1918 vintage Victor Talking Machine Company inner sleeve and bore late 1920s vintage Victor record label. allmusic by Joseph McCombs: Its smirky title notwithstanding, The Worst of Jefferson Airplane provides a fine recap of the band’s first six album. Released in 1970 shortly before Marty Balin’s initial departure from the band, the album marked not only the end of the decade but, unwittingly, the end of the group’s most stable phase in terms of membership. The track selections are evenly divided among the first-generation albums; only the live Bless Its Pointed Little Head is represented by a single entry. Pains were also taken to include songs featuring lead vocalists Balin, Grace Slick, Paul Kantner, and guitarist Jorma Kaukonen. A few omissions are striking, most notably the chart single “Greasy Heart” and the signature Kantner track, “Wooden Ship.” Neverthele, the songs chosen for this album accurately summarize the distinct feel of each Jefferson Airplane album of the ’60, and thus the disc represents an ideal way to introduce oneself to the band’s early, most psychedelic material. Christgau Consumer Guide: For someone who enjoys their album, like me, this factitious compilation–fifteen cuts is a lot, but though it includes all (two) of their AM smashes it doesn’t even pretend to be a singles anthology – is a waste. But for someone who finds their albums wanting, like me, it has its use, especially as overview. These folks are literate both verbally and musically. Their chops don’t quite equal their tastes – ”White Rabbit,” with its bolero build and librarian’s-eye view of lysergic acid, is perfect, but “Chushingura” is almost as sloppy in the picking as “Today” is in the sentiment. They were hippies when becoming a hippie took beatnik initiative and psychedelic imagination. And when they’re good they make the for-better-or-worse evolution of rock and roll into rock seem both appropriate and inevitable. B+ .

via Last.fm

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