Jefferson Airplane

The Arc of Jefferson Airplane

The pivots — what forced Jefferson Airplane to reinvent.

1. 01

   The Folk-Rock Launch

   Before Grace Slick arrived, Marty Balin led a polite, acoustic-leaning folk-rock group centered around Signe Toly Anderson's vocals. The debut album, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off, was recorded on three-track equipment with RCA's house engineers constantly trying to turn down Jack Casady's bass. It was a clean, safe record that sounded more like the Weavers with a drum kit than a psychedelic revolution. The departure of Anderson and drummer Skip Spence forced an immediate scramble for replacements.

2. 02

   The Slick Takeover

   Grace Slick joined the lineup and brought two massive songs she had already recorded with her previous band, the Great Society. Producer Rick Jarrard was brought in to corral the band at RCA Victor's Music Center of the World in Hollywood. The result was Surrealistic Pillow, an album defined by Slick's icy, operatic delivery and Jorma Kaukonen's sharp, blues-informed guitar work. The record made them massive stars and established the blueprint for the entire San Francisco acid rock scene.

3. 03

   The Baxter's Mutiny

   Tired of commercial pressures and pop constraints, the band revolted against producer Al Schmitt during the sessions for After Bathing at Baxter's. They insisted on handling their own tracking, resulting in an album of sprawling, multi-part suites filled with feedback and electronic noise. The record was a commercial disappointment compared to its predecessor but established their reputation as uncompromising experimentalists. You can hear the chaos in the tracks, with songs bleeding into each other through walls of guitar static.

4. 04

   The Militant Decline

   By the time they recorded Volunteers in 1969, the band had fully embraced political radicalism. They demanded that RCA allow profanity on the record and spent fortune in studio time at Wally Heider's new 16-track facility in San Francisco. Nicky Hopkins was brought in to play piano, adding a driving, barrelhouse roots-rock feel to the band's deteriorating chemistry. The record was their last great statement before individual drug habits and the creation of Hot Tuna tore the core lineup apart.

Influences

• The Great Society — This was Grace Slick's pre-Airplane band with her husband Jerry Slick. Jefferson Airplane took 'White Rabbit' and 'Somebody to Love' directly from their repertoire. The Great Society's original, slower versions of these songs provided the exact arrangement framework for the Airplane's breakthrough hits.
• Fred Neil — Marty Balin was obsessed with the Greenwich Village folk icon's songwriting style. Jefferson Airplane covered Neil's track 'The Other Side of This Life' on their debut album. You can hear his dark, baritone folk sensibility running through the band's earliest acoustic arrangements.
• Rev. Gary Davis — Jorma Kaukonen studied under the legendary blues guitarist and fingerpicker in the early sixties. His acoustic fingerstyle work on 'Embryonic Journey' is a direct extension of Davis's gospel-blues techniques. That traditional Piedmont blues training gave the band's psychedelic jams a heavy, rooted groove.
• John Coltrane — Jack Casady and Jorma Kaukonen spent their free time listening to Coltrane's modal jazz improvisations. The long, modal instrumental jams on After Bathing at Baxter's were an attempt to translate Coltrane's sheets-of-sound saxophone runs to electric guitar and bass. It shifted the band away from standard pop structures into open-ended sonic exploration.
• The Byrds — The Byrds' electric folk-rock hybrid on 'Mr. Tambourine Man' served as the catalyst for Marty Balin to form a rock band. The original Airplane lineup adopted the 12-string guitar jangle and three-part vocal harmony style popularized by the LA group. It was the commercial template they had to mimic before they were allowed to get weird.