Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band from San Francisco, a pioneer of the LSD-influenced psychedelic rock movement. The band's August, 1969 performance at Woodstock is widely considered one of rock's most memorable moments.

Various successor incarnations of the band have performed under different names, reflecting changing times and performer lineups, known as Jefferson Starship, and later simply Starship.

Jefferson Airplane was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.

The term Jefferson airplane is also slang for a used match bent to hold a marijuana cigarette that has been smoked too short to hold without burning the hands. An urban legend claims this was the origin for the band's name, though according to band member Jorma Kaukonen the name was invented by his friend Steve Talbot as a satire of blues names such as "Blind Lemon" Jefferson [1].

Jefferson Airplane

This rock group formed on the West Coast of the USA during the summer of 1965 in what was called the San Francisco Bay folk boom. Singer Marty Balin recruited another folk musician, Paul Kantner, blues guitarist Jorma Kaukonen, jazz and folk vocalist Signe Toly Anderson, drummer Jerry Peloquin, and acoustic bassist Bob Harvey. They drew inspiration from groups such as the Beatles, the Byrds, and The Lovin' Spoonful, and built a local following at the Matrix Club.

The group made its first public appearance August 13, 1965 at The Matrix club in San Francisco. Peloquin was a seasoned musician whose disdain for the others' drug use was a factor in his departure just a few weeks after the group began its career. Skip Spence then took the drum chair. The band gradually developed a more electric sound that led to Harvey's replacement by Kaukonen's childhood friend, Jack Casady in October 1965. Later in 1965, they signed to RCA and recorded an album for release the following year called Jefferson Airplane Takes Off. Folk music very much influenced the group's debut album, which included traditional folk staples such as "Tobacco Road" and "Let's Get Together," as well as original group ballads like "It's No Secret" and "Come Up the Years." In 1966, Spence was replaced by jazz drummer Spencer Dryden and Anderson by singer Grace Slick, formerly of another San Francisco group, The Great Society. Amongst their fans, the group's name was often shortened to "the Airplane". Slick brought with her a powerful and supple contralto voice, well suited to the group's amplified psychedelic music, as well as a number of important compositions, including "White Rabbit" (which Grace wrote) and "Somebody to Love" (written by Grace's brother-in-law, Great Society guitarist Darby Slick).

Their transition from local to national notoriety was made possible by their appearance at the epochal Monterey International Pop Festival in June 1967. Monterey showcased leading bands from several major music 'scenes' including New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and England and the resulting TV and film coverage gave national (and international) exposure to groups that had previously only had regional fame. All these bands were also greatly assisted by appearances on nationally syndicated TV shows such The Ed Sullivan Show, which were videotaped in color and augmented by recent developments in video techniques. The Airplane's famous appearance on the Sullivan show, performing "White Rabbit", has been frequently re-screened and is notable for its pioneering use of the Chroma key process to simulate the Airplane's customary psychedelic light show.

Membership remained stable until 1970, by then they had recorded five more albums. The first of these, Surrealistic Pillow (1967), included two classic tracks, "White Rabbit" (inspired by the psychedelic drug LSD, then extremely popular in San Francisco, Maurice Ravel's Bolero, and Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland), and the rousing anthem "Somebody to Love", as well as a reminder of their earlier folk incarnation, Kaukonen's solo acoustic guitar tour de force, "Embryonic Journey", which referenced contemporary acoustic guitar masters such as John Fahey and helped to establish the popular genre exemplified by acoustic guitarist Leo Kottke. The album was extremely successful, reaching #3 in the US album charts, and alongside Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and The Doors' debut album, it is widely regarded as one of the seminal albums of the so-called "Summer Of Love".

The name Surrealistic Pillow was suggested by the "shadow producer of the album, Jerry Garcia, when he mentioned that, as a whole, the album sounded "as Surrealistic as a pillow". The record company would not allow Garcia's considerable contributions to the album to garner him a "Producer" credit, so Garcia is listed in the album's credits as "spiritual advisor".

The band dived deeper into acid rock with 1967's After Bathing at Baxter's, an album of long multi-part suites, which demonstrated the group's proficiency with psychedelic rock. Its famous cover features a whimsical re-imagining of the group's Haight-Ashbury house as a Heath Robinson-inspired flying machine, drawn by artist and cartoonist Ron Cobb. Crown Of Creation (1968) was a transitionary record, more structured than its predecessor. The album's notable tracks include Grace Slick's "Lather," said to be about drummer Spencer Dryden, with whom she was rumored to be having an affair, "Triad," a David Crosby song that had been rejected by his group, the Byrds, because they found its subject matter, a manage a trois, to be objectionable, and the searing sex and drug anthem "Greasy Heart." In 1968 Jefferson Airplane unleased Bless Its Pointed Little Head, which captured their live concert sound at the Fillmore and the Fillmore East. In the aftermath of the demise of the San Francisco scene, the band released Volunteers (1969), their most political venture. The title track, "We Can Be Together", "Good Shepherd", and the post-apocalyptic "Wooden Ships" were all highlights. ("Wooden Ships," which Paul Kantner co-wrote with David Crosby and Stephen Stills, was recorded both by Jefferson Airplane and Crosby, Stills & Nash. As both groups released the song the same year and as it was co-written by members of both bands, both versions are considered to be an original version of the song.)

The band performed in an early "morning maniac music" slot at the Woodstock festival in August 1969. In December that year, they played at the infamous free concert held at the Altamont speedway in California. The concert, which was headlined by The Rolling Stones and also featured The Grateful Dead, was marred by crowd violence—Marty Balin was knocked out during a scuffle with Hells Angels members who had been hired to act as "security". The event became notorious for the now-famous "Gimme Shelter Incident" due to the death of black teenager Meredith Hunter, who was fatally stabbed in front of the stage by Hells Angels "guards" after allegedly pulling out a revolver during the Stones' performance (this incident was the centerpiece of the documentary film Gimme Shelter).

Although the band released its first greatest hits album, The Worst of Jefferson Airplane, in 1970, the only new songs issued that year were two tracks available only on the single, "Mexico" b/w "Have You Seen the Saucers." The A-side was a staunch criticism of President Richard Nixon's Operation Intercept which had been implemented to curtail the flow of marijuana into the United States, while the B-side marked the beginning of a science fiction obsession that Paul Kantner would explore with his music for the remainder of the decade. Balin and Dryden left the group shortly after the release of the single. The group continued on without Balin and Dryden, releasing Bark (whose cover featured a dead fish wrapped in an A&P-style grocery bag) in 1971 and Long John Silver (whose cover folded into a humidor, presumably for the storage of marijuana) in 1972. Both albums were releaesd on the band's own label, Grunt, which would continue to be distributed by RCA. To replace Dryden, the group added drummer Joey Covington (who also provided the vocals on the 1971 single, "Pretty as You Feel", from Bark). The legendary Afro-American blues fiddler "Papa John" Creach (1917-1994) also joined the group in the early seventies. During this time, Kaukonen and Casady began a side-project they named Hot Tuna, in which the two of them, often joined by a fluid group of other musicians, began exploring traditional blues. They released the accoustic Hot Tuna in 1970 and the electric First Pull Up-Then Pull Down in 1971. As time went by, Kaukonen and Casady began devoting more of their attention to Hot Tuna and less of it to the Airplane. (In the song, "Third Week in the Chelsea," from Bark, Kaukonen details the thoughts he is having about leaving the band.) Jefferson Airplane's second live album 30 Seconds Over Winterland (1973) is now best remembered for its cover art, featuring a squadron of flying toasters, which in turn spawned the famous "After Dark" computer screensaver design. In 1974, a collection of leftovers (singles and B-sides, including "Mexico" and "Have You Seen the Saucers", as well as other non-album material) was released as Early Flight, the last official Jefferson Airplane album.

Jefferson Starship

During the transitional period of the early 1970s, Paul Kantner recorded Blows Against The Empire, a concept album featuring an ad-hoc group of musicians whom he dubbed the Jefferson Starship, marking the first-ever use of that name. This edition of Jefferson Starship (such as it was) included members of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (David Crosby and Graham Nash) and members of the Grateful Dead (Jerry Garcia, Bill Kreutzman, and Mickey Hart), as well as some of the remaining members of Jefferson Airplane (Slick, Covington, and Casady). In Blows Against the Empire, Kantner (and Slick) sang about a group of people escaping earth in a hijacked starship. In 1971, the album was nominated for the prestigious science fiction prize, the Hugo Award, a rare honor for a musical recording. It was while that album was made that Kantner sealed his love affair with Grace Slick; their daughter China Kantner (who made a name for herself as an MTV veejay in the 1980s) was born shortly thereafter. Kantner and Slick (with a similar group of musicians, but without a "Jefferson Starship" artist credit) released two follow-up albums: Sunfighter, an environmentalism-tinged album released in 1971 to celebrate China's birth, and 1973's Baron von Tollbooth & the Chrome Nun, titled after the nicknames David Crosby had given to the couple. The artist credit on Baron von Tollboth gave ex-Quicksilver Messenger Service bassist-keyboard player-vocalist David Freiberg equal billing with Kantner and Slick. (Freiberg, who had also appeared on Blows Against the Empire, had joined Jefferson Airplane in time to appear on Thirty Seconds over Winterland.) Also in 1973, Slick released Manhole, her first solo album.

By 1973, with Kaukonen and Casady now devoting their full attention to Hot Tuna, the musicians on Baron von Tollbooth formed the core of a new Airplane lineup that was formally reborn as Jefferson Starship in 1974. Kantner, Slick, and Freiberg were charter members. The line-up also included late-Airplane holdovers drummer John Barbata, and fiddler Papa John Creach (who also played with Hot Tuna), along with Pete Sears (who, like Freiberg, played bass and keyboards) and twenty-year-old guitarist Craig Chaquico. Although Balin was originally not among the re-christened Jefferson Starship, he joined the band while their first album, Dragonfly, was still in the works. His only contribution to the new incarnation's first effort was the haunting ballad, "Caroline." Balin stayed with the group for nearly the remainder of the decade. This line-up proved to be the band's most commercially successful so far, although some Airplane fans were less than happy with its more mainstream direction. Balin's sophisticated ballad "Miracles" helped 1975's Red Octopus achieve multiple-platinum status. The follow-ups, Spitfire (1976), and Earth (1978), were both big sellers. However, Slick's alcoholism became a problem, which led to two nights of disastrous concerts in Germany in 1978. The first night, fans ransacked the stage after Slick failed to appear. The following night, Slick, in a drunken stupor, shocked the audience by using profanity and sexual references throughout most of her songs. After the debacle, she left the band.

Towards the end of 1978, the Starship (now without Grace Slick) recorded Light The Sky On Fire for The Star Wars Holiday Special (under its original title Cigar-Shaped Object), after which Balin too left the group, leaving Kantner and company to find a new lead singer in Mickey Thomas (who had sung lead on Elvin Bishop's "Fooled Around And Fell In Love"). Thomas's soaring falsetto steered the band toward a harder rock sound, leading to comparisons to Journey. It didn't help that former Journey drummer Aynsley Dunbar had replaced Barbata, who had been injured in a car accident.

After the 1979 release of Freedom At Point Zero (which spawned the hit single "Jane"), Grace Slick suddenly returned to the band. She joined in time to contribute one song, "Stranger," on the group's next album, Modern Times (1981). Modern Times also included the notorious "Stairway to Cleveland," in which the band defended the numerous changes it had undergone in its musical style, personnel, and even name. Slick remained in the band for Jefferson Starship's final two albums, Winds Of Change (1982) and Nuclear Furniture (1984).

Starship

In 1984, Kantner (the last founding member of Jefferson Airplane remaining) left the group, but not before taking legal action against his former bandmates over the Jefferson name (the rest of the band wanted to continue as Jefferson Starship). Kantner won his suit, and the group name was reduced to simply Starship, marking the third incarnation of the band. Freiberg, who had been increasingly marginalized in the band, left as well.

In 1985, Starship released Knee Deep In The Hoopla and immediately scored two # 1 hits. The first was "We Built This City", written by Bernie Taupin, Martin Page, Dennis Lambert, and Peter Wolf, and inspired by Bay Area power rock station KSAN-FM. This song was trashed at the time by Kantner, and was later declared to be the worst song of all time by Blender Magazine. VH1 also named it the number one "Most Awesomely Bad Song" on a top-50 countdown. The second # 1 was "Sara"; these were the first time any incarnation of the Airplane had had a # 1 hit. The album went platinum.

In 1987 "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" was featured in the film "Mannequin" and hit # 1, although only Slick and Thomas appeared on it. The following year, the band's song "Wild Again" was used in the movie "Cocktail."

By the time No Protection was released, bassist Pete Sears had left. The album went gold and featured the hits "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" and "It's Not Over ('Til It's Over)". Grace Slick also left in 1988. The revamped lineup released Love Among The Cannibals in 1989. The lineup, however, had disbanded by 1990.

Reunion and remnants

Solo careers and the attractions of other bands beckoned throughout. But in 1989, during a solo San Francisco gig, Paul Kantner found himself joined by former bandmate (and lover) Grace Slick and two other ex-Airplane members for a cameo appearance. This led to a formal reunion of the original Jefferson Airplane (featuring nearly all the main members, including founder Marty Balin, but without Spencer Dryden, who had been kicked out of the band years earlier). A self-titled album was released by Columbia Records. The accompanying tour was a success, but their revival was short-lived, and thus Jefferson Airplane was officially disbanded for good.

Dryden suffered financial and health problems and died of colon cancer on January 10 2005 at the age of 67. In 2004, Marty Balin pointed with well-deserved pride to the fact that unlike many of their contemporaries, all of the original members survived the 1960s.

Kantner rejoined with Balin and Casady in 1985 to form the KBC Band, which released KBC Band (including the Kantner hit "America") in 1987 on Arista and also featured keyboardist Tim Gorman from the Who and guitarist Slick Aguilar from David Crosby's band.

Today, there are two versions of Jefferson Starship — one officially billed as Starship featuring Mickey Thomas (with Thomas at the forefront), and the revived Jefferson Starship (often called Jefferson Starship: The Next Generation or Jefferson Starship-TNG), with Kantner and Balin as leaders, and Diana Mangano replacing Grace Slick as female singer (although Slick did do guest vocals on Jefferson Starship's 1999 album Windows Of Heaven). This latter band plays frequent concerts, and on occasion Jack Casady joins them as well. Mangano is an expressive and effective singer, and this revived Jefferson Starship can often capture a good deal of the feeling of the original Airplane.

Influence

The original Jefferson Airplane, along with the Byrds, the Doors, the Grateful Dead, The Lovin' Spoonful, the Mamas and the Papas, Tommy James & the Shondells and to some degree Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young will always be associated with the more melodic end of the north American rock spectrum and in due course other groups, such as Steely Dan and Eagles, continued to blend elements of folk, jazz and rock and bring the results to a global audience. Of all these bands, Jefferson Airplane excelled in the psychedelic domain and in their penchant for pretentious track titles, which came to characterize the 1965-75 era.

British bands apparently influenced by the mellow lyricism of the west coast sound included Barclay James Harvest, David Bowie, Curved Air, Family, Fairport Convention, Jethro Tull, King Crimson, the Moody Blues, the Small Faces, Pentangle and Yes. The Beatles have always stressed the influence that the Beach Boys had on their musical development (especially Pet Sounds) but it seems likely that other music from the west coast also spread eastwards and played a key part in making pop music more symphonic and less predictable than it had been before 1965. The era of trans-Atlantic jet travel ushered in a decade earlier and the ability to send TV broadcasts by satellite also facilitated a faster interplay of musical influences across the Atlantic. Donovan was evidently one of the first British pop musicians to become aware of them and was undoubtedly influenced by the group to some degree. He famously namechecked the band in his 1966 song "The Fat Angel" (included on his Sunshine Superman LP in 1967), written many months before the Airplane had become internationally known.

Record producers who worked with the original band included Greg Edward, Rick Jarrard, Matthew Katz, Ron Nevison, Tommy Oliver and Al Schmitt.

Samples

• Download sample of "White Rabbit" from Surrealistic Pillow

Discography

JEFFERSON AIRPLANE, JEFFERSON STARSHIP, STARSHIP, and JEFFERSON STARSHIP-TNG:

Jefferson Airplane:

1. Jefferson Airplane Takes Off (1966) - US position: # 128
2. Surrealistic Pillow (1967) - US position: # 3 (Breakthrough album featuring "Somebody To Love" and "White Rabbit.")
3. After Bathing at Baxter's (1967) - US position: # 17
4. Bless Its Pointed Little Head (1969) Live
5. Crown of Creation (1968) - US position: # 6
6. Volunteers (1969) - US position: # 13
7. The Worst Of Jefferson Airplane (1970) - US position: # 12 (First greatest hits collection.)
8. Bark (1971) - US position: # 11
9. Long John Silver (1972) - US position: # 20
10. Thirty Seconds Over Winterland (1973) Live
11. Early Flight (1974) (A collection of singles, B-sides, and other non-LP tracks.)
12. Flight Log, 1966-1976 (1977) (Compilation album, also includes tracks by Jefferson Starship, Hot Tuna, as well as solo tracks.)
13. Time Machine (1984) (Compilation album.)
14. 2400 Fulton Street (1987) (Compilation album.)
15. Jefferson Airplane (1989) (1989 "reunion" album.)
16. White Rabbit & Other Hits (1990) (Compilation album.)
17. Jefferson Airplane Loves You (1991) (Three-disc boxed set.)
18. The Best of Jefferson Airplane (1993) (Compilation album.)
19. Live at the Monterey Festival (1995) (Live recording, British release of Jefferson Airplane's performance at the 1966 Monterey Pop Festival.)
20. Jefferson Airplane Journey...Best Of (1996) (British compilation album.)
21. Live at the Fillmore East (1998) (Live recording of 1968 performance at the Fillmore East in New York City.)
22. Hits (1998) (Compilation of tracks by Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, and Starship.)
23. VH1 Behind the Music (2000) (Compilation of tracks by Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, and Starship.)
24. Love Songs (2000) (Compilation of tracks by Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, and Starship.)
25. The Roar of Jefferson Airplane (2001) (Compilation album.)
26. The Essential Jefferson Airplane (2005) (Compilation album.)

Paul Kantner and the Jefferson Starship:

1. Blows Against The Empire (1970)

Jefferson Starship:

1. Dragon Fly (1974)
2. Red Octopus (1975) (Best-selling album for any incarnation of the Airplane/Starship.)
3. Spitfire (1976)
4. Earth (1978) (Last album w/ Marty Balin until 1995.)
5. Gold (1979) (Compilation album.)
6. Freedom At Point Zero (1979)
7. Modern Times (1981)
8. Winds Of Change (1982)
9. Nuclear Furniture (1984)
10. Jefferson Starship at Their Best (1993) (Compilation album.)

Starship:

1. Knee Deep In The Hoopla (1985)
2. No Protection (1987)
3. Love Among The Cannibals (1989)
4. Greatest Hits (Ten Years and Change 1979-1991) (1991) (Compilation album, also includes tracks by Jefferson Starship.)
5. The Best of Starship (1993) (Compilation album.)

Jefferson Starship-The Next Generation:

1. Deep Space/Virgin Sky (1995) (Live album.)
2. Miracles (1995) (Live album.)
3. Windows of Heaven (1999)
4. Greatest Hits: Live at the Fillmore (1999) (Live album.)
5. Extended Versions (2000) (Live album.)
6. Across the Sea of Suns (2001) (Live album)

SELECTED SOLO, DUO, or TRIO EFFORTS:

Marty Balin:

1. Bodacious DF (1973)
2. Balin (1981) (Includes the AM radio single, "Hearts.")

Hot Tuna (Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady, with other musicians.):

1. Hot Tuna (1970)
2. First Pull Up-Then Pull Down (1971)
3. Burgers (1972)
4. The Phosphorescent Rat (1973)
5. Quah (1974) (By Jorma Kaukonen with Tom Hobson, produced by Jack Casady.)
6. America's Choice (1975)
7. Yellow Fever (1975)
8. Hoppkorv (1976)
9. Double Dose (1977)
10. Final Vinyl (1979) (Compilation album.)

Paul Kantner/Grace Slick:

1. Sunfighter (1971)
2. Baron Von Tollbooth & the Chrome Nun (1973) (By Paul Kantner, Grace Slick, and David Freiberg.)

The KBC Band (Includes Paul Kantner, Marty Balin, and Jack Casady.):

1. KBC Band (1986)

Grace Slick:

1. Manhole (1973)
2. Dreams (1980)
3. Welcome to the Wrecking Ball (1981)
4. Software (1984)
5. The Best of Grace Slick (2000) (Compilation album, also includes tracks by Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, and Starship in which Grace Slick was the lead vocalist.)

Singles

Jefferson Airplane:

• "Somebody To Love" (1967) #5 US
• "White Rabbit" (1967) #8 US
• "Ballad Of You And Me And Pooneil" (1967) #42 US
• "Watch Her Ride" (1967) #61 US
• "Greasy Heart" (1968) #98 US
• "Crown Of Creation" (1968) #64 US
• "Volunteers" (1969) #65 US
• "Pretty As You Feel" (1971) #60 US

Jefferson Starship:

• "Ride The Tiger" (1974) #84 US
• "Miracles" (1975) #3 US
• "Play On Love" (1975) #49 US
• "With Your Love" (1976) #12 US
• "St. Charles" (1976) #64 US
• "Count On Me" (1978) #8 US
• "Runaway" (1978) #12 US
• "Crazy Feelin'" (1978) #54 US
• "Light The Sky On Fire" (1978) #66 US
• "Jane" (1979) #14 US, #21 UK
• "Girl With The Hungry Eyes" (1980) #55 US
• "Find Your Way Back" (1981) #29 US
• "Stranger" (1981) #48 US
• "Be My Lady" (1982) #28 US
• "Winds Of Change" (1983) #38 US
• "No Way Out" (1984) #23 US
• "Layin' It On The Line" (1984) #66 US

Starship:

• "We Built This City" (1985) #1 US, #12 UK
• "Sara" (1985) #1 US, #66 UK
• "Tomorrow Doesn't Matter Tonight" (1986) #26 US
• "Before I Go" (1986) #68 US
• "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" (1987) #1 US, #1 UK
• "It's Not Over Til It's Over" (1987) #9 US
• "Beat Patrol" (1987) #46 US
• "Wild Again" (1988) #73 US
• "It's Not Enough" (1989) #12 US
• "I Didn't Mean To Stay All Night" (1989) #75 US
• "Good Heart" (1991) #87 US

Jefferson Starship-TNG:

• "Let Me Fly" (1998)

External links

• Official website for Jefferson Airplane.
• Jefferson Airplane biography at Rolling Stone.
• Jefferson Starship biography at Rolling Stone.
• Jefferson Airplane Lyrics.
• Jeff Tamarkin.
• Jefferson Airplane profile, NNDB.