Bless It's Pointed Little Head [Original recording remastered]

Jefferson Airplane | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 30, 1996)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: RCA
• ASIN: B000002WVS
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #239,171 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

This CD is an out of print collectible! It is the original 1996 RCA release. Jefferson Airplane's first live album. It has a small sticker spot on the front of the booklet.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Worthwhile Live Rock Album, July 30, 2000

By 

Compton Roberts (Hamilton, Ontario, CANADA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bless It's Pointed Little Head (Audio CD)

"Bless Its Pointed Little Head" is the first official live album released during the Jefferson Airplane's lifetime, to be followed four years later by the bloated "Thirty Seconds Over Winterland". By their nature, live albums by rock artists are a decidedly patchy affair: poor performances, awful sound, indulgent instrumental solos, reliance on over-familiar song selection, or as with live albums from the 1970s (The Eagles' first live album comes to mind), post-live overdubs are used to make the band sound better than it really played. Well, that's not the case here. This is the Airplane at its creative and musical peak. It is also very well recorded and remastered here for CD. "Bless Its Pointed Little Head" features full frontal musical assaults in the form of revamped Airplane classics: "3/5 of a Mile in 10 Seconds" (the most impressive and retooled cut here) sounds like heavy metal jazz, "Plastic Fantastic Lover" with a funky, rappin' Marty Balin singing as if his life depended on it, "It's No Secret", and Fred Neil's "Other Side of This Life". They are literally breathtaking performances by a band on fire. Interesting reworkings of Grace Slick's "Somebody To Love" captures the magical vocal duelling of Slick and Balin as they both fight to claim the song, and Paul Kantner's thank-you to Donovan Leitch in the form of a cover of his Airplane tribute "Fat Angel" (a.ka. "Ride Jefferson Airplane") has strong mood and great bass-playing by Jack Casady. In fact, the rhythm section of Casady and drummer Spencer Dryden is marvellous, turning the familiar songs upside down and breathing new life into them. The only weak spots are ones common to most 1960s rock artists, particularly from San Francisco: a predilection for "blues" workouts and other improvised weirdness. The worst offenders here are the interminable "Bear Melt" which feebly concludes such a powerful live experience, and Kaukonen's very white stab at the blues in "Rock Me Baby". Still, these are minor carps as the rest of the album is really wonderful. It also serves as a reminder as to how important Marty Balin was to the Airplane's sound. He is at his most impassioned and actually makes Slick work to hold our attention. Buy this album immediately if you ever liked Jefferson Airplane. Although RCA has recently released a "lost" live recording from the same time period and location called "Live at the Fillmore East", don't be seduced by the greater number of tracks. It is generally lukewarm Airplane.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "...rocking as hard as any Sixties band from Detroit.", February 18, 2000

By 

DJ Rix (NJ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bless It's Pointed Little Head (Audio CD)

The Airplane were not a "good vibes" band like the Dead. By the time this very live LP was issued they had long transcended their folkie beginnings. They were also capable of rocking as hard as any Sixties band from Detroit, as one quickly learns by the completion of "3/5's Of A Mile In 10 Seconds" & "Somebody To Love." They also raise the energy level on "It's No Secret" & "Plastic Fantastic Lover," but can still make the hookah bubble on Donovan's "Fat Angel." Gracie & Paulie rarely sounded more together while flying free, with Marty working up a sweat rather than just batting his eyelashes at the hippie girls in the front row. Jorma & Jack have become mutually telepathic, while Spencer Dryden plays the drums to wake up the dead, pun intended.

Bob Rixon, WFMU

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars God is Casady, January 21, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Bless It's Pointed Little Head (Audio CD)

"Bless Its Pointed Little Head" is certainly one of the better live albums of the Fillmore Era, where nearly any band who could released an album taped there. I feel that time has not damaged this performance much, and it stands pretty close to the top of the pile, along with the Allman's "At Fillmore East" and Miles Davis's "At Fillmore".
Even if this album were otherwise a washout, it still would be worth hearing for the performance of Jack Casady, whose rumbling, aggressive playing drives this band at a furious pace. His sound is classic, his signature voice shines through and carries nearly every song, and boy does he carry alot. The singers compete for supremacy, drummer Spencer Dryden can't seem to hold onto a single idea for more than five seconds, and there are plenty of mistakes; Jefferson Airplane obviously took alot of chances onstage, and they didn't always pay off. But there are quite a few payoffs here, most notably "Other Side", "3/5's of a Mile", and the Airplane paying homage to Donovan paying homage to the Airplane on "Fat Angel".
A few other observations:
"Bear Melt" was completely improvised on the spot, and never really found completed form. I do feel this song is somewhat flawed, as Dryden again tries too hard with too little on his palate. It's one of those songs that was a good idea that never took off.
"Rock Me Baby" gives a perfect introduction to what was becoming Hot Tuna, and though this is blues at its whitest, it does have a desperate energy that I like.
There is much to enjoy here, warts and all (and with no studio overdubbing or "fixing"). Jack Casady was obviously the best instrumentalist the Airplane ever had, and his bass prowess is well documented here, as well as the rest of the album giving a good, solid representation of the sound of that time.