Blows Against Empire

Paul Kantner, Jefferson Starship | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 29, 1997)
• Original Release Date: 1970
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: RCA
• ASIN: B000002X2B
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (74 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #234,881 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Kantner teamed with several of his Jefferson Airplane partners and some other heavies for this 1970 LP, his best (and highest-charting, at #20) solo album. This is a science-fiction rock opera, and this all-star cast looks like fiction, but it ain't: Grace Slick, Jerry Garcia, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Mickey Hart, Jack Casady and others join in for Sunrise; XM; A Child Is Coming , and more. Bonus cuts, too! --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

84 of 87 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars First, I was irridescent, then I became transparent..., September 16, 2005

By 

Junglies (Morrisville, NC United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Blows Against the Empire (Audio CD)

First of all, acknowlegements for the use of part of a line from Starship written by Kantner, Slick, Balin and Blackman. In the liner notes, Paul Kantner tells of how he wrote to Robert Heinlein to ask permission to use some of his ideas in the project to which Heinlein replied with some astonishment that his ideas had been used many times before but only Kantner had written for permission.

Secondly, Amazon has the tracklist wrong to the extent that the radio slots for the album are at the end and not the beginning.

Thirdly, I do not want to duplicate my review of the first CD release of this album which can be found on Amazon's pages and which I pretty much stand by today.

Fourthly, I think that this remastering is truly excellent. I say this first and foremost because of the sound. The first time around sounds dark and murky in comparison but here the sound is pristine revealing much more in the process and giving the vocals a lot nore clarity in particular. And, if you never knew why Paul Kantner appreciated Grace Slick's vocals so much you sure do here. Listen to the bonus track of her demo version of Sunrise it is astounding. The Garcia contributions also benefit enormously from the remastering and it makes one wonder how awesome he would have become as a pedal steel guitar player if he had chosen that particular route had he not preferred to go back to the regular (sic) guitar. All of the instruments and vocals are greatly improved.

Next the bonus tracks. Although they do not add per se to the original album as new songs they certainly elaborate on their development. Let's Go Together is presented with alternative lyrics but after several plays I must confess to preferring the original album. I could be getting old and conservative I guess which may account for that. The two demos, Sunrise and Hijack show how the album versions evolved and the remaining two SFX and Starship are valubale too but in different ways. I can only speculate as to whether Garcia and Hart actually called the track SFX but the first thing that came to mind was San Francisco International as in airport or perhaps Space Station. Regardless the effects are great and particularly so on headphones. Finally the live version of Starship is particularly welcome if only because it is an official live version very reminiscent to my ears, of the sound on Bless It's Pointed Little Head. It certainly is a positive indication of what the sound might be if the whole thing were performed live. There are two secret tracks, which Amazon had listed as the first two tracks of Radio Spots for the album which i find cute but also a liitle sad as reminders of the gestation of the Starship from the Airplane but otherwise do not detract from the overall excellence.

Finally the packagaging. Reproducing the original booklet is a nice plus although at my age and with glasses it is a little hard to read. Thank the deity it is not a mini-disc version. But again it is really nice to have and also I really enjoyed the liner notes. Not to do down Jeff Tamarkin, who did a sterling job on the other albums, these liner notes are a little more in keeping with the times in which the album was recorded. More like a insider orientation with subjective aspects, they are a little more rebellious and open and esoteric.

All in all I really really think that this album has stood the test of time even though popular music has changed so much. Releasing it at this time with it's conjunction of the second major diaster of the Bush presidency (three if you count Iraq) may be accidental but it does draw on some parallels with it's original release during the closing years of the Vietnam war. However, the anti-war movement is more divided and muted now than it was then. I was struck by the irony of the line Amerika hates her crazies as I dropped my teenage daughter off at school this morning (what sort of music do you call this she asked as she got into the car)when conformity is the order of the day in the new millenium.

Finally I have to mention the artwork which always impresses me.

FIVE STARS PLUS (please Amazon - just this once can I give it 6 stars.

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sciencie fiction master piece!, September 25, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Blows Against Empire (Audio CD)

A rock and roll classic! Created with the help of members from the Airplane, Moby Grape, Quicksilver Messenger Service, The Grateful Dead, Crosby, Stills & Nash and others, this album belongs to a joint effort that also gave us "If I Could Only Remember My Name" (David Crosby), "Ace" (Bobby Weir), "Rolling Thunder" (Mickey Hart), "Garcia" (Jerry Garcia) and "Manhole" (Grace Slick). All of those are masterpieces, and "Blows Against The Empire" is possibly the most ambitious of the lot. Written in a time when people were still going to the Moon, the album tells a science fiction story, with a wonderfully naive concept, about the hijack of the first starship (build in secrecy by the government) by a group of hippies. But, if the cynicism of our days prevents us from "digging" the idea, the music is as strong as ever... from the revolutionary anger of "Mau Mau, Amerikon" till the final explosion of "Hijack" and "Starship"! Only in the recent "Windows of Heaven" Paul Kantner returned to this sort of "free form" cosmic delirium. A must for the sixties/seventies collector and for all the fans of psychedelic rock.

41 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Possibly the best thing by Jefferson Airplane/Starship, June 3, 2000

By 

kireviewer (Sunnyvale, Ca United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Blows Against Empire (Audio CD)

This is not really the Jefferson Starship. This is a project from Paul Kantner and Grace Slick, with the help of alot of friends, recorded during a break from the Jefferson Airplane, just after recording the album "Volunteers". Starship, which evolved from the Airplane, didn't really become an established group until four years later.

This album more or less marked the end of the San Francisco psychodelic and political period of rock and roll. After, this the Airplane went more pop, the Dead went country and everyone else just disappeared. In a way, it does lead into the British progressive period.

This a concept album about hippies taking off in their starship and embarking on a voyage of love and peace. It may sound like a silly, dated concept now, but Kantner is such a strong song writer that the words and music still hold up.

The music is fantastic. A big chunk of it is duets between Jerry Garcia and someone on piano. Could it be Grace Slick? I didn't think she was that talented on keyboards. The piano is upfront, slow and deliberate while Garcia's guitar is playing furiously in the background to set up an etherial mood.