Born to Be Burned

Great Society | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 23, 1996)
• Original Release Date: January 25, 1996
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sundazed Music Inc.
• ASIN: B000003H0T
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #109,574 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Their seminal band together for only a year, Darby, Jerry and Grace Slick formed the core of this SF ballroom legend, whose influence--like the widening sway of the Velvet Underground--seems larger today than ever. The garage origins of Darby's classic, '

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars PRE-AIRPLANE GRACE, July 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Born to Be Burned (Audio CD)

This is the band led by Grace Slick, her husband and brother-in-law in 1965-66, before Grace joined Jefferson Airplane. They shared bills with the Airplane and had sort iof a split personality. Anyone familiar with the COLLECTOR'S ITEM CD on Columbia knows the Society's long, hypnotic jams on tunes like "Sally Go Round the Roses", featuring Grace's piercing wail. BORN TO BE BURNED shows the other side of the coin, Great Society as a first-rate pop band of the era with ebullient, catchy tunes like the wonderful "That's How It Is". The only clinker on the album is, unfortunately, the single with which the Society's label attempted to break them at the time. "Free Advice" is, a piece of psuedo-psychedelic with a godawful lead vocal by, I believe, Grace's brother-in-law Darby Slick. The best thing about the track (and the two alternate versions on this CD) is Grace's wordless vocal improv in the background.

Maybe if the label, Tom Donahue's Autumn Records, had released "That's How It Is" instead, we might be talking about Great Society today as som,ething more than a footnote in Airplane history.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Chrome Nun`s first steps, May 3, 2006

By 

R. N. ESPIÑEIRA "Rne" (Malaver , Argentina) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Born to Be Burned (Audio CD)

A very interesting view on the early days of Grace Slick`s carrer. The Great Society was not an outstanding band, but neither were The Grateful Dead when they made their first recordings (incidently, the same year The Great Society did theirs). If they had had time to develop, they could have turned into a really great band, but Grace took the decision of joining Jefferson Airplane and that was it for Society.
I consider their live recordings far more interesting, but this is undoubtfully a very interesting release. It contains a nice booklet with notes and the sound quality is certainly great.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars GOOD STUFF, March 4, 2007

By 

Michael (Philadelphia, Panama) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Born to Be Burned (Audio CD)

The Great Society should be more than an Airplane footnote. They were a fine band on their own (especially live, check out the Columbia release for that), with an excellent guitarist/songwriter in Darby Slick. This album is a compilation of their studio recordings, and the quality of performances ranges from middling to transcendent. While it's true that the kickoff single "Free Advice" is a legendary stinker (one that drove session producer Sly Stone to form his own band) that probably torpedoed the band's career, there is much to like here. "That's How It Is" is one of the great lost singles of the 60's, and their version of "Somebody to Love" is an excellent, albeit apples-and-oranges companion to the Airplane's version.