Customer Reviews

Jefferson Airplane Loves You

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Growing up in the 80s, my exposure to this group was mostly in the forms of Jefferson Starship and Starship, producers of some of the cheesiest music ever to hit my eardrums. I totally loathed their soft-rock pop songs growing up. "Built this city on rock and roll" my ass!

One day I'm watching VH-1 and on comes Behind the Music: Jefferson Airplane. I was shocked to hear about all the good acid rock they produced, and I was stunned to discover how many of the songs I loved they were responsible for. After watching that special and finding out how many of the original members hated Starship almost as much as I did, I decided to give this box set a try.

I must say, it was a great purchase. Lots of great acid rock, straightahead blues, experimental music, and wonderful singing by Grace Slick and Marty Balin. The booklet gives a good history of the band and is a good read. A lot of the hits appear in live form though, so if you want to hear studio versions you'll have to get a "Best Of" or the original albums.

If you are looking for a representative, portable overview of Jefferson Airplane, this collection ain't it. Buy the remastered "Essential Jefferson Airplane" collection instead or even the sonically inferior "2400 Fulton Street". If you already know the band well, this is for you. It's crammed full of sloppy excesses, historical snippets & rarities - like "I Specialize in Love," "Go To Her," "Runnin' Round This World," the elongated feedbacky live "Ballad of You & Me & Pooneil." I have their full catalog on vinyl, cassette, CDs. But when I want to settle in for an afternoon of San Francisco psychedelia, I choose this collection to relive the many times I saw them live in my youth. Back in the day, the Airplane stood alone - inventive improvisational jams that lasted just long enough (Kaukonen, Cassady, Dryden)and stellar other-worldly harmonies (Balin, Kantner, Slick.) Grace Slick was the original rrrriot grrrl. Women vocalists are all in her debt. No victimized "my man done left me" BS for her!

Back in early 1967 when AM radio {KYA & KFRC} started adding: "Somebody To Love" to their playlists. The whole San Francisco scene {"Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair"},exploded in full-force. Well, it did for the rest of the planet, BUT the real "Summer's of Love" were 65-66, when the city still belonged to the local kid's. Hipsters, and even some of the Beats, that were still around. If you wanted to find out about the music-happenings, you had to read Ralph's column in The Chronicle (this was still: pre-"Rolling Stone.")

Well, Marty Balin had started a band in 1965 called: "The Jefferson Airplane", and his band was gaining popularity over the months that followed and by January 67, with Grace Slick, Paul Kantner, Jorma Kaukonen, Jack Casady & Spencer Dryden, the time was now and The Jefferson Airplane was IT!

Over the course of three compact discs, this wonderful box set tells the story of San Francisco's biggest rock band cf the 1960's. Starting in 1962 with the obscure single: "I Specialize in Love" by Marty, thro to the encore at the final Winterland show of: "You wear your dresses too short", in September 72, It was a long ten years and it was a short life span for this band.

The first CD covers the folk-rock of: "Takes Off" through to the free-form freak-out of: "Baxters." By the end of this first CD, the group had taken quite a journey from hometown hopefuls to the cosmic messengers of the mind-altering magic mushrooms. By mid-67, times had changed and The Jefferson Airplane was a BIG reason for this change. Songs like: "Today" "White Rabbit" and "Let's Get Together" set the tone and started a movement where a lot of music {good & bad} followed.

Disc number two...This is the: "Cruising Altitude" period, for this band. During these years, The Airplane was really flying high, in more ways than one! The music became more experimental and free-form. The great songs: "Lather" "Pooneil Corners" "Martha" "Crown of Creation" and "Plastic Fantastic Lover" are featured here and it's quite a flyte, most of this music is essential, some of it was indeed strange. But, if you keep your seat-belt fastened you will enjoy some real,{or, are they?} colors.

Disc three: The final years of The Airplane, had "Highs" {Woodstock} and "Lows" [Altamont}. The loss of Marty Balin in The Early 70's changed things greatly. Jorma & Jack, were bringing "Hot Tuna" to life and Papa John and his amazing fiddle were needed to spark some life back into band. By September 1972 after two so-so albums, The Airplane was ready to close-up shop at Winterland.

The San Francisco explosion of 1967 COULD have happened without The Jefferson Airplane, maybe...But this is the proof that it DID happen BECAUSE of The Jefferson Airplane. This is their story, in words & music, and it's a great place to find out just what the fuss was all about.
FOUR STARS!!!

The prospect of a three-CD overview of Jefferson Airplane's brief, erratic though at times inspired career was long overdue as a single CD compilation ("The Worst of Jefferson Airplane") is inadequate for showcasing a band that only had two real hit songs but made strong, commercially-uncompromising full-length albums. Unfortunately, "Jefferson Airplane Loves You" seems to have been compiled with Airplane fans only in mind. Sure, the original versions of essential recordings such as "White Rabbit", "Somebody To Love", "Crown of Creation" and "We Can Be Together" are all here, but so are far too many inferior live versions and alternate takes of Airplane classics (an edited version of "Pretty As You Feel" !) intended to represent what are defining performances and arrangements in their canon. It is nice, however, to see worthy but usually neglected songs such as "Watch Her Ride", "In Time", "Turn My Life Down" and "Feel So Good" included with their more famous signature songs. As for the bonus material, always a fan's wet-dream, this is a veritable treasure chest: unreleased studio tracks and experiments (with Frank Zappa on two cuts!), a complete live show from 1967, and remixes of classic "Volunteers" tracks, etc. Unfortunately, the extended blues jams, such as "Uncle Sam's Blues" and "You Wear Your Dresses Too Short" (at 12 long minutes!) are tiresome and uninspired. The packaging is lovely and includes a terrific book of photographs and interviews, and the sound is excellent throughout. For those seeking a good introduction to Jefferson Airplane, check out the two-CD set "2400 Fulton Street" which collects all the essential tracks. Now if that collection could be expanded with bonus material you'd have something special.

Nearly every track on this 3 CD collection is fantastic. Unfornuately, almost half of it is previously released material and is already available on other CD's. This type of boxset makes no sense. Any big fan of the group would already have the released material and doesn't need it repeated. Any casual fan would just want the greatest hits and wouldn't be interested in the live or extended mixes. The previously released material contains all the hits, plus some lesser played material. It is the record company's way of expanding the material to 3 discs and bloating the price. There is a studio version and live version of White Rabbit. Is it really necessary to have two different versions of an already overplayed song?

The boxset is in chronological order. It starts out with a solo track by Marty Balin, and a track (Free Advice) from Grace Slick's first band, The Great Society. Free Advice isn't a very good song and it isn't typical of the Great Society. If you like the psychodelic aspects of the Jefferon Airplane, you should seek out the Great Society. Both White Rabbit and Somebody to Love were originally done by the Great Society. Their two albums are now available on a single CD.

There is a lot of excellent previously unreleased live material. When this boxset was released in 1992, it was something special. Since then, a number of other Jefferson Airplane live CD's have been released. Although the music comes from different concerts, alot of is very similar. But, there are still a few unique live tracks that are fantastic, such as "You Where Your Dresses Too Short".

One of the best tracks is an extended studio version of "Feel So Good". It is similar to the live version of 30 Seconds Over Winterland, but better, tighter and less noisy. There have always been two truths about a Jefferson Airplane/Starship concert: They always start on time and they always play LOUD.

Another reason to buy the boxset is the inclusion of the Volunteers ablum quadraphonic remix. Quad was introduced in the late sixties and was supposed to replace stereo. It actually had four channels, and a quad hifi system would have four speakers. The record companies remixed some of the top selling albums for this format (Sanatana's Abraxas also came in Quad). Affects would be added to take advantage of the quad sound. On some of the songs, there isn't much different between the stereo and quad versions. Some songs have significant changes. "Hey Frederick" was been completely remixed, extended by more than a minute and is absolutely fantastic.

So, should you buy this boxset? If you like the Jefferson Airplane, beyond the hits, and you don't already own everything, this is the perfect boxset to get. If you already have some stuff, then you might want to get the live CD's (like Fillmore) first. If you already have everything else, than you are going to buy this no matter what I say. If you are a casual fan, get The Worst of the Jefferson Airplane. Don't bother with 2400 Fulton Street. You would be paying for a double CD and a number of songs you don't really want.

The music on this boxset rates 5 stars. I give it 4 only because much of it is previously released material. The Boxset also comes with a very nice booklet.

An absolute must-have 3-CD box set that covers the Airplane's period before they had become Jefferson Starship.Total of 51 tracks that EVEN the 'deep album cuts' that I vaguely happen to remember is just as good if not better than the more familiar.Face it,so few bands can actually match up to these San Francisco psychedelic merchants.Tunes that I enjoyed more than I had expected were "Great Society","White Rabbit","Tobacco Road","Let's Get Together","Crown Of Creation","3/5 Mile In 10 Seconds","Volunteers","We Can Be Together","When The Earth Moves Again" and JUST too many to list here.Comes with an oblong full color booklet.Most highly recommended.

I bought this box set not exactly expecting much since I already own every JA album as well as numberous "greatest hits" albums and compilations. THIS SET ROCKS! Especially interesting to me are the completely different recordings made just for the quadraphonic edition of Volunteers. These are NOT remixes of the originals and provide a whole new feel to the songs. Yes, they were remixed from the quad recordings, but are totally different takes. I actually prefer JA LOVES YOU to 2400 Fulton Street and consider it one of the gems of my entire collection.

I think the best CD is #1, with the early Signe Anderson stuff sounding a bit better than the Grace Slick stuff. But half of Disc 1 is horrible live tracks that were deservedly previously unreleased! Some bright spots are "Let's Get Together" and "Won't You Try/Saturday Afternoon". Disc #2 delves deeper into depression, which can be good or bad. CROWN OF CREATION is very well represented, with some excellent live tracks from BLESS ITS POINTED LITTLE HEAD and Woodstock. Disc #3 goes from great VOLUNTEERS to mediocre/crappy 30 SECONDS OVER WINTERLAND. No better compilation, so save your money for this one.

This band was raising hell a decade before I was even born and the music sounds as involving to me as I'm sure it did to those who were its contemporaries.

What I can say is that the musicians are some of the most impressive I've ever heard: Jack Casady's legendary bass dexterity, Jorma Kaukonen's cutting guitar work, Grace Slick's concise, majestic vocal maelstrom, Marty Balin's romantic croon. Some of the material (mostly Balin's) is weaker, but the classics -- "Somebody to Love", "Volunteers", "Today" and the song that got me hooked on the Airplane in the first place, "White Rabbit" -- hold up remarkably well.

THIS BOX SET ROCKS!! Some of the stuff on disc one is garage band quality. But the beauty and artistry of this choatic band is well demonstrated here. The soulful harmonies blended with Jorma smashing the harsh tremolo tones upside your head is a true joy. If you like the impromptu, and the unpredictable, you will love this. If you were to only buy one album by this band, this would be a wise choice!