Volunteers

Jefferson Airplane | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: RCA
• ASIN: B000002W6G
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #375,554 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. We Can Be Together

2. Good Shepherd

3. The Farm

4. Hey Fredrick

5. Turn My Life Down

6. Wooden Ships

7. Eskimo Blue Day

8. A Song for All Seasons

9. Meadowlands

10. Volunteers

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Why Apologize for Revolutionary Aspirations?, March 31, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Volunteers (Audio CD)

It is too bad that full text of the defiant lyrics which was included in the original album was replaced in the CD with a "we were only kidding" commentary. The album represents a powerful artistic statement for the need to share all in common and end the greed that could destroy our world through war and environmental disaster (still!). "We Should be Together" calls for solidarity and tells capitalist oligarches: "All your private property is target for your enemy and your enemy is we." Slick's songs (as in many other albums) provide a tour de force of sharp, surrealistic imagery of alienation worthy of Lorca (especially "Hey Fredrick"). American escapism (always running off to the next frontier, the next market, or the outer reaches of suburban sprawl) is treated as myth ("Good Shepard") and its hippy utopian variant of the time is satirized ("the Farm"). The impossibility of escape from a nuclear holocaust ("Wooden Ships") leaves no alternative to revolution, which is both joyous ("Volunteers") and deadly serious ("Meadowlands", the theme of the Soviet Army). The only seriously false note is in "Wooden Ships", in which the response to the possible victims of a nuclear catastrophe is to say "All we can do is echo your anguished cry. We are leaving, you don't need us." Nonetheless, an impressive statement, all in all. The music is magnificent, inextricably tied to the lyrics and fully conveying the extraordinary energy and vocal and instrumental and creativity the group brought to their live performances at the time. Listening again to the entire album for the first time in decades, I'm struck how distinctive their music really was and how well it's held up. Finally, did the "revolution" "fail"? Not entirely, but in any case, keep your eyes open and be ready to lend a hand, it will all come around again, if in somewhat different form. Or, as someone said about Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly, it seems like sometimes the "losers" write the best songs. There is plenty of good music which isn't about heroism, rebellion or the trials and struggles of the downtrodden, but I, for one, don't want to lose the good music that is about those things.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Music wins out every time, January 25, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Volunteers (Audio CD)

Yeah, so maybe the JA's politics are dated; So are the Clash's, so are Ted Nugent's and in 20 years, Ani DiFranco's will be, too. It happens! What isn't dated is the music, especially the two songs by Grace Slick. "Eskimo Blue Day" and "Hey Frederick" are the Airplane at their most majestic and Slick at her most primal, with bassist Jack Casady especially standing out like a stone leviathan. Elsewhere, Jorma Kaukaunen's take on the traditional "Good Shepard" foreshadows his later Hot Tuna and solo work, Marty Balin briefly surfaces from his dissaffection with the band to help propel "Turn My Life Down" along and drummer Spencer Dryden probably has the best summation of how the wind was blowing for Sixties rock in his "Song For All Seasons." If you let the political rants of a bygone era prevent you from listening to this vibrant, strong album, hey, your loss!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Go Ride the Music, July 14, 2000

By 

Gregor von Kallahann - See all my reviews

This review is from: Volunteers (Audio CD)

Even in '69 there were critics who were skeptical about this album and where the Airplane was headed. Rich rock stars, it was argued, couldn't possibly revolutionaries (although they could still be "outlaws in the eyes of America," I suppose). That kind of criticism reflected the growing paranoia among those elements of society we used to call the "counterculture." If you think 90s style "political correctness" is a drag, you should have lived through the "more revolutionary than thou" late 60s.

Sensitive to the criticism, the Airplane answered that they were just r'n'r journalists--reporting the news and reflecting the culture around them. And to make sure everyone knew not to take them all that seriously, they put a life size peanut butter and jelly sandwich on the inside cover gatefold.

Well, after 30 years the debate seems a bit nitpicky. Musically, Volunteers holds up very well indeed, and that's really all that matters. The politically themed anthems (the opener "We Can Be Together," "Wooden Ships" and the closer title track) catch fire vocally and instrumentally. Grace and Marty engage in their patented vocal dueling (as opposed to simple "duetting") for what was to be the last time until Marty rejoined the Starship in the mid-70s. Kantner had yet to succumb to extreme heavy-handedness. And Kaukonen and Casady rocked mightily. By this record, their producers had finally figured out how to record the band, so that Casady's bass wasn't buried.

What may have been considered lesser tracks (Jorma's version of the traditional "Good Shepherd" and Marty's "Turn My Life Down") are now among my favorites. These songs and Grace's two exercises in obscurantism ("Hey Frederick" and "Eskimo Blue Day") are anything but overtly political. The Airplane was never a one-note act; they were always all over the map musically and lyrically. Once you realize that it becomes easy to just "go ride the music."