Customer Reviews

bark

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I liked this album from the start.

It is funny how everyone remembers the brown paper bag that the vinyl came in. I still have it but the vinyl is worn out.

It seems to me thatthe purists felt that the band had left their roots and I recall that fans in England felt that the Airplane had become one of those playing the heavy music that Slick had derided at Woodstock.

I do not know about that but I do know that from the moment that the album kicks off with 'When the Earth Moves Again', you know that this IS Jefferson Airplane, it is their sound and their music.

It does not really matter to me what the critics say. I like what I like and do not need a critic to tell me what is good or not. There are marvellous moments on this album including the dark, menacing feeling you get from 'Pretty as you Feel' and especially from that guitar, the excellent social commentary of 'Crazy Miranda' to name just two.

Clearly there are differences in musical interests in the band, displayed by the three main protaginists but the album as a whole does owe it's antecedents to the previous incarnations. I kind of missed Marty and his love songs but you can't have everything. (He still has that wonderful voice though so go and hear him use it if you can).

It also seems to me that this album was caught up in the changing world with Kent State events and the dawning realisation that the world had not changed. While the Airplane may have believed that the world could be changed, those who exert influence in our society clearly felt that it was time to move on to the next thing.

Definitely worth five stars, even without Marty.

I purchased BARK on the day of its first release in 1971, and I don't recall listening to much anything else for a couple of weeks. Yes, Marty Balin was missing. Spencer Dryden was gone. And this was certainly a much different Airplane than we'd last heard from on VOLUNTEERS two years before. But BARK launched a NEW beginning, and a very exciting one at that!

One year before, we JA fans had been treated to the wonderful BLOWS AGAINST THE EMPIRE from Paul Kantner. Now, with BARK, Kantner really stepped forward as leader of the Jefferson Family. This album has not one, not two, but THREE boffo anthems by Mr. Kantner ("When the Earth Moves Again," "Rock & Roll Island," and "War Movie")--and it's here that the Airplane fully launched itself into the sci-fi realm that led it shortly to evolution into Jefferson STARSHIP.

And Grace Slick offers two classics here--"Lawman" (shades of Waco!) and "Crazy Miranda" (which is STILL relevant in today's era of lapdog media and politically brainwashed masses).

But the most interesting thing about BARK is this: 30 years later, I think it sounds BETTER than it ever has before.

It is hard to believe that upon its release in 1971, Bark was poorly reviewed. In retrospect, its musical closeness to Jefferson Airplane's earlier work, especially 1969's Volunteers, is striking. "When the Earth Moves Again" is a collective, anthemic song in the same mould and of the same quality as "We Can Be Together," and "Crazy Miranda" is clearly by the author of "rejoyce." What makes Bark special is the move of Slick and the astonishingly under-valued Jorma Kaukonen to the foreground and the new casual, almost frayed approach to performing and recording. Also new is a shift away from the already-qualified counter-culture sentiments of Volunteers towards a more resigned, knowing worldview: "Third Week in the Chelsea" is painful in its directness, but gorgeous in its craftsmanship and execution; Slick's "Law Man" projects a tired, slightly annoyed, spirit that Slick could tap into so well. New to the band was the funky and sensual punch of tunes like "Feel So Good" and "Pretty As You Feel," which project a randy-to-sultry adult sexuality absent from their more whimsical "love" songs of the '60s. Confirms that the early '70s were the high water mark for the extended Airplane family.

Here's a band, last decades' faves, subconsciously realizing their time in the spotlight is getting short. What to do? Easy! They get themselves a skanky violinist who seems to be able to leap across several cultural divides, and a drummer who's as weird as their previous one, and they put out an album of songwriting jems that stand shoulder to shoulder with their earlier efforts.
There's the militaristic march of "When the Earth Moves Again" a la "We Can Be Together", the Tuna funk of "Feel So Good" and "Wild Turkey, the Grace of "Lawman", "Crazy Miranda", and "Never Argue with a German", and the nonsense of "Pretty As You Feel" and "Thunk". There's the epic sci-fi "War Movie", and on my CD, it says "Arranged and Produced by Jefferson Airplane, Inc." Since when had the avatars of 2400 Fulton become a corporation? Can there be any argument that this band was working very hard to survive the obvious demise of the peace and love movement that had only recently captured America's heart? The mix is single dimensional at best, Jack and Jorma play great, Grace wails, but there's a big vibe that the end is near. Without Spencer and Marty, it's good, but it ain't the Airplane.

Yes, its post Marty Balin, but in my book that's not neccessarily a bad thing..yes there are some clunkers -"Thunk" and "European song", but many classics emerge i.e. "Lawman", "Chelsea","War Movie" and "Pretty as You Feel"...all in all a solid effort from the quintescential 60's band striding into the 70's.

The Airplane were at their best when they pushed the envelope. When they made Baxters they turned a corner and the easily digested pop that got their foot in became merely spice in a very thick and heady gravy of experimental ooze. Marty Balin was somewhat at odds with this change and his absence here allows the band to go full tilt with a fairly varied collection of imagination and daring. The closest songs here to being commercially promotable are Jorma's and they manage to lighten the mood somewhat without seeming at odds with the wierdness swirling around them. It is certainly an acquired taste but I drool over this stuff when the mood hits me. Even Kantner's umpteenth attempts at rewriting Pooneil fit in allowing you to get past the boorish pomp of the lyrics and enjoy his music. I wish there were more like this particular album. It does not fit the traditional repetitively formulaic mold of what a great rock album should be. Sometimes that's the point.

I finally capitualted and got my turntable fixed -- and this was one of the albums I most wanted to listen to again. Very solid songwriting and great Jorma leads.

I'm pleased that I've got a collectors item in my collection of albums but I'd buy the cd in a heartbeat if it was available.

That's what this is - a record of the times JA were living with in 1971(is'nt that what records are supposed to be about?; Where the group is at a certain time of their career?) . I first heard this album, or should I say 8-track, when I was 15 in 1979. Two of my favorite cuts are 'Crazy Miranda' and 'Thunk' (I'm sick of the latter getting a bad rap- it's a great song that my friends and I have sung along with at the top of our lungs MANY MANY TIMES). Just sit back, enjoy the album (now sounding great on CD!) and stop trying to judge it against the airplane's other stuff. 'Nuff said.

I first heard BARK in May 1972. I thought it was amazing! I had never heard music like this. "Pretty As You Feel" blew me away. I heard it at a friends house. I immediately bought my own and played it non-stop for weeks. When I went to the store shortly thereafter and saw LONG JOHN SILVER I immediately bought it and loved it. I had 2 perfect albums in my mind. My friends all loved these 2 albums too. Then a few weeks later I heard VOLUNTEERS for the first time. Was stunned by how this music affected me. I was 17 at the time. Now I HAD to hear EVERYTHING produced by Jefferson Airplane! After all these years everyone knows me as a 'Jefferson' fan. I have over 40 CDs of their various incarnations. But BARK and LJS hold special places in my collection!

I don't understand why 'Bark' cops so much bad press. It's a mixed bag for sure but I look at it as being pretty fresh in the scheme of things as it offers a degree of variety we had not heard before but neither is it just a curiosity. There's some weaker material on it but no bad material there either. A worthy addition to any collection.