Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine Jefferson Airplane Flies Again!

For HWW, taken from CNN.com this morning:

Jefferson Airplane 'flies' again
Thursday, July 17, 2003 Posted: 8:35 AM EDT (1235 GMT)

NEW YORK (Billboard) -- Almost 30 years after a host of lineup changes led psychedelic-era pioneers Jefferson Airplane to rechristen themselves as Jefferson Starship (later just Starship), BMG Heritage has prepared deluxe reissues of the group's first four albums, all set for an August 19 release.

"Jefferson Airplane Takes Off," "Surrealistic Pillow," "After Bathing at Baxter's" and "Crown of Creation" have each been digitally remastered from the original master tapes by engineer Bob Irwin and amended with rare or unreleased bonus tracks and liner notes by biographer Jeff Tamarkin.

Those four albums together capture the classic Jefferson Airplane period. Founded by singer/songwriter Marty Balin and also featuring principal guitarist/singers Jorma Kaukonen and Paul Kantner and bassist Jack Casady, the band solidified its most well-known lineup after the release of "Takes Off," when drummer Spencer Dryden and vocalist/songwriter Grace Slick entered the fold.

Slick would be the genesis of the group's two biggest hits, "Somebody To Love" and "White Rabbit," both from 1967's "Surrealistic Pillow."

The success of that album posited the band as one of the brightest musical stars of San Francisco's "summer of love."

The deluxe version of "Takes Off" will be augmented with eight bonus tracks, including the uncensored single version of "Runnin' Round This World," which was deleted from most copies of the album due to its perceived sexual and drug-related lyrical content. Other cuts include the non-album tracks "High Flying Bird" and "It's Alright."

The new "Surrealistic Pillow" is jazzed up with six additional tracks, including mono versions of "Somebody To Love" and "White Rabbit" alongside rarities "In the Morning," "Come Back Baby" and "J.P.P. Mc Step B. Blues."

1967's "After Bathing at Baxter's" and 1968's "Crown of Creation" each contain four bonus tracks. The former features three alternate versions of album tracks as well as the rarity "Things Are Better in the East." The latter boasts three previously unreleased session tracks: "Ribump Ba Bap Dum Dum," "Would You Like a Snack?" and "The Saga of Sydney Spacepig."

I recently saw Grace Slick on some VH1 show being interviewed as part of some count down or list thing (I love those list shows -- it fits my A.D.D.) and her hair was all white! At first I thought "who's this old lady?". Geez, remember when Chrissie Hynde sang "I've got a kid, I'm 33 baby?" These days, 33 is nothing in the rock world.

I'm trying to imagine 60 year old rap stars in the future ... will they be seem to our grandkids like old blues musicians seem to us??

Oooooh, I know where my money is going!

I hope they get round to doin' Volunteers too. I've got it on creaky old scratched vinyl and it really needs replacing.

Thanks for posting this, LL!

Hard as it may seem, I've never owned a copy of three of those albums. (I've got compilations coming out the wazoo, though.) _Crown_ is the only one I have. But this might be a good time to splurge.

JEFFERSON AIRPLANE TRIVIA MOMENT (for old time's sake):

The reason "Runnin' Round This World" was deleted from the first album was because of the word "trips." No, really. That's what RCA found offensive: the line, "Nights with you have been fantastic trips."

The Airplane never much liked being censored and spent the rest of its career showing the record company just how racy they could get. Some of their lyrics that could be construed as revenge against RCA:

~ "Up against the wall, motherfucker!" ("We Can Be Together")

~ "The human name doesn't mean shit to a tree" ("Eskimo Blue Day")

~ "So you think Jesus never balled a lady" ("Son of Jesus")

~ "Fuck you! We do what we want!" (Jefferson Starship's "Stairway to Cleveland")