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Records

Records image
Parent Issue
Day
31
Month
May
Year
1974
OCR Text

 

Grace Slick & Jefferson Airplane

Jefferson Airplane Early Flight CYLI-0437.

Grace Slick Manhole BFLI-0347.

Early Flight, "A collection of songs never before released on an album", is probably already in the possession of the Airplane aficionado. The LP is unlikely to be a more than once or twice interesting experience for anyone less attached to the first exponents of the San Francisco Sound. The material is primarily previously rejected songs and a jam with John Hammond and Jerry Garcia from the Jefferson Airplane Takes Off and Surrealistic Pillow sessions.

The most contemporary material, "Mexico" and "Have You Seen the Saucers", was released as a single in 1970. As the liner notes by Bill Thompson remind us, the lyrics really rip into self-coronated Richard the Intercepter. These cuts convey deep revolutionary feeling, but are so seriously ill-conceived that much of the feeling is diffused.

Most interesting is "Up or Down", composed by Peter Kaukonen (although he doesn't play on the number) and also recorded in '70. Marty Balin's solo vocal is good and loose and the sound is more indicative of the latest incarnation of OMS than of the Airplane. The majority of the material, however, is in the folk-rock vein as the Airplane was conceived.

Early Flight gives an insight into the genesis of the Airplane and Starship. If you want that it's available. Also available is Grace Slick's first solo LP, an eclectic, complex, profound and fun work of art or something like that. Manhole is actually half Grace (side one) and half new Starship material (side two).

Side one is taken up mostly by a fifteen minute plus soundtrack for the movie Manhole which has something to do with Spain and presents about twenty kinds of instruments played by around 49 musicians sometimes simultaneously maybe not including four vocalists. This track seems self-indulgent sometimes, but a lot of genius hangs out too. Ms. Slick says, "Spanish stuff just gets me off. They seem to have a violent artistic talent that claws and caresses me." Well, okay.

"Come Again? Toucan" opens the second side. There are all kinds of clever plays with words on the LP and in the booklet ya get with it also. Is there an aviator out there? Could the toucan be related to the touraco? I mean the Manhole frisbee contest is definitely gonna be a heavy event. However, I urge everyone to enter the Government Destruction Derby.

"It's Only Music" is about (the New) Music and is what might be an example off Psychedelic Realism. This song shoulda been heard in 1966.

"Better Lying Down" is a freek blues featuring Grace's vocalizing. But the real beauty of this piece is the piano, credited to Chance. The album closes out with "Epic (38)" by Kantner, another beautiful song. This one's got bagpipes in it, but you won't mind, really.

The emotional content is credited to Bruce Lee so don't say nobody warned you.

--B. Brown