Jefferson Airplane Biography, Photos and Posters

The Jefferson Airplane

Biography

Started: August 13, 1965
City and Country of Origin: San Francisco, CA
Music Training:
Awards:
Top Recordings: "Somebody to Love," "White Rabbit"
Jefferson Airplane Biography: Jefferson Airplane was the brain child of 23 year old Marty Balin a folk singer who had been a member of a group called the Town Criers. After watching the Beatles he envisioned the merging of two diverse styles of music rock and folk into one. So, he decided to form a new group and open a club for them to play. To achieve this end he rounded up 3 investors and converted a pizza restaurant on Fillmore St. into a club, which he called the Matrix, seating 100 people. He then began recruiting musicians from those appearing at a local folk establishment called the Drinking Gourd. His first recruit was rhythm guitarist/singer Paul Kantner who recommended lead guitarist/singer Jorma Kaukonen. Balin, who was a tenor, needed a strong female voice to compliment his own so he recruited Signe Toly. The band was completed with the addition of bass player Bob Harvey and drummer Jerry Peloquin. The group debuted at the Matrix, August 13, 1965, and received favorable media attention. After several personnel changes the group signed a recording contract with RCA Victor. They released their first single in February of 1966 "It's No Secret" unfortunately for them it would remain a secret on the music market as the song did not chart. Meanwhile, Signe Toly had married Jerry Anderson who handled the lighting at the club. After another unsuccessful single "Come Up the Years," in July, the group released its first LP Jefferson Airplane Takes Off, on August 15, 1966. The album was on the charts for 11 weeks, but failed to crack the top 100. A third single "Bringing Me Down" was released from the album, but it too failed to chart. At this point Signe Anderson had given birth and her commitment to her family caused her to resign from the group. It was the groups good fortune that at about that time the San Francisco based rock band the Great Society was disbanding. This made their powerful female lead singer Grace Slick available and they signed her. Even more important than her singing ability she brought with her 2 new songs from the Great Society repertoire, "Somebody to Love," written by her brother-in-law Darby Slick and her own composition, the ballad "White Rabbit," a psychedelic Alice in Wonderland. The group recorded both songs on their second album Surrealistic Pillow. RCA did not release either of them as advanced singles choosing instead to release, in January, "My Best Friend" which became the fourth single that did not chart. In February, 1967 Surrealistic Pillow was released. It debuted on the charts in March and "Somebody to Love" was released as a single. By June both the album and the single were in the top ten. After that RCA relaesed "White Rabbit" which also mad the top ten. Surrealistic Pillow went gold. On June 17, 1967, they kicked off the summer of love, with an appearance at the Monterey Pop Festival. Two of their songs were featured on the film version of the festival "High Flying Bird" and "Today." By the late '60s the media was becoming more conscious of the negative aspects of the drug culture and looked suspiciously at a group that recorded a hit such as "White Rabbit." As a result they lost radio support for their music. "The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil," which featured Slick and Balin harmonizing failed to break the top 40. Their follow up album Bathing at Baxter's reached the to 20, but did not go gold. Throughout the late '60s and early '70s there were numersous other efforts that failed to get support. Around 1974 Kantner and Slick organized a new band along the lines of Jefferson Airplane and called it Jefferson Starship. Eventually by the '80s the new group became just Starship and had a number one record with the squeaky clean middle America "We Built This City."

Search Site by Artist:

Create search engine for website.