Jefferson Airplane

William Ruhlmann @ All Music
Jefferson Airplane was the first of the San Francisco psychedelic rock groups of the 1960s to achieve national recognition. Although the Grateful Dead ultimately proved more long-lived and popular, Jefferson Airplane defined the San Francisco sound in the 1960s, with the acid rock guitar playing of Jorma Kaukonen and the soaring twin vocals of Grace Slick and Marty Balin, scoring hit singles and looking out from the covers of national magazines. They epitomized the drug-taking hippie ethos as well as the left-wing, antiwar political movement of their time, and their history was one of controversy along with hit records. Their personal interactions mirrored those times; the group was a collective with shifting alliances, in which leaders emerged and retreated. But for all the turmoil, Jefferson Airplane was remarkably productive between 1965 and 1972. They toured regularly, being the only band to play at all the major '60s rock festivals -- Monterey, Woodstock, even Altamont -- and they released seven studio albums, five of which went gold, plus two live LPs and a million-selling hits collection that chronicled their eight chart singles. Rather than formally breaking up, they mutated into other configurations, Hot Tuna and Jefferson Starship, and went on to further success in the 1970s and '80s, before reuniting for an album and tour in 1989.

The initial idea for the group that became Jefferson Airplane came from 23-year-old Marty Balin (born Martyn Jerel Buchwald in Cincinnati, OH, January 30, 1942), a San Francisco-raised singer who had recorded unsuccessfully for Challenge Records in 1962 and been a member of a folk group called the Town Criers in 1963-1964. With the Beatles-led British Invasion of 1964, Balin saw the merging of folk with rock in early 1965 and decided to form a group to play the hybrid style as well as open a club for the group to play in. He interested three investors in converting a pizza restaurant on Fillmore Street into a 100-seat venue called the Matrix, and he began picking potential bandmembers from among the musicians at a folk club called the Drinking Gourd. His first recruit was rhythm guitarist/singer Paul Kantner (born Paul Lorin Kantner in San Francisco, CA, March 17, 1941), who in turn recommended lead guitarist/singer Jorma Kaukonen (born Jorma Ludwik Kaukonen in Washington, D.C., December 23, 1940). Balin, who possessed a keening tenor, wanted a complementary powerful female voice for the group and found it in Signe Toly (born Signe Ann Toly in Seattle, WA, September 15, 1941). The six-piece band was completed by bass player Bob Harvey and drummer Jerry Peloquin. The group's unusual name was suggested by Kaukonen, who had once jokingly been dubbed "Blind Thomas Jefferson Airplane" by a friend in reference to the blues singer Blind Lemon Jefferson.

Jefferson Airplane made its debut at the Matrix on August 13, 1965, and began performing at the club regularly, attracting favorable press attention. At a time when folk-rock performers -- Sonny & Cher, We Five, Bob Dylan, the Byrds, the Beau Brummels, the Turtles -- were all over the charts, that led to record company interest. By September, Jefferson Airplane was being wooed by several labels. At the same time, the band was already undergoing changes. Peloquin was fired and replaced by Skip Spence (born Alexander Lee Spence, Jr. in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, on April 18, 1946; died in Santa Cruz, CA, April 16, 1999). Spence considered himself a guitarist, not a drummer, but he had some drumming experience. Also in September, Signe Toly married Jerry Anderson, who handled lights at the Matrix, becoming known as Signe Anderson. In October, Harvey was fired and replaced by Jack Casady (born John William Casady in Washington, D.C., April 13, 1944), a friend of Kaukonen's. On November 15, 1965, this lineup -- Balin, Kantner, Anderson, Kaukonen, Spence, and Casady -- signed to RCA Victor Records. They had their first recording session in Los Angeles on December 16, and RCA released their debut single, Balin's composition "It's No Secret," in February 1966; it did not chart. Meanwhile, Jefferson Airplane began to appear at more prestigious venues in San Francisco and even to tour outside the Bay Area. In May 1966, Anderson gave birth to a daughter, and caring for the child while performing with the band became a challenge. Meanwhile, Spence became increasingly unreliable as his appetite for drugs increased, and he was replaced in June by session drummer Spencer Dryden (born Spencer Dryden Wheeler in New York, April 7, 1938). Spence went on to form the band Moby Grape.

Following a second non-charting single, Balin and Kantner's "Come Up the Years," in July, Jefferson Airplane released its debut LP, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off, on August 15, 1966, just over a year after the band's debut. The album had modest sales, peaking at only number 128 during 11 weeks on the Billboard chart. (A third single, Balin and Kantner's "Bringing Me Down," was released from the album, but did not chart.) At this point, Anderson's commitment to her family caused her departure from the group. Jefferson Airplane was able to find a strong replacement for her in Grace Slick (born Grace Barnett Wing in or near Chicago, IL, October 30, 1939), the lead singer for the San Francisco rock band the Great Society, which happened to be in the process of breaking up at the same time. Slick joined Jefferson Airplane in mid-October 1966, and by the end of the month was with them in the recording studio. She brought with her two songs from the Great Society repertoire: the rock tune "Somebody to Love," written by her brother-in-law Darby Slick, the Great Society's guitarist, and her own composition, the ballad "White Rabbit," set to a bolero tempo, which used imagery from Alice in Wonderland to discuss the impact of psychedelic drugs. Both songs were recorded for Jefferson Airplane's second album, Surrealistic Pillow.

RCA did not release either of them as the advance single from the album, opting instead for the departed Spence's "My Best Friend" in January 1967; it became the group's fourth single to miss the charts. Surrealistic Pillow followed in February. It debuted in the charts the last week of March, and its progress was speeded by the release of "Somebody to Love," the first Jefferson Airplane single to feature Grace Slick as lead vocalist. By early May, both the album and single were in the Top 40 of their respective charts; a month later, both were in the Top Ten. With that, RCA released "White Rabbit" as a single, and it too reached the Top Ten. Surrealistic Pillow became Jefferson Airplane's first gold album in July.

Meanwhile, the band, which, naturally, had attracted national media attention (much of it focusing on Slick's photogenic looks), began recording a new album and continued to tour. On June 17, 1967, they performed at the Monterey International Pop Festival, which was celebrated for introducing many of the new San Francisco rock bands (as well as the Jimi Hendrix Experience) and launching the "Summer of Love" that the season was touted to be in 1967. Jefferson Airplane's performance was filmed and recorded. Two songs from their show, "High Flying Bird" and "Today," were featured in the documentary film Monterey Pop, released in 1968. The concert recording was heavily bootlegged and over the years has turned up on numerous gray-market releases as well.

The nature of Jefferson Airplane's commercial breakthrough, and the nature of the band itself, restricted its commercial appeal thereafter. AM Top 40 radio, in particular, became wary of a group that had scored a hit with a song widely derided for its drug references, and Jefferson Airplane never again enjoyed the kind of widespread radio support it would have needed to score more Top Ten hits. At the same time, the group did not think of itself as a hitmaking machine, and its recordings were becoming more adventurous. Kantner's "The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil," the band's new single released in August, featured him as lead singer with Slick and Balin harmonizing. It reached number 42 on the strength of the band's prominence, but they never again crossed the halfway mark in the Hot 100. At the same time, the rise of FM radio, attracted to longer cuts and the kind of experimental work the group was starting to do, gave them a new way of exposing their music. Nevertheless, their third album, After Bathing at Baxter's, its songs arranged into lengthy suites, was not as successful as Surrealistic Pillow when it appeared on November 27, 1967, reaching the Top 20 but failing to go gold. Also notable was the diminished participation of Marty Balin, who co-wrote only one song, but now was being marginalized in the group he had founded.

After Kantner's "Watch Her Ride," released as a single from After Bathing at Baxter's, stalled at number 61, RCA released a new Jefferson Airplane single written and sung by Slick in the spring of 1968. But radio was even more resistant, and "Greasy Heart" stopped at number 98. It was included in the band's fourth album, Crown of Creation, released in August. The title track got to number 64 as a single, and the LP, which featured more concise, less experimental tracks than After Bathing at Baxter's, marked a resurgence in the group's commercial success, reaching the Top Ten and eventually going gold. Jefferson Airplane's live appeal was chronicled on the concert album Bless Its Pointed Little Head, released in February 1969. In August, the group appeared at the Woodstock festival, and it was featured on the million-selling triple-LP soundtrack album to the resulting film in 1970, though it did not appear onscreen in the version initially released. The band's fifth studio album, Volunteers, appeared in October 1969 as its title song became a minor singles chart entry. Volunteers stopped short of the Top Ten, but it went gold in three months. On December 6, 1969, the band played at the Rolling Stones' disastrous Altamont free concert in California, its performance (complete with Balin's beating at the hands of Hell's Angels) captured in the 1970 documentary film Gimme Shelter.

Jefferson Airplane released one more single, the non-charting marijuana anthem "Mexico," in 1970 in its familiar configuration, but the turn of the 1970s brought great changes in the group. Already, Kaukonen and Casady, with assorted sidemen, had begun to play separately as Hot Tuna while maintaining their membership in Jefferson Airplane; they had recorded shows the previous September for a self-titled debut album issued in May 1970. Spencer Dryden was fired early in the year and replaced by drummer Joey Covington (born Joseph Michno in Johnston, PA, in 1945). At shows performed in October 1970, violinist Papa John Creach, who had been performing with Hot Tuna, first played with Jefferson Airplane. Creach (born John Henry Creach in Beaver Falls, PA, May 18, 1917; died February 22, 1994) was a journeyman musician decades older than any of the other members of Jefferson Airplane, and his recruitment was evidence of the ways in which the band's approach was changing. An even more radical change was the departure of Marty Balin, who left the band at the end of the fall tour in November. (His resignation was formally announced in April 1971.)

Jefferson Airplane did not have a new album ready for release in 1970, and RCA filled the gap with a compilation, sarcastically dubbed The Worst of Jefferson Airplane and released in November. The album went gold quickly and was later certified platinum. Issued on its heels was Paul Kantner's debut solo album, Blows Against the Empire, featuring most of the members of Jefferson Airplane as well as various other musical friends. Due to that long list of sidemen and the album's science-fiction theme about a group of hippies hijacking a spaceship, Kantner co-billed the disc to "Jefferson Starship." As yet, there was no such entity, but Kantner would use the name for a real band later.

Having completed their recording commitment to RCA, Jefferson Airplane shopped for a new label, but were wooed back when RCA offered them their own imprint, Grunt Records. Grunt bowed with the release of the sixth Jefferson Airplane studio album, Bark, in August 1971. The album stopped just short of the Top Ten and quickly went gold. Covington, Casady, and Kaukonen's "Pretty as You Feel," later issued as a single, gave the band its final placing in the Hot 100 at number 60 early in 1972. Grunt issued albums by bandmembers including Creach and Hot Tuna, as well as discs by friends, but Jefferson Airplane remained its most successful act.

In the early '70s, the members of Jefferson Airplane became increasingly preoccupied by their side projects. Hot Tuna, having issued a second live album, First Pull Up, Then Pull Down, in the spring of 1971, put out its first studio effort, Burgers, in February 1972. Kantner and Slick, who had become a couple and had a child, China Kantner (who went on to be an MTV VJ in her teens), issued a duo album, Sunfighter, in December 1971. In April 1972, Covington left the band and was replaced by veteran drummer John Barbata (born in Passaic, NJ, April 1, 1945), formerly a member of the Turtles and a backup musician for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. The group then recorded its seventh studio album, Long John Silver, which was issued in the summer of 1972. It reached the Top 20 and went gold within six months. For the accompanying tour, they added singer/multi-instrumentalist David Freiberg (born in Boston, MA, August 24, 1938), formerly a member of the San Francisco rock band Quicksilver Messenger Service, to provide the male lead vocals formerly sung by Balin. The tour concluded at the Winterland ballroom in San Francisco on September 22, 1972, in effect marking the end of Jefferson Airplane, although no formal announcement was ever made.

Kaukonen and Casady went back to performing as Hot Tuna. Kantner, Slick, and Freiberg recorded a trio album, Baron von Tollbooth & the Chrome Nun, issued in the spring of 1973 and featuring the rest of Jefferson Airplane as side musicians. Slick's debut solo album, Manhole, issued in early 1974, also featured many of the same performers. Kantner and Slick then organized a new band along the same lines as Jefferson Airplane, but without Kaukonen and Casady, and called it Jefferson Starship. Meanwhile, a second Jefferson Airplane live album drawn from the 1972 tour, Thirty Seconds Over Winterland, was issued in the spring of 1973. Early Flight, a collection of stray tracks, appeared in the spring of 1974. Grunt issued the compilation Flight Log (1966-1976) at the start of 1977, filling the two LPs with tracks by Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, and various other spin-off acts. 2400 Fulton Street: An Anthology, named after the address of a house owned by the band in the 1960s, was a two-disc set released in 1987. All of these albums sold well enough to reach the charts.

The various members of Jefferson Airplane went through various solo efforts and group affiliations in the 1970s and '80s, plus considerable litigation with an old manager and each other. This was all cleared up by the late '80s, however, and in 1989 Kantner, Slick, Kaukonen, and Casady (who, with manager Bill Thompson, still owned the rights to use the name Jefferson Airplane) brought in Balin (who had sold out his share in the group in 1971) and reunited as Jefferson Airplane for a tour and album. The tour, which ran from August 18 to October 7, was well received; the album, Jefferson Airplane, released by Epic Records, was only a modest success. After that, the band again became inactive. Slick retired. Kaukonen and Casady resumed performing as Hot Tuna. Kantner eventually resurrected the Jefferson Starship name, sometimes including Balin and even occasionally Slick, and playing Jefferson Airplane songs. RCA continued to release archival recordings, its most interesting issues being the 1992 box set Jefferson Airplane Loves You and the 1998 concert recording Live at the Fillmore East. =>>>>>>>>>>>

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@ Wiki
Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band from San Francisco, a pioneer of the LSD-influenced psychedelic rock (or "acid rock") movement.

The Airplane was the 'flagship' act for the burgeoning psychedelic music scene that developed in San Francisco in the mid-1960s. They were the first San Francisco group to perform at a dance concert -- the seminal 'happening' at the Longshoremen's Hall in October 1965 -- they were the first to sign a contract with a major record label, the first to appear on national television, the first to score hit records and the first to tour to the US East Coast and Europe.

Throughout the late 1960s Jefferson Airplane was one of the most sought-after (and highly-paid) concert acts in the world, their records sold in great quantities, they scored two US Top 10 hit singles and a string of Top 20 albums, and their 1967 LP Surrealistic Pillow is still widely regarded as one of the key recordings of the so-called "Summer of Love."

Successive incarnations of the band have performed under different names, reflecting changing times and performer lineups: Jefferson Starship, and later simply Starship before becoming Jefferson Starship The Next Generation in 1991.

Jefferson Airplane was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.

History
Formation and early career
Jefferson Airplane formed in San Francisco during the summer of 1965, emerging from what was called the San Francisco Bay folk music boom (see American folk music revival). Although the Airplane were considered the pre-eminent San Francisco group of the period, Kantner was in fact the only native San Franciscan member.

The group's founder was singer Marty Balin, who had established a minor career as a pop singer in the early Sixtes and made several recordings under his own name. In mid-1965 Balin raised funds to open a new nightclub, The Matrix and soon after he met folk musician Paul Kantner at another local club, the Drinking Gourd.

Kantner had started out performing on the Bay Area folk circuit in the early Sixties, alongside fellow 'folkies' Jerry Garcia, David Crosby and Janis Joplin and he has cited folk group The Kingston Trio as a strong early influence. He briefly moved to Los Angeles ca. 1964 where he worked in a folk duo with future Airplane/Starship member David Freiberg (who subsequently joined Quicksilver Messenger Service).

Balin and Kantner then set about selecting other musicians to form a group that would be the "house band" at the Matrix. Balin heard female vocalist Signe Toly Anderson at the Drinking Gourd and invited her to be the group's co-lead singer; however Anderson became pregnant with her first child in late 1965, which led to her eventual departure in late 1966.

Kantner next recruited an old friend, a highly proficient blues guitarist called Jorma Kaukonen, originally from Washington DC. Kaukonen had moved to California in the early Sixties and met Kantner while studying at Santa Clara University ca. 1962. Kaukonen was invited to jam with the new band and although initially reluctant to join, he was won over after playing his guitar through a tape delay device that was part of the sound system used by Ken Kesey for his famous Acid Test parties. The original lineup was completed by drummer Jerry Peloquin and acoustic bassist Bob Harvey.

The origin of the group's name is often disputed. "Jefferson airplane" is a slang term for a used paper match split open to hold a marijuana joint that has been smoked too short to hold without burning the hands -- an improvised roach clip.[citation needed] An urban legend claims this was the origin of the band's name, but according to band member Jorma Kaukonen, the name was invented by his friend Steve Talbot as a parody of blues names such as 'Blind Lemon' Jefferson. A 2007 press release quoted Kaukonen as saying:

"I had this friend [Talbot] in Berkeley who came up with funny names for people," explains Kaukonen. "His name for me was Blind Thomas Jefferson Airplane (for blues pioneer Blind Lemon Jefferson). When the guys were looking for band names and nobody could come up with something, I remember saying, 'You want a silly band name? I got a silly band name for you!'"

The group made its first public appearance at the opening night of The Matrix club on August 13, 1965. Peloquin was a seasoned musician whose disdain for the others' drug use was a factor in his departure just a few weeks after the group began. Although he was not a drummer, singer-guitarist Skip Spence (founder of Moby Grape) was then invited to take over the drum stool by Balin.

They drew inspiration from groups such as The Beatles, The Byrds, and The Lovin' Spoonful, gradually developing a more pop-oriented 'electric' sound. The other members soon decided that Harvey's bass playing was not up to par, so he was replaced in October 1965 by accomplished guitarist-bassist Jack Casady, whose brother Chick was an old friend of Kaukonen's from Washington DC. Casady played his first gig with the Airplane at a college concert in Berkeley, California, two weeks after he arrived in San Francisco.

The group's performing skills improved rapidly and they quickly gained a strong following in and around San Francisco, aided by rave reviews from veteran music journalist Ralph J. Gleason, the jazz critic of the San Francisco Chronicle; after seeing the band at the Matrix in late 1965 he proclaimed them "one of the best bands ever." Gleason's support raised the band's profile greatly, and within three months their manager Matthew Katz was fielding offers from record companies, although they were yet to perform outside the Bay Area.

Two very significant early concerts featuring the Airplane were held in late 1965. The first was the now-legendary dance at the Longshoremen's Hall in San Francisco on 16 October 1965, the first of many such 'happenings' in the Bay Area, and it was here that Ralph Gleason first saw the Airplane perform. At this concert they were supported by another local folk-rock group The Great Society, which featured Grace Slick as lead singer, whom Kantner met for the first time that night. A few weeks later, on 6 November, they headlined a benefit concert for the San Francisco Mime Troupe, the first of many engagements for rising entrepreneur Bill Graham, who eventually became their manager.

In November 1965 Jefferson Airplane signed a recording contract with RCA Victor, which included a then unheard-of advance of US$25,000. On 10 December 1965 they played at the first Bill Graham show at the Fillmore ballroom, supported by The Great Society and others, and they also appeared at a number of Family Dog shows promoted by Chet Helms.

The group's first single was Balin's "It's No Secret" (a tune he had written with Otis Redding in mind); the B-side was "Runnin' Round The World", the song that subsequently led to the band's first major clash with RCA.

Their debut LP Jefferson Airplane Takes Off was completed in March 1966, and soon after, during the spring of 1966, Skip Spence abruptly quit the band. He was eventually replaced by an experienced jazz drummer recruited from Los Angeles, Spencer Dryden, who played his first show with the Airplane at the Berkeley Folk Festival on 4 July 1966.

Manager Matthew Katz was fired in August and the legal fallout from this action was to continue for several years. After Katz's sacking Balin's friend and flatmate Bill Thompson was installed as their permanent road manager and temporary band manager. Thompson, a staunch friend and ally of the band, was a former Chronicle staffer who first convinced reviewers Ralph Gleason and John Wasserman to see the band. Thanks to Gleason's influence, Thompson was able to book the group for prestigious appearances at the Berkeley Folk Festival and the Monterey Jazz Festival.

Jefferson Airplane takes Off was released in September 1966. Folk music very much influenced the album, which included such staples as John D. Loudermilk's "Tobacco Road" and Dino Valente's "Let's Get Together", as well as original ballads "It's No Secret" and "Come Up the Years." The LP garnered considerable attention in the USA and eventually became a gold album.

RCA initially pressed only 15,000 copies, but it sold more than 10,000 in San Francisco alone, prompting the label to reprint it. It was at this point that the company deleted the track "Runnin' All Over The World" (which had appeared on early mono pressings), because executives objected to the use of the word "trip" in the lyrics. They also substituted altered versions of two other tracks ("Let Me In" and "Run Around") because of similar concerns about lyrics. The original pressings of Takes Off featuring "Runnin' 'Round The World" are now rare collectors' items worth thousands of dollars.

Arrival of Grace Slick
Signe Anderson gave birth to her son in May 1966, but by October she had decided that it was impossible to continue performing, so she reluctantly announced her departure. Her final gig with the Airplane took place at the Fillmore on 15 October 1966. The following night, her replacement Grace Slick made her first appearance with Jefferson Airplane. Grace, a former professional model, was already well-known to the band -- she had attended the Airplane's debut gig at the Matrix in 1965 and her previous group The Great Society had often supported the Airplane in concert.

Slick's recruitment proved pivotal to the Airplane's commercial breakthrough — she possessed a powerful and supple contralto voice, well-suited to the group's amplified psychedelic music, she was strikingly good looking, and her dynamic stage presence greatly enhanced the group's live imapct.

Slick was no mere "girlie singer" however. She was a remarkable individual: feisty, often outspoken, highly intelligent, well-educated, widely read and an accomplished multi-intrumentalist and songwriter. Crucially for the Airplane, she brought with her two superb compositions -- "Somebody to Love", written by her brother-in-law, Great Society guitarist Darby Slick and "White Rabbit" (which she had written in just half an hour) and which drew inspiration from the psychedelic drug LSD, then extremely popular in San Francisco, Maurice Ravel's "Bolero", and Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland).

The Great Society had recorded an early version of "Somebody To Love" (under the title "Someone To Love") as the B-side of their only single, "Free Advice"; it was produced by Sylvester Stewart (soon to become famous as Sly Stone) but it reportedly took more than 50 takes to achieve a satisfactory rendition. The Great Society decided to split in the autumn of 1966 and they played their last show on 11 September. Soon after, Slick was asked to join Jefferson Airplane by Jack Casady (whose musicianship was a major influence on her decision to join) and her Great Society contract was bought out for US$750.

Commercial breakthrough
In December 1966 Jefferson Airplane featured prominently in a Newsweek article about the booming San Francisco music scene, one of the first in what became an avalanche of similar media reports that prompted a massive influx of young people to the city and contributed to the heavy commercialization and exploitation of the local "hippie" culture.

Around the beginning of 1967 Bill Graham took over from Bill Thompson as the group's manager and in January 1967 they traveled to Los Angeles to record the tracks for their next LP, as well as making their first visit to the US East Coast. On 14 January 1967 Jefferson Airplane headlined alongside The Grateful Dead and Quicksilver Messenger Service the now-legendary "Human Be-In", the famous all-day 'happening' staged in Golden Gate Park which is now generally acknowledged as the one of the key events leading up to the so-called "Summer of Love."

During this period the band gained their first international recognition when they were namechecked by rising British pop star Donovan, who saw the them during his stint on the US West Coast in early 1966 and mentioned them in his song "The Fat Angel," which subsequently appeared on his Sunshine Superman LP.

Jefferson Airplane's second LP, and the album that launched them to international fame, was Surrealistic Pillow. It was recorded in Los Angeles over 13 days with producer Rick Jarrard at a cost of US$8000. Released in February 1967, the LP entered the Billboard album chart on March 25 and charted for over a year, peaking at #3.

The album was a major international success, and alongside The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, it is widely regarded as one of the seminal albums of the so-called "Summer of Love." The name Surrealistic Pillow was suggested by the 'shadow' producer of the album, Jerry Garcia, when he mentioned that, as a whole, the album sounded "as Surrealistic as a pillow." The record company would not allow Garcia's considerable contributions to the album to garner him a "Producer" credit, so Garcia is listed in the album's credits as "spiritual advisor."

As well as their two best-known tracks, "White Rabbit" and the rousing anthem "Somebody to Love," the album featured one track by former drummer Skip Spence ("My Best Friend"), Balin's driving "Plastic Fantastic Lover," and the atmospheric Balin-Kantner ballad "Today." A reminder of their earlier folk incarnation was Kaukonen's solo acoustic guitar tour de force, "Embryonic Journey" (his first composition), which referenced contemporary acoustic guitar masters such as John Fahey and helped to establish the popular genre exemplified by acoustic guitarist Leo Kottke.

The first single from the album, Spence's "My Best Friend," failed to chart, but the next two singles rocketed the group to prominence. Both "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit" become major US hits when released as singles -- the former reached #5 and the latter #8 on the Billboard singles chart -- and by late 1967 the Airplane were national and international stars and had become one of the hottest (and highest-paid) groups in America.

This phase of their career peaked with their famous performance at the epochal Monterey International Pop Festival in June 1967 and two songs from their set were subsequently included in the D.A. Pennebaker film documentary of the event. Monterey showcased leading bands from several major music "scenes" including New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and England and the resulting TV and film coverage gave national (and international) exposure to groups that had previously had only regional fame.

All these bands were also greatly assisted by appearances on nationally syndicated TV shows such as the Johnny Carson Tonight Show and The Ed Sullivan Show. The Airplane's famous appearance on the Sullivan show performing "White Rabbit," which was (fortunately) videotaped in color and augmented by recent developments in video techniques. It has been frequently re-screened and is notable for its pioneering use of the Chroma key process to simulate the Airplane's customary psychedelic light show.

Change of direction
The membership of Jefferson Airplane remained relatively stable until 1970, during which time they recorded five more albums and performed extensively in the USA and Europe, but the group's music underwent a significant transformation after Surrealistic Pillow and the influence of founder Marty Balin began to wane after their first commercial peak.

The band delved deep into acid rock with their third LP, After Bathing at Baxter's. The product of many sessions over several months, it was released on 27 November 1967, and it entered the charts in December, eventually peaking at #27. Its famous cover, drawn by renowned artist and cartoonist Ron Cobb, features a whimsical re-imagining of the group's Haight-Ashbury house on Fulton Street, depicted as a Heath Robinson-inspired flying machine soaring about the chaos of American commercial culture.

Key influences on the group's new direction were the emergence of Jimi Hendrix and in particular the first headlining US tour by British supergroup Cream, which prompted many groups including the Airplane to adopt a 'heavier' sound and to place a greater emphasis on improvisation.

This was evident on Baxter's, which took more than four months to record, with little interference from the nominal producer Al Schmitt. Where the previous LP had consisted entirely of short 2-3 minute songs, the new album was dominated by long multi-part suites, demonstrating the group's growing engagement with psychedelic rock. It also marked the emergence of Kantner and Slick as the band's major composers and the concurrent decline as major contributor of Marty Balin, who was becoming increasingly disenchanted with the "star trips" and inflated egos that their runaway commercial success had produced.

Batxer's also marked the end of the Airplane's brief run of success on the singles chart. Both "White Rabbit" and "Somebody To Love" were US Top 5 hits, but the single lifted from Baxter's, "The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil", peaked at a mediocre #43. None of their subsequent singles made it into the Top 50 and several did not chart at all.

Despite this, Jefferson Airplane continued to enjoy significant success as "album" artists and between 1967 and 1972 they scored a remarkable run of eight consecutive Top 20 albums in the USA, with both Surrealistic Pillow and Crown of Creation making the Top 10.

1968-1970
In February 1968 manager Bill Graham was fired after Grace Slick delivered her "either he goes or I go" ultimatum to the group. Bill Thompson took over as permanent manager and he set about consolidating the group's financial security, establishing Icebag Corp to oversee the band's publishing interests and purchasing a 20-room mansion at 2400 Fulton Street in the Haight-Ashbury district, which became the band's office and communal residence.

The Airplane undertook their first major tour of Europe in the late summer and early autumn of 1968, co-headlining with The Doors, performing in the Netherlands, England, Belgium, Germany and Sweden. A notorious incident involving Jim Morrison took place at a concert in Amsterdam; while they were performing "Plastic Fantastic Lover," a heavily intoxicated Morrison appeared on stage and began dancing. As the group played faster and faster, Morrison spun around wildly until he finally fell senseless on the stage at Marty Balin's feet. Not surprisingly, Morrison was unable to perform his set with the Doors and Ray Manzarek was forced to sing all the vocals.

Jefferson Airplane's fourth LP Crown of Creation (released in September 1968) was a transitional record, more concise and structured than its predecessor, and much more commercially successful, peaking at #6 on the album chart. Notable tracks include Grace Slick's Lather, which is said to be about her affair with drummer Spencer Dryden.

"Triad" was a mildly risqué David Crosby piece that had famously been rejected by The Byrds because they deemed its subject matter (a ménage à trois) to be too "hot" to record. Slick's searing sex and drug anthem "Greasy Heart" had been released as a single in March 1968. Several tracks recorded for the LP were left off the album, including the freeform Grace Slick / Frank Zappa collaboration "Would You Like A Snack?"

In February 1969 RCA released the live album Bless Its Pointed Little Head, which was culled from late 1968 live concert performances at the Fillmore West on October 24-26 and the Fillmore East on November 28-30. It became their fourth US Top 20 album, peaking at #17.

In early August 1969 the band headlined at a free concert in New York's Central Park and a few days later they performed in an early "morning maniac music" slot at the Woodstock festival, for which the group was augmented by noted British session keyboard player Nicky Hopkins. When interviewed about Woodstock by Jeff Tamarkin in 1992, Paul Kantner still recalled it with fondness, although Grace Slick and Spencer Dryden had less than rosy memories.

Immediately after Woodstock, sessions began for their next album using new 16-track facilities at the Wally Heider Studio in San Francisco and this proved to be the last recordings by the "classic" lineup of the group.

Volunteers was released in the USA in November 1969 and it continued their run of Top 20 LPs, peaking at #13 early in 1970. It was their most political venture, showcasing the group's vocal opposition to the Vietnam War and documenting their reaction to the increasingly repressive political atmosphere in the United States. The title track, "Volunteers," "We Can Be Together," "Good Shepherd," and the post-apocalyptic "Wooden Ships" were all highlights. The album track "Wooden Ships," which Paul Kantner co-wrote with David Crosby and Stephen Stills, was also recorded by Crosby, Stills & Nash on their debut album, but as both groups released the song the same year and as it was co-written by members of both bands, both versions are considered to be original versions of the song.

RCA voiced objections to the phrase "up against the wall, motherf***ers" in the lyrics of Kantner's song "We Can Be Together," but the group were able to prevent it from being censored by pointing out that RCA had already allowed the offending word to be included on the cast album of the rock musical Hair -- although the company did replace it with the word "fred" in the accompanying lyric sheet.

In December that year they played at the infamous Altamont Free Concert held at the Altamont Speedway in California. The concert, which was headlined by The Rolling Stones, was marred by crowd violence. Marty Balin was knocked out during a scuffle with Hells Angels members who had been hired to act as "security." The event became notorious for the now-famous "Gimme Shelter Incident," due to the fatal stabbing of black teenager Meredith Hunter in front of the stage by Hells Angels "guards" after he allegedly pulled out a revolver during the Stones' performance (this incident was the centerpiece of the documentary film Gimme Shelter).

Spencer Dryden quit the band in February 1970, burned out by four years on the "acid merry-go-round" and deeply disillusioned by the events of Altamont which, he later recalled "... did not look like a bunch of happy hippies in streaming colors. It looked more like sepia-toned Hieronymus Bosch." He took time off and later returned to music in 1972 as a drummer for the Grateful Dead spin-off band New Riders Of The Purple Sage. Dryden's replacement was Joey Covington, an L.A. musician who had been sitting in with [[Hot Tuna]] during 1969.

Touring continued through the spring and summer of 1970 but the group's only new recording that year was the single, "Have You Seen the Saucers?" b/w "Mexico." The B-side was an attack on President Richard Nixon's Operation Intercept, which had been implemented to curtail the flow of marijuana into the United States, while the A-side marked the beginning of a science-fiction obsession that Kantner would explore with his music over the rest of the decade.

Side projects
During 1969 Jack Casady and Jorma Kaukonen launched their side project, a return to their blues roots, which they eventually dubbed Hot Tuna. This began as a duo, with the pair performing short sets before the main Airplane concert, but over the ensuing months other members of the Airplane, as well as outside musicians (including Joey Covington), often sat in for Hot Tuna performances.

During late 1969 Casady and Kaukonen recorded an all-acoustic blues album, which was released in the spring of 1970, and it was remarkably successful, reaching #30 on the US album chart. Over the next two years Hot Tuna began to occupy more and more of their time, contributing to the growing divisions within Jefferson Airplane that would come to a head during 1972.

However, the Hot Tuna project also led to the addition of a new band member who, for a time, reinvigorated the group's sound. Covington had met veteran jazz-blues violinist Papa John Creach in Los Angeles in the mid-1960s; he invited Creach to sit in with the Airplane for a concert at Winterland in San Francisco on October 5, 1970 and as a result Creach was immediately invited to join Hot Tuna, and he soon became a permanent member of the Airplane touring lineup as well.

This concert also marked a turning point of another kind for the Airplane -- it was a memorial for their old friend Janis Joplin, who had died in Los Angeles from a heroin overdose the previous day, and because of her death, her close friend Marty Balin refused to perform with the band that night.

During this period, Paul Kantner had been working on his first solo album, a science fiction-themed project recorded with members of the Airplane and other friends. It was released in December 1970 under the title Blows Against The Empire, and credited to "Paul Kantner/Jefferson Starship". This "prototype" version of Jefferson Starship included David Crosby and Graham Nash, Grateful Dead members Jerry Garcia, Bill Kreutzmann, and Mickey Hart and Airplane members Grace Slick, Joey Covington and Jack Casady.

Jefferson Airplane ended 1970 with the release of their first "Greatest Hits" album, the perversely titled The Worst of Jefferson Airplane, which contined their unbroken run of chart success, reaching #12 on the Billboard album chart.

Decline and dissolution
1971 was a year of major upheaval for Jefferson Airplane. Grace Slick and Paul Kantner had begun a relationship during 1970 and on 25 January 1971 their daughter China Wing Kantner was born. Grace's divorce from her first husband had come through shortly before this, but she and Kantner agreed that they did not wish to marry.

In March 1971, Airplane's founder and co-lead singer Marty Balin decided to leave the band. He had been deeply affected by the death of his friend Janis Joplin, and he had also begun to pursue a healthier lifestyle, studying yoga and giving up drinking, which further distanced him from the other members of the group, whose prodigious drink and drug intake continued unabated.

On 13 May 1971 Grace Slick was badly injured in a near-fatal automobile accident when her car slammed into a wall in a tunnel near the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Her recuperation took several months, which forced Jefferson Airplane to cancel all concert and touring commitments for the rest of 1971.

The band returned to the studio in the late summer of 1971. Their next LP Bark (whose cover featured a dead fish wrapped in an A&P-style grocery bag) was issued in September 1971 as the inaugural release on the band's Grunt Records label and although it was the final album owed to RCA under the band's existing contract, manager Bill Thompson eventually struck a deal with RCA to distribute Grunt.

The single lifted from the LP, "Pretty As You Feel" was written by and featured lead vocals by drummer Joey Covington, and it was the last Jefferson Airplane single to make the US singles chart, although it only got as high as #60.

By this time, creative and personal tensions within the group were becoming a major factor and the Airplane had effectively split into two camps, with Slick and Kantner on one side and Kaukonen and Casady on the other. (Jorma Kaukonen's song, "Third Week In The Chelsea," from Bark, chronicles the thoughts he was having about leaving the band). These problems were exacerbated by escalating drug use, which caused the Airplane to become increasingly unreliable in their live commitments and led to some chaotic situations at concerts.

By the beginning of 1972 it was evident to most people close to the group that Jefferson Airplane had effectively reached its "use-by date" but the band held together long enough to record one more LP, Long John Silver, which was begun in April 1972 and released in July. It was clearly a rather desultory effort from this once great group, since by this time the various members were far more engaged with their various solo projects -- Hot Tuna, for instance, had released a second (electric) LP during 1971, which proved even more successful than its predecessor. The Long John Silver LP is notable mainly for its cover, which folded out into a humidor (presumably for the storage of marijuana).

Joey Covington quit the Airplane soon after Long John Silver was recorded and moved on to a group led by Jorma Kaukonen's brother Peter, Black Kangaroo, which was also signed to the Grunt label. Covington was replaced by John Barbata, who had been the drummer in the touring lineup of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. With the addition of Kantner's old friend David Freiberg on vocals, Jefferson Airplane began a tour to promote the Long John Silver LP in the summer of 1972, their first concerts for over a year following Grace Slick's 1971 car accident. This tour included a major free concert in Central Park that drew more than 50,000 people.

They returned to the West Coast in September, playing concerts in San Diego, Hollywood and Alberquerque, culminating in two shows at Winterland in San Francisco (Sept 21-22), both of which were recorded. At the end of the second show the group was joined onstage by a surprise guest -- Marty Balin -- who sang lead vocals on the final song, "You Wear Your Dresses Too Short".

Although no official announcement was ever released, the Winterland shows proved to be the last live performances by Jefferson Airplane (until their reunion in 1989). By the beginning of 1973 Casady and Kaukonen had left the group permanently to concentrate on Hot Tuna and Kantner and Slick created their own Airplane offshoot, Jefferson Starship, as well as recording further solo albums.

Jefferson Airplane's second live album, Thirty Seconds Over Winterland was released in April 1973. It is now best remembered for its cover art, which depicts a squadron of flying toasters, a design that the band later alleged was plagiarized for the famous "After Dark" computer screensaver design.

In 1974, a collection of leftovers -- singles and B-sides, including "Mexico" and "Have You Seen The Saucers," as well as other non-album material -- was released as Early Flight, the last official Jefferson Airplane album.

Reunion and remnants
For most of the 1970s and early 1980s the careers of Slick, Kantner, Kaukonen and Casady were occupied with their various solo projects, Hot Tuna and with what became Jefferson Starship (which later mutated into Starship).

In 1981, Marty Balin issued a self-titled solo album which featured the hit singles "Hearts" and "Atlanta Lady (Something About Your Love)." In contrast to the revolutionary rock of his Jefferson Airplane days, "Hearts" was a soft pop ballad and also gave Balin a moderate Adult Contemporary chart hit.

In 1985, following his departure from Jefferson Starship, Paul Kantner reunited with Balin and Jack Casady to form the KBC Band, releasing their only album, KBC Band (which included Kantner's hit, "America"), in 1987, on Arista Records. The KBC Band also featured keyboardist Tim Gorman (who had played with The Who) and guitarist Slick Aguilar (who had played with David Crosby's band).

With Kantner reunited with Balin and Casady, the KBC Band opened the door to a full-blown Jefferson Airplane reunion. In 1989, during a solo San Francisco gig, Paul Kantner found himself joined by former bandmate (and lover) Grace Slick and two other ex-Airplane members for a cameo appearance. This led to a formal reunion of the original Jefferson Airplane (featuring nearly all the main members except Spencer Dryden, who had been kicked out of the band years earlier. A self-titled album was released by Columbia Records to modest sales. The accompanying tour was a success, but their revival was short-lived, and Jefferson Airplane's 'definitive' line-up officially disbanded for good.

Today, there are two versions of 'Jefferson Starship' — one (with Thomas at the forefront) is officially billed as 'Starship featuring Mickey Thomas' which focuses on newer music of Jefferson Starship/Starship from 1979-1990. The other is a revived 'Jefferson Starship' (often called 'Jefferson Starship: The Next Generation' or 'Jefferson Starship-TNG') which is a throwback to the original Jefferson Airplane, with Kantner and Balin as leaders, and Diana Mangano replacing Grace Slick as female singer (although Slick did do guest vocals on Jefferson Starship's 1999 album Windows Of Heaven). This latter band plays frequent concerts, and on occasion, Jack Casady joins them as well. In 2005, longtime bassist David Freiberg rejoined the group for their "Jefferson Family Galactic Reunion" Tour, and continues to tour with the band, as of 2006. Mangano is an expressive and effective singer, and this revived Jefferson Starship can often capture a good deal of the feeling of the original Airplane. The current line-up also features former Grateful Dead keyboardist Tom Constanten.

As of 2007 Jefferson Starship continues to tour with a lineup of Paul Kantner (vocals, guitar), David Freiberg (vocals, bass, keyboards), Diana Mangano (vocals), Slick Aguilar (lead guitar), Chris Smith (keyboards) and Prairie Prince (drums). The band sometimes features guest musicians such as Balin, Gould, Gorman and former Grateful Dead keyboardist Tom Constanten. Jefferson Starship is scheduled to play three songs on NBC’s The Today Show on June 30, 2007. (source for this section: http://jeffersonstarshipsf.com)

Jorma Kaukonen still tours as a solo act, often playing over 100 acoustic shows a year at small clubs throughout the country. Occasionally, Jack Casady joins him, and the pair perform as Hot Tuna. Kaukonen also operates a guitar camp in southern Ohio, where he teaches would-be guitar virtuosos his unique style of finger-picking blues.

In 2004, Marty Balin pointed out, with well-deserved pride, that unlike many of their contemporaries, all of the original members of Jefferson Airplane survived the 1960s; all except original drummer Spence (who died on April 16, 1999) lived to see the 21st Century. The unfortunate Dryden, who had long languished under financial and health problems, succumbed to colon cancer on January 10, 2005 at the age of 67.

Influence
The original 'Jefferson Airplane' - along with The Byrds, The Doors, The Grateful Dead, The Lovin' Spoonful, The Mamas and the Papas, Tommy James & the Shondells and, to some degree, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - will always be associated with the more melodic end of the North American rock spectrum and in due course other groups, such as Steely Dan and Eagles, continued to blend elements of folk, jazz and rock and bring the results to a global audience. Of all these bands, Jefferson Airplane excelled in the psychedelic domain and in their penchant for pretentious track titles, which came to characterize the era of 1965-75.

British bands apparently influenced by the mellow lyricism of the West Coast sound included Barclay James Harvest, David Bowie, Curved Air, Family, Fairport Convention, Jethro Tull, King Crimson, The Moody Blues, The Small Faces, Pentangle, and Yes. The Beatles have always stressed the influence that The Beach Boys had on their musical development (especially Pet Sounds), but it seems likely that other music from the West Coast also spread eastward, to play a key part in making pop music more symphonic and less predictable than it had been before 1965. The era of trans-Atlantic jet travel and the ability to send television broadcasts by satellite, also facilitated a greater interplay of musical influences across the Atlantic. Donovan was evidently one of the first British pop musicians to become aware of them, and was undoubtedly influenced by the group to some degree; he famously namechecked the band in his 1966 song "The Fat Angel" (included on his album Sunshine Superman in 1967), written many months before Jefferson Airplane achieved international stardom.

Record producers who worked with the original band included Greg Edward, Rick Jarrard, Matthew Katz, Ron Nevison, Tommy Oliver and Al Schmitt.

In popular culture
* The 1996 movie The Cable Guy features the protagonist performing a karaoke version of "Somebody to Love".
* "White Rabbit" has been used in a number of films and television shows including Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Platoon, The Game , episodes of The Sopranos and The Simpsons.
* The group was referred to in an episode of Sex and the City, wherein the character Samantha's hairdo was described as "very Jefferson Starship", in reference to Grace Slick's hairdo.
* The final Friends episode The Last One closes with "Embryonic Journey"
* The 2006 movie Crank features the Jefferson Starship song "Miracles" in the final scene.
* Rock band Relient K wrote a song entitled "Jefferson Aero Plane" that was included on Two Lefts Don't Make a Right...but Three Do
* The Abbie Hoffman Rally scene in the 1994 movie Forrest Gump features the Jefferson Airplane song "Volunteers"
* A remix of "White Rabbit" and the original version of "Somebody to Love" appear on the EA video game Battlefield Vietnam for PC.
* The title of the 1971 novel Go Ask Alice (a fictional diary of a teenage girl who falls into drug addiction) is taken the lyrics of the Jefferson Airplane hit "White Rabbit".
* One of Virgin America's airplanes is named the Jefferson Airplane.
* The opening scene of John Singleton's movie, Four Brothers (2005) features Jefferson Airplane's song "Somebody to Love"

The title song "Jane" is on the wet hot american summer soundtrack, and also is heard at the very end of the film after the credits flash by when the go back to a small clip of all the councelors revisiting the camp 10 years later.

Discography
Singles
* "It's No Secret / Runnin' Round This World" (1966)
* "Come Up the Years / Blues From An Airplane" (1966)
* "Bringing Me Down / Let Me In" (1966)
* "My Best Friend / How Do You Feel?" (1967)
* "Somebody to Love / Plastic Fantastic Lover" (1967) #5 US
* "White Rabbit / She Has Funny Cars" (1967) #8 US
* "Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil / Two Heads" (1967) #42 US
* "Watch Her Ride / Martha" (1967) #61 US
* "Greasy Heart / Share a Little Joke" (1968) #98 US
* "Crown of Creation / If You Feel" (1968) #64 US
* "the Other Side of This Life (recorded live) / Plastic Fantastic Lover (live version)" (1969)
* "Volunteers / We Can Be Together" (1969) #65 US
* "Mexico / Have You Seen the Saucers?" (1970)
* "Pretty as You Feel / Wild Turkey" (1971) #60 US
* "Long John Silver / Milk Train" (1972)
* "Twilight Double Leader (live version) / Trial By Fire (live version)" (1972)

Albums
Jefferson Airplane
* Jefferson Airplane Takes Off (1966) - US position: # 128
* Surrealistic Pillow (1967) - US position: # 3 (breakthrough album featuring "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit")
* After Bathing at Baxter's (1967) - US position: # 17
* Crown of Creation (1968) - US position: # 6
* Bless Its Pointed Little Head (1969) Live
* Volunteers (1969) - US position: # 13
* The Worst of Jefferson Airplane (1970) - US position: # 12 (first greatest hits collection)
* Bark (1971) - US position: # 11
* Long John Silver (1972) - US position: # 20
* Thirty Seconds Over Winterland (1973) Live
* Early Flight (1974) (a collection of singles, B-sides, and other non-LP tracks)
* Flight Log, 1966-1976 (1977) (compilation album, also includes tracks by Jefferson Starship, Hot Tuna, as well as solo tracks)
* Time Machine (1984) (compilation album)
* 2400 Fulton Street (1987) (compilation album)
* Jefferson Airplane (1989) (1989 'reunion' album)
* White Rabbit & Other Hits (1990) (compilation album)
* Jefferson Airplane Loves You (1991) (3-disc boxed set)
* The Best of Jefferson Airplane (1993) (compilation album)
* Live at the Monterey Festival (1995) (live recording, British release of Jefferson Airplane's performance at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival)
* Journey: The Best of Jefferson Airplane (1996) (British compilation album)
* Live at the Fillmore East (1998) (live recording of 1968 performance at the Fillmore East in New York City)
* Through the Looking Glass (1999) (compilation album) (Italian only)
* The Roar of Jefferson Airplane (2001) (compilation album)
* Platinium & Gold Collection (2003) (compilation album)
* The Essential Jefferson Airplane (2005) (compilation album) (Legacy Recordings)
* Last Flight (2007) (live at Winterland, San Francisco - September 22, 1972)

Paul Kantner / Jefferson Starship
* Blows Against The Empire (1970)

Compilation albums credited to 'Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship/Starship'
* Hits (1998)
* VH1 Behind the Music (2000)
* Love Songs (2000)

Selected solo, duo and trio albums
Marty Balin
* Bodacious DF (1973)
* Balin (1981) (includes the AM radio single, "Hearts")
* Lucky (1983)

Paul Kantner/Grace Slick
* Sunfighter (1971)
* Baron Von Tollbooth & the Chrome Nun (1973) (by Paul Kantner, Grace Slick, and David Freiberg)

Paul Kantner
* Planet Earth Rock And Roll Orchestra (originally issued in 1983 on RCA Records and remastered and reissued in 2005 courtesy of Sony/BMG Music Entertainment)

The KBC Band
Includes Paul Kantner, Marty Balin, and Jack Casady.
* KBC Band (1986)

Grace Slick
* Manhole (1973)
* Dreams (1980)
* Welcome to the Wrecking Ball (1981)
* Software (1984)
* The Best of Grace Slick (2000) (compilation album, also includes tracks by Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, and Starship, in which Grace Slick was the lead vocalist)

Personnel
Jefferson Airplane (Summer 1965-October 1965)
* Signe Toly Anderson - vocals
* Marty Balin - vocals, rhythm guitar
* Paul Kantner - rhythm guitar, vocals
* Jorma Kaukonen lead guitar, vocals
* Bob Harvey - bass guitar
* Jerry Peloquin - drums

Jefferson Airplane (October 1965-Mid 1966)
* Signe Toly Anderson - vocals
* Marty Balin - vocals, rhythm guitar
* Paul Kantner - rhythm guitar, vocals
* Jorma Kaukonen lead guitar, vocals
* Jack Casady - bass guitar
* Skip Spence - drums

Jefferson Airplane (Oct. 1966- Feb. 1970)
* Grace Slick - vocals, piano, recorder
* Marty Balin - vocals, rhythm guitar
* Paul Kantner - rhythm guitar, vocals
* Jorma Kaukonen lead guitar, vocals
* Jack Casady - bass guitar
* Spencer Dryden - drums

Paul Kanter & Jefferson Starship (1970): Album - Blows Against the Empire
* Grace Slick - vocals, keyboards
* Paul Kantner - rhythm guitar, vocals
* Jorma Kaukonen - lead guitar
* Jerry Garcia - guitar, banjo
* Jack Casady - bass guitar
* Joey Covington - drums
* David Crosby - guitar, vocals
* David Freiberg - vocals
* Mickey Hart - drums
* Peter Kaukonen - guitar
* Bill Kreutzmann - drums
* Graham Nash - vocals, percussion
* Harvey Brooks - bass guitar
* Phill Sawyer - sound effects

Jefferson Airplane (late 1970-1972)
* Grace Slick - vocals, keyboards
* Paul Kantner - rhythm guitar, vocals
* Jorma Kaukonen lead guitar, vocals
* Jack Casady - bass guitar
* Joey Covington - drums
* Papa John Creach - electric violin

Jefferson Airplane (early 1972-mid 1972)
* Grace Slick - vocals, piano, recorder
* Paul Kantner - rhythm guitar, vocals
* Jorma Kaukonen lead guitar, vocals
* Jack Casady - bass guitar
* Johnny Barbata - drums
* Papa John Creach - electric violin

Jefferson Airplane (mid 1972-1974)
* Grace Slick - vocals
* Paul Kantner - rhythm guitar, vocals
* Jorma Kaukonen lead guitar, vocals
* Jack Casady - bass guitar
* Johnny Barbata - drums
* Papa John Creach - electric violin
* David Freiberg - lead vocals

Jefferson Airplane (Reunion Tour and Album) (1989)
* Marty Balin - lead vocals
* Grace Slick - lead vocals, keyboards
* Paul Kantner - rhythm guitar, vocals
* Jorma Kaukonen - lead guitar, vocals
* Jack Casady - bass

References
Dellar, Fred and Barry Lazell
NME Encyclopedia of Rock (1978 revised edition)
(NME, 1978)

Tamarkin, Jeff
liner notes for Jefferson Airplane Loves You 3-CD boxed set
(BMG Records, 1992) =>>>>>>>>>>>

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Jefferson Airplane - White Rabbit (Woodstock 1969)

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