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Jefferson Starship
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This SourceJefferson Starship was an American rock band that was popular in the 1970s and 1980s. It developed from San Francisco-based psychedelic rock group Jefferson Airplane.
History
Paul Kantner/Jefferson Starship
During the transitional period of the early 1970s, singer-guitarist Paul Kantner recorded Blows Against The Empire, a concept album featuring an ad hoc group of musicians and credited on the LP as "Paul Kantner - Jefferson Starship", marking the first use of the latter name.
This 'prototype' version of Jefferson Starship included David Crosby and Graham Nash and Grateful Dead members Jerry Garcia, Bill Kreutzmann, and Mickey Hart, as well as some of the remaining members of Jefferson Airplane, lead singer Grace Slick, drummer Joey Covington and bassist Jack Casady.
In Blows Against the Empire, Kantner (and Slick) sang about a group of people escaping Earth in a hijacked starship. In 1971, the album was nominated for the prestigious science fiction prize, the Hugo Award, a rare honor for a musical recording. It was while that album was being made that Kantner sealed his love affair with Grace Slick; their daughter China Kantner (who made a name for herself as an MTV veejay in the 1980s) was born shortly thereafter.
Kantner and Slick (with a similar group of musicians, but without a 'Jefferson Starship' artist credit) released two follow-up albums: Sunfighter, an environmentalism-tinged album released in 1971 to celebrate China's birth, and 1973's Baron von Tollbooth & The Chrome Nun, titled after the nicknames David Crosby had given to the couple. The artist credit on Baron von Tollbooth gave ex-bassist-keyboard player-vocalist David Freiberg equal billing with Kantner and Slick. Freiberg had known and played with Kantner on the folk circuit in the early 1960s and also appeared on Blows Against the Empire, and he had joined Jefferson Airplane in time to appear on their live LP Thirty Seconds over Winterland. Also in 1973, Slick released Manhole, her first solo album. It was on the "Manhole" album that Paul and Grace first worked with Pete Sears, who was downstairs co-producing a Kathy McDonald album in the same studio. Sears wrote and recorded the song, "Better Lying Down" with Grace. It was during this 1973 session at Wally Heider studios in San Francisco, that Paul first asked Pete to play with a new band he was forming called, "Jefferson Starship". Sears had worked on three of Rod Stewart's early British recordings, and had to go back to England to play on "Smiler", Rod's last album made in London. Sears then returned to the States to join Jefferson Starship in 1974.
Kantner is also credited with discovering teenage guitarist Craig Chaquico during this time, who first appeared on Sunfighter and would play with Kantner, Slick and their bands and then with Starship through 1991. He later embarked on a successful solo career as a smooth jazz artist.
Jefferson Starship
By 1973, with Kaukonen and Casady now devoting their full attention to Hot Tuna, the musicians on Baron von Tollbooth formed the core of a new lineup that was formally reborn as "Jefferson Starship" in 1974. Kantner, Slick, and Freiberg were charter members. The line-up also included late-Airplane holdovers drummer John Barbata, and fiddler Papa John Creach (who also played with Hot Tuna), along with Pete Sears (who, like Freiberg, played bass and keyboards) and twenty-year-old guitarist Craig Chaquico. Although Marty Balin was originally not among the re-christened Jefferson Starship, he joined the band while their first album, Dragon Fly, was still in the works. His only contribution to the new incarnation's first effort was the haunting ballad, "Caroline". Balin stayed with the group for nearly the remainder of the decade. This line-up proved to be the band's most commercially successful so far, although some Airplane fans were less than happy with its more mainstream direction. Balin's sophisticated ballad "Miracles" helped 1975's Red Octopus reach multiple-platinum status. The follow-ups, Spitfire (1976), and Earth (1978), were both big sellers.
However, Slick's alcoholism became a problem, which led to two nights of disastrous concerts in Germany in 1978. The first night, fans ransacked the stage when Slick failed to appear. The following night, Slick, in a drunken stupor, shocked the audience by using profanity and sexual references throughout most of her songs. She also reminded the audience that their country had lost during World War II, repeatedly asking "Who won the war?", and implied that all residents of Germany were responsible for the wartime atrocities. After the debacle, she was asked to leave the band.
Towards the end of 1978, Jefferson Starship (now without Grace Slick) recorded "Light the Sky on Fire" for their forthcoming greatest hits album Gold, and performed it (under its original title "Cigar-Shaped Object") on-camera for The Star Wars Holiday Special. Gold, highlighting their work from 1974's Dragon Fly through to 1978's Earth, was released early the following year. "Light the Sky on Fire" (backed with Sears and Slick's "Hyperdrive", from Dragon Fly) was included as a bonus single in the original packaging of album. (When Gold was issued on CD, both tracks were included on the album.) The album originally had a shortened single version of the hit "Miracles"; early pressings of the CD repeated this, but later editions had the full length version from the album Red Octopus.
Shortly before the release of Gold, Balin too left the group, leaving Kantner and company to find a new lead singer in Mickey Thomas (who had sung lead on Elvin Bishop's "Fooled Around and Fell in Love"). Thomas's soaring falsetto steered the band toward a harder rock sound. Barbata had been seriously injured in a car accident, and was replaced by Aynsley Dunbar, who had previously played with Journey.
After the 1979 release of Freedom at Point Zero (which spawned the hit single "Jane"), Grace Slick returned to the band. She joined in time to contribute one song, written by Pete Sears, "Stranger", on the group's next album, Modern Times (1981). Modern Times also included the humorous "Stairway to Cleveland," in which the band defended the numerous changes it had undergone in its musical style, personnel, and even name. Slick remained in the band for Jefferson Starship's final two albums, Winds Of Change (1982) and Nuclear Furniture (1984). One noted personnel change in the group between the two albums was Dunbar leaving and being replaced by Donny Baldwin, who had performed with Thomas in the Elvin Bishop Group. Around this time, the band began enthusiastically embracing the rock-video age, making elaborate videos typical of the era's superstar bands. Grace Slick would appear frequently on MTV and such music-oriented television shows as Solid Gold, giving the band a high visibility in the MTV era. However, the Jefferson Starship albums of this era were only modestly successful, yet the band remained a gold-selling (and thus commercially credible) act, and a popular concert draw.
Starship
Following Kantner's departure, Freiberg also left the band, which agreed to drop the "Jefferson" from its name. It became the most commercially successful iteration of the Jefferson Airplane family, scoring three U.S. number one hits over the following two years, beginning with "We Built This City" in late 1985. Slick left the band in 1988, and the band released one final album with Thomas as sole lead singer before disbanding in 1990.Jefferson Starship - The Next Generation
In 1992, Kantner established Jefferson Starship - The Next Generation, a group that would, at times, include various former Airplane and Starship members, to tour and perform Airplane and Starship material. After the first couple of years, the band dropped the use of "The Next Generation", and now perform as Jefferson Starship once more.
Discography
Singles
as Jefferson Starship
| Year | Song | US Hot 100 | US MSR | US A.C. | UK singles | Album |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1974 | "Ride The Tiger" | 84 | - | - | - | Dragon Fly |
| 1975 | "Miracles" | 3 | - | 17 | - | Red Octopus |
| 1976 | "Play On Love" | 49 | - | - | - | Red Octopus |
| 1976 | "With Your Love" | 12 | - | 6 | - | Spitfire |
| 1976 | "St. Charles" | 64 | - | - | - | Spitfire |
| 1978 | "Count On Me" | 8 | - | 15 | - | Earth |
| 1978 | "Runaway" | 12 | - | 37 | - | Earth |
| 1978 | "Crazy Feelin'" | 54 | - | - | - | Earth |
| 1978 | "Light The Sky On Fire" | 66 | - | - | - | released as single only |
| 1979 | "Jane" | 14 | - | - | 21 | Freedom at Point Zero |
| 1980 | "Girl With The Hungry Eyes" | 55 | - | - | - | Freedom At Point Zero |
| 1981 | "Find Your Way Back" | 29 | 3 | - | - | Modern Times |
| 1981 | "Stranger" | 48 | 17 | - | - | Modern Times |
| 1981 | "Save Your Love" | - | 49 | - | - | Modern Times |
| 1982 | "Be My Lady" | 28 | 33 | - | - | Winds Of Change |
| 1982 | "Can't Find Love" | - | 16 | - | - | Winds Of Change |
| 1983 | "Winds Of Change" | 38 | 18 | - | - | Winds Of Change |
| 1984 | "No Way Out" | 23 | 1 | - | - | Nuclear Furniture |
| 1984 | "Layin' It On The Line" | 66 | 6 | - | - | Nuclear Furniture |
| 1984 | "Sorry Me, Sorry You" | - | 50 | - | - | Nuclear Furniture |
Albums
- Blows Against the Empire (1970) (credited to Paul Kantner/Jefferson Starship)
- Dragon Fly (1974) #11 US
- Red Octopus (1975) (best-selling album for any incarnation of the Airplane/Starship) #1 US
- Spitfire (1976) #3 US
- Earth (1978) (last album with Marty Balin, until 1989) #5 US
- Gold (1979) (compilation album) #20 US
- Freedom at Point Zero (1979) #10 US
- Modern Times (1981) #26 US
- Winds of Change (1982) #26 US
- Nuclear Furniture (1984) #28 US
- Jefferson Starship at Their Best (1993) (compilation album)
Personnel
| Jefferson Starship Jan. 1974 - June 1974 |
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|---|---|
| Jefferson Starship June 1974 - Nov. 1974 |
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| Jefferson Starship Nov. 1974 - Late 1975 |
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| Jefferson Starship Late 1975 - Mid 1978 |
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| Jefferson Starship Mid 1978 - Early 1979 |
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| Jefferson Starship Early 1979 - 1981 |
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| Jefferson Starship 1981 - Sept. 1982 |
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| Jefferson Starship Sept. 1982 - June 1984 |
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External links
Notes
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Last updated on Wednesday March 12, 2008 at 20:01:40 PDT (GMT -0700)
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