Jefferson Airplane: A Psychedelic Revolution!
Minus social media in the late-60s, thousands had gathered at a farm in Bethel, NY, America to attend one of the biggest movements in music history. Many witnessed some amazing performances and a “far-out” festival scene at Woodstock. One such headlining act was when Jefferson Airplane took to the stage. “Alright friends, you have seen the heavy groups, now you will see morning maniac music, believe me, yeah… It’s a new dawn,” are the famous words by Grace Slick, female lead singer of Jefferson Airplane, when they opened the concert on Day 3 of Woodstock on 17 August, 1969. In the 60s and 70s, the band made headlines at the Big Four — Monterey (1967), Isle of Wight Festival (1968), Altamont (1969) and Woodstock (1969).
I heard Jefferson Airplane in the 80s, on a compilation of selected tracks from Woodstock on an audio cassette at my home. The recordings on the audio tape were transferred from the original Woodstock Vinyl Record Album. My Dad had been an avid collector of original vinyl records transferred on to audio cassettes at that time, after the old gramophone had given way. And on the Woodstock album cassette — one sound that stood out was of Jefferson Airplane.
Original Setlist of Jefferson Airplane live at Woodstock on 17 August, 1969:
- The Other Side of This Life
- Somebody to Love
- 3/5 of a Mile in 10 Seconds
- Won’t You Try / Saturday Afternoon
- Eskimo Blue Day
- Plastic Fantastic Lover
- Wooden Ships
- Uncle Sam Blues
- Volunteers
- The Ballad of You & Me & Pooneil
- Come Back Baby
- White Rabbit
- The House at Pooneil Corners
You can sample some great vocals by Marty Balin and Grace Slick especially in the tracks “Won’t You Try/ Saturday Afternoon” and “Volunteers.” Jorma Kaukonen’s vocals on “Uncle Sam Blues” creates a bluesy rock effect as he describes the political sentiment of America at the time. Of course, Grace Slick had given a rock-star performance when she sang “Somebody to Love” and “White Rabbit.” Slick is an underrated female singer as compared to some other female artists at Woodstock like Janis Joplin and Joan Baez.
If you didn’t belong to the Woodstock generation, just as much as I didn’t myself, you would have heard of some tracks from the new version of the band. The psychedelic rock band had transformed in to progressive rock under the name Jefferson Starship. Famous songs by Starship are “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” from the film ‘Mannequin On The Move’ and “We Built This City” — this also became the motivation theme song for Citibank employees.
According to the original Woodstock Co-founder Michael Lang in Vulture Magazine, “Some of the newer bands will do tribute sets to original acts like Janis Joplin, the Band, Jefferson Airplane and Joe Cocker, along with “unique collaborations” and possible reunions.”
And we can’t wait to revisit cool bands from the 60s at Woodstock’s 50th Anniversary Celebration in 2019.
Let us know your feedback on our first article on a psychedelic rock band. Mail me at shveta@interactif.in
