Jefferson Airplane (music)
Jefferson Airplane was a seminal rock band formed in 1965 in San Francisco, known for its influential role in the psychedelic rock movement. The band initially consisted of members Marty Balin, Paul Kantner, Jorma Kaukonen, Skip Spence, Signe Anderson, and later Grace Slick, who replaced Anderson in 1966. With Slick's powerful vocals, the band adopted a harder, psychedelic sound, becoming a key figure in the San Francisco music scene during the Summer of Love in 1967. Their album *Surrealistic Pillow*, featuring hits like "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit," brought the band national recognition and became anthems of the counterculture. Throughout their career, Jefferson Airplane participated in pivotal music festivals such as Monterey, Woodstock, and Altamont, embodying the ideals and lifestyle of the Haight-Ashbury community. While they disbanded in the early 1970s, many members pursued successful projects, including the formation of Jefferson Starship. In 1996, the original lineup of Jefferson Airplane was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, cementing their legacy in music history.
Jefferson Airplane (music)
An acid rock band. The group embodied the culture of San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district, and its music expressed the spirit of the young hippies who gathered there.
Origins and History
In 1965, Marty Balin, a former folksinger, along with guitarists Paul Kantner and Jorma Kaukonen, drummer Skip Spence, vocalist Signe Anderson, and bassist Bob Harvey (soon replaced by Jack Casady) formed a folk-rock band called the Jefferson Airplane, which debuted at Balin’s San Francisco club, the Matrix Club, in August. The group became the first of the San Francisco bands to sign with a major label when it landed a contract with RCA, and its first album, The Jefferson Airplane Takes Off was released in summer, 1966.
In 1966, Spencer Dryden replaced Spence, who left to form the band Moby Grape, and former Great Society vocalist Grace Slick replaced Anderson. The band, with Slick’s powerful vocals, took on a somewhat harder, psychedelic sound. The Jefferson Airplane, along with other West Coast bands such as the Grateful Dead, was part of the alternative community based in the Haight-Ashbury section of San Francisco. By the summer of 1967, known as the Summer of Love, more than fifty thousand hippies lived in the area and led a bohemian lifestyle that involved free love, drugs (especially LSD lysergic acid diethylamide or acid), and a form of music called acid or psychedelic rock. The Jefferson Airplane released Surrealistic Pillow in 1967, and the album reached number three on the charts by June. Two of the songs from this album, “Somebody to Love” and “White Rabbit,” both sung by Slick, reached the top ten, although “White Rabbit” was banned by some radio stations because it was about drugs. That same year, the group released After Bathing at Baxter’s, which had no hit singles and did not sell as well.
In 1968, the Jefferson Airplane released the popular and successful Crown of Creation. The album reached number six on the charts and featured the single “Crown of Creation.” In 1969, the group released a concert album, Bless Its Pointed Little Head, and the somewhat political Volunteers, which spoke of a revolution in its title song.
The Jefferson Airplane joined other bands such as the Grateful Dead, Big Brother and the Holding Company, and Quicksilver Messenger Service in performing many free concerts in San Francisco. One performance was in January, 1967, at the Gathering of the Tribes for a Human Be-in in Golden Gate Park, which was organized by members of the Beat generation, including writers Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder, and attended by more than twenty thousand hippies.
The Jefferson Airplane played at well-known San Francisco venues such as the Avalon Ballroom owned by Chet Helms, Fillmore West/East managed by Bill Graham, and at Winterland. The group also performed at the decade’s most important rock music festivals, the Monterey International Pop Festival in June, 1967, and at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair and the Altamont Music Festival in 1969.
Impact
The Jefferson Airplane, whose members lived together in the Haight at 2400 Fulton Street, epitomized the Haight-Ashbury lifestyle and gave voice to its thoughts and feelings. The band’s Surrealistic Pillow, with its songs of love and drugs, brought the group and the hip culture that spawned it to the attention of young people throughout the nation. The group’s “White Rabbit,” with lyrics loosely drawn from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865), in which Slick exhorts people to “feed your head,” became the Haight-Ashbury anthem with its drug-related message.
Subsequent Events
The end of the 1960’s brought an end to the Jefferson Airplane. In 1970, Dryden left the group to become part of the New Riders of the Purple Sage, and Kaukonen and Casady started a band of their own, Hot Tuna. In 1974, Slick, Kantner, and others formed the Jefferson Starship, which had a number-one album, Red Octopus, in 1975. In 1984, the group, minus Kantner and known as Starship, had a number-one hit with “We Built This City.” It followed with two more number-one hits, “Sara” in 1986 and “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” in 1987. In 1989, the Jefferson Airplane reunited for a tour and reunion album, The Jefferson Airplane. In 1991, Kantner brought back some former members to create Jefferson Starship The Next Generation. In 1996, the Jefferson Airplane (with its 1967 lineup) was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Additional Information
A Time to Rock: A Social History of Rock ’n’ Roll (1996), by David Szatmary, and Rock and Roll: A Social History (1996), by Paul Friedlander, provide a closer look at the Jefferson Airplane.