Songs You May Have Missed #747

21 Jul 2024 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in Songs You May Have Missed Tags: ,

Jefferson Starship: “St. Charles” (1976)

Got six or seven minutes to spare? That’s all it takes to come to an appreciation of what distinguished Jefferson Starship from Starship.

Before the Mickey Thomas-fronted corporate rock of “We Built This City” and “Find Your Way Back”, Jefferson Starship, as you might expect of a band that arose from the ashes of 60’s San Francisco psychedelic rock outfit Jefferson Airplane, operated like a harmonious musical commune.

All seven band members shared in the writing credits on Spitfire, 1976’s follow-up to the massive Red Octopus album, and vocals too were a democratic affair.

The vocal and writing styles of Marty Balin, Paul Kantner and Grace Slick, though distinct from each other, came together in a wondrous stew, their layers of vocals weaving with instrumental virtuosity aplenty to create magic on songs like “St. Charles”.

David Freiberg, Pete Sears and lead guitarist Craig Chaquico (who joined the band as a teenager) are the unsung heroes in the musical mix. There’s a lot to listen to, and listen for, in a Jefferson Starship song.

There is nothing like this in the catalog of the band’s 80’s incarnation. But “St. Charles” was actually released as a single in ’76, peaking at #64.

And it’s 6+ minutes of bliss.

See also: https://edcyphers.com/2012/10/03/songs-you-may-have-missed-185/

See also: https://edcyphers.com/2012/06/08/recommended-albums-19/

Songs You May Have Missed #185

03 Oct 2012 2 Comments

by Ed Cyphers in Best of the Blog, Songs You May Have Missed Tags: ,

Earth

Jefferson Starship: “Love Too Good” (1978)

When I was a lad my dad’s living room stereo was generally off-limits to us kids. The sounds of the Tijuana Brass or Bert Kaempfert or Olivia Newton-John would play from this, our home’s “main stage” music source, while if I wanted to listen to my Steely Dan and Elvis Costello albums I usually had to–and preferred tolistenfrom the “second stage” of my bedroom record player.

But the day in ’78 when I came home with Jefferson Starship’s Earth LP, I felt that I was holding a record that deserved main stage status. Maybe the lush, classy, textured cover art made it feel living room-worthy. Or possibly I knew the music (I’d already heard the rich harmonies of “Count On Me” and “Runaway” on the radio) might actually appeal to my dad’s almost-AOR sensibilities. Or maybe I just knew the lyrics wouldn’t offend him (My Aim is True was the previous album I’d brought home–it went straight second stage, closed bedroom door).

But for whatever reason, for the first time I asked my dad if he’d mind me playing my latest music purchase on his prized 4-speaker system, and to my mild surprise he consented.

Grace Slick, Marty Balin, Paul Kantner and company didn’t let me down. The first notes out of those speakers were every bit as classy as the album art had hinted. Track one was “Love Too Good”.

Some songs were just perfectly suited to be an album’s lead track. This song’s unhurried one-minute instrumental intro made it just such a track. (Original vinyl copies of the Jefferson Starship Gold compilation trimmed this intro, effectively robbing the song of its laid-back groove.) Slick’s vocals literally fade in at almost precisely the one minute mark. To this day I listen every time to note the exact moment her voice becomes audible–it’s too smooth to discern.

Sadly for me, this was the last album by my favorite lineup of the band; Slick and Balin would be gone for the next year’s Freedom At Point Zero, and the Mickey Thomas era (shudder) began. Soon they’d be making music completely bereft of subtelty under the one-word Starship moniker. Grace Slick returned to the band in ’82 but Kantner left in ’84, etc. etc. You know how these things always go.

Earth, and “Love Too Good” mark a place in time that couldn’t last. When the keyboards take the song into quasi-jazz territory, especially in the outro, I can’t help but think: This is the sound of a confident band standing atop more than a decade’s worth of accomplishments and acclaim. They had nothing to prove in terms of rock credibility. At the height of punk rock’s influence, they’d make jazzy living room AOR if they felt like it. And apparently they did.

And my dad never complained about the music on that day. And that was the highest compliment he could give.

See also: https://edcyphers.com/2024/07/21/songs-you-may-have-missed-747/

See also: https://edcyphers.com/2012/06/08/recommended-albums-19/

Recommended Albums #19

08 Jun 2012 3 Comments

by Ed Cyphers in Recommended Albums Tags: , , ,

Red Octopus

Jefferson Starship: Red Octopus (1975)

Of all the albums made by Jefferson Airplane and its splinter bands Jefferson Starship and (cough, spit) Starship, Red Octopus was the biggest seller of them all. It spent an amazing 87 weeks on the Billboard album chart and, between September and December of 1975, went to number one four different times.

The LP’s success, of course, was driven by the massive hit single “Miracles”, an epic Marty Balin love song that the rest of the band didn’t even want to record, fearing the damage the romantic ballad would do their credibility (see: Styx’s “Babe” for reference). “Miracles”, however, spent three weeks at #3 and went on to earn over two million radio plays and classic status.

But it’s follow-up single, “Play On Love” only went to #49 and is far less widely known today, although it is one of Grace Slick’s finest efforts as a songwriter and a vocalist. It’s my opinion the song’s deviation from standard verse-chorus patterns both made it a more interesting listen and hurt its chart performance. If there’s one thing vital to a hit single it’s predictability, unless you’re going to write “Bohemian Rhapsody” of course. And just when you’re expecting a second full chorus, Slick teases you with one line of it before taking you in another direction, ultimately making you wait through a guitar solo and third verse before you finally get the chorus hook again.

And that’s the pattern throughout this LP: the lack of pattern. The song that follows “Play On Love”, Balin’s “Tumblin'”, contains only one extended chorus-like hook, never again repeated. And the album’s grand closer, “There Will Be Love” opens with its anthemic chorus, then throws predictability away in favor of stringing sections together in a more intuitive, suite-like way. I’m reminded of great early 70’s McCartney singles like “Another Day”, “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey” and “Band On the Run”. A competent songwriter knows to write verse-chorus-and-repeat. An inspired one goes beyond the limitations of the template.

It’s idiosyncracies like these that separate a great rock band from a mere pop act. Perhaps if this were an Air Supply album it would have had more hit singles, but because it was Jefferson Starship at their peak, its more atypical structures raise it to the level of a true classic, never old to my ears.

Listen to: “Play On Love”

Listen to: “Al Garimasu (There is Love)”

Listen to: “There Will Be Love”

See also: https://edcyphers.com/2012/10/03/songs-you-may-have-missed-185/

See also: https://edcyphers.com/2024/07/21/songs-you-may-have-missed-747/