Jefferson Airplane Takes A Bath: Jefferson Airplane Part 1

When I was a teenager I used to go record shopping all the time.  I would hit the tag sales and also hit the record stores with a friend.  It was my curiosity to get albums that my uncle did not own.  His collection was the basic albums of the decade of the 60's and 70's.  He had some albums that were a bit different, but for the most part it looked like the general 60's albums from Crosby, Stills, and Nash (and some times Young), The Who, Janis Joplin, CCR, Santana Hendrix, and Jefferson Airplane and countless others.  There were others mixed in but the collection as a whole had the typical albums.  Thanks to him it was that curiosity made me look for countless others from the decade of the 1960's.  I was on a quest to find other albums by the artists I mentioned.  

My quest led me down some interesting roads and pathways.  These roads led me to other bands and some very unique albums by some unique musicians.  Other times I just followed the trail of the artist he had and collected other albums by the same musician.   I was happy to expand my discography of musicians I loved and was totally clueless on what else they did.  Some of those early or later albums were cheap to find and others were very expensive to get a hold of.  One other thing I had to my advantage is that some of the albums he had in his collection was a greatest hits or a best of so I can look for the original album that they were on and get a few of those. 

One such artist he had was Jefferson Airplane.  He had the classic Surrealistic Pillow, Volunteers a copy of a compilation called The Worst of Jefferson Airplane.  It was one of the few artists he had more then one album of theirs.  He told me that there are two other albums of theirs that I should pick up.  I made a note to seek those out.  It was that information and a book by Robert Santelli that I used as my music bible to seek and buy anything I could find. The book went with me everywhere I went record shopping.  Since I had three albums by Jefferson Airplane I was ready to seek out their other albums.  I like what I heard and the powerful beauty and voice of Grace Slick and knew I could not be led astray. 

One of my first quests to find the others was a local flee market.  I looked like either a geek or just someone who was a little wet behind the ears and would believe anything the seller was trying to sell to me.  I had the book in hand and was ready to buy some of the best music of the decade.  This book as I mentioned before as the bible for me.  It was curiosity page by page.  If I liked a artist then I it would
tell me what albums to buy.  It's short little paragraph on each album featured and its multi paragraph essay on the Airplane discography.  

After repeated listens, this album grows and grows on you.  This album may not be their best, but it's got songs that would be on Winterland, Woodstock and other venues that Airplane would play for quite sometime.  I liked this more after the release of a decent box set called Jefferson Airplane Loves You.  The song that starts After Bathing at Baxter's gets an extended version on the box and more acid dripping insanity continues. This time they are trying to compete with their counterparts Quicksilver Messenger Service (QMS).  Airplane had Grace Slick's voice to carry them, QMS had the great guitar work.  

Songs like "The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil," "Martha," and "Wild Tyme," Keep this album a favorite in my book.  The song "Won't You Try/Saturday Afternoon." would always keep me amused.  The music on here is perfect for a saturation of acid drops and nostalgia from a great time in music.  The artwork will keep you thinking and for sure the music will be apart of some of the music of the time.  For me hearing Grace Slick with her powerful voice sure is a game changer.  Take a listen and enjoy as much as I do when I play it again and again.  Enjoy!!!