Random Record Revisited

Thirty Seconds Over Winterland – Jefferson Airplane [1973 / 2009]

   I discovered Jefferson Airplane in my parents collection sometime around 1982. It was a 2 LP compilation called Flight Log [1977] which covered the Airplane and various offshoots / solo projects up the first [or second, depending how one classifies Paul Kantner’s Blows Against the Empire – I call it a solo album so… ]Jefferson Starship album, 1975’s Dragon Fly. The funny thing about this album is I don’t ever remember anybody playing it before I found it in their stack.

   I became an admirer pretty quickly and acquired the cream of the Airplane in short order. It was a coup that on the day I went for my interview for Sound Warehouse -waaaayyy up in IRVING! – that I found a copy of the 1969 live album Bless Its Pointed Little Head.

   I am not sure when I first heard Thirty Seconds Over Winterland [the title is a bit misleading – only 3 of the original album’s 7 tracks are from the September 1972 Winterland shows; the other 4 are from an August show in Chicago]. I had borrowed Bless Its… from my friend David Herring while in high school but it’s been several decades and many, many adventures since then. Since I don’t recall it, I guess it didn’t have much of an impact. Winterland was also a favorite of my music mentor “Uncle Mike” [J. Michael Leone, R.I.P.] but I don’t ever recall him recommending it until much, much later when he kicked off one of the Live Leone CDs with the Winterland lead off track Have You Seen the Saucers.

   The general consensus of Jefferson Airplane in the 1970s was that the band was meandering and unfocused having lost cofounding singer Marty Balin. The band was basically living two lives as Paul Kantner and Grace Slick made two side records [Kantner’s previously mentioned Blows and the Kantner/Slick 1971 album Sunfighter.] and lead guitarist Jorma Kaukonen and bassist Jack Casady recorded and toured as Hot Tuna [2 live records and one studio record by the time these Airplane dates were recorded]. Indeed, the two studio albums after Balin’s departure [1971’s Bark and 1972’s Long John Silver] suffer the lack of Balin’s soaring tenor, which is to say there is too much Paul Kantner and way, way too much Grace Slick. At times Slick [who was starting to suffer the downside of alcohol dependence] is pushed overpoweringly high in the mix. Add that Kantner’s songwriting can be preachy and Slick’s can be just plain weird. Jorma Kaukonen’s contributions hold pretty steady in Jorma’s wheelhouse – if you like the songs on Hot Tuna’s studio album Burgers, well, you’ll find his Airplane songs in the same vein.

   If one can somehow push the lyrics and vocals down though, the Airplane is still playing pretty well. Two different drummers [Joey Covington on Bark, John Barbata on most of LJS] on the albums and adding the sometimes funky but sometimes unnecessary violin of Papa John Creech into the mix keeps the band fresh. By the time of the Winterland dates, former Quicksilver Messenger bassist / vocalist David Freiberg joined the band on tour as a sort of replacement for Marty Balin. [Freiberg would switch off bass and keyboards with Pete Sears when the Airplane muted into Jefferson Starship.]

   It’s this band that finds itself in Chicago and San Francisco in 1972.

   As previously noted, the album kicks off with a spirited take of the 1970 single Have You Seen the Saucers. And the band really does cook through this, Kaukonen’s lead lines cracking like lightning, underpinned by Jack Casady’s rumbling mercurial bass lines. [Michael love, love, loved that last hanging note of feedback from Casady that ends the track.] It’s not a stretch to say that Kaukonen and Casady are the stars of this album. The next track is an extended take of Jorma’s Feel So Good.  Eleven minutes long but the band finds such a groove and there are enough twists that it doesn’t feel overly long. Look, the idea of a 45 second bass break seems like torture from certain players but Casady stays in the groove and he and Barbata push the song up a level for the next round of solos. It’s really a great example of how the Airplane really could fly. This is followed by the title track of 1968’s Crown Of Creation [the oldest song on tis album]. This is the point where one might miss Balin but it’s a pretty good version. Freiberg is not Balin but he finds the perfect spot between Kantner and Slick.

   Side two of the album kicks off with Bark’s When the Earth Moves Again. It’s a slow to mid tempo plodding track, very vocal based and a good example of the tracks people cite when they deride this period of the Airplane. There’s not much the band can do with this and so it is the only forgettable track on the “original album.” [More on that in a bit.] The album ends with a trio from the then current Long John Silver. Milk Train retains the fun, funky grove that made it a favorite on the Flight Log collection.  Kaukonen’s Trial By Fire is another funky groove track typical of Kaukonen’s writing at this time. Kantner’s Twilight Double Leader ends the [original] set with an impressive burst of energy, another good example of how the Airplane still had some magic.

   Now I added a second date of 2009 to the release date of this album as the current CD release is and expanded edition adding five songs to the original release.  1969’s Wooden Ships is similar to the 1969 live version that shows up as a bonus track on the expanded Volunteers album. This is the one spot you definitely miss Balin. The title track from Long John Silver follows. This is another forgettable track, although the band does find a groove and Jorma rips an amazing Neil Young like solo in the last minute. Come Back Baby is one of those blues numbers that Kaukonen performed in concert [like Rock Me Baby from Bless Its Pointed Little Head]. This one never found it’s way onto on official Airplane release until the 2007 release Sweeping Up the Spotlight, a live album from two 1969 appearances at the Fillmore East. Law Man is a Slick track from Bark. At least it’s short. The final track [tracks] is listed as a medley of Diana [from Sunfighter] and Volunteers. Diana is only a 52 second long track on the original release so this is just lazy editing in my opinion. Volunteers is spirited romp through that. Papa John’s violin seems incredibly out of place here but as They say, it is what it is.

   This live release was the last for the original run of Jefferson Airplane. The four remaining core members  would only play together one more time on record for 15 years, all playing on Paul Kantner’s song Your Mind Has Left Your Body on the 1973 Kantner / Slick / Freiberg album Baron Von Tollbooth and the Chrome Nun.

   It’s not a bad ending and it wasn’t a sad ending as Jefferson Airplane never announced “Hey, we’ve broken up.” They just never got back together to make the next record. Hot Tuna went one way and the rest of the group became Jefferson Starship and that was that.

   Overall, I’d say the original album is four out of five stars, the expanded edition like 3.75. Being that Rock Me Baby is the only thing worth having the expanded edition for, I’d probably recommend the vinyl.