books:

	Got a Revolution!: The Turbulent Flight of Jefferson Airplane Jeff Tamarkin Atria, 2005 - 432 pages average customer review:based on 36 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Jann Wenner, editor-in-chief and publisher of Rolling Stone, wrote, "The classic [Jefferson] Airplane lineup were both architects and messengers of a psychedelic age, a liberation of mind and body that profoundly changed American art, politics, and spirituality. It was a renaissance that could only have been born in San Francisco, and the Airplane, more than any other band in town, spread the good news nationwide."

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Jefferson Airplane Loves You--It's Each Other They Can't Stand

There's a blurb on the back cover of Jeff Tamarkin's collective bio of Jefferson Airplane/Starship excerpted from Fred Dellar's review of same in MOJO Magazine. Dellar observes how certain rock histories are so good, so evocative of their era, they make you dig out your old records (or actually go out and buy the CD versions) in order to re-experience the music and the mind-set one more time. I can certainly relate. Call me nostalgia, call me hungry for REAL music, just don't call me late for the "Be-In."

Jeff Tamarkin's history of Jefferson Airplane is a case in point.. While reading this book, I dragged out at least a couple of my classic Airplane albums, (the ones I have on CD anyway, since I don't have a working turntable anymore), and I even dug out a cassette version that I once bought of the LAST Starship album LOVE AMONG THE CANNIBALS and finally listened to the damn thing. Cost me all of 99 cents as I recall, and y'know, it wasn't half bad. Not anywhere near great, you understand, but if the Mickey Thomas Starship were hacks, they were at least pros. But I didn't really get into the mood till I found my new copy of BLESS ITS POINTED LITTLE HEAD, the live album which is, in some ways, the definitive Airplane record. It showed just what they were capable of when they were ON (musically speaking, that is, not necessarily pharmacologically).

If you were any kind of Airplane fan, you know that the love and peace thing didn't really take root among the members themselves, at least in their relation to each other. Some may find the pettiness of these young idealists disturbing. Others will chock it up to human nature and just enjoy the music. But that famous bumper sticker and their hometown's love rep notwithstanding, the Airplane never REALLY did qualify as members of what Hendrix called the "Love Crowd." Marty, maybe--when he wasn't badmouthing everyone else in the band, and to some extent Paul, who loved the idea of community and being together, as long as it was on his terms.

Well, almost 40 years on, it hardly seems worth worrying about now. So the Airplane could be jerks at times. They also made some great, daring, sometimes downright astonishing music. And that's what they should be remembered for.

Tamarkin does an excellent job of conjuring up those memories for those of us who were alive at the time--and his text serves as a good history lesson for those who weren't around but are curious about the music, the(counter)culture and general history of the 60s and early 70s. He demonstrates how all those good vibes and tumultuous times morphed into something much tamer and less interesting by the mid-70s. And shows that it was all pretty much inevitable.

The soap opera that was the Airplane spun off in so many directions that it was almost impossible to tell the players without a program. Tamarkin provides us that. If at times, it seems a little sketchy, well, that's unavoidable too. If every group member, hanger on, friend or relative were permitted to tell his or her tale in toto, you'd have a five volume cultural history that almost no one could digest.

But give Tamarkin credit. He paints a much broader, but still more accurate picture than either of the two Grace Slick bios out there. He does so by focusing on the MUSIC and devoting as little space to the gossip as possible. I really did not want to have to read that tired old tale about Grace showing up at the Nixon White House with Abbie Hoffman in
tow for the umpteenth time. Come on, if she really intended to spike Nixon's tea with LSD, she wouldn't have gone there with someone like Hoffman. It was, at best, a bit of street theater (literally, since she and Abbie never got past the gate). Tamarkin includes this and other obligatory bits of Airplane lore and legend, but he doesn't sensationalize any of it. Unlike Grace and ghost writer Andrea Kagan did for her SOMEBODY TO LOVE? tome a few years before.

As a fan, there was quite a bit of stuff that I already knew, and I was delighted to see that Tamarkin's book was well researched and quite accurate. I have a quirky memory, and I can actually recall interviews with, reviews of and articles about the artists I care about. I was surprised at how many of my favorite quotes were included in the volume. Grace, upon being asked how she wrote "White Rabbit," responding, "With a pencil and paper," for instance. OK, OK, so it isn't an Oscar Wilde quip, but it was cute. Even better was her oft quoted (in many variations) dismissal of all the attention she received, "...if you have four goats and one pig, you're gonna look at the pig." I liked it better when it was five ducks and a cow, but you get the point. Hey, I even remembered ol' Lester Bangs calling the band's last studio album LONG JOHN SILVER "one churning vat of fury after another" (in the context of what was actually a pretty negative review), I guess that was because at least someone else realized what fiery, ANGRY music this hippie band was producing toward the end of their brief tenure.

But like many fans, I did lose track of at least some of the band members over the years. Some of the side projects intrigued me still, and I remain one of the few champions of Grace's solo work stil standing. Marty's too. But as much as I loved Jack and Jorma in the Airplane, I did not follow their post-Airplane careers for long. Apparently, I missed out. I had checked out the first few Hot Tuna albums hoping for something as turbulent as "Spare Change" or "Bear Melt," and finally decided that--like everybody else, it seemed--they were going mellow on me. Now I find out, they were soon thereafter doing all-night sets and were burning up the stage. And some of this was captured on tape and may even be available on Amazon. I know what I'll be doing with my next tax refund.

Tamarkin, in fact, includes a fairly exhaustive discography at the end of the book. Even non-fans would have to admit that this was one band this was one band that soldiered on both individually and collectively. This despite the fact that, after having been critical darlings for about four years, they suddenly became critical poison as early as the BARK era. Actually, there was a lot of dissension even around the time of VOLUNTEERS. Rolling Stone Magazine made its name off the San Fran groups, but by the early 70s they had largely written them off--especially the Airplane.

If they Airplane cared at all, they didn't let it show. Years before Paul Kantner actually articulated it, their attitude was "F@#$ You! We do what we want."

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Janis Was Fire - Grace Was A Terrorist

I laughed when I read the quote in the title space, from Big Brother & the Holding Company guitarist Sam Andrews comparing the two singers. There is plenty of information in Jeff Tamarkin's excellent Jefferson Airplane biography to substantiate that remark. Bad behavior by celebrities is not a new phenom. Tamarkin places the group in the context of its times. So in addition to an intelligent analysis of their music, and chronicles of their lives, there is an overview of what's going on socio-politically in the US from the '60's to the '90's. How the musicians did, or didn't adapt, to the changing times. To paraphrase the opening remarks by Jann Wenner, they could jam AND they could sing! It was exactly that dynamic that made them a great band, a cultural force, and tore them apart. In addition to the facts, Jeff Tamarkin doesn't spare the gossip, tales, urban legends, drama. The combination makes this a great read. I didn't stop reading until I was done! I loved reliving the experiences - I was at nearly all their paid and free gigs in New York City from Hunter College in '67 to the topless Grace Slick performance in Gaelic Park, Bronx, in '72 during the band's death rattling last days. As much as I tried to keep up with the members many incarnations, I eventually lost track of them and simply stopped caring. It's a great read, about a great band. A worthy investment of your time and money.

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A must read

If you want to know the "who, what and why" of the Airplane, this is the book to read. Well written and extremely detailed, the book takes you from the initial formation of the band all the way through to it's eventual crash landing. All the personalities, songs and events are illuminated; the good, the bad and the ugly. If you are a fan, get this book!


Wild Tyme

I was not a child of the 60's, so I'm a latecomer to the Airplane. The content of their albums are hit and miss I think, and they're clearly a much more impressive band live than what was often caught on record. They've never come across to me as being particularly likeable people (the book doesn't do much to alter that perception), but they interested me nonetheless. The book is fairly detailed, but perhaps too much so at times to the point of coming across as a cold history lesson rather than creating any attachment to the band. While a thorough book, the end seemed rather rushed - lacking the minute details that permeated the rest of the book. It's also hard to tell whether what a person "thought" or was "feeling" is the author's own interpretation of the situation or something that was conveyed to them in an interview.

For the obsessed JA fan, I'll give it four stars as its details will probably enthrall them. For the more casual fans, it's information overload. The book could be tightened up - in particular the "miniature biographies" and other vignettes the author delves into that do little to enhance the story of the band.

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Meticulous Chronicle

Other than 'Surrealistic Pillow' and 'Volunteers,' I passed on most of the Jefferson Airplane's 60s and early 70s output. I never felt I missed that much since the classic Pillow remains head and shoulders above all the rest of the somewhat self indulgent stuff that came after. But this history finally makes clear this band's long and confusing journey, in both music and personnel. The author is a dedicated fan, but his writing, while a bit worshipful, is not too fawning, so the interested reader comes away with a fairly objective sense of where the Airplane stands in the history of rock. I saw Paul Kantner a couple of years ago at a free show in Clearwater, Fla., and his performance was far better than it had any right to be, demonstrating this creator's always superior musicianship and dedication to his art, even now, long after Grace Slick's retirement and the band's demise. Well worth reading for 60s afficiandos.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

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