954 Paul Kantner with Jefferson Starship - Blows Against the Empire (1970)

 954 Paul Kantner with Jefferson Starship - Blows Against the Empire (1970)

Studio Album - Psychedelic Rock



About the Act:

In 1985 the band Starship released the single "We Built This City". 31 years later, GQ magazine declared it to be "the most detested song in human history". This was, of course, before Baby Shark appeared.

Starship, had quite a high turnover of members, but they formed in 1984, kind of from the ashes of the band Jefferson Starship. They have had four studio albums, and significantly retained the main singer from Jefferson Starship, Grace Slick, for the first two of those albums. It was she who sang "We Built This City".  She was also the main singer for the previous band, Jefferson Starship.

Winding backwards, Jefferson Starship were formed in 1974, and existed for 11 year, releasing 7 studio albums in that time. Confusingly, they reformed in 1992, and so there are currently two bands, one called "Starship" and one called "Jefferson Starship". Well actually, the former are now called "Starship featuring Mickey Thomas". Since their re-convention, Jefferson Starship have released three more studio albums.  Once again, there has been quite a bit of movement of members.

As if this were not confusing enough, we can wind back even further, because Jefferson Starship were born out of the ashes of a band called Jeffferson Airplane. This band was formed in 1965 in San Francisco, and were a pivotal band in the burgeoning  Hippie/Psychedelic movement. It is fair to say that they were hugely influential, their breakthrough single being "White Rabbit". This band name also had quite a number of members, and as if to deliberately muddy the waters, have had reunions in 1989 and 1996. By my reckoning, this means that in 1996 all three incarnations were active, Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, and Starship Featuring Mickey Thomas.   Oh, Jefferson Airplane had eight studio albums in their main stint and another in 1989 (helpfully called "Jefferson Airplane" in case there was any confusion.

One abiding person through some of the incarnations was/is the iconic voice of Grace Slick. Another, was one of the driving forces, Paul Kantner, guitarist.


About the Album:

If you read the information above about the various bands in this mess of confusion, and you were paying attention, you might have noticed that Jefferson Starship were not formed until 1974, and yet this album was released in 1970. What gives?  Well, Jefferson Airplane were having a kind of hiatus, so one of their members, driving force Paul Kantner, took the opportunity to record a sort of solo album, although most of Jefferson Airplane were involved, but also members of The Grateful Dead (including Jerry Garcia), of The Quicksilver Messenger Service, and Crosby and Nash of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. This was the first outing of the name "Jefferson Starship", which was then brought into service in a few years time for the actual band Jeffesron Starship. Opinion on the album was divided. 


My History with this Album:

None


Review:

So, this is a concept album, about the Hippie counter-cultural movement getting themselves organised, stealing a starship and absconding to a different planet. It's freaky, fun and psychedelic in about equal measures. There is a mixture of fantasy and kind of protest stuff in here, and quite an array of musicians. It kind of holds together fairly loosely.

The music is interesting, the whole thing feels like there was quite a lot of improv going on while playing, which gives a feeling of spontaneity and looseness to the whole thing that is quite charming. The sound ranges from quite traditional (including banjo by Jerry Garcia) to more Eastern-inspired, and some sound-effect soundscapes towards the end. The end result is the kind of head-rush that good psychedelic music is good at. In retrospect, it's quite kitsch, and definitely a product of its time, but I think it is worth an indulgent listen. There's a little bit of swearing.


6.6/10


Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/4auMzhj0E7BHPNLgTHoJjA

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL94gOvpr5yt2iBQIPIEzdz00fEg5sHsZG

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blows_Against_the_Empire


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