688 Jefferson Airplane - Bark (1971)

 688 Jefferson Airplane - Bark (1971)

Studio Album - Hippie 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 Jefferson 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:

This was the sixth studio album under the Jefferson Airplane name, two years after their previous album, and slotted in between solo projects. Pivotal singer Marty Balin left during recording, and they abandoned his songs that were going to be on the album.  It did not perform as well commercially or critically as earlier albums.

My History with this Album:

None

Review:

It's Hippie rock, which is what the band were known for. In some ways it was part of the last hurrahs of the Hippie movement. In some ways it sounds like it was recorded in 1967, in that it is ragged at the edges. In some ways it sounds like a band that are getting tired, in that it is ragged at the edges, and unfocused as an album. 

Musically, I quite like most of it, although at times I found it a bit ponderous. There's some nice vocal interplay, and there's some nice violin stuff going on. At other times it sounds like a live jam, which is forgivable, but it sounds a bit like they hadn't really bothered to tidy things up, and in those few years from 1967 to 1971, expectations had changed quite a lot. Essentially I think its lacking the energy or panache to carry itself off.

Against that background, there are some good songs. I like Crazy Miranda, about a woman who believes everything she reads. I like Pretty As You Feel, about how we view ourselves. I like Wild Turkey, a violin-focused instrumental. I Like Law Man, about a woman threatening a police officer with a gun, and I like Thunk which is a stripped-back vocal harmony track. I'm not sure how I feel about the song in German. The rest are various shades of OK.

If you are a real fan of the Jefferson suite of bands, this is probably essential listening. If you are a fan of hippie rock, it might be a great discovery. For me it was a bit like muesli, mostly OK, but not too exciting, with the occasional raisin to make it more acceptable.

The cover is really dull. What were they thinking?

6.7/10


Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/2EfxMn257hfbgbbAaGdQ8t

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnnXKsZbTUo&list=PLC021245156015E75

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bark_(Jefferson_Airplane_album)



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