{"id":441,"date":"2011-02-07T07:37:35","date_gmt":"2011-02-07T12:37:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=441"},"modified":"2011-02-07T07:37:35","modified_gmt":"2011-02-07T12:37:35","slug":"album-review-jefferson-airplane-we-have-ignition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2011\/02\/07\/album-review-jefferson-airplane-we-have-ignition\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Jefferson Airplane – We Have Ignition"},"content":{"rendered":"

By November 1966 the Jefferson Airplane<\/strong> were on a definite trajectory toward the top of their game. Grace Slick<\/strong> had joined about six weeks earlier<\/a> — replacing Signe Anderson<\/a> — and had quickly worked her style into the group\u2019s sound. On this pair of archival soundboard recordings, the band is captured onstage at San Francisco\u2019s Fillmore auditorium.<\/p>\n

While Surrealistic Pillow<\/em> hadn\u2019t yet been released (sessions were under way during this period) the band was already performing much of that record\u2019s music onstage. The manner in which the songs are delivered shows a stunning level of confidence on the part of the band: Marty Balin<\/strong> and Grace are especially assertive in their performances, all but daring the audience to give them less than total attention.<\/p>\n

The two shows documented on this set cover the first and last shows of a three-night run at the Fillmore. The Airplane topped a bill that also featured Moby Grape<\/strong> and James Cotton<\/strong>\u2019s band. On these dates the Jefferson Airplane covered a wide range of styles, but as always, those styles were bent to suit the Airplane\u2019s approach. \u201cBringing Me Down\u2019 is a jugband number. Paul Kantner<\/strong>\u2019s \u201cDCBA-25\u201d features a Grace Slick vocal line that she would recycle with greater success some nine years later with Jefferson Starship<\/strong>\u2019s \u201cFast Buck Freddie\u201d (even though the latter song was written by Starship\u2019s Craig Chaquico<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

For a set not originally intended for release, the recording is excellent. The vocals are a bit \u201cdry\u201d and untreated, but in actuality this gives the performance a more intimate quality. Jorma Kaukonen<\/strong>\u2019s chiming electric 12-string isn\u2019t quite as out front in the mix as it would be on studio versions of these songs, but it\u2019s clearly audible. As a whole, the band is tight and largely resists the temptation to head off into exploratory jam territory. The notable exception is the pair of songs that close the second disc. A brief instrumental \u201cMy Grandfather\u2019s Clock\u201d and an extended psychedelic workout of Fred Neil\u2019s \u201cThe Other Side of This Life\u201d were performed as a sort of encore, allowing a photo shoot.<\/p>\n

This set is primarily of interest to Jefferson Airplane fanatics and\/or completists, in part because there\u2019s a fair amount of overlap between the two shows. \u201cPlastic Fantastic Love,\u201d \u201cHigh Flyin\u2019 Bird,\u201d \u201cThe Other Side of This Life,\u201d \u201cWhite Rabbit\u201d and \u201c3\/5 of a Mile in Ten Seconds\u201d are all presented twice.<\/p>\n

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\"I<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By November 1966 the Jefferson Airplane were on a definite trajectory toward the top of their game. Grace Slick had joined about six weeks earlier — replacing Signe Anderson — […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-review","cat-65-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}