From: mcinnis@lll-crg.llnl.gov ( James McInnis)
Newsgroups: rec.music.gdead
Subject: REVIEW: Jefferson Airplane Loves You CD Box Set
Date: 10 Nov 92 19:55:38 GMT
Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

CD Review

Jefferson Airplane Loves You
Box Set 3 CDs/3 Cassettes  RCA 61110-2

"Jefferson Airplane Loves You"

  ...and if you love *them*, if you're a dyed-in-the-wool Airplane
fanatic, you've got to get this deluxe 3 CD Box set!

  The title refers to a promotional bumper sticker RCA had made up on
the release of their first album. RCA has done right by them once more.

  The whole package is lovingly put together from the classic Jim
Marshall photo on the cover, through the exquisite 30-page 4-color booklet,
to the colorful jewel-box inserts and picture CDs themselves.

  If you are looking for a definitive Jefferson Airplane "hits" package
get "Worst of..." or "2400 Fulton Street". If you're searching for some
real nuggets, this is the collection. (I've got a tape that purports to
be "After Bathing at Baxter's" outtakes but sounds more like some bozo
just re-recorded the left and right channels.) Although there are quite
a few existing album cuts, the previously unreleased songs, a nine song live
set taken from the Fillmore Auditorium in 1967, very different alternate
takes and mixes and stuff from the as-yet-unreleased-on-CD "Bark" and
"Long John Silver" make it worth every cent of the $40 price tag. The
over three and a half hour set is arranged in a chronological fashion from
Marty Balin's first recording through his last live appearance (not
counting Starship or '89 tour) with the 1972 version of the band.

  Here is the song list:

CD/Cassette 1                    73:56

I Specialize in Love             (Marty '62)
Go to Her                        (Unreleased - w/Signe)
Bringing Me Down
Let Me In                        (Unreleased & uncensored alternate take)
Chauffer Blues              
Free Advice                      (Great! Society)
Somebody to Love
Today
Embryonic Journey
White Rabbit
Come Back Baby                   (Unreleased - Jorma)
The Other Side of This Life      (Live Fillmore Aud. '67)
Runnin' Round This World                   "
She Has Funny Cars                         "
High Flyin' Bird                           " 
Tobacco Road                               "
Let's Get Together                         "
White Rabbit                               "
Comin' Back to Me                          "
Won't You Try/ Saturday Afternoon          "

CD/Cassette 2                    74:51

The Ballad of You & Me & Pooneil (Unreleased alternate take)
Things Are Better in the East    (Unreleased - Marty)
Watch Her Ride
Two Heads
Martha                           (45 rpm mono version)
Don't Let Me Down                (Unreleased - Marty)
Crown of Creation
Lather
In Time
House at Pooneil Corners
Ribump Ba Bap Dum Dum            (Unreleased - Spencer w/Grace)
Would You Like a Snack?          (Unreleased - Grace w/Frank Zappa!)
3/5 of a Mile in Ten Seconds
It's No Secret
Plastic Fantastic Lover          (Unreleased - Live at Woodstock)
Uncle Sam Blues                  (Unreleased - Live at Woodstock)
Wooden Ships                     (Alt. take - Quadraphonic "Volunteers")
Volunteers                       (Alt. take - Quadraphonic "Volunteers")

CD/Cassette 3                    74:50

We Can Be Together               (Alt. take - Quadraphonic "Volunteers")
Turn My Life Down
Good Shepard
Hey Fredrick                     (Alt. take - Quadraphonic "Volunteers")
Emergency                        (from "Go Ride the Music" documentary)
When the Earth Moves Again
Pretty as You Feel
Law Man
Feel So Good                     (Extended version)
Twilight Double Leader
Aerie (Gang of Eagles)
Trial by Fire
Dress Rap/You Wear Your Dresses
Too Short                        (Unreleased live '72)

  The sound quality is excellent and the alternate takes are superb.
"The Ballad of You & Me & Pooneil" is 12 minutes long, starting with an
extended feedback intro. The 12-string guitar bridge is more prominent
in the mix, Grace trills "Arrrrrrrmadilllllloohoohoo" and the middle jam
opens up quite a bit. An extended Jorma solo with a different coda ends
the song. The cuts from the Quadrophonic "Volunteers" (mixed here as
it would sound if you played it in stereo) are exciting, alternate guitar
riffs from Jorma, totally different phrasing by Grace on "Hey Fredrick".
The live Woodstock tracks are interesting, the Fillmore items are a
real slice of life, there is definately audience reaction to the
then-hit "White Rabbit".

  I swear on the Grace/Zappa "Would You Like a Snack?" she says "Clap
Off, Clap Off" just like the obnoxious TV commercials. The single
version of "Martha" opens with some percussive Jack Casady bass that
slides right into the song and stays solid throughout. "Emergency" is a
Marty number from the late sixties PBS documentary "Go Ride the Music"
which will hopefully see release on video someday. (The tape was
supplied by Jazz Casual Productions, Inc., I'm assuming that its
somehow involved with the Ralph J. Gleason estate since he had a TV
show by that name and produced "Go Ride...")

  The included album cuts, (I could have done without repeats of some of
the "Surrealistic Pillow" stuff), include tasty tracks like "In Time"
and "Two Heads". It's nice to hear "When the Earth Moves Again" and
"Pretty as You Feel" on CD and I can't help but wonder if Darby Gould's
versions of "Law Man" with the current Starship prompted the inclusion of
the original on this retrospective.

  The enclosed booklet is very informative, the text is written by
Jeff Tamarkin of GoldMine magazine who does a mini-bio of each member
and includes some interesting tidbits. The pages literally vibrate with
the colors you remember from Fillmore posters (although for some reason
the colors on Wes Wilson's "The Sound" poster are not the original).
Many never-before-seen photos adorn the pages, all captioned and many
serve as backgrounds for the text. There is a discography and an exhaustive
track listing including personnel for each song. And fittingly, the set
is dedicated to the memory of Bill Graham.

  RCA has seen fit to include a business-reply postcard questionaire
with the box set. I'd urge you to fill it out and ask them to release
"Bark", "Long John Silver","Sunfighter","Baron Von TollBooth",
"Bodacious D.F.", unreleased/live Hot Tuna & a Grunt Records compilation
domestically on CD. It would be nice if they could release any live
Airplane tapes that exist, like the Dead's "From the Vault" series.

   Fly Jefferson Airplane!

Jim McInnis
Newsgroups: rec.music.gdead