The Worst Of Jefferson Airplane [Blister] [Remaster]

Performer: Jefferson Airplane
Distributor: BMG (distributor)

Notes: Jefferson Airplane: Grace Slick, Spencer Dryden, Marty Balin, Jack Casady, Paul Kantner, Jorma Kaukonen, Signe Anderson, Skip Spence. Producers: Matthew Katz, Tommy Oliver, Rick Jarrard, Al Schmidt. THE WORST OF JEFFERSON AIRPLANE features material from 1966-1969. Jefferson Airplane: Paul Kantner (vocals, guitar); Signe Anderson, Marty Balin, Grace Slick (vocals); Jorma Kaukonen (guitar, background vocals); Jack Casady (bass guitar, background vocals); Skip Spence, Spencer Dryden (drums). Its smirky title notwithstanding, The Worst of Jefferson Airplane provides a fine recap of the band's first six albums. Released in 1970 shortly before Marty Balin's initial departure from the band, the album marked not only the end of the decade but, unwittingly, the end of the group's most stable phase in terms of membership. The track selections are evenly divided among the first-generation albums; only the live Bless Its Pointed Little Head is represented by a single entry. Pains were also taken to include songs featuring lead vocalists Balin, Grace Slick, Paul Kantner, and guitarist Jorma Kaukonen. A few omissions are striking, most notably the chart single "Greasy Heart" and the signature Kantner track, "Wooden Ships." Nevertheless, the songs chosen for this album accurately summarize the distinct feel of each Jefferson Airplane album of the '60s, and thus the disc represents an ideal way to introduce oneself to the band's early, most psychedelic material. ~ Joseph McCombs The title, of course, is an ironic joke and very much emblematic of the Airplane's sensibility; this was a group, you'll recall, that would go on to give its own version of Apple Records the not-so-user-friendly moniker Grunt. In any event, on its own obviously un-definitive terms, THE WORST OF JEFFERSON AIRPLANE is actually a very nice package, with all the radio hits (i.e., "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit") plus a smart selection of some of the band's better album tracks (the undeservingly obscure "Crushingura"), and a blistering previously unreleased live version of "Plastic Fantastic Lover."

Rolling Stone (2/4/71, p.55) - "...reduced to one LP, this is as good as it can be..." Dirty Linen (p.85) - "It's a psychedelic trip drenched in paisley and incense and hemp."

One of the quintessential San Francisco psychedelic bands, the Jefferson Airplane brought together interests in acoustic blues, folk, and rock music. Add political topicality and modal improvisations, and you have an inspired, mind-bending sound that could have only sprung forth from the late '60s. In their initial, most beloved phase, they were powered by the powerful dual lead vocals of Grace Slick and Marty Balin and the serpentine guitar of Jorma Kaukonen. They went through a traumatic series of personnel and name changes over the decades (they ventured into commercial AOR in the late '70s and early '80s) but their early work retains its seminal power.

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