Various Artists – The Dutch Woodstock 1970 (2013)

The Holland Pop Festival, also known as the Kralingen Music Festival, was a pop and rock music festival held in the Kralingse Bos, in the Kralingen neighbourhood of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, on 26–28 June 1970.

Performing bands included The Byrds, T. Rex, Santana, Jefferson Airplane, and the headlining Pink Floyd. Approximately 100,000 attended. Festival posters show that the festival was billed in Dutch as Pop Paradijs and ‘Holland Pop Festival 70’, and that the main investor was Coca-Cola. In both English and Dutch, the festival is also known by the English name Stamping Ground, and is often billed as the European answer to Woodstock. It took place approximately one year after Woodstock, and two months before the third 1970 Isle of Wight Festival (the first two being held in 1968 and 1969).

The Festival became an influential event, as it turned out to be the actual beginning of the Dutch tolerance policy towards marijuana.[citation needed] The many present undercover cops did not arrest any of the users or small traders: it became clear that there were just too many, and all of them peaceful.

In 1971, a documentary about the festival appeared, titled Stamping Ground, created by Hansjürgen Pohland aka Jason Pohland and George Sluizer. The film was made for an international audience and is also known under the titles Love and Music, and in Germany Rock Fieber. Also, several books and exhibitions have been dedicated to the event. A triple lp-boxset was released in 2010. The Dutch Festival 1970 (Kralingen) was organized by Foundation “Holland Pop Festival” (Piet van Daal, Georges Knap, Toos v.d.Sterre, Berry Visser)

On 21 September 2013, a memorial has been unveiled in the Kralingse Bos area, to commemorate the first multi-day open air popfestival on the European continent. (wikipedia)

Holland Pop was a 3 day musical festival held at the Kralingse Bos (Kralingse Forest) in Rotterdam on June 26, 27, and the 28th, 1970. The festival was supposedly The Netherland’s version of Woodstock. This new release includes 2 cd’s and a 97 minute dvd that captures the many highs of the 3 day festival. The 1st cd is over 53 minutes, while the 2nd cd is almost 58 minutes long. An older version of this festival goes by the name of “Stamping Ground”. Although there were many good groups who played at the festival, this release is hindered by poor sound as well as poor camera work. The saving grace of the whole festival was the excellent performances turned in by most of the groups. You have to really listen hard to hear the performances, but once you do so, you will be rewarded.

Despite the rain, an estimated 120,000 stoned festival goers showed up for the big party. And party they did, as witnessed by the camera work on the dvd, which focused as much on the nude bodies, dope-smoking, and love-making, as it did on the groups, themselves. The musical highlights included a blistering set by Santana, who played “Gumbo”/”Savor” & “Jingo”. All excellently performed but hard on the ears, even with digital noise reduction. Al Stewart turned in a fine performance of “Zero She Flies”, while the rarely recorded group Quintessence turn in a fine version of “Giants”. Canned Heat, which features a rare performance by Alan “Blind Owl” Wilson doing “Human Condition”, which is then followed by Bob Hite, joining the crowd to take a few “tokes”, while performing “The World’s In A Tango/So Sad”.

Marc Bolan, just about ending his days with T.Rex, does a very good version of “By The Light Of The Magical Moon”. It’s A Beautiful Day, who perform during a rainstorm, play an excellent set featuring “Wasted Union Blues” & “Bulgaria”. Great performance by David LaFlamme playing a very trippy violin. The Jefferson Airplane perform fine versions of “White Rabbit”, “The Ballad Of You And Me And Pooneil”, and “Won’t You Try Saturday Afternoon”. Another rare appearance is turned in by East Of Eden, who play an excellent version of “The Sun Of East/Irish Theme”. From Chicago, we get an excellent version of “Big Bird”, by The Flock, who are also very rare to find in concert.

And moving into a Jazz-Prog-Rock direction, we get Soft Machine, led by Robert Wyatt & Hugh Hopper, playing a fine version of “Esther’s Nose Job”. Other groups who participated are Pink Floyd, The Byrds, Country Joe, and Family, led by the strong vocals of Roger Chapman. All in all, the performances were very good to excellent. It’s indeed unfortunate that the cd sound and poor camera work, probably done by “stoned” photographers, only undermined the fine performances by the artists. Still, however, the set captures a very special moment in time. It could have been so much better, but the original masters were not in the best of condition to begin with. Highly recommended !

Historic live recordings from the Holland Pop Festival held in the Kralingen neighbourhood of Rotterdam, on 26-28 June 1970. The attendance was anywhere from 100,000 to 150,000.

Personnel:

Tracklist:
CD 1:
01. Cuby & The Blizzard: Dust My Blues (James) 4.46
02. Canned Heat: Human Condition (Hite/Wilson) 3.09
03. Canned Heat: So Sad (The World’s In A Tangle) (Domino/Bartholomew) 5.32
04. Livin’ Blues: Big Road Blues (Johnson) 2.41
05. Al Stewart: Zero She Flies (Stewart) 2.20
06. Quintessence: Giants (Raja Jam) 2.39
07. East Of Eden: The Sun Of East (unknown) 15.49
08. East Of Eden: Irish Theme (Jig-A-Jig) (Traditional) 3.20
09. Country Joe And The Fish: Oh Freedom (McDonald) 3.54
10. Dr. John: Mardi Gras Day (Rebenack) 4.31
11. Family: Drowned In Wine (Whitney/Chapman) 4.28

CD 2:
01. Santana: Gumbo (C.Santana/Rolie) 3.58
02. Santana: Savor (C.Santana/Rolie/Areas/Brown/Carabello/Shrieve) 4.29
03. Santana: Jingo (Olatunji) 4.26
04. Jefferson Airplane: White Rabbit (Slick) 2.19
05. Jefferson Airplane: The Ballad Of You And Me And Pooniel (Kantner) 3.03
06. It’s A Beautiful Day: Wasted Union Blues (Laflamme) 7.23
07. It’s A Beautiful Day: Bulgaria (Laflamme) 4.02
08. T. Rex: By The Light Of The Magical Moon (Bolan) 3.19
09. The Byrds: Old Blue (Traditional) 3.35
10. The Flock: Big Bird (Smith/Karpman/Glickstein/Canoff/Webb/Posa/Goodman) 4.50
11. Soft Machine: Esther’s Nose Job (Ratledge/Hopper/Wyatt) 6.03
12. Pink Floyd: Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun (Waters) 3.42
13. Pink Floyd: A Saucerful Of Secrets (Waters/Wright/Mason/Gilmour) 6.22

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Jefferson Airplane – Surrealistic Pillow (1967)

Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band based in San Francisco, California, that became one of the pioneering bands of psychedelic rock. Formed in 1965, the group defined the San Francisco Sound and was the first from the Bay Area to achieve international commercial success. They were headliners at the Monterey Pop Festival (1967), Woodstock (1969), Altamont Free Concert (1969), and the first Isle of Wight Festival (1968) in England. Their 1967 break-out album Surrealistic Pillow was one of the most significant recordings of the Summer of Love. Two songs from that album, “Somebody to Love” and “White Rabbit”, are among Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Songs of All Time”.

The October 1966 to February 1970 lineup of Jefferson Airplane, consisting of Marty Balin (vocals), Paul Kantner (guitar, vocals), Grace Slick (vocals), Jorma Kaukonen (lead guitar, vocals), Jack Casady (bass), and Spencer Dryden (drums), was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. Marty Balin left the band in 1971. After 1972, Jefferson Airplane effectively split into two groups. Kaukonen and Casady moved on full-time to their own band, Hot Tuna. Slick, Kantner, and the remaining members of Jefferson Airplane recruited new members and regrouped as Jefferson Starship in 1974, with Marty Balin eventually joining them. Jefferson Airplane was presented with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016.

Surrealistic Pillow is the second album by the American rock band Jefferson Airplane, released by RCA Victor on February 1, 1967. It is the first album by the band with vocalist Grace Slick and drummer Spencer Dryden. The album peaked at number three on the Billboard album chart and has been certified Platinum by the RIAA. The album is considered to be one of the quintessential works of the early psychedelic rock and 1960s counterculture eras.

“My Best Friend” was released as the first single in January 1967, but reached only #103 on the Billboard Bubbling Under chart. Two singles were released later in the year, “Somebody to Love” and “White Rabbit”, peaked respectively at number five and number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and are the band’s only Top 40 hits on that chart.

“Today” was not released as a single but was played often on college radio and rock stations and remains one of their most popular songs. It was also recorded by jazz saxophonist Tom Scott for his 1967 album The Honeysuckle Breeze; this version was sampled in the song “They Reminisce Over You” by Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth.
The initial line-up fell apart, after Signe Toly Anderson was replaced by Grace Slick

Original drummer Alexander “Skip” Spence had left the band in mid-1966. He was soon replaced by Dryden, an experienced Los Angeles jazz drummer and the half-nephew of Charlie Chaplin. New female vocalist Slick, formerly with another San Francisco rock band the Great Society, joined the Airplane in the fall of 1966. Slick, Dryden, male lead vocalist-guitarist-songwriter and former of band Marty Balin, guitarist-vocalist-songwriter Paul Kantner, lead guitarist (and occasional vocalist) Jorma Kaukonen, and bassist Jack Casady formed the core of the best-known line-up of the group, which remained stable until Dryden’s departure in early 1970.

Some controversy exists as to the role of Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia in the making of the album. His reputed presence on several tracks is denied by producer Rick Jarrard, but he is credited on the RCA label copy[12] and received credits on the Flight Log compilation and the Jefferson Airplane Loves You box set. In his sleeve notes for Early Flight, a 1974 compilation album of previously unreleased material, manager Bill Thompson writes only that Garcia was “listed as ‘spiritual advisor’ on the album cover [and] played one of the guitars” on “In The Morning,” a Kaukonen composition that was released on Early Flight and subsequently included on the 2003 reissue of Surrealistic Pillow. Garcia himself recalled in a mid-1967 interview that he played the high lead on “Today” in addition to playing guitar on two other songs (“Plastic Fantastic Lover” and “Comin’ Back to Me”) and rearranging “Somebody to Love.” He also played on “J.P.P. McStep B. Blues” (included on Early Flight and the 2003 reissue) and may have played on “How Do You Feel.” Kaukonen has opined that Garcia was essentially the producer who arranged the songs for the group. More recently, in his biography, he says, “I used to think about him as co-producer, but now that I really know what a producer is, the producer of that record was Rick Jarrard. Jerry was a combination arranger, musician, and sage counsel.” A comment by Garcia about the music being “as surrealistic as a pillow is soft” also reportedly inspired the album title.

Jefferson Airplane’s fusion of folk rock and psychedelia was original at the time, in line with musical developments pioneered by the Byrds, the Mamas & the Papas, Bob Dylan, the Yardbirds, and the Beatles, among other mid-1960s rock bands. Surrealistic Pillow was the first blockbuster psychedelic album by a band from San Francisco, announcing to the world the active bohemian scene that had developed there starting with the Beats during the 1950s, extending and changing through the 1960s into the Haight-Ashbury counterculture. Subsequent exposure generated by the Airplane and others wrought great changes to that counterculture, and by 1968 the ensuing national media attention had precipitated a very different San Francisco scene than had existed in 1966. San Francisco photographer Herb Greene photographed the band for the album’s cover art.

The album was originally released on LP record by RCA Victor in different stereo (LSP-3766) and mono (LPM-3766) editions. The stereo mixes include heavier use of reverberation effects than the mono. The mono version was deleted in the late 1960s and remained unavailable until 2001. The first United Kingdom release replaced some of the original songs with tracks from the group’s first US LP, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 146 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time”,[23] maintaining the rating in a 2012 revised list, and dropping to number 471 in the 2020 revised list.[24][25] It was voted number 174 in Colin Larkin’s All Time Top 1000 Albums.[26]

In January 2017, “Somebody to Love” received a gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America, while “White Rabbit” received a platinum certification.[7]
Reissues

The first Compact Disc releases were in Japan in 1987 and the US in 1988. A 2001 re-issue by RCA was released as a limited edition gold CD and contained both the stereo and mono recordings. Both mixes were later included as part of the Ignition box set on a standard aluminum CD.

Another stereo reissue appeared on August 19, 2003, with six bonus tracks, including the mono A-sides of “Somebody to Love” and “White Rabbit”. The 2003 reissue was produced by Bob Irwin. (wikipedia)

The second album by Jefferson Airplane, Surrealistic Pillow was a groundbreaking piece of folk-rock-based psychedelia, and it hit like a shot heard round the world; where the later efforts from bands like the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and especially, the Charlatans, were initially not too much more than cult successes, Surrealistic Pillow rode the pop charts for most of 1967, soaring into that rarefied Top Five region occupied by the likes of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and so on, to which few American rock acts apart from the Byrds had been able to lay claim since 1964. And decades later the album still comes off as strong as any of those artists’ best work. From the Top Ten singles “White Rabbit” and “Somebody to Love” to the sublime “Embryonic Journey,” the sensibilities are fierce, the material manages to be both melodic and complex (and it rocks, too), and the performances, sparked by new member Grace Slick on most of the lead vocals, are inspired, helped along by Jerry Garcia (serving as spiritual and musical advisor and sometimes guitarist).

Every song is a perfectly cut diamond, too perfect in the eyes of the bandmembers, who felt that following the direction of producer Rick Jarrard and working within three- and four-minute running times, and delivering carefully sung accompaniments and succinct solos, resulted in a record that didn’t represent their real sound. Regardless, they did wonderful things with the music within that framework, and the only pity is that RCA didn’t record for official release any of the group’s shows from the same era, when this material made up the bulk of their repertory. That way the live versions, with the band’s creativity unrestricted, could be compared and contrasted with the record. The songwriting was spread around between Marty Balin, Slick, Paul Kantner, and Jorma Kaukonen, and Slick and Balin (who never had a prettier song than “Today,” which he’d actually written for Tony Bennett) shared the vocals; the whole album was resplendent in a happy balance of all of these creative elements, before excessive experimentation (musical and chemical) began affecting the band’s ability to do a straightforward song. The group never made a better album, and few artists from the era ever did. (by Bruce Eder)

Personnel:
Marty Balin (guitar, vocals)
Jack Casady (bass guitar, guitar)
Spencer Dryden (drums, percussion)
Paul Kantner (guitar, vocals)
Jorma Kaukonen (lead guitar, vocals)
Grace Slick (vocals, keyboars, recorder)
+
Jerry Garcia (guitar on 04., 05., 11., 23. + 24.)

Tracklist:
01. She Has Funny Cars (Kaukonen/Balin) 3.09
02. Somebody To Love (D. Slick) 2.59
03. My Best Friend (Spence) 3.04
04. Today (Balin/Kantner) 3.01
05. Comin’ Back To Me (Balin) 5.23
06. 3/5 Of A Mile In 10 Seconds (Balin) 3.43
07. D.C.B.A.–25 (Kantner) 2.38
08. How Do You Feel (Mastin) 3.33
09. Embryonic Journey (Kaukonen) 1.54
10. White Rabbit (G.Slick) 2.33
11. Plastic Fantastic Lover (Balin) 2.39
+
mono versions:
12. – 22.
+
23. In The Morning (Kaukonen) 6.20
24. J.P.P. McStep B. Blues (Spence) 2.36z
25. Go To Her” (version two) (Kantner/Estes) 4.02
26. Come Back Baby (Traditional) 2.56

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More from Jefferson Airplane:

Jefferson Airplane – Flight Log (1977)

Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band based in San Francisco, California, that became one of the pioneering bands of psychedelic rock. Formed in 1965, the group defined the San Francisco Sound and was the first from the Bay Area to achieve international commercial success. They were headliners at the Monterey Pop Festival (1967), Woodstock (1969), Altamont Free Concert (1969), and the first Isle of Wight Festival (1968) in England. Their 1967 break-out album Surrealistic Pillow ranks on the short list of the most significant recordings of the Summer of Love. Two songs from that album, “Somebody to Love” and “White Rabbit”, are among Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Songs of All Time”.

The October 1966 to February 1970 lineup of Jefferson Airplane, consisting of Marty Balin (vocals), Paul Kantner (guitar, vocals), Grace Slick (vocals), Jorma Kaukonen (lead guitar, vocals), Jack Casady (bass), and Spencer Dryden (drums), was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.[3] Marty Balin left the band in 1971. After 1972, Jefferson Airplane effectively split into two groups. Kaukonen and Casady moved on full-time to their own band, Hot Tuna. Slick, Kantner, and the remaining members of Jefferson Airplane recruited new members and regrouped as Jefferson Starship in 1974, with Marty Balin eventually joining them. Jefferson Airplane was presented with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016.

Flight Log (1966–1976) is a compilation album by the American rock band Jefferson Airplane. Released in January 1977 as a double-LP as Grunt CYL2-1255, it is a compilation of Jefferson Airplane and Airplane-related tracks, including tracks by Jefferson Starship and Hot Tuna, as well as solo tracks by Paul Kantner, Grace Slick, and Jorma Kaukonen. Although primarily a compilation album, the album includes one previously unreleased song: “Please Come Back” written by Ron Nagle and performed by Jefferson Starship. “Please Come Back” is not available on any other release.

Among the session musicians featured on the album are two members of the Grateful Dead and one member of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. David Crosby appears on one track, and Jerry Garcia plays on three tracks, two of which also feature Mickey Hart.

The album included a lavish 12-page full-color, full-size (12 sq.in.) booklet, containing photographs of the band throughout the period covered by the compilation. It also contained a detailed history of the band, written by Patrick Snyder of Rolling Stone magazine.

Flight Log was first reissued on CD by BMG Japan on October 22, 2008 as a part of the “Paper Sleeve Collection” reissue series (BVCM-35468-9). The release features an exact reproduction of the Grunt 1977 edition of the LP packaging including a reduced scale reproduction of the original booklet and inner sleeve jackets for the CDs. Also included is a second booklet containing all the lyrics in both English and Japanese. The only omission by BMG Japan was not reproducing the original GRUNT label on the CDs. The audio quality is as good as the original master tapes available for the Japanese LP pressing and features JVC K2 24 Bit Remastering. However, it sounds as if the master tapes had been damaged on at least three songs, and significantly obvious on the introduction of “Silver Spoon”. CD 1 contains Side A and B, and CD 2 contains Side C and D.

On April 5, 2011, BGO Records released a remastered edition of Flight Log in a standard jewel case with cardboard slip cover. The BGO version is said to be a sonic improvement on the BMG/Sony edition, nonetheless, certain tape defects such as on Silver Spoon still exist. (wikipedia)

This odds and sods collection of the Jefferson Airplane gives an eclectic overview of one of the premier San Francisco bands. Although several of their better-known songs are included (“White Rabbit,” “Volunteers”), the purpose of Flight Log seems to be to tell the story of the original JA lineup rather than present their greatest hits. The first half of the record documents the group together, the second half the group apart. A live version of “Somebody to Love” rides the sonic punch of Kaukonen and Cassady; Marty Balin’s “Comin’ Back to Me” remains one of the Airplane’s finest ballads.

The initial Hot Tuna recordings are also represented here along with tracks from the Blows Against the Empire assemblage. The inclusion of Jefferson Starship’s “Ride the Tiger points the way to a slicker, pop-oriented future. While Flight Log is not essential, it may certainly be of interest to devout fans of the Jefferson Airplane. (by J.P. Ollio)

No ! This sampler is more … it´s a wonerful und great overview of one of the finest bands from the bay area and all these wonderful side projects.(including a fine booklet !)

Personnel:

Various Jefferson Airplane line-ups:

Signe Anderson (vocals)
Marty Balin (vocals)
John Barbata (drums)
Jack Casady (bass)
Papa John Creach (violin)
Spencer Dryden (drums)
Jorma Kaukonen (lead guitar, vocals)
Paul Kantner (vocals, guitar)
Sammy Piazza (drums)
Pete Sears (bass, guitar)
Grace Slick (vocals, piano)
Skip Spence (drums)
+
Nick Buck (piano)
Craig Chaquico (lead guitar)
Joey Covington (drums, vocals)
David Crosby (vocals, guitar)
Chris Ethridge (bass)
David Freiberg (vocals, keyboards, bass, guitar)
Jerry Garcia (guitar, pedal steel guitar, lead guitar)
Mickey Hart (percussion, gongs)
Tom Hobson (guitar)
Nicky Hopkins (piano)
Will Scarlett (harmonica)
Jack Traylor (vocals)

Tracklist:
01. Come Up The Years (Balin/Kantner) 2.29
02. White Rabbit (Slick) 2.30
03. Comin’ Back To Me (Balin) 5.16
04. Won’t You Try Saturday Afternoon (Kantner) 5.01
05. Greasy Heart (Slick) 3.23
06. If You Feel (Blackman/Balin) 3.17
07. Somebody To Love (live) (Slick) 3.57
08. Wooden Ships (Crosby/Kantner/Stills) 6.08
09. Volunteers (Balin/Kantner) 2.03
10. Hesitation Blues (Hot Tuna) (Traditional).4.59
11. Have You Seen The Stars Tonite (Paul Kantner & Jefferson Starship) (Kantner/Crosby) 3.48
12.Silver Spoon (Grace Slick & Paul Kantner) (Slick) 1.51
13. Feel So Good (Kaukonen) 5.38
14. Pretty As You Feel (Covington/Casady/Kaukonen) 4.30
15. Milk Train (Creach/Slick/Spotts) 4.20
16. Ja Da (Keep On Truckin’) (Hot Tuna) (Fuller) 3.12
17. ¿Come Again? (Grace Slick) (Toucan/Slick/Freiberg) 3.06
18. Sketches Of China (Paul Kantner, Grace Slick & David Freiberg) (Kantner/Slick) 5.05
19. Genesis (Jorma Kaukonen w/ Tom Hobson) (Kaukonen)
20. Ride The Tiger (Jefferson Starship) (Kantner/Slick/Byong Yu) 5.03
21.  Please Come Back (Jefferson Starship) (Nagle) 3.51

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More from Jefferson Airplane:

John Peel & Pete Drummond – BBC Radio1 Top Gear (October 1, 1967)

Top Gear was a radio show known for its specially recorded sessions in addition to playing records. It began life in the mid-1960s and was revived with a progressive rock focus in 1967, running with that format until its end in 1975.

It was one of the BBC’s few attempts to compete with the pirate radio stations and Radio Luxembourg, who had attracted large audiences of young British pop music listeners in the absence of an “official” alternative. This was made explicit in the show’s title, which evoked the 1960s fascination with fast cars, jet planes and high-speed travel, but also the use of “gear” to describe fashionable Carnaby Street clothes and the 1960s Liverpool term “fab gear”, popularised by the Beatles as an expression of approval. The programme comprised a mixture of records and live sessions, was introduced by Brian Matthew, and featured many popular guests such as Jimi Hendrix, Free, The Beatles, Cream, The Who, Pink Floyd, Dusty Springfield, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, The Kinks and Manfred Mann.

The programme was first broadcast on 16 July 1964, produced by Bernie Andrews. The name, Top Gear, had been chosen after a national competition. The winning entry had been submitted by a young woman called Susan Warne, who attended the first recording and was interviewed on the programme. The guests on that first show included The Beatles, Mark Wynter and Dusty Springfield.
Revival

It was revived, and evolved into a “progressive” music show, in the early years of BBC Radio 1 (from 1967 into the 1970s), with the same format of records and specially recorded sessions. It was hosted variously by Tommy Vance, Pete Drummond and, most notably, John Peel, who, with the help of sympathetic producers Bernie Andrews and John Walters, turned it into an award-winning show, while retaining the emphasis on new music. In 1971, the programme merged with the Sounds of the Seventies strand, broadcast on FM. It was still introduced by Peel, and moved from its weekend slot to two evenings a week.

It ended when the BBC, facing a serious financial crisis, was forced to make cutbacks in the Radio One schedules; most of the evening programmes of “progressive music” were scrapped. The final Top Gear show was broadcast on 25 September 1975; it was composed mostly of sessions by artists who had become famous after appearing on Top Gear, ranging from T.Rex, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin to Randy Newman and Bob Marley & The Wailers. On this show, Peel spoke of how influential and fashionable the programme had been in its heyday. He continued to be influential, hosting similar programmes of records and sessions for the BBC until his death in 2004.

And here´s the radio show from October 1, 1967 … with lot´s a great songs from this period !!!

Tracklist:

BBC Radio1 Top Gear (October 1, 1967) 44.34:

01. The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown: Devil’s Grip (Crane/Brown)
02. Keith West: Real Life Permanent Dream (Hopkins)
03. Nirvana: Pentecost Hotel (Spyropoulos/Campbell-Lyons)
04. Pink Floyd: Set The Controls (Waters)
05. Tim Rose: Morning Dew (Dobson/Rose)
06. Jefferson Airplane: White Rabbit (Slick)
07. Velvet Underground & Nico: Sunday Morning (Reed/Cale)
08. Pink Floyd: Reaction In G (Barrett/Mason)
09. Velvet Underground & Nico: Sunday Morning (Reed/Cale)
10. Keith West: Carol Brown (West)
11. Amen Corner: The World Of Broken Heart (Pomus/Shuman)
12. Traffic: Paper Sun /(live in the studio) (Capaldi/Winwood)
13. Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band: Yellow Brick Road (Van Vliet/Berman)
14. Big Maybelle And The Senate: Every Day I Got The Blues (A,Sparks/M.Sparks)
15. Move: Killroy Was Here (Wood)
16. Skip Bifferty: On Love (Bell/Turnbull)
17. Pink Floyd: Flaming (Barrett)
18. Tim Rose: Fairiwell

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Jefferson Airplane – Crown Of Creation (1968)

Crown of Creation is the fourth studio album by the San Francisco psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane, and was released by RCA Victor in September 1968. It saw the band continuing their development of psychedelic music from their previous album, After Bathing at Baxter’s.

While failing to eclipse Surrealistic Pillow (1967) from a commercial standpoint, the album was a considerable success in comparison to its immediate predecessor, peaking at No. 6 on the Billboard Pop Charts and earning a RIAA gold certification. Its two singles (“Greasy Heart”, released in April 1968, followed by the title track in November) were modest hits on the Hot 100 chart.

Prior to recording, the group had their manager and promoter Bill Thompson purchase a large 20-room, three-story, home at 2400 Fulton Street directly across from Golden Gate Park in San Francisco where the members would live communally. Costing $73,000,[7] the home, known as “The Airplane House” or simply “The Mansion” included a refurbished basement with a built-in recording studio. The band became a tight grouping and much of their composing began at their new headquarters. The combination of individuals continued the experimentation and visionary lyrical compositions that made them quintessential in the San Francisco psychedelic rock scene.

Writing was generally equal between the group members as they all took part in one or more tracks. The band intended Crown of Creation to be their personal reflections on commercialism, crime, and coming of age in the face of the bohemian enclave assimilated with San Francisco during this period.

Recording took place in early 1968 well into the summer in RCA studios in which the band included distorted sound effects and guitar sections, and tracks enriched in overdubbing. Stylistically it was their most diverse album to date, taking everything the band had attempted previously and developing to that point. The Airplane included heavy-rock jams similar to their live act, and folk-rock compositions, a nod to their work on Surrealistic Pillow. Overall it was much more tightly structured than their previous effort. Track arrangements stand as complex and sophisticated further explaining why the band had no hit-ready singles. Several guest musicians were involved in the development of the album including David Crosby, Bill Goodwin, and Tim Davis.[13] Jefferson Airplane was on a condensed schedule when considering their concerts and TV appearances. Sessions were completed in between their commitments, so recording was prolonged since they only had brief periods in which to work. (by wikipedia)

Crown of Creation appeared ten months after their last album, After Bathing at Baxter’s, and it doesn’t take the same kind of leap forward that Baxter’s did from Surrealistic Pillow. Indeed, in many ways, Crown of Creation is a more conservative album stylistically, opening with “Lather,” a Grace Slick original that was one of the group’s very last forays (and certainly their last prominent one) into a folk idiom. Much of what follows is a lot more based in electric rock, as well as steeped in elements of science fiction (specifically author John Wyndham’s book The Chrysalids) in several places, but Crown of Creation was still deliberately more accessible musically than its predecessor, even as the playing became more bold and daring within more traditional song structures. Jack Casady by this time had developed one of the most prominent and distinctive bass sounds in American rock, as identifiable (if not quite as bracing) as John Entwistle’s was with the Who, as demonstrated on “In Time,” “Star Track,” “Share a Little Joke,” “If You Feel” (where he’s practically a second lead instrument), and the title song, and Jorma Kaukonen’s slashing, angular guitar attack was continually surprising as his snaking lead guitar parts wended their way through “Star Track” and “Share a Little Joke.”

The album also reflected the shifting landscape of West Coast music with its inclusion of “Triad,” a David Crosby song that Crosby’s own group, the Byrds, had refused to release — its presence (the only extant version of the song for a number of years) was a forerunner of the sound that would later be heard on Crosby’s own debut solo album, If I Could Only Remember My Name (on which Slick, Paul Kantner, and Casady would appear). The overall album captured the group’s rapidly evolving, very heavy live sound within the confines of some fairly traditional song structures, and left ample room for Slick and Marty Balin to express themselves vocally, with Balin turning in one of his most heartfelt and moving performances on “If You Feel.” “Ice Cream Phoenix” pulses with energy and “Greasy Heart” became a concert standard for the group — the studio original of the latter is notable for Slick’s most powerful vocal performance since “Somebody to Love.” And the album’s big finish, “The House at Pooneil Corners,” seemed to fire on all cylinders, their amps cranked up to ten (maybe 11 for Casady), and Balin, Slick, and Kantner stretching out on the disjointed yet oddly compelling tune and lyrics. It didn’t work 100 percent of the time, but it made for a shattering finish to the album. (by Bruce Eder)

Personnel:
Marty Balin (vocals, guitar)
Jack Casady (bass)
Spencer Dryden (drums, keyboards, vocals)
Paul Kantner (guitar, vocals)
Jorma Kaukonen (lead guitar, vocals)
Grace Slick (vocals, keyboards)
+
∞ – percussion
Gary Blackman (nose solo on 01.)
Charles Cockey (guitar, vocals)
David Crosby (guitar)
Tim Davis (percussion)
Bill Goodwin (talking drums)
Dan Woody (percussion)
Gene Twombly (sound effects)

Tracklist:
01. Lather (Slick) 3.01
02. In Time (Kantner/Balin) 4.13
03. Triad (Crosby) 4.56
04. Star Track (Kaukonen) 3.10
05. Share A Little Joke (Balin) 3.97
06. Chushingura (instrumental) (Dryden) 1.18
07. If You Feel (Balin/Blackman) 3.21
08. Crown Of Creation (Wyndham/Kantner) 2.54
09. Ice Cream Phoenix (Kaukonen/Cockey) 3.01
10. Greasy Heart (Slick) 3.25
11. The House At Pooneil Corners (Kantner/Balin) 5.51

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Jefferson Airplane – Takes Off (1966)

Jefferson Airplane Takes Off is the debut album of American rock band Jefferson Airplane, released in August 1966 as RCA Victor LSP-3584 (stereo) and LPM-3584 (mono). The personnel differs from the later “classic” lineup: Signe Toly Anderson was the female vocalist and Skip Spence played drums. Both left the group shortly after the album’s release and were replaced by Grace Slick and Spencer Dryden, respectively

RCA executives found some of the lyrics too sexually suggestive. They had the band change the lyrics in “Let Me In” from “I gotta get in, you know where” to “You shut your door, now it ain’t fair”, and “Don’t tell me you want money” to “Don’t tell me it’s so funny”. In “Run Around” they had the line “Blinded by colors come flashing from flowers that sway as you lay under me” altered to “that sway as you stay here by me”. With “Runnin’ ‘Round This World” the executives insisted that “trips” in the line “The nights I’ve spent with you have been fantastic trips” referred to taking LSD, though the band insisted it was merely common slang. Even replacing the word “trips” with a guitar apreggio did not placate RCA’s concerns with the line’s sexual connotations and refused its inclusion on the album, and the recording remained unreleased for the next eight years.

The album’s release drew little press attention at a time when mainstream newspapers did not normally cover rock releases and the rock press was yet in its infancy. Crawdaddy! highlighted the album on the cover of its January 1967 issue, which included a three-page review by the magazine’s assistant editor Tim Jurgens, who called the album “faulted” yet “the most important album of American rock” of 1966. (by wikipedia)

The debut Jefferson Airplane album was dominated by singer Marty Balin, who wrote or co-wrote all the original material and sang most of the lead vocals in his heartbreaking tenor with Paul Kantner and Signe Anderson providing harmonies and backup. (Anderson’s lead vocal on “Chauffeur Blues” indicated she was at least the equal of her successor, Grace Slick, as a belter.) The music consisted mostly of folk-rock love songs, the most memorable of which were “It’s No Secret” and “Come up the Years.” (There was also a striking version of Dino Valente’s “Get Together” recorded years before the Youngbloods’ hit version.) Jorma Kaukonen already displayed a talent for mixing country, folk, and blues riffs in a rock context, and Jack Casady already had a distinctive bass sound. But the Airplane of Balin-Kantner-Kaukonen-Anderson-Casady-Spence is to be distinguished from the Balin-Kantner-Kaukonen-Casady-Slick-Dryden version of the band that would emerge on record five months later chiefly by Balin’s dominance. Later, Grace Slick would become the group’s vocal and visual focal point. On Jefferson Airplane Takes Off, the Airplane was still Balin’s group. (by William Ruhlmann)

Personnel:
Signe Toly Anderson (vocals, percussion)
Marty Balin (vocals, guitar)
Jack Casady (bass)
Paul Kantner (guitar, vocals)
Jorma Kaukonen (guitar)
Skip Spence – drums)
+
Spencer Dryden (drums on 15., 18. + 19.)

Tracklist:
01. Blues From An Airplane (Balin/Spence) 2.13
02. Let Me In (Balin/Kantner) 2.59
03. Bringing Me Down (Balin/Kantner) 2.24
04. It’s No Secret (Balin) 2.39
05. Tobacco Road (Warnick[n) (*) 3.30
06. Come Up The Years (Balin/Kantner) 2.32
07. Run Around (Balin/Kantner) 2.40
08. Let’s Get Together (Kantner/Anderson/Balin/Powers) 3.35
09. Don’t Slip Away (Balin/Spence) 2.34
10. Chauffeur Blues (Melrose) 2.28
11. And I Like It (Balin/Kaukonen) 3.20
+
12. Runnin’ Round This World (from Early Flight) (Balin/Kantner) 2.25
13. High Flying Bird (from Early Flight) (Wheeler) 2.17
14. It’s Alright (from Early Flight) (Balin/Spence) 2:17
15. Go To Her” (from Jefferson Airplane Loves You) Kantner, Irving Estes 4:09
16. “Let Me In (from Jefferson Airplane Loves You) (Balin/Kantner) 3.31
17. Run Around (uncensored version) (Balin/Kantner) 2.35
18. Chauffeur Blues (alternate version) (Melrose) 2.49
19.1. And I Like It (alternate version) (Balin/Kaukonen) 8.16
19.2.. Blues From An Airplane (instrumental; hidden track) (Balin/Spence) 2.10

*
**

Various Artists – Montery Pop Festival 67 (Part 1): Jefferson Airplane (1989)

Monterey Pop Festival ’67 – The Summer Of Love All Began From Here” is an Italien bootleg from 1989 and includes 7 LPs in a box (and the cover art is pretty great, too). And this set (the sound is very good throughout!) is documenting the legendary California rock festival:

The Monterey International Pop Music Festival was a three-day concert event held June 16 to June 18, 1967 at the Monterey County Fairgrounds in Monterey, California. Crowd estimates for the festival have ranged from 25,000-90,000 people, who congregated in and around the festival grounds. The fairgrounds’ enclosed performance arena, where the music took place, had an approved festival capacity of 7,000, but it was estimated that 8,500 jammed into it for Saturday night’s show. Festival-goers who wanted to see the musical performances were required to have either an ‘all-festival’ ticket or a separate ticket for each of the five scheduled concert events they wanted to attend in the arena: Friday night, Saturday afternoon and night, and Sunday afternoon and night. Ticket prices varied by seating area, and ranged from $3 to $6.50 ($21–46, adjusted for inflation.

The festival is remembered for the first major American appearances by The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Who and Ravi Shankar, the first large-scale public performance of Janis Joplin and the introduction of Otis Redding to a large, predominantly white audience.

The Monterey Pop Festival embodied the theme of California as a focal point for the counterculture and is generally regarded as one of the beginnings of the “Summer of Love” in 1967; the first rock festival had been held just one week earlier at Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, the KFRC Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival. Because Monterey was widely promoted and heavily attended, featured historic performances, and was the subject of a popular theatrical documentary film, it became an inspiration and a template for future music festivals, including the Woodstock Festival two years later.

The festival was planned in seven weeks by promoter Lou Adler, John Phillips of The Mamas & the Papas, producer Alan Pariser and publicist Derek Taylor. The Monterey location had been known as the site for the long-running Monterey Jazz Festival and Monterey Folk Festival; the promoters saw the Monterey Pop festival as a way to validate rock music as an art form in the way in which jazz and folk were regarded. The organizers succeeded beyond all expectations.

The artists performed for free with all revenue donated to charity, except for Ravi Shankar, who was paid $3,000 for his afternoon-long performance on the sitar. Country Joe and the Fish were paid $5,000 not by the festival itself, but from revenue generated from the D.A. Pennebaker documentary.

Lou Adler later reflected:

…[O]ur idea for Monterey was to provide the best of everything — sound equipment, sleeping and eating accommodations, transportation — services that had never been provided for the artist before Monterey…

We set up an on-site first aid clinic, because we knew there would be a need for medical supervision and that we would encounter drug-related problems. We didn’t want people who got themselves into trouble and needed medical attention to go untreated. Nor did we want their problems to ruin or in any way disturb other people or disrupt the music…

Our security worked with the Monterey police. The local law enforcement authorities never expected to like the people they came in contact with as much as they did. They never expected the spirit of ‘Music, Love and Flowers’ to take over to the point where they’d allow themselves to be festooned with flowers.

Monterey’s bill boasted a lineup that put established stars like The Mamas and the Papas, Simon & Garfunkel and The Byrds alongside groundbreaking new acts from the UK and the USA. (by wikipedia)

I will present the complete box in the next weeks … and I start with LP number one with the complete Jefferson Airplane  (no introduction nessesary) performance. With two huge singles behind them, the Airplane was one of the major attractions of the festival.

Jefferson Airplane at the Monterey Pop Festival

Personnel:
Marty Balin (vocals, guitar)
Jack Casady (bass)
Spencer Dryden (drums)
Paul Kantner (guitar, vocals)
Jorma Kaukonen (guitar, vocals)
Grace Slick (vocals)

Tracklist:
01. Introduction/Somebody To Love (Slick) 3.50
02. Other Side Of This Life (Neil) 6.51
03. White Rabbit (Slick) 2.45
04. High Flyin’ Bird (Balin/Slick) 4.01
05. Today (Balin/Kantner) 3.04
06. She Has Funny Cars (Kaukonen/Balin)     3:14
07. Young Girl Sunday Blues (Balin/Kantner) 3.30
08. Ballad Of You And Me And Pooneil (Kantner)    11:02

*
**

Much more will come:
The Who (4 tracks), The Steve Miller Band (1 track), Scott McKenzie (1 track), Simon & Garfunkel (7 tracks), The Electric Flag (3 tracks), Canned Heat (2 tracks), Hugh Masakela (1 track), Buffalo Springfield (3 tracks), The Mar-Keys (1 track), Country Joe & The Fish (3 tracks), Booker T & The MGs (2 tracks), Big Brother & The Holding Company (5 tracks), The Mamas & The Papas (9 tracks), The Jimi Hendrix Experience (3 tracks), The Grateful Dead (2 tracks), The Byrds (3 tracks), The Butterfield Blues Band (6 tracks), The Animals (4 tracks), Lou Rawls (2 tracks), Johnny Rivers (1 track)