Partial Lift-Off

Bark certainly does have some GREAT songs on it! When the Earth Moves Again, Feel So Good, Lawman, War Movie, Crazy Miranda, Third Week, even Pretty as You Feel. However...



Joey Covington (bombastic drummer AND mediocre singer) and Papa John Screech (annoying shrill fiddlist) were NOT adequate replacements for Marty Balin and Spencer Dryden. In fact, they both work hard to denigrate the sound of this classic 60's band.



Also, Balin and Dryden were both sorely missed. Imagine what a great album this would have been with Balin singing "Pretty as You Feel" (instead of Covington). Imagine two Balin ballads instead of "Thunk" and "European Song". Imagine Dryden's creative, innovative drumming driving the whole enterprise. Imagine no screeching from Papa John!!!



Could have been one of the Airplane's best instead of an embarrasing footnote to a great career.

Re-Issue !!!

Please reissue this LP, my vinyl is worn beyond use...still got the bag though...Thanks, Dave

trying real hard

Here's a band, last decades' faves, subconsciously realizing their time in the spotlight is getting short. What to do? Easy! They get themselves a skanky violinist who seems to be able to leap across several cultural divides, and a drummer who's as weird as their previous one, and they put out an album of songwriting jems that stand shoulder to shoulder with their earlier efforts.

There's the militaristic march of "When the Earth Moves Again" a la "We Can Be Together", the Tuna funk of "Feel So Good" and "Wild Turkey, the Grace of "Lawman", "Crazy Miranda", and "Never Argue with a German", and the nonsense of "Pretty As You Feel" and "Thunk". There's the epic sci-fi "War Movie", and on my CD, it says "Arranged and Produced by Jefferson Airplane, Inc." Since when had the avatars of 2400 Fulton become a corporation? Can there be any argument that this band was working very hard to survive the obvious demise of the peace and love movement that had only recently captured America's heart? The mix is single dimensional at best, Jack and Jorma play great, Grace wails, but there's a big vibe that the end is near. Without Spencer and Marty, it's good, but it ain't the Airplane.