Anthem for the Revolution, Still alive after all these years

`Holy Counterculture, Batman', what is the world coming to?' The Rolling Stones started it all when they lent one of their songs to sell Windows '95. Now Mick is shilling for digital cameras. Songs by Pete Townsend and The Who have been selling allergy medicine and have fronted every CSI show from coast to coast. Not that this is all bad. Half the reason I watch CSI is the jolt of adrenaline I get from their opening themes performed by The Who.



But now, who of all people but the Jefferson Airplane is lending one its songs to ads for a STOCK TRADING company, of all things. And, not only is it just any old Jefferson Airplane song, it's `Volunteers of America', the closest thing there is to being an anthem for the counter culture in 1969, when it first appeared on the `Volunteers' album. To the sponsor, E*Trade's credit, they use the song in a very imaginative way, playing exactly on the fact that the song is literally a suggestion for revolution. Of course, like the Beatle's `Revolution', there is just a little artistic license here, as the song is more exactly a reflection of `60s attitudes than it is a literal call to the barricades.



As a long time Jefferson Airplane fan, and a person who literally did exactly what the `Airplane' suggests in the song `The Farm' for a short time, E*Trade's appropriation of this most sacred of texts from that most sacred of decades comes as a major surprise. I just hope Gracie and Paul and Martie and Jorma and Headband Jack and the rest of the `Airplane crew are getting paid very, very well for their selling off this piece of my heritage to Wall Street.



To get to the point of reading what is supposed to be a review, let me say that while `Volunteers' may represent the high water mark of American artistic aversion to the Vietnam war and what it was doing to this country, it is probably not their best album. Their most important work that established them as THE San Francisco psychedelic band was `Surrealistic Pillow'. Their fullest work, with the greatest number of original songs is `Crown of Creation'. The album which I really believe is the most fun is the live recording `Bless It's Pointed Little Head'. But, `Volunteers' is the very last real `Airplane album before Gracie and Paul did their `Blows Against the Empire' project billing the band as the `Jefferson Starship', all based on a SciFi classic by Robert A. Heinlein. Explaining the irony of Heinlein quoted by the `Airplane is just too deep to go into here.



After `Blows...' I believe the band became much less interesting for a very long time. This may have been due to the alienation of Marty Balin and the spin-off of Jorma and Jack to the blues group Hot Tuna. So, this is the last of the truly great `Airplane albums, the apotheoses of the counterculture reaction to the very unpopular war. Aside from `Volunteers' itself, there are two other classic anti-war / anti-establishment songs in `We Can Be Together' by Paul Kantner and the great `Wooden Ships' by Kantner, David Crosby, and Stephen Stills which also appears as the first cut on the second side of the Crosby, Stills, and Nash debut album. Grace contributes the song `Eskimo Blue Day' which stylistically previews the themes of `Blows Against the Empire'. Jorma contributes three works, two of which are arrangements of traditional tunes and one original, `Good Shepherd'. Drummer Spencer Dryden contributes the country and western novelty `A Song for All Seasons'.



With all this anarchy, its curious that the very little `bad language' is so badly mumbled that you can hardly know what they are saying, and, in the copy of the lyrics in the LP, these words are changed to something much less objectionable. I thing Frank Zappa actually called them out on the timidity of hedging their bets with these dodges.



All in all, this is still an extremely powerful album that still resonates over the last thirty-five years. If you really want to know about music in the `60s counterculture, trade in your Grateful Dead for this classic.

Their most cohesive album

Volunteers was released in 1969 and is the last of the Jefferson Airplane albums to feature their classic lineup. While their previous studio albums After Bathing At Baxter's and Crown Of Creation were both strong and diverse releases, they also had a few songs which were uneven. Although many would say Surrealistic Pillow is their best album because it has their biggest hits "White Rabbit" and "Somebody To Love" and other popular songs, Volunteers plays more to the band's strengths in that it's a more musically diverse collection while still showcasing the band's songwriting skills. You could make similarities to the Doors in this aspect as their debut album also had more classic songs but it was on their Morrison Hotel release where they truly put it all together.



The first half of Volunteers has a strong good time feel to it beginning with the the excellent "We Can Be Together" which is carried throughout by Jorma Kaukonen's melodic lead work and the soaring harmonies of Grace Slick, Paul Kantner, and Marty Balin. What truly makes the song magical is longtime session man Nicky Hopkins whose piano work truly shines here. The tracks "Good Shepherd" and the countryish "The Farm" continue the upbeat mood while "Turn My Life Down" is a great track featuring the rare mix of acoustic guitar and Hammond B-3 organ along with a great lead vocal from Balin. The epic "Hey Frederick" is outstanding, featuring great vocals from Slick and a long jam at the end which shows the great interplay among Kaukonen, Hopkins, and the rhythm section of Jack Casady and Spencer Dryden. The album's second half is moodier but just as impressive. "Wooden Ships", written by Kantner and CSN members David Crosby and Stephen Stills, is an excellent track and one of the most memorable from the era. Although the CSN version performed on their self-titled debut is the more popular version, the Airplane's version is nearly as impressive, having a looser feel in both its harmonies and execution. "Eskimo Blue Day" is another moody epic from Slick while "A Song For All Seasons" is another upbeat country tune. Finally, the title track is one of their most enduring songs and one of the great anti-war anthems of the 1960's. Like all of their classic releases, the album has been remastered and features a generous portion of bonus tracks. In this case, it's five live tracks from a performance at the Fillmore East in November 1969 which cement the Airplane's reputation as a phenomenal live band. Casady's inventive bass playing is way up in the mix and a highlight of energetic versions of "Somebody To Love" and "Plastic Fantastic Lover." The live perfomances of "Good Shepherd", "Volunteers", and "Wooden Ships" are very good as well. Overall, a fantastic album and one of the best from the Woodstock era. Highly recommended.

In for a penny, and you'll get a pound!

Having bought the late-90s "remastered" version, I had later improved upon the sound quality with my own audio enhancing software because, let's face it, this "remastering" was utterly flat and hissy. Yuck.



For me, the selling point here were the bonus tracks (that you'll find on every album.) These alone are great, but it's about time somebody took the job of truly remastering these classic Jefferson Airplane songs! I think they're a tad high on the bass, but then again, Jefferson Airplane's music has always been vibrant and powerful. The bass really only accentuates it.



For Volunteers, a highly acclaimed album, keep an ear open for "We Can Be Together", "Good Shepard", "Wooden Ships", "Meadowlands", and "Volunteers". These are the best, and it's amazing what doesn't date after 35 years.