Streamlined Starship

"Best Of" albums are by definition hodge-podgey affairs. Yes, there are artists whose works are best represented by retrospective repackagings, but even Jefferson Starship's detractors (and the reviews below suggest that there certainly are some) would have to admit that the group was attempting more--even in their most commercial periods--than their singles alone might suggest. A "best of" is likely to only begin to suggest the range of the group's experimentalism, which WAS there even in the 70s.



As someone once said, any group that included a songwriter and singer as idiosyncratic as Grace Slick could never be a totally commercial venture. The Starship enterprise was certainly as commercial as a bunch of hippies could ever get, but neither Paul nor Grace were really capable of churning out the hits over the long haul. Sweet voiced Marty Balin finally received his due in the 70s (since, as is commonly noted, he felt justifiably frustrated in the 60s when the interloper Slick brought the Airplane their only real hits and got ALL the media attention). And who can deny that "Miracles" wasn't a deserving hit? For a while, he was being hailed as a white soul balladeer. But that proved to be a pretty shortlived phenomenon, and by the time of "Runaway" and "With Your Love," people were screaming "formula." Worse yet they were referring to him as a "lounge singer."



What are you gonna do? When Balin was in his prime, I could have listened to him sing the phone book. And the more uptempo numbers here, such as "Caroline" show him at his versatile best. But Balin himself once referred to the group that brought him stardom as essentially "a variety show." And that's a statement that you could take in a positive or negative light. (I gather he meant in negatively himself.)



Even more so than the Airplane before them, the Starship really did seem to be three or four songwriters all "on separate trips," as we used to say. You had Grace's cool obscurantism, Paul's sci-fi and poli-sci-fi tracts, and Marty's ardent love songs. Throw in a few instrumentals and one or two experiments and you had your typical Starship record circa '74 to '79. More than the sum of its parts? Less? Or just a strange assemblage of parts, sometimes coming together in a perfect fit and sometimes not? The last may be the best and most accurate way of viewing them.



So, in order to get the full flavor, it's still probably preferable to listen to the complete albums--even if you do find them flawed. On the other hand, if you have to have a "best of" collection, this is pretty much as good a one as you could hope for. Really, if I had been assigned the project (fat chance, but in my dreams), I would have selected pretty much the same Starship tracks: "Caroline" (a little long but still the JS track that recaptured some Airplane magic and likely convinced Marty to rejoin the group fulltime for RED OCTOPUS), "Ride the Tiger" (a little heavy handed but also as rocky as a Kantner opus is gonna get) and "Hyperdrive," (a favorite of mine, with Grace at her most elliptical) all from DRAGONFLY. The RED OCTOPUS tracks are what you would expect, "Miracles," "Play On Love," and "Fast Buck Freddie" (classic Marty, Grace at her most accessible). The EARTH and SPITFIRE tracks are also virtual musts in any Jefferson Starship collection. I know some would argue against the Balin ballads, but they WERE hits. "Love Too Good" is latter day Grace at her very best--one of her best vocals ever. And "St. Charles" is as good an example of a successful collaborative effort by the group's three main songwriters as you're going to find (from their entire oeuvre). And as I suggested, those collaborations were getting rarer and rarer by the late 70s.



Overall, then, it's as good a collection as you're gonna get, if you're not up to investing in a complete set of all the JS albums. The bonus track "Light the Sky On Fire" probably shouldn't be the decisive factor in anyone's purchasing decision. It's a nice non-ballad Marty vocal. He sounds a little strained, and the Kantneresque lyrics and arrangements don't quite work here for him. Not the way they do on "St. Charles" -- that track is the GROUP at their magical best.



One caveat: apparently the remastered edition of GOLD has the album length version of "Miracles." That's doubtless a plus for most listeners. Actually, though, since I also own RED OCTOPUS, I didn't mind having the single version as well. I knew that the hit version had been edited down, but since I didn't really listen to commercial radio back in the 70s, the 45 version was pretty much unfamiliar to me. It was interesting to see how it was skillfully edited down to a more "radio friendly" length. Doubtless some will even prefer the more stripped down version.

Much improved over original release

I just bought this rereleased disc, and I must say I was very pleasantly surprised to find out that the four tracks that had been edited for the original 1979 release (as well as the original CD release) have been replaced with the full-length album versions.

Great Collection of Jefferson Starship Songs

I love the songs on this CD. I've had it for a long time and purchased it because it had all the songs I like by them. Miracles, Runaway, Count on Me, and With Your Love. There are a few other good ones but the ones listed are excellent. Miracles and Runaway were always my two favorite songs by them and they withstood the test of time. Highly recommended CD.