Jefferson Starship's best-selling album!

This album and its song MIRACLES by Marty Balin both were at least nominated for a Grammy. MIRACLES was Jefferson Starship's greatest hit(one of 1975's top hits). I don't care for the edited single version,though. I prefer the eight-minute album version. The album version also appears on 2000's LOVE SONGS. The single version appeared on GOLD,a compilation released in 1979. Other hits include FAST BUCK FREDDIE,where Grace Slick takes the lead vocal. GIT FIDDLER features the fiddling of the late Papa John Creach who was,at the time of recording RED OCTOPUS,a JS member. AI GARIMASU(There is Love),composed by Slick,has her taking the lead vocal again. I like TUMBLIN' also. That sounds like MIRACLES(lead vocal by Balin). PLAY ON LOVE also has a lead vocal by Slick. That song,with AI GARIMASU,also appears on LOVE SONGS. All the other songs are good.

Spotty but Oddly Essential

In many ways, Jefferson Starship's "Red Octopus" is the quintessential 70s record: the once pioneering, folk-driven prophets of flower power now indulge a variety of post-hippie, west-coast rock styles as they attempt to forge, with uneven success, a radio-friendly sound. There is, needless to say, some very strong material here. Grace Slick, for example can't do wrong: her vocals on the lively opener, "Fast Buck Freddie" are inspired, as is her commitment to her self-penned balled "Ai Garamasu." "Play on Love" is a bit dated now, but her rich, clear alto soars over the mid-tempo schmultz with confidence.



Marty Balin's "Miracles" would prove the band's most enduring hit throughout the decade. And oh, what a hit. Easy-listening readio stations still play it (albeit in truncated form). But at this stage in his career, Balin clearly sacraficed vision for popularity. "Miracles," along with "Sweeter than Honey," are generic in every sense of the word. But generic sells.



Elsewhere, Octopus is spotty at best. Popa John Creach's "Get Fiddler" is more pleasant than interesting; and Frieberg's "Tumblin," though pretty, gets nowhere near the impact of the Airplane's "Today." The instrumental "Sandolphin" is forgettable. So, we are left with Kanter's earnest and lively "I Want to See Another World."



Despite its manifold flaws, "Red Octopus" occasionally works very well and its high-points ensure that it will endure as a document of arena-based rock in the middle of the "Me" decade.

The best starship

Red Octopus pound for pound is the best JS album released during the Marty Balin era. That, however, is not saying a whole lot. Each side assaults your mind and ears at the beginning with Grace Slick and her banal lyrics set to Craig Chaquico and Pete Sears music respectivly. If you can get past that you can find some pretty good songs here. Marty Balin's "Miracles" is easily the best song the JS ever cut, and "Sweeter than Honey" actually has guitarist Craig Chaquico playing a decent riff. "Al Garimasu" is once again Grace Slick destyroying good vinyl with another set of crappy lyrics only this time we get her three chord music to go along with her simple-minded lyrics. skip it. David Freiberg's tune"Tumblin" gets better the more you listen and and Pete Sears imstrumental "Sandalphon" shows a bit of a different side to JS. Pauls Kantner's "I want to see another world" and "There will be love" are poor examples of familiar Airplane tunes (maybe its just me but all of Paul's songs sound the same)and attempt to end the album on a positive note, but rather makes the listener wanting the last song to hurry up and end, already. This may be the JS best work, but it barely rises above a mediocrity that always haunted the band dispite their commercial success.