Paul Kantner and Jefferson Starship - Have You Seen the Stars Tonite? (1970)

Internal problems amongst the members of Jefferson Airplane began to boil over in 1970, starting with their drummer, Spencer Dryden, being unanimously voted out of the band. Members Jack Casady and Jorma Kaukonen launched a side project, Hot Tuna; Paul Kantner and the married Grace Slick began a love affair; and Marty Balin felt like a bit of an outcast because of his bandmates pairing up without him.

Since Jefferson Airplane had only released one single in 1970, Paul Kantner decided to work on a solo album with Grace Slick titled Blows Against the Empire. The entire album was conceptualized around a science-fiction theme and was released under the name “Paul Kantner and Jefferson Starship.” It’s important to note that this was not the same Jefferson Starship band that would be created in 1974 by Kantner. This was, if anything, a coincidental name that would provide the inspiration for Kantner’s Jefferson Starship four years later. It’s said that the name “Starship,” was inspired by many things: the evolution of Jefferson Airplane to something more grandiose, the star-filled lineup that accompanied Kantner and Slick on the album, and the fact that the characters within the album were seeking a starship to leave the planet Earth.

Speaking of the talent involved in the creation of the album, Blows Against the Empire featured not only the talents of Paul Kantner and Grace Slick, but also fellow Jefferson Airplane members Jack Casady and Joey Covington; the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia, Bill Kreutzmann, and Mickey Hart; CSN’s David Crosby and Graham Nash; Quicksilver Messenger Service’s David Freiberg; The Electric Flag’s Harvey Brooks; and Jorma Kaukonen’s brother Peter Kaukonen.

The song heard below appeared as the eighth song on Blows Against the Empire. It was written by Paul Kantner and David Crosby. It features Paul Kantner, Grace Slick, Jerry Garcia (pedal steel guitar), Mickey Hart (percussion), and David Crosby (vocals, guitar). Although the song never charted, Blows Against the Empire itself was the first rock album to be nominated for the Hugo science fiction award. If you like this song, I highly recommend listening to the entire album.



Paul Kantner and Jefferson Starship - Have You Seen the Stars Tonite? (1970)

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Lyrics:

Have you seen the stars tonight?
Would you like to go up on ‘A’ Deck and look at them with me?
Have you seen the stars tonight?
Would you like to go up for a stroll and keep me company?

Do you know?
We could go
We are free
Any place you could think of
We could be

Have you seen the stars tonight?
Have you look at all the family of stars?

The Great Society - White Rabbit [Live] (1966)

Formed in 1965, this band was named after a set of domestic programs initiated by President Lyndon B. Johnson in the fall of the same year. Inspired by The Beatles and newly emerging Jefferson Airplane, the group was initially composed of Grace Slick, her then-husband Darby Slick, and Darby’s brother, Jerry Slick. The group debuted at the Coffee Gallery on October 15th, 1966 in San Francisco, and released one single on Autumn Records. That single featured the A-Side “Someone to Love” and the B-Side “Free Advice.” “Free Advice” reportedly took over fifty attempts before getting a decent take and caused their producer, the then-unknown Sly Stone, to walk out on them. The A-Side, “Someone to Love,” written by Darby Slick, was taken by Grace when she parted with the group to join Jefferson Airplane. Renamed to “Somebody to Love,” the song propelled Grace and her new band to international stardom. Quite oppositely, Grace’s decision to join Jefferson Airplane directly resulted in this group’s demise.

Written in only one hour in either late 1965 or early 1966 by Grace, this song is widely remembered for its rendition performed by Jefferson Airplane. However, it too, was written when Grace was still a member of The Great Society. Later in 1966, when Jefferson Airplane’s first singer, Signe Toly Anderson, decided to leave the music business to raise a family, Jefferson Airplane approached Grace and asked her to join their band. Admiring how professional the group was in comparison to her current gig, Slick agreed and took this song with her. Although this early version of the song wasn’t released as a single or on a full-length album by The Great Society, it was recorded by the band at The Matrix club in 1966, along with eight other tracks. All of these tracks were later released on a 1968 live album, titled Conspicuous Only in Its Absence, which was Columbia Records’ attempt to cash in on Grace’s international stardom with Jefferson Airplane after their 1967 album, Surrealistic Pillow, which featured new versions of both “Someone to Love” and this song.

This early version of the song has a great, long instrumental in the beginning. If you're only familiar with the Jefferson Airplane version, it probably won't sound familiar until you reach the 4:22 mark. The song features Grace Slick playing an oboe.



The Great Society - White Rabbit [Live] (1966)

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Lyrics:

One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small
And the ones that mother gives you
Don't do anything at all
Go ask Alice
When she's ten feet tall

And if you go chasing rabbits
And you know you're going to fall
Tell 'em a hookah smoking caterpillar
Has given you the call
To call Alice
When she was just small

When the men on the chessboard
Get up and tell you where to go
And you've just had some kind of mushroom
And your mind is moving slow
Go ask Alice
I think she'll know

When logic and proportion
Have fallen sloppy dead
And the White Knight’s talking backwards
And the Red Queen's “Off with her head!”
Remember what the doormouse said
“Feed your head!”
“Feed your head!”

Thank you, be back later.

Jefferson Airplane - Come Up The Years (1966)

Rooted in folk and blues music, this psychedelic group was the first (and largest) band to come out of the San Francisco movement in the mid to late ‘60s. They’re mostly remembered for their biggest commercial hits “White Rabbit” and “Somebody to Love.” Both of these psychedelic songs were sung by their second female vocalist, Grace Slick (a former model), who had replaced Signe Toly Anderson and boosted the band into stardom.

This song comes from their first album, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off, before Grace Slick, The Acid Queen, had joined the band.



Jefferson Airplane - Come Up The Years (1966)

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Lyrics:

I oughta get goin'
I shouldn't stay here and love you
More than I do
'cause you're so much younger than I am
Come up the years
Come up the years
And love me, love me, love me

A younger girl keeps hangin' around
One of the loveliest I've ever found
Blows my mind; stealin' my heart
Somebody help me 'fore I fall apart

I oughta get goin'
I shouldn't stay here and love you
More than I do
'cause you're so much younger than I am
Come up the years
Come up the years
And love me, love me, love me

The things she's doin' keep turnin' me on
And I've been happy to go right along
I know it's time that I said goodbye
I know I can't leave no matter how hard I try

I oughta get goin'
I shouldn't stay here and love you
More than I do
'cause you're so much younger than I am
Come up the years
Come up the years
And love me, love me, love me
Love me, love me, won’t you love me?