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Edwird -> RE: Music of the 1960s What a pity we we not yet born. What a time we missed for sure. (8/22/2016 12:01:57 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: jlf1961
quote:
ORIGINAL: WhoreMods
I thought the fact that they kept going as a separate band was more down to Slick ousting Kourkonen and Balin when she started switching the band around?
Nope, they were a very lucrative deal by the time Grace got over her surgery, WHICH was a major problem for Grace (that bitch has an ego that borders on delusions of god hood) she felt she was the reason that Airplane was successful.
But lets face reality, Grace's popularity was her voice that many compared to Janis Joplin and a couple of others, in other words, she was one of a dozen or so good female vocalists.
Airplane, then Starship was popular more for their originality and the way the group performed as a whole.
I mean Grace's few solo attempts bombed so bad it wasnt even funny.
Yeah, well hardly.
As much as I love Scotty Moore's guitar playing, people didn't buy Elvis records for that, nor for Carl Perkins' songwriting, at the time. They bought it for the singer, as has forever been the case. I haven't seen where Grace Slick ever thought she was the best thing about Jefferson airplane, but that she we was a significant part of the appeal, what got them on the road, and not just by her looks. Grace Slick wasn't Elvis, but J Lennon and Macca weren't either.
BTW, this is the first I've heard of comparing Grace Slick's and Janis Joplin's voice in any way, but knowing what fuckwits music writers are, I wouldn't be shocked if that actually happened. Completely different styles, voices, everything. Are you sure you're not just making that up?
She did have a problem with alcohol at various times, so not sure but that may coincide with your claim.
But even if so, it's not as though she didn't have reason for it, and certainly not the first of any artiste to take note of their own value. This stuff is decades and even centuries old, from many in her place before and since. Singling her out from all that is just silly.
How many people would have listened to Paul Kantner or Jourma Koukonen singing those same songs that got them on the radio? Good as he was, not even Marty Balin would have gotten them on the radio by himself. Include his failures in that regard there in the beginning as much as you include Grace Slick's failures on solo attempts after the failed Starship venture. Fishsmell (or was that Hot Tuna?) were good for a couple of albums, then done, with 98% of the audience for either their albums or shows having never been aware of them in the first place were it not for Grace Slick being in the group that brought everybody else in the band to their attention.
Do you know how many other bands, from whatever decade, had perhaps interesting musical ideas or cultural statements to make that never got an audience because they never had a singer that could hold anybody's interest? Such is the life of 'pop' music, even among things not necessarily made for mass audience.
Grace Slick was a fantastic singer that an 'outré' band such as the Jefferson Airplane were very lucky to have come upon to both present the band's works and be a major artistic contributor at the same time. Having a voice and power to bring it to everybody's attention in the first place is what allowed everything thereafter to happen, for all of them.
Spencer Dryden, the drummer contributed keyboards on one song. Grace Slick contributed two written songs on every album, along with playing piano and organ and the recorder on every song you hear where included, including arrangement, on a number of songs, on every album. All the rest of the band were just guitar boys with more than half a clue and interesting musical ideas. Grace's musical ideas were just as strong, while being more artistically versatile.
I'm a somewhat fan of Kaukonen, or was at one time, but I and thousands of others would never had heard of him if not for Grace Slick.
Just check around small concerts and studios; there are literally thousands like Kaukonen. Good guitar players, piano players, drummers, sax players, whole string sections, etc. are a dime a dozen. Many good songwriters can't even get their stuff anywhere near a studio.
Any band, no matter how talented the musicians or the songwriters, would kill for a Grace Slick.
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