Jefferson Airplane

[collin]

Man, a lot changed in two years back in those days.

That was one of the worst performances of STL I've ever seen.....no offense to the hardcore JA fans out there.

[kiramdear]

Man, a lot changed in two years back in those days.

That's one of the hardest things to explain to young people - how the world turned upside down between '66 and '68. You can only look at the evidence to try to understand the breakneck rate of evolution in the culture then. There's nothing to compare it with since that time. To our conservative parents if felt like the revolution was imminent, and we encouraged their fears by living as if it were so.

[firstbassman]

Here's the Airplane two years later at Woodstock:

As I think I've mentioned here before, I slept in the woods at Woodstock Saturday evening.

(Up on the hill to the left as one looked at the stage ... where the Hog Farm was giving out bowls of ... something).

Anyway, I woke up early on Sunday and walked out to the edge of the woods just about the time the Airplane were starting their set.

I took a photo of the stage with my Poloroid Swinger camera. Wish I still had that picture.

[doctorwho]

... "Nothing's gonna stop us now," ...

IIRC, that was written by Albert Hammond (It Never Rains In Southern California).

I don't know whether someone ele posted this one before, but this clip (especially the first song) is, to me, Jeffeson Aitplane at its best ... the band is really cohesive, nobody is hogging the spotlight, etc.:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrU_midX ... re=related

And man, could Grace belt it out!

[kiramdear]

As I think I've mentioned here before, I slept in the woods at Woodstock Saturday evening.

(Up on the hill to the left as one looked at the stage ... where the Hog Farm was giving out bowls of ... something).

Anyway, I woke up early on Sunday and walked out to the edge of the woods just about the time the Airplane were starting their set.

I took a photo of the stage with my Poloroid Swinger camera. Wish I still had that picture.

Nice Woodstock story. Sadly, I was born just a few years too late to have one of my own.

.

I don't know whether someone ele posted this one before, but this clip (especially the first song) is, to me, Jeffeson Aitplane at its best ... the band is really cohesive, nobody is hogging the spotlight, etc.:

And man, could Grace belt it out!

+1, Gary. Everybody should see that clip.

[doctorwho]

... Nice Woodstock story. Sadly, I was born just a few years too late to have one of my own.

Me too. Although, if my friends and I (just about ready to start our senior year in high school in 1969) could have gotten enough gas money together, we might have tried to make the trip, as we did have a car available.

[jimk]

... Nice Woodstock story. Sadly, I was born just a few years too late to have one of my own.

Me too. Although, if my friends and I (just about ready to start our senior year in high school in 1969) could have gotten enough gas money together, we might have tried to make the trip, as we did have a car available.

That was more than I had. I was out on the west coast of the US and Woodstock was 3,000 miles away.
JimK

[beatlefreak]

[firstbassman]

I don't know whether someone ele posted this one before, but this clip (especially the first song) is, to me, Jeffeson Aitplane at its best ... the band is really cohesive, nobody is hogging the spotlight, etc.:

And man, could Grace belt it out!

The clip of the Airplane performing "High Flying Bird" at Monterey Pop ...





Well, another story I've think I've told here before . . .

That song literally changed my life.
When the film first came out, I stood in line for hours outside the Kips Bay theatre in New York.

And as soon as I heard the opening notes of HFB (I had never heard the song before) I was hooked.
I loved Janis in the film. Loved Hendrix, etc.
But when I heard HFB, I instantly just somehow knew this was going to be my favorite band. And my favorite kind music.

The song was written by Billy Edd Wheeler by the way, of West Virginia, and has been covered by many people including Richie Havens and Stephen Stills.
Mr. Wheeler is still with us and we have exchanged e-mails a couple of times.

http://www.BillyEddWheeler.com

[firstbassman]

Dontcha just hate bein' the last poster in a thread . . . .

[kiramdear]

I know, I always take it so personally

[jdogric12]

Man, a lot changed in two years back in those days.

That's one of the hardest things to explain to young people - how the world turned upside down between '66 and '68. You can only look at the evidence to try to understand the breakneck rate of evolution in the culture then. There's nothing to compare it with since that time. To our conservative parents if felt like the revolution was imminent, and we encouraged their fears by living as if it were so.

This was excellently worded, Kira, and very insightful, yet concise. Thanks for posting this.

[kiramdear]

Thank you, Jdog. I really appreciate that

It really was an optimistic and idealistic two years for the hippies. But by the end of '69 (Altamont, The Manson Family, much more negativity) things had turned pretty dark, and the idealism waned as a lot of kids found it was easier to stay home and get stoned than to work for meaningful change. Within a year or so the Haight Ashbury neighborhood had virtually transformed to a high-crime ghetto full of disillusioned youth and impoverished outcasts from all over the country. The corruption and ennui was our self-administered shot in the foot, in terms of the social progress we sought. Then before long, the lines were drawn and a formidable opposition was mounted. Then you can start to follow the time line more easily.

I'm sure someone could disagree with me on points. This is my very subjective analysis, and I oversimplify for brevity. But I think it's a good place to begin talking for a young person wanting to understand that unique period of our cultural history in the Sixties.

[kiramdear]

I think everyone should see this who is interested in my little summary of the late Sixties. It's a public service/drug education flick from 1968 with Sonny Bono describing the down side of using marijuana. The funny part is that he looks and sounds loaded to the gills while he's doing it!

here's a linky: http://www.archive.org/details/Marijuana_1968

[cassius987]

Not being familiar with JA, those clips are all pretty cool. Thanks.

I am way too young to have anything to do with hippy culture but I think I experienced its backlash anyways... am I wrong, or did the people that were once hippies often become very conservative out of reflex? When I taught music at a local store, I wore patchouli all the time for the sole purpose of pleasing myself and hopefully others with the wonderful smell. I hadn't smoked for years at that point--simply because I saw it as a waste of my money when I could be buying guitars, computers, cars, etc. Ah--and I also was following a "shower only every three days" rule to conserve water. In high school I was a bit of an ecofeminist. Anywho, all of my little kiddos loved me, requested to stay with me, rarely dropped out of my roster--but their parents, mostly of a 1950s and 1960s vintage, hated me to death. Eventually two complaints were made simultaneously and I was let go. I offered to do a urine test to prove my innocence, but apparently the fact that I LOOKED and SMELLED like a pot smoker was grounds for removal. Only one parent called me after I left to ask if I could take their child on privately; this lady was born in the late 60s herself, just missing the "movement".

The store lost their only bass teacher, only Spanish speaker (I could deal with several students no one else could), and one of the only guys who didn't have any tattoos or piercings! I was so upset... I went home and cried to my wife. Time to go back to work for Walgreens. (Ironically they didn't care about the patchouli.) Now I shower at least every other day and have switched to a more "normal" scent to wear, among other things, because I have learned what harm can be done because of preconceptions... especially the preconceptions of those who once bore labels themselves.

So all that is just to say that I both admire and despise the culture of the hippies. I have a lot of mixed emotions about some of the people that lived through it--none of you good folks, though. I like all of you.