Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I feel incredibly fortunate to have grown up in San Francisco in the '60's. I really thought we were going to change the world with music, and perhaps we did, some--but things are so bad now that we might as well never have tried. The Man won--the bean counters took over the music business, and creativity took a back seat to cuteness. I'm all in favor of commercial success--I wish I'd had some--but in today's manufactured computerized pitch-corrected robot disco scene there's no room for creativity or musical ability--and don't get me going on down-tuned chugga-chugga pseudo-metal with cookie-monster vocals! OK, I'll get off my soapbox now...on to better things! The first name-artist rock concert I attended was in December of '66--I had turned 16 a few months before. San Francisco Civic Auditorium, featuring the Music Machine ("Talk Talk"), the Seeds ("Pushin' Too Hard"), the Royal Guardsmen ("Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron"), the Sopwith Camel ("Hello Hello"), Jefferson Airplane, and headlining was the Beach Boys. The Airplane blew everybody off the stage--they had just recorded Surrealistic Pillow but it hadn't been released yet. I had no idea that they'd changed female vocalists--I expected them to sound like they had on their first album, with Signe Anderson (which I liked a lot)--and here comes Grace Slick with that laser-beam of a voice, and the band was ridiculously tight and dynamic. The Beach Boys were anticlimactic after that. I was to see the Airplane several times in the next few years, but I never heard them sound that good again. Later on, in the summer of 1971, I was in a band called the Sagebrush Brothers that opened for Hot Tuna at a place called the Chateau Liberte', in the hills outside of Los Gatos, CA, and I got to meet Jorma and Jack. That was a big thrill, and I've always dug Hot Tuna--I thought they sounded really good that night, although a friend of mine who was there told me recently that he felt we blew them away! We were a good band, but we certainly didn't blow away Hot Tuna!

Long long time ago I heard a version of song "Guinnevere" by C,S & N with Jack Casady on bass. That day I realised that I didn't know anything about playing a bass and I've had "the wrong idols" before. Needless to say that mr. Casady has been my bass player hero since then. Jorma is my favorite guitarist, I really like his sound & style.

"Grace Slick
Marty Balin
Paul Kantner
Jorma K... something

These
are the members
of
The Airplane!!


Be a good boy"


-[removed spoiler]

BTW: that from the Coen brothers' film A Serious Man

Also, RE: JA - any band that sings songs based on James Joyce is alright by me.

collin wrote:This clip is epic :

The utter seriousness and self-importance of their stage presence MUST be in jest, right? If not, well, that's even cooler -- and funnier.

I´m currently reading a book titled “Take me to a circus tent” by Graig Fenton. There´s a photo from Monterey Jazz Festival 1966 where Jorma is playing Rickenbacker guitar instead of Gibson. You can see the picture here http://www.takemetoacircustent.net/inde ... w_Photos_2

Bob Harvey, the original Jefferson Airplane bassist, said that record company more or less forced them to go electric. That was around 1965 in the beginning of their career. Airplane started as more acoustic folk rock band. Harvey played upright bass but when they decided to go electric, he and Jorma went to a music store where Jorma usually bought his equipment. Harvey bought a Rickenbacker bass guitar. What model exactly, story didn´t tell.