Monocled Alchemist

“Come Up The Years” is my pick from the LP | Jefferson Airplane – ’Takes off’ (RCA Victor LPM-3584) September 1966

Article published in Crawdaddy!, January 1967

Jefferson Airplane | Takes Off | (RCA Victor) 1966 | Jefferson Airplane ‘Takes Off’ is the most important album of American rock issued this year: it is the first LP to come out of the new San Francisco music scene (which hopefully means that other groups from the area won’t be kept “underground” much longer); in a time when the traditional two guitars-bass-drums set-up is being threatened by more experimental rock forms, ‘Takes Off‘ is a definitive statement as to just what can be done with a four-man combo working with vocals; and finally, and without which the foregoing would mean nothing, this is a very beautiful though faulted work of art.

Initially formed about a year and a half ago by Marty Balin, the group’s “lead” singer, the Airplane was the first group in San Francisco, and for that matter in the country, outside of the Byrds and the Lovin’ Spoonful, to present an entirely new and meaningful approach to rock ‘n’ roll.

Though their sound in performance could not have been called revolutionary, the manner in which they entered into the music definitely was. The approach is simply one of fusing, along with the various folk and jazz influences, the immediacy of love into the making of music, a basic musical element that for some sad reason has been lacking in rock ‘n’ roll many too many times.

Ralph Gleason, in his tasteful liner notes, has wisely let Balin do most of the talking, for he can say it much better than anyone else: “All the material we do is about love . . . When we play we’re involved and I think that really communicates to an audience . . . something, the power of creating, you can feel it.”

Blues

“Blues From an Airplane” is an early piece the group rarely does now that has its good and bad points as an introduction to what is to follow. The presentation is excellent and the sound is good, but as a song “Blues” is the weakest composition on the LP.

Marty Balin’s main fault as a song writer is his sometime failure to integrate fully the varied musical and lyrical ideas he may introduce within one song. But to words that on paper are not particularly good poetry, the Airplane’s harmonies and occasionally violently rocking instrumental sounds inject an ‘elan vital,’ a feeling for life that one cannot help but be caught up in.

Jefferson Airplane | Come Up The Years | (RCA Victor) 1966

“Let Me In” is what we are talking about when we use the term “contemporary rock ‘n’ roll.” The magic of the cut and of the Airplane is that eventually one has difficulty distinguishing the vocals from the instrumental “backing,” so tight are the two, exchanging and developing each other’s rhythms and themes in a way that reminds one of the musical conversation among the members of a siring quartet.

Somehow, each part of the Airplane seems continually aware of exactly what is going on both with the others and with himself, and the result is a sound that drives like mad. “Let Me In” gives one a good idea of what this sound is like live.

Paul Kantner who plays lead/rhythm guitar, sings in an involved yet wonderfully cool manner (that could only have happened in San Francisco I think), while Jorma Kaukonen, lead/rhythm guitar (he takes care of most of the solo work), Jack Casady, bass, and Skip Spence, drums, work together in the foreground at about the same volume as Kantner, setting the mood for the whole album.

Jefferson Airplane | Takes Off | (RCA Victor) 1966

Let it be said that after this song bass will never be the same. Casady holds it all together. His bass is the ground from which the Airplane takes off, and as they fly he is with them, showing the way. Without him the Airplane would still be a very good group; because they have him, they are great.

Most good rock ‘n’ roll sounds best when played somewhere between medium and high volume because techniques for faithfully recording rock ‘n’ roll are still in their developmental stages and an increase in volume naturally brings out, if only faintly, what is lost at low volume, and because the phonographs most rock is played on are not of the highest quality, and an increase in volume, naturally . . .

Emotional Experience

In live performance the Airplane is very loud, but so are many groups. The audience’s reaction to what is behind the Airplane’s volume is what makes them almost unique among really loud rock groups. There are no riots, no screaming, no freaking out – there is, instead, a swaying that spreads, there are gentle smiles, young and old join hands and dance, people fall in love . . .

It is very easy then to play Jefferson Airplane ‘Takes Off’ at full volume when one is looking for a rich emotional experience, but it is not the way to judge the engineering of this album. One must decide on a “threshold” where logic leaves off, and then listen and experiment with the volume available below that point.

Jefferson Airplane | Takes Off | (RCA Victor) 1966

Much of the engineering and production on ‘Takes Off’ is quite good, as one discovers when the album is heard at threshold volume. The voices blend well. Marty, Signe and Paul have been recorded all as lead vocalists, as they should be, on numbers like “Run Around” and “Don’t Slip Away,” and Kaukonen and Kantner are properly kept near the same volume, for they are both really lead guitarists.

At lower volume though something unfortunate happens with a number of the cuts. The vocals on “Bringing Me Down” seem diluted, too clear and separate. They don’t go together well, and Signe’s voice is almost lost. But the overall sound still drives.

Airplane live

“It’s No Secret” is a different story. And anyone who has heard the Airplane live can tell you, this is their best song. You would hardly guess that listening to this concoction; the studio did not water down the vocals; they submerged the group in a pool and miked them from the drain – an entirely different song from the one they do live.

What they do live is a kind of “Joy to the World,” Balin screaming, Signe and Paul very loud, all instruments at apparently the same volume. “It’s no secret, when you got me jumpin’ up and down.” Jefferson Airplane grabs the audience and love is present.

Jefferson Airplane | Takes Off | (RCA Victor) 1966

The songs following “Secret” fare considerably better; I like the “Tobacco Road” here very much. The vocals again suffer from the engineering and Paul and Signe do not seem entirely sure of themselves, but Balin is with it all the way to the abrupt end.

As with all of the Airplane‘s workings, the arrangement is very interesting. In place of the 4/4 time commonly associated with the song, a free blues tempo is employed with Marty carrying the first three lines of the verses, and Signe and Paul joining in on the last line in a different rhythm.

Signe does some beautiful wailing while Casady’s floating bass lays down a basic rhythmic pattern within and around which Kantner and Kaukonen work, both playing lead lines. The drumming by Skip Spence is what really rounds out the song, but he cannot be heard well on this version.

“Come Up the Years” belongs to Marty. “A younger girl keeps hangin’ around . . . ” The lyrics, as in all his songs, are straightforward, about everyday feelings and problems that we have; you’ll find their sentiment in just about any Top 40 song. But Balin writes about them completely seriously because he knows our lives depend on it.

Production

Dave Hassinger, the engineer on this album (who has done some good work with the Stones), and Matthew Katz and Tommy Oliver, the producers, must be congratulated for their handling of Jack Casady.

Obviously aware of the importance of the bass to the group’s sound, they have chosen to keep Casady considerably louder in the final mix than is normal for rock recordings, and all of the songs benefit from this, particularly “Run Around” which contains the most advanced bass work in pop recording history.

Casady’s lines come, it seems to me, not so much from rock or jazz as from classical music. His bass becomes an electric cello and the effect is unlike anything you have ever heard before.

Jefferson Airplane | Takes Off | (RCA Victor) 1966

Kaukonen is also very interesting. Through his work with the Airplane he has developed what is turning out to be one of the most original styles of any rock guitarist anywhere. He might be called the fourth voice of the Airplane, so right are his runs and rhythms.

Even during jamming, which too often proves the unhinging of many good guitarists, Kaukonen always remains a controlled and fantastically exciting performer. Too bad we can’t hear more of him, he and the group have only gotten started driving when they have to stop for the people at RCA who are still paying homage to the three minute cut-off. The whole thing should be about two minutes longer.

Why “Let’s Get Together” isn’t sung in church I will never know. Paul, Signe and Marty trade off on lead on this most sensitive, hopeful and contemporary ballad that, with “Don’t Slip Away,” “Tobacco Road,” and “Run Around” shows the group as a whole at best advantage.

If you could see Signe when she sings “Hey people, smile on your brother,” – it is one of the truly beautiful sights on earth.

If you hear the song I’m singin’, you will understand,
You hold the key to love and fear all in your tremblin’ hand.
One key unlocks them both you know, it’s at your command.
Hey people, won’t you smile on your brother, Let’s see you get together and love one another right now.

Fat Angel

I think of a line from “Fat Angel” by Donovan when I hear “Don’t Slip Away”: “Fly Jefferson Airplane, get you there on time.” There are many different things going on here all at once. And in the two and a half minutes they’re allotted, the Airplane manages to fit them together to achieve and incredibly driving beat that hypnotizes the listener during the first short verse and does not let go until after the last final note. Just how it all works I cannot tell you, nor could anyone else, I suspect, not even one of the Airplane. It does happen. That is the magic of rock ‘n’ roll.

“Chauffeur Blues” serves nicely as a vehicle for Signe’s shouting blues style, though I find the song out of place on ‘Takes Off’. It lacks soul, and sounds rather like a stale period piece, certainly not the kind of thing one would expect to follow “Don’t Slip Away,” But “Chauffeur” does give Skip Spence, who left the Airplane shortly after this record was made, a chance to show what he can do. I like his elemental drumming very much here. Spencer Dryden, who has since replaced Spence, is cooler and better and even louder, but I don’t think he could have pulled this off as well.

Jefferson Airplane | Takes Off | (RCA Victor) 1966

Which brings me to “And I Like It,” the most disappointing cut of all, mainly because its big fault is immediately evident – the production line at RCA has bungled badly what they easily could have left alone. When you hear Balin do this number live, see him reacting off the audience and Casady and Dryden and most of all Kaukonen, you realize that he is in a class with Denny Laine (formerly with the Moody Blues) and Tim Hardin.

But RCA has mangled “And I Like It,” taken the seven or eight minutes it should be and given us an abridged version that never gets off the ground. Balin and Casady speed up to try to fit in as much as possible within the time limit and the power of the song in live performance is all but lost.

This is still a very good record, but we might have had a great one. Hopefully, with their immense popularity on the Coast and a growing following elsewhere in the country, the Airplane have had more to say about the production of their forthcoming album. In the meantime, get a copy of Jefferson Airplane ‘Takes Off’. Listen to “Come Up the Years,” “Don’t Slip Away” and the other good songs. And play it loud.

TIM JURGENS