Posted on 02/24/2010 8:05:14 PM PST by woofie
Side One of the Jefferson Airplane's classic 1967 album 'Surealistic Pillow' gets a heavy workout in the Coen brothers' latest film, 'A Serious Man,' loosely based on the directors' own coming-of-age in suburban Minnesota in the era of acid rock. Bar mitzvah boy Danny listens to 'Somebody to Love' on transistor-radio earphones to get through Hebrew school.
The powerful voice on that hit single belonged to Grace Slick, one of the first true female rock stars, and one of the most unrepentant characters to emerge from the hedonistic '60s. Her appetite was legendary, even among her famously indulgent peers. And she had a nose for trouble: As recently as the 1990s, she was having run-ins with the law.
As the San Francisco rock scene began to form in the mid-1960s, the young department store model born Grace Wing started a rock band called the Great Society with her then-husband, Jerry Slick, and his brother Darby. When another local band, Jefferson Airplane, lost a singer to maternity leave, they offered to buy Grace out of her contract. She brought two songs with her from the Great Society: the Darby Slick composition 'Somebody to Love' and her own 'White Rabbit' -- a dirgelike drug-culture anthem teeming with trippy 'Alice in Wonderland' imagery that would follow the former song into the Top 10 during the Summer of Love.
(Excerpt) Read more at spinner.com ...
Same here!!
Thank God that you and I were too young in the sixties to really be much affected by all of the horror of the time.
Being kids, we got to enjoy all of the wonder, instead.
Just saying.I know she was difficult and exploited etc. etc. But what a voice, what power, what emotion!
Just FYI..........urban legend. She (Cass Elliott) didn’t die choking on a ham sandwich.
yah, we know. Congratulations on being the 51st caller with that correct answer!
Doesn’t make it any less funny, does it....
She's well into her 60's, she was an integral part of rock and roll and Airplane/Starship will forever be remembered and revered.
We all grew old, some gracefully, some not.....Give her a break for heavens sake............
"Don't you want somebody to love..." awesome song by an awesome band!
Indeed it was! There's music and groups from that era that I never gave a thought to then but I've actually come to appreciate today.........BTO, Fleetwood Mac, and believe it or not, Bob Dylan.......
I didn’t know that Fleetwood Mac was together in the sixties. I thought they formed sometime in the seventies (but I could be wrong). I never heard of them until the eighties.
But yeah, popular music went through an amazing evolution during the sixties. It was incredible to be there as it happened. The music was probably the very best part of that era.
Different tastes, I suppose. I was born in ‘55 so I remember ‘60’s music (and other things) very well. I’m also a rock guitarist of over 40 years. I’ve always thought the JA (let alone the ridiculous JS incarnation) to be HIGHLY overrated.
I mean insanely overrated. Maybe that’s just me.
Then again, I felt the same about many of that era.....like Dylan, for example.
Ya know, as I just posted to another FReeper....I’ve been slinging rock guitar for decades (since ‘69). For the longest time, I just didn’t “get” Hendrix. I mean, the man had skills, no doubt; he just left me cold overall.
That all changed when I finally heard the “Band of Gypsies” album. One of the best live albums ever done...and when I really listened to it, it hit me. That guy could flat out play guitar. Forget the lighter fluid/fire, forget dry-humping the guitar, forget the ridiculous feedback, forget breaking the guitar onstage (a direct rip-off of Townsend, frankly)....take all that out of his repertoire and he could rip some serious blues.
That was Cass Elliot.
Yeah, well, making fun of the deceased isn’t my thing (especially “jokes” based on lies), but....if that’s funny to ya, more power to you.
I knew that the first time I heard it, back in 1970. I wasn't a total Hendrix fan at the time, though I had really liked his first album. Because I was just a kid, and listened to Top-40, I wasn't aware of the other work he'd done since.
When I heard "Band of Gypsies" for the first time, the timing and setting were perfect, and I was able to listen to it without distraction. All I can say is that I was mesmerized, and impressed beyond measure. Pretty soon, I had every Hendrix album that could be had, and became a total devotee. I think Jimi inspired me to become a guitar slinger, myself.
You're right about Jimi and the blues. It's the thing that consistently comes through in his music, no matter how stretched out he took it. The blues was always his rock. He even spoke about it, many times.
There's a posthumous Hendrix album called "Blues", which is a compilation of his bluesiest tunes. Great record. You can get it online.
Well, you got me on a subject that I could waste away hours on, but I'd better leave some bandwidth for other things.
"I'm the one who's got to die when it's time for me to die - so let me live my life the way I want to..."
JMH
You got THAT right!! ;o)
I’ll have to check out the “Blues” album, definitely. Thanks for a great post.
She was a hippie dirtball who could sing. Now she looks like an aging hippie dirtball. Did I like the music? Yes. Did people like her do a lot of damage to our country? Yes, and for that she won’t be revered in my house.
I was in Jr High, a Freshman in 69.
Sorry you feel that way, and I hope you learn to lighten up some day pal.
In any case, kindly get the hell off off my ass.
Didn't take me long to change my mind when I sat down and listened to 'Waterfall', 'Purple Haze', 'Foxy Lady' etc. while on the reefs.
Now that album is clearly a defining moment in the history of the 60's. I consider his album version of Red House to be one of the finest examples of pure blues ever recorded. Vocals included. He really had a great voice, IMO.
Jimi portraying himself as Bramha. He never lagged in self-promotion, LOL.
Cheap Thrills is one of the few 33s I still have.
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