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 ...
A buddy of mine who grew up in the vicinity of the intersection of Haight and Ashbury in SF said it wasn’t that uncommon to run into Grace in her early days, especially when he’d work day labor jobs helping set up for the bands. He also said that the guys in the band and crew would offer to line him up for a “date” with Grace as they were usually worn out. He declined, mostly out of fear of VD, he said.
That was Mama Cass of the Mamas and the Papas.
Actually, looking at those pictures, if she lost weight and colored her hair she wouldn’t look nearly as old. She probably doesn’t care, which is fine.
Me, I kind of want someone to shoot me first.
Just for fun, here is a french canadian slide guitarist version of “Somebody to Love” Good guitar. Probably lib, but check his version of “A Man of Constant Sorrow”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n74zUPBVR7w
“Her voice was only marginally better than that lady from The Rattles.”
But who in the world has ever heard of the Rattles?
I won’t say ‘I’d hit it’, but she doesn’t look bad at all for 70.
“I thought she died while eating a sandwich?”
You’re thinking of Mama Cass...
Speaking of which, just think of what the effect on the music world would have been if Karen Carpenter had the ham sandwich that Mama Cass choked to death on...
She’s morphing into the disguise Arnold wore when he went to Mars in Total Recall.
Hey, at least she ain't Bernadette Dorhn!
ROFLMAO
Spooky - you are absolutely right.
HD clip from Monterey Pop, what a voice:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hnhh_cYv5Bc
She would still be nice looking if she lost fifty pounds and grew some hair.
What makes people get so fat when they get older?
Look at John Travolta, Williams Shatner and James Spader to name a few, their heads are so fat and huge they look like basketballs.
Grace SLick is 70 years old, for goodness sakes. For all her reckless doings in her life, she looks pretty good !
Musical trivia note: Karen Carpenter also recorded with “Anne O’Rexia and the Nobody Eight”...
“Oh No!!! If she got old Does that mean I got old ?”
I am afraid it does (: I can’t believe she is 70 years old but then I am 57. It seems not too long ago that I was in high school and college listening to her music. Ah well.
She’s a pretty good artist. I believe she gets a fair price for her paintings.
“if she grew some hair”...*chuckle*
“What makes people get fat when they get older”..*chuckle*
Come along, grow old with me. You will find the best (and worst) is yet to be. :)
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