Posted on 01/13/2005 4:21:14 PM PST by TFFKAMM
PETALUMA, Calif. - Spencer Dryden, the drummer for legendary rock band the Jefferson Airplane, has died of cancer. He was 66.
Dryden, who died at his home Tuesday, retired from performing 10 years ago, although he hadn't been working much before that.
"I'm gone," he told the San Francisco Chronicle last May. "I'm out of it. I've left the building."
A benefit concert last year featuring Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead and Warren Haynes of Gov't Mule and raised $36,000 for Dryden, who was in the middle of two hip replacement surgeries and was facing heart surgery at the time. His Petaluma home and all his possessions had been destroyed in a fire in September 2003. He also had been diagnosed with stomach cancer.
Dryden was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 for his work with the Jefferson Airplane during the band's glory years from the breakthrough 1967 "Surrealistic Pillow" album through historic rock festivals such as Woodstock and Altamont.
Born in New York City, Dryden moved with his parents when he was an infant to Los Angeles.
He attended Glendale High School and graduated from the Army and Navy Academy in Carlsbad in 1955. He played in some early rock bands but soon drifted toward jazz and was working as a drummer at the Hollywood strip club the Pink Pussycat when session drummer Earl Palmer recommended him to the Airplane's manager. He replaced Skip Spence, who went on to start another Fillmore-era San Francisco rock group, Moby Grape.
During his stint with the Airplane, Dryden had an affair with the band's female vocalist, Grace Slick, and his marriage to the former Sally Mann was covered extensively in Rolling Stone magazine. He left the band in 1970.
Dryden replaced Mickey Hart in the Grateful Dead sideline country-rock band, New Riders of the Purple Sage, in February 1971 and stayed with that group until 1978.
In the '80s, he joined a group of psychedelic rock veterans called the Dinosaurs that played informally around the San Francisco Bay area along with former members of Big Brother and the Holding Company, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and Country Joe and the Fish. When the other band members reunited for a 1989 Jefferson Airplane reunion album and tour, Dryden was not invited.
He last appeared in public in November, after he was already being treated for cancer, signing autographs and shaking hands at a release party for the DVD of Jefferson Airplane video clips.
He was married three times and is survived by three sons; Jeffrey, Jes and Jackson Dryden. Plans for a memorial concert are pending.
Actually, the first Starship album was the source of my screen name here.
"It's a fresh wind that blows against the empire".
In my heart I have a feeling, and I don't know what I'm gonna do;
Oh, what a beautiful world, the world, what should I do? What should I do?
Don't you know what I have found? Maybe you've found it too;
Today is made up of yesterday and tomorrow,
Young girl Sunday blues and all her sorrow.
One side of me is filled with brightness, no matter what I might say;
The days are made with waterfall colors, couldn't I make you stay?
If rain slides the sides of my face must be a rainy day;
But I get lost in yesterday and tomorrow, tomorrow,
Young girl Sunday blues and all her sorrow.
I walk beside you laughing and I'm high, don't try to touch me with words;
When I tell you I dream it might seem like silence, but so much can be heard;
I think of things, what loving you brings, maybe my thing is her;
Today is made of yesterday and tomorrow
Young girl Sunday blues, and all her sorrow;
Ah! come into my mind, let yourself wander free and easy;
Ah! come into my life, Sunday blues girl, young and new girl,
You're the only true girl here can please me
I said, "Please me, yeah! Please me! Please me! Please me!"
Yeah, I have the Crabby Appleton album that has "Go Back." One of my all time favorites too!! Once again proof we will always meet kindred spirits on FR. Don't suppose you remember The Illusion ("Have You Seen Her Eyes") or Last Word ("Can't Stop Loving You")?
My Joel Whitburn book simply calls them "A West Coast band led by Michael Fennelly." I am pretty sure they are Bay Area. At least, the album cover has them there. And talk about bad hair!!
RIP bump
p.s. I am a looonnnggg time Quicksilver fan...;-)
Another one from that time and place was Pacific Gas and Electric ("Are You Ready").
Drummer for one of America's best 60's bands died in a "shack". Shame & sad. RIP
Actually, I've heard of Crabby Appleton, also...but from my mom. :)
That was my favorite too, and I thought the 1st album was easily the best....gonna go dust off a pillow now.
One thing they sang about is now coming to pass-Counterrevolution, Counterrevolution!
Actually "Bless its Pointed Little Head" w/ headphones is best.
SP was the first CD I bought (the record and tapes thereof were wrecked by then).
Speaking of Balin, one of my favorites, short, obscure piece, "Today", quite possibly responsible for my second, and happy, marriage. Going back to rebelbase, as my kids would say, "What's an album?" If nothing else, the passing of vinyl killed a lot of great artwork on the covers. Transition to postcards just doesn't seem to inspire the same talent.
There was a time when I had a large collection of YES albums. Topographic Oceans, etc. All on vinyl, all with the artwork. Someday, that stuff is gonna be worth some real bux.
"...was in the middle of two hip replacement surgeries and was facing heart surgery at the time. His Petaluma home and all his possessions had been destroyed in a fire in September 2003. He also had been diagnosed with stomach cancer."
He answered to the nickname "Lucky."
We used to "make" louder headphones by taking two speakers, and using the floor as a third side, make a triangle to stick ones head inside and "crank it up".
I inadvertantly tested my hearing at home using a home written basic program to test my PC speaker. I wasn't using microphones to check the frequency rolloff of a PC speaker and thought that it cutoff a little early. As I was demonstrating this "fact" to one of my kids, he pointed out that he could easily hear the speaker at much higher frequencies than I could.
Well, it was good while it lasted. ;-)
Maybe you have to be a woman to appreciate it, but IMO, "Miracles" is one of the best love songs ever written. The emotion in Marty Balin's voice and Grace Slick's backup are incredible.
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