The Jefferson Airplane What IF Game

[EmbryonicRabbit68]

Hmmm, could be.Its just...to think of all those amazing bass parts that were written and recorded with that bass.His Fender Jazz that he used on Takes Off and Surrealistic Pillow might be in the Hall of Fame.

[redrabid]

This thread is a bit frayed now that all my posts were accidentily removed. Including my first post, that started this topic, introducing the "JA What If Game". Maybe it is possible to retrieve them, probably not (thank you for trying, Roman). If not, I will try to reconstruct it so, that it makes some sense again.

[Steve]

The Blues Magoos' "Tobacco Road" is the greatest. JA's version pales in comparison.

Check out the mid 60s version of Tobacco Road by The Nashville Teens- who actually are from England. That song ROCKS!

[redrabid]

Just a few days ago I received a message that the Search for Lost Posts was invain. So I will try to re-create some of my posts in this topic. First of all, somewhere this week I hope, my first post, that introduced the "Jefferson Airplane What If Game" and laid down its rules. Somewhat later I shall send my "JA What If albums": " Fighting the Suits", "A Tale Of Lost Charts" and "Enemy of the State: Caught by Strings". Be warned that there might be a few differences compared to the earlier versions of those albums. Just a few days before my posts were erased I threw away all my notes. Consider them to be from another universe again. By the way, another JA What If album is in the making : "Haunted by Dreams of Jumping Sausages".

[Ensign]

The "Hoppkorv Haunt"????

[EmbryonicRabbit68]

"A Double Dose of The Phosphorescent South-Hoppkorv Red-ish Yellow Octopus Dragon Flying Fever..."(1977)

[EmbryonicRabbit68]

Ok i think im re-thinking my JA What If albums, to be fair with redrabid, and also because im trying to do them realisticly, how they problably would have happened.Also because i had to download Bodacious DF, and i had problems before and i finally got it.It seems to not exist to music stores around here, and i cannot order online...so...you know...improvise for the moment.

Heres their 1970 album.I created artwork, and if i could figure out how to upload my own photos not from somewhere online i would upload it.

Starship(1970)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Recorded: 2nd February 1970 - 18th June 1970
Location: Wally Heider Studios, San Francisco, CA, U.S.A
Released: 17th September 1970
Label: RCA Records
Genre: Acid Rock, Blues Rock
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Track Listing-

Side One -
1.Sunrise(Slick) - 1:54
2.Have You Seen The Saucers(Kantner) - 3:38
3.Up Or Down(Balin/Kaukonen) - 6:19
4.Mexico(Slick) - 2:06
5.Lets Go Together(Kantner) - 4:11
6.Uncle Sam Blues(Kaukonen) - 5:09

Side Two -
1.Mau Mau(Amerikon)(Kantner/Slick/Covington) - 6:33
2.Crazy Miranda(Slick) - 3:23
3.Emergency(Balin) - 4:36
4.Have You Seen The Stars Tonite(Kantner/Crosby) - 3:42
5.Starship(Kantner/Slick/Balin/Blackman) - 7:07

Singles: Mexico b/w Have You Seen The Saucers - May 1970
Emergency b/w Have You Seen The Stars Tonite - September 1970

Charting: #10(U.S)
#13(Canada)
#15(Japan)
#16(Germany)
#17(U.K)

Credits-
Grace Slick - Lead Vocals, Piano
Marty Balin - Lead Vocals, guitar, percussion
Paul Kantner - Vocals, Rhythm and Lead Accoustic and Electric Guitars, Banjo
Jorma Kaukonen - Lead Guitar, Vocals
Jack Casady - Bass
Spencer Dryden - Drums, percussion
Jerry Garcia - Guitar, Banjo, Sound Effects
Micky Hart - Percussion, Sound Effects, Vocals
Joey Covington - Drums, Congas, Vocals
David Crosby - Vocals, Guitar
Peter Kaukonen - Guitar
Phil Sawyer - Sound Effects

[Ensign]

WHAT IF Hot Tuna hadn't named their second album after the instructions on a box of ass-gaskets (First Pull Up Then Pull Down)?
What would the name have been?

[redrabid]

NIce, really nice album, EmbryonicRabbit68.

[redrabid]

This is a re-creation of my first post (somewhere in July this year) that started this topic: "The Jefferson Airplane What If Game".
Jimmy Ray's post, that is now at the beginning, was the first reply.

Let's play a game, the "Jefferson Airplane What If Game".
What if Jack and Jorma realised that Spencer Dryden was the best drummer they could wish for and that he was essential to the unique sound of the band? They wouldn't even think of firing him.
What if Marty knew that as a solo artist he would meet the same problems as he did in JA, that leaving JA wouldn't solve anything and that there would be no future for him outside JA? What if he was able to acknowlegde that it was singing with Grace that made him excel as a singer.
What if everybody in the band considered all their activities outside JA just as side projects and brought their best songs willingly to JA to record?
Yeah, I know, these are a lot of if's, but maybe, just maybe among those multiple universes out there, there is one world, only one, where Jefferson Airplane never dissolved and the classic line up, we all love so much, made lots of albums after "Volunteers", but no "Bark", No "Long John Silver". Jefferson Starship in this happy world never came to be.
What would these JA albums have sounded like? Well, that's up to you!
Rewrite history and create your own "Jefferson Airplane What If" albums.

Every game has its rules and here they are:
-For every "JA What If" album you may choose 10-12 songs from every album/single that JA,JS or Hot Tuna released after "Volunteers" and from every album that the members of the classic JA released as a solo artist. Songs, known to have been played live, are allowed too.
-All songs on your "JA What If" album must have been written or co-written by members of the classic JA, with one exception:
-Each "JA What If" album" may contain one song written by an outsider.
-All songs in your "JA What If " album must have been written around the same time. Say, roughly within two years.
-Give the album a title in true JA manner:a little wacky or offensive.
-It's a game, a little cheating is allowed.
Some explanation of your choices would be nice.

And here is the re-creation of my first "JA What If" album:

JEFFERSON AIRPLANE
FIGHTING THE SUITS (1971)

Highest chartposition #9.

Have You Seen The Saucers
Lawman
Mau Mau (Amerikon)
Been So Long
Sunfighter

When I Was A Boy I Watched The Wolves.
Third Week In The Chelsea
Silverspoon
Feels So Good
You Wear Your Dresses Too Short
Starship

If you wonder about those silly chart positions, they are just an indication of how good I think those "what If" albums would have been.
A little explanation will come to you shortly.

And here it is.
Saucers is one of those latter day JA songs that is quite often flying around in the back of my head, despite its silly lyrics. Nice melody. I prefer by far the live version of Saucers on "30 Seconds". The studiorecording was badly produced due to the falling apart of the band. Jack Casady may be God playing bassguitar, but five days to record the bass part?! More nonsense lyrics on "Empire", but I have to admit that I kind of like that album. Taken out of context the songs loose a bit of their charm though. "Let's Go Together" and "Have You Seen the Stars Tonight" are perhaps better songs, but I chose "Mau Mau" (Oh man, that gorgeous vocal intro) and Starship" because I wanted some uptempo songs for this "What If" album. On "Empire" these songs are too "loose" for my taste (I never will be a fan of Joey Covington's rambling, all-over-the-place drumming) but I am convinced that the "What If" recordings of these songs by JA (including Spencer Dryden of course) would have been much tighter, if the live performance of "Starship" at Woodstock, for a short while emerging out of "Ballad" , is anything to go by.
"Bark" is not a very good album. It lacks cohesion, but there are good songs on that album. Two songs stand out for me: "Lawman" and "Chelsea". Paul Kantner saved his best songs for "Sunfighter". The title track and "Wolves" surpass anything by him on "Bark".
"Been So Long" is a surprising lovesong by Jorma Kaukonen, who, only a few years earlier, chastisized Marty Balin for writing this kind of songs (by the way, did he ever apologize to Marty?). If only Marty would have been able to sing this song.
The misogynic "Dresses"? I just wanted a song by Marty Balin".

[EmbryonicRabbit68]

First of all, thanks for the good review redrabid , and second of all, thanks for re-posting the rules.I forgot some along the way and this will help clear some stuff up.And great choices for Fighting the Suits, best songs from any Airplane related stuff from Blows Against the Empire to Sunfighter.Ive thought about putting some of these What if albums on CD!

Now seeing im re-doing some What if albums i created, im doing them more how they would have happened.So i didnt use any funny album names, and they are more centralised within the part of the year of what album most of the songs i use are from.But this time, i was able to keep Spencer Dryden!For some reason he slipped away...Anyway, the follow up to Starship(1970), missing artwork i created but cannot post .

Earth Mother(1971)
Recorded: 22nd November 1970-11th March 1971 at Wally Heider Studios, San Francisco
Released: 2nd June 1971
Label: Grunt Records

Side One-
1.When The Earth Moves Again(Kantner) - 3:54
2.Hijack(Kantner/Slick/Balin) - 8:18
3.Feel So Good(Kaukonen) - 4:36
4.Pretty As You Feel(Covington/Casady/Kaukonen/Santana) - 4:29

Side Two-
1.Drifting(Jesse Osborne) - 4:08
2.A Child is Coming(Kantner/Slick/Crosby) - 6:15
3.Law Man(Slick) - 2:42
4.Third Week in Chelsea(Kaukonen) - 4:34
5.War Movie(Kantner) - 4:41

Most of it is Bark, mainly because it was recorded around the same time, as i said i go with actual album releases and modify it greatly.Wild Turkey and Been So Long ALMOST made the cut, but no room.Been So Long will go on the next one, and Wild Turkey will be the B-Side to Law Man, the single.Which was a hit, as it should have been.Also, the song Earth Mother from Sunfighter was left off...not because i didnt like it, i do, i just didnt have room.Its not the first time a title track was left off an album, like the nearly lost title-track to After Bathing at Baxters.

PS: I listened to Red Octopus.Ive never skipped through songs at such a rapid pace before...How does one go from Manhole to that?Really.Where they in a stretch or something?Thinking about it im kinda glad Jorma and Jack didnt stick around for it.They saw the inevitable future.And cared about their musical integrity...not how many hits they had.*sigh*

[jimmie ray]

WHAT IF Hot Tuna hadn't named their second album after the instructions on a box of ass-gaskets (First Pull Up Then Pull Down)?
What would the name have been?

Probably: "If You Sprinkle, When You Tinkle - Be A Sweetie, and Wipe the Seatie"?

[EmbryonicRabbit68]

The "What If" Hot Tuna Discography-

The Kaukonen and Casady Blues Cassarole(1970)
If You Sprinkle, When You Tinkle - Be A Sweetie, and Wipe the Seatie(1971)
Falafels(1972)
The Glow-In-The-Dark Toad(1973)
St. Louis Encephalitis(1975)
Haunted By Dreams of Jumping Sausages(Hoppkorv Haunt)(1976)
A Double Dose of The Phosphorescent South-Hoppkorv Red-ish Yellow Octopus Dragon Flying Fever...(1978)

Yeah that sounds about right.But...really...what if Hot Tuna wasnt their name?The "Jorma and Jack Blues Band"?...The "Kaukonen and Casady Blues Cassarole"?.."The 2-J Blues Surprise"?...or "The JK&JC Blues Intermission".Thats problably what it would have been if JA didnt fall apart.A Blues intermission...

[redrabid]

By ansible (you all know what that is, don't you) I received a message that, in another dimension "Haunted by Dreams of Jumping Sausages" had already been used as an album title by Hot Tuna. Therefore the next "JA What If" album, that will be released after "Enemy of the State; Caught by Strings" will be titled: STOLEN.
The album "STOLEN" by JEFFERSON AIRPLANE.
A change from wacky to offensive.

[jimmie ray]

The "What If" Hot Tuna Discography-

The Kaukonen and Casady Blues Cassarole(1970)
If You Sprinkle, When You Tinkle - Be A Sweetie, and Wipe the Seatie(1971)
...

Good God, I really hope Jorma and Jack don't choose now to check the chat here. But it's nice to see some real good sense of humor people here!