The Great Society-- What do you guys think?

[EmbryonicRabbit68]

It'd be like a family member leaving almost. And I think if Grace Slick leaves any band, it's likely to fall apart.

[Susan Butcher]

It probably was Grace playing organ, because when Darby takes the lead vocals on "Arbitration", there's a nice pulsey keyboard in there. That track sounds a lot like "She Has Funny Cars" to me, with the same kind of descending sequence, and the added attraction of shifting time signatures. I wonder which came first?

It's a pity Grace stopped playing keyboards live.

[oldblue]

It probably was Grace playing organ, because when Darby takes the lead vocals on "Arbitration", there's a nice pulsey keyboard in there. That track sounds a lot like "She Has Funny Cars" to me, with the same kind of descending sequence, and the added attraction of shifting time signatures. I wonder which came first?

It's a pity Grace stopped playing keyboards live.

i think the yardbirds came first at least as far as arbitration is concerned

[Susan Butcher]

Right. Using "Arbitration" and "Psychotic Reaction" as two of the corners, I think I can triangulate the Yardbirds. I really should get one of their records.

[plasticfantastic]

Yeah, The Yardbirds... I think they had a lot more influence than a lot of people thought they did. Clapton, Beck, and Page go without saying, of course, but just in general, I think that they really did break a lot of ground.

I wouldn't be surprised if The Great Society was influenced by them, whether consciously or unconsciously.

[oldblue]

context is everything and then along came lsd to magnify it all and the dimensional borders began to slip like a fault line gone wild

By the middle of 1965 the new bohemia that had been growing relatively out of sight in America was electric with possibility, and the time for breaking free, waving goodbye, and “plugging in” to a new reality and art form had arrived. Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter remembers it happening very suddenly and unexpectedly. “Out of the blue sky appeared the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and [the electrified] Bob Dylan. Add a little acid to that and your orientation changed very quickly.”

The Grateful Dead were more than equal to the task of moving people to light through speed. Ken Kesey even termed them “the faster than light drive,” and they were to prove his words true time after time in concert as they “pushed the limits of the most fundamental urban blues and folk riffs up and out beyond the realms of time and space, erecting huge spiral edifices of sound that seemed, after fifteen minutes, twenty minutes, a half an hour and beyond, to be fueling themselves, hurtling around the room in a perpetual motion centrifuge.”

The Yardbirds on the other hand were more than happy to bring an extended song to one climax. Of course, they weren't playing to an audience of acid=eating dancers at a san francisco ballroom. But they were a model and an inspiration all the same.

[fairlane500]

PlasticFantastic,
It seems like Europe (and England in particular) has better taste in music than we do here in the good ol' US of A. Very few peolple seem to know about the 13th floor elevators here, but in Europe it's different. It seems to be the same with Jefferson Airplane and the ex-members of the band we love so much. I teach high school, and one of my ex-students (now a security guard at this school) has a boyfriend whose mother is actually Jack Casady's housekeeper (by the way-he's a great guy according to my ex-student. For example, he gave his housekeeper his old Volvo station wagon when he got a new car, It's a late-model Volvo-pretty decent in my opinion. My ex student isn't an airplane fan-she likes '50's rockn'roll only-I've tried to convert her-to no avail-although she has quite a collection of Hot Tuna t shirts!). She says Jack and company play live often in Europe and rarely in the U.S. because they have no U.S. following. It's a generalization, but it seems as though we like everything from England and they like everything from here.

[EmbryonicRabbit68]

I've noticed that, I think it's because the majority of Americans need something light, poppy and not challenging, and something that doesn't make you think. I'm sure lot of places in Europe are similar, just not nearly to the extent it is in America. I've also found that whatever style or genre you may hear in the U.S, you'll probably find European acts that will do it darker and heavier, or less fluffy and poppy.

[redrabid]

That's what you get when the boyfriend of an ex-student whose mother etc is considered an authority. Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna are not popular in Europe and both bands never were. They don't have any following what so ever and are neglected and forgotten by most critics. Except in Italy, where JA is seen as an important revolutionary band. They go nuts over those anti clerical lyrics on LJS. And JS and HT do play in Italy every now and then.
Europe doesn't have more taste than the USA, just a slightly different one. Your views of the European music scene are very distorted, I'm afraid. Did you look at the European charts lately? Those are dominated by selling out and cashing in American hiphop and r&b artists as well as the most commercial Dance . It can't get any fluffier. By the way Lady Gaga is huge over here.
But of course Randy Newman is liked very much.

[usedtobebabson]

Well I'll bet the Europeans didn't freak out so bad on that wardrobe malfunction at that US superbowl Maybe their acceptance of the female naked breast allows then to appreciate the good music more.

[Susan Butcher]

Did JA actually make the charts in Italy?

[EmbryonicRabbit68]

Any nation J.A didn't chart in, isn't a nation to me!

[redrabid]

It's going to be an empty world for you!
JA probably never charted in Italy. They are popular among Italy's radical left. I think they followed Paul Kantner's advice. They stole those records.

[oldblue]

don't know nothing about ja chart action in in taly but i do k now that one of the great ja fans was the late johnny blasi of naples, italy. he began the project that became JA live base. upon his death the members of jeff zahnen's 2400 fulton list serve brought about having a star officially named for him. i think they worked through nasa

man that was a long time ago.

[fairlane500]

To redrabid et.al., I never called this kids mother an authority. Apparently the 2 young people like Jack and vice-versa and talked to him sometimes. She told me on a few occasions that he wasn't currently in Los Angeles, but was somewhere in Europe (England, I think) and that HE told HER (the person who directly told me) that they're more popular overseas than they are stateside. Maybe she misunderstood him. I believe her. She has no reason to lie to me. She had on a Hot Tuna tshirt one day while still my student (the one that says "If you don't know Jorma you don't know Jack") and I asked her if she was an Airplane/Tuna fan. She said not really, that she didn't care too much for mid to late '60's/'70's rock but that she was acquainted with Jack because she'd gone to his house with her boyfriend many times to pick up his mom from work. I presume this might be why Jack gave her his old car.