First Airplane Experience

[TakeMeOnYourFlight]

I got into them from my dad being a big fan. The first time I heard the Airplane's stuff was in 1987, my dad bought the 2400 St. best of on tape and played it alot in the car and I started to getting into it, then I found out he had every Airplane album and most of Jefferson Starship's on vinyl.

[babson]

Well, I don't remember when I heard JA for the first time.

I do remember the first and last time I saw them live.

It was at Tanglewood in Lenox Massachusetts on August 12 1969. Yep, 4 days before Woodstock.

I wasn't going to Woodstock (was drafted and had 3 weeks before boot camp) so I took my 17 year old girlfriend (I had just turned 20) to this outdoor concert featuring B.B. King, the Who, and the headliner JA.

We smoked some hash, and decide to take a walk to find a soda. I looked on the ground and there were 2 round buttons on the ground with the word "PRESS" on them. I picked them up and we put them on. We then kept moving toward the front of the stage, walked by all the security, right into the press section below the stage.

About this time the Who came on, who I hadn't heard of yet. They were great. The singer was swinging that mike by the cord with his fringed vest on right above us.

JA came on and Gracie. They did somebody to love. I kissed my girlfriend through the whole song, not thinking that we were in front of the whole crowd, the band and the press. My girlfriend was a little embarrased after we stopped.

I looked up at Gracie. She was looking right at me, and it felt like her eyes were boring right through me. So I looked around and realized some of those press people were looking at us and saying stuff. We probably looked really out of place, my long hair and hippie garb, Lot of the press had on suites and stuff. That long kiss attracted too much attention. Must have looked great for the audience during somebody to love. So Grace was warning me that we had been discovered.

I wanted another toke of hash anyways, so we left just like we came in, found our way to our blanket, did that toke, and made love under the blanket during the rest of the Airplane show.

It was our personal Woodstock, as her and I spent 4 nights in a motel at the Newport Jazz festival while Woodstock was happening. The draft was ripping us apart and we weren't in the mood for a mass celebration a la Woodstock.

[rjwh]

Although I didn't know it was the Airplane at the time, my first exposure was that White Levi's commercial on the radio.

I was a folkie. I didn't listen to rock, didn't play any electric guitars. PP&M, Joan Baez, pre-electric Dylan, that was it. Then someone played Surrealistic Pillow for me in about 1966 and I thought, "Hmm, maybe there's something to these electric guitars, after all."

ps: The memory of my first acid trip is inextricably tied up with Baxter's. And a Coke billboard, but that's not really relevant.

[babson]

Although I didn't know it was the Airplane at the time, my first exposure was that White Levi's commercial on the radio.

I was a folkie. I didn't listen to rock, didn't play any electric guitars. PP&M, Joan Baez, pre-electric Dylan, that was it. Then someone played Surrealistic Pillow for me in about 1966 and I thought, "Hmm, maybe there's something to these electric guitars, after all."

ps: The memory of my first acid trip is inextricably tied up with Baxter's. And a Coke billboard, but that's not really relevant.

Add Donovan, and I was pretty much the same in '66, except for the mamas and papas, sony and cher, the beatles and stones.

[IneedaBonghit]

I first heard White rabbit and Somebody to Love off the local AM radio in Pittsfield Mass.
I knew Airplane existed because my brother had some albums and a poster on his wall, but at that time I was only 8 or so and did not have my own stereo. I did not take a close look at Airplane or Starship for almost 40 years later. After that God and the Universe finally started making sense.

White Rabbit had stuck with me though when I was growing up. Everytime I met someone named Alice or heard the name I always thought of that song.