Hot Tuna, Moby Grape, Jefferson Starship, Starship, New Riders of the Purple Sage...just a few of the bands birthed from the members of the first two Jefferson Airplane albums, not counting solo careers for just about everyone. Yet listening to the first album it's hard to believe how much would spawn from such origins. The first album is hesitant and relies more on a blues sound (with a few covers) than its folksy successor, "Surrealistic Pillow". I think this may have helped the band to not fall victim to the "first is the best" phenomenon that hobbles many groups that limp along for years after a strong first album.
This is the only album to feature Skip Spence on drums. Apparently he was enlisted to join the group because he looked like a drummer. He would pull a Dave Grohl-style move and form Moby Grape the following year and switch back to his preferred role as guitarist. Very much unlike Dave Grohl, his band did not survive the decade and in 1999 he died homeless and destitute in Santa Cruz. Sad. Incidentally, being a drummer in Jefferson Airplane is hazardous to your health. Spence's successor, Spencer Dryden, passed away in 2005, broke but mostly reconciled with his old band. Joey Covington, Dryden's successor, died in a car crash in 2013. Spinal Tap?
My Airplane collection is fairly meager. I have only the first two albums in my library. I've heard isolated cuts from the later albums and they sound pretty good, so it's definitely an area I'd like to expand into. Jefferson Starship is another animal altogether. The first album, "Dragon Fly" is enjoyable (even though the levels are criminally low on the CD), but after "Red Octopus", the follow-up album, my interest tapers off.
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