Jefferson Airplane Takes Off (Deluxe) CD

Originally released in 1966, this RCA/BMG Heritage remastered reissue adds 8 bonus tracks, 'Runnin' 'Round This World', 'High Flyin' Bird', 'It's Alright', 'Go To Her' (early version), 'Let Me In' (original uncensored version), 'Run Around' (original uncensored version), 'Chauffer Blues' (alternate version-previously unissued) & 'And I Like It' (alternate version-previously unissued). Includes 12-page booklet with extensive liner notes, detailed track listing & rare photos. 2003.

This reissue of TAKES OFF contains the complete album in both mono and stereo. In order to preserve the integrity of each complete album, there is a 10 second gap between the two versions. This CD issue restores the original last song on TAKES OFF, "Runnin' 'Round This World", deleted shortly after the original release of this album in 1966.
Jefferson Airplane: Marty Balin, Signe Toly Anderson (vocals); Paul Kantner (guitar, vocals); Jorma Ludwik Kaukonen (guitar); Jack Casady (bass); Alex "Skip" Spence (drums).
Recorded at RCA Victor's Music Center Of The World, Hollywood, California .
Includes liner notes by Jeff Tamarkin and Ralph J. Gleason.
This newly remastered 2003 deluxe edition contains bonus tracks.
Jefferson Airplane: Marty Balin, Signe Toly Anderson (vocals); Paul Kantner (guitar, vocals); Jorma Ludwik Kaukonen (guitar); Jack Casady (bass); Alex "Skip" Spence (drums).
Originally released on RCA Victor (3584). Includes liner notes by Jeff Tamarkin.
Liner Note Authors: Jeff Tamarkin; Ralph J. Gleason.
Recording information: RCA Victor's Music Center Of the World, Hollywood, CA (12/16/1965-07/21/1966).
Photographer: Michelle Vignes.
Unknown Contributor Roles: Marty Balin; Jack Casady; Signe Anderson; Jorma Kaukonen; Paul Kantner; Skip Spence.
The debut Jefferson Airplane album was dominated by singer Marty Balin, who wrote or co-wrote all the original material and sang most of the lead vocals in his heartbreaking tenor with Paul Kantner and Signe Anderson providing harmonies and backup. (Anderson's lead vocal on "Chauffeur Blues" indicated she was at least the equal of her successor, Grace Slick, as a belter.) The music consisted mostly of folk-rock love songs, the most memorable of which were "It's No Secret" and "Come up the Years." (There was also a striking version of Dino Valente's "Get Together" recorded years before the Youngbloods' hit version.) Jorma Kaukonen already displayed a talent for mixing country, folk, and blues riffs in a rock context, and Jack Casady already had a distinctive bass sound. But the Airplane of Balin-Kantner-Kaukonen-Anderson-Casady-Spence is to be distinguished from the Balin-Kantner-Kaukonen-Casady-Slick-Dryden version of the band that would emerge on record five months later chiefly by Balin's dominance. Later, Grace Slick would become the group's vocal and visual focal point. On Jefferson Airplane Takes Off, the Airplane was Balin's group. (Jefferson Airplane Takes Off was released as RCA 3584 on August 15, 1966. It was reissued as RCA 66797 on January 30, 1996, as a CD that contained both the stereo and mono versions, and that added back the track "Runnin' 'Round This World," which had been deleted from all but initial copies due to the sexual and perceived drug references of the line "The nights I've spent with you have been fantastic trips." But the included version still eliminated the word "trips.") ~ William Ruhlmann
There is a reason why the Jefferson Airplane was the first nationally renowned proponent of San Francisco rock. As much as they bucked establishment values, the sextet offered a musical mixture of California folk-rock and white blues that was nevertheless easier to digest than the sounds of their contemporaries. TAKES OFF, their debut recording, made before Grace Slick joined the band, goes to great lengths to establish them as the obvious next step on a pop staircase of the Beatles, Byrds, and Rolling Stones.
Signe Anderson and Marty Balin