Jefferson Airplane Volunteers CD

This album made the Airplane's relations with the then ultra-conservative RCA a little tense. The label knew they had potentially one of America's biggest bands on their hands, and were compelled to let them use the "F" word--unprecedented on a major-label release at the time-- on "We Can Be Together." A more substantive sticking point, though, was the group's left-of-center political stance at that time, as expressed on the exhilarating call-to-arms title tune. VOLUNTEERS found the airplane at the vanguard of the burgeoning protest movement as realized in music, and "We Can Be Together" is more of a rallying cry than an invitation to a love-in. Even the Crosby-Stills-Kantner science fiction fantasy "Wooden Ships" is post-apocalyptic rather than dreamily fanciful. "Eskimo Blue Day" and "Good Shepherd" are additional high points, as is the blatant sexuality of "Hey Frederick" where Grace Slick sings "either go away or go all the way in."

Controversial at the time, delayed because of fights with the record company over lyrical content and the original title (Volunteers of America), Volunteers was a powerful release that neatly closed out and wrapped up the '60s. Here, the Jefferson Airplane presents itself in full revolutionary rhetoric, issuing a call to "tear down the walls" and "get it on together." "We Can Be Together" and "Volunteers" bookend the album, offering musical variations on the same chord progression and lyrical variations on the same theme. Between these politically charged rock anthems, the band offers a mix of words and music reflecting the competing ideals of simplicity and getting "back to the earth" vs. the overthrow of greed and exploitation through political activism, adding a healthy dollop of psychedelic sci-fi for texture. Guitarist Jorma Kaukonen's beautiful arrangement of the traditional "Good Shepherd" is a standout here, and Jerry Garcia's pedal steel guitar gives "The Farm" an appropriately rural feel. The band's version of "Wooden Ships" is much more eerie than that released earlier in the year by Crosby, Stills & Nash. Oblique psychedelia is offered here via Grace Slick's "Hey Frederick" and the ecologically tinged "Eskimo Blue Day." Drummer Spencer Dryden gives an inside look at the state of the band in the country singalong "A Song for All Seasons." The musical arrangements here are quite potent. Nicky Hopkins' distinctive piano highlights a number of tracks, and Kaukonen's razor-toned lead guitar is the recording's unifying force, blazing through the mix, giving the album its distinctive sound. Although the political bent of the lyrics may seem dated to some, listening to Volunteers is like opening a time capsule on the end of an era, a time when young people still believed music had the power to change the world. [The 2004 reissue of the album comes with the addition of five previously unreleased bonus tracks recorded live at the Fillmore East on November 28 and 29, 1969: "Good Shepherd," "Somebody to Love," "Plastic Fantastic Lover," "Wooden Ships," and "Volunteers."] ~ Jim Newsom

Additional Tracks

Liner Note Author: Jeff Tamarkin.

Recording information: Fillmore East, New York, NY (03/28/1969-11/29/1969).

Unknown Contributor Role: Jorma Kaukonen.

Arranger: Paul Kantner.

Jefferson Airplane: Paul Kantner (vocals, guitar); Marty Balin, Grace Slick (vocals); Jorma Kaukonen (guitar); Jack Casady (bass guitar); Spencer Dryden (drums).

Additional personnel: Jerry Garcia (steel guitar); Nicky Hopkins (piano); Stephen Stills (organ); Joey Covington (percussion); David Crosby, Mary Gannon, Denise Jewkes, Diane Hursh, Marilyn Hunt (background vocals).

Rolling Stone (2/21/70, p.46) - "...the best cut on the album is their version of 'Wooden Ships': an epic performance, and one of the best the Airplane has ever done....another major song...is 'Hey Fredrick', which contains some really inspired instrumental work..."
Rolling Stone (12/7/00, p.114) - 4.5 stars out of 5 - "...The Airplane's last great blast of psychedelic magic...and an honest document of its time, sometimes painfully so....a thrilling testament to the power and beauty of despiar..."
Uncut (p.114) - "[A] truly great album and an insurrectionary rallying cry for the Woodstock generation that captured both the defiant hope and the righteous, if confused, anger of the times."
Uncut (p.128) - 4 stars out of 5 - "[I]t still creates inspirational heat."