jefferson airplane rehearsals 1967

I just posted this today. guess it's incredibly rare. enjoy!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Kah1fH6uyc

This band was a big part, musically, of the "Summer of Love".

Speaking of which, sounding pretty cool here. 8)

Thanks for posting.

Curse you mellowgerman! :lol: Until you came along I saw no need to invest in my own personal computer on which I could store your magnificent documents of one of my favorite bands! If you can reveal, where do you FIND this stuff? Can I buy it commercially since I believe in royalties (eventually) getting to the deserving parties? As a final observation, I find it interesting that Jack is already playing his Guild in this clip, yet a few months ago an inquiry through Mgod resulted in reply that he used a P-bass in the "Baxter's" sessions. I always thought the bass on that album sounded a lot beefier than a simple Pbass, especially the instrumental duet with Jorma. Ah well, perhaps a foggy memory is to blame, perhaps both intstruments were present, perhaps it was a period of alternating while the Guild was being worked into the act...of such stuff wonderful myths are built! :lol: .

fab467 said:

This band was a big part, musically, of the "Summer of Love".
Speaking of which, sounding pretty cool here. 8)
Thanks for posting.

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IF you weren't aware, I've seen some pretty cool "legitimate" stuff being released recently. The best stuff I can remember though is on "Jefferson Airplane Loves You" with some great live takes from '67. A cut above even "Bless its Pointed Little Head" in my opinion. And there's a more recent release which features an extended Casady solo on "You & Me & Pooneil". I never saw any of that material back when I was avidly searching, there were only 2 Airplane bootlegs in existence back in the early '70's.

Glad you guys dig it!
These rehearsal clips are actually not available on any commercial releases that I'm aware of.
There are a crazy amount of live sets out there. Check out the Airplane live base:
http://obie.homesite.net/jefferson_airp ... e_base.htm
The one's I find online are usually free torrents on the internet recorded into flac files from cassettes if I'm not mistaken. Then there's wolfgangsvault.com which has a lot of stuff too. On that site you can listen to (stream) a large collection live shows for free that aren't out on hard copies (for lack of a better term). You can buy the mp3s of shows that you like and want for your own collection. Of course, there are also ways of attaining those same shows for free--though these take a little more searching and effort

adorshki said:

I find it interesting that Jack is already playing his Guild in this clip, yet a few months ago an inquiry through Mgod resulted in reply that he used a P-bass in the "Baxter's" sessions.

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I'm YouTube challenged at the moment so I may be missing something obvious that makes my observation moot but I see no contradiction or reason for concern. Baxter's was recorded in 1967. The clip is labeled as rehearsals in 1967. So everything fits nicely so long as the "rehearsals" occurred after recording Baxter's. With 12 months is the year there is a reasonable chance that is true.

In the gray area of music downloads there is a compilation of bootleg tracks available on BitTorrent that is pretty well annotated. "Hal's Death by Jefferson Airplane torrent" will find it although if you don't already know what to do with a torrent then it is probably not worth educating yourself. Last I checked the recordings may have been "unauthorized" but the compilation did not include any copyrighted or commercially released material.

mellowgerman said:

http://obie.homesite.net/jefferson_airplane_live_base.htm

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Geezer veer. I know I have seen Grace Slick live, in concert, but none of the dates listed at the above site match when that could have happened. My search fu was good to me and I believe the concert I was at was Jefferson Starship 8/29/75, Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga, NY. When did I see Grace has been a nagging question for me lately because I regret not paying more attention to Jack Casady "back in the day".

Thanks Mello; you have impeccable tastes in Airplane ... and the skill to handle and share the media; thanks for keeping the memories alive! 8)

my pleasure capn

frono, hals DBJA actually doesn't have the full version. i think the one on there is only around 8 or 9 minutes long. in the full rehearsal file there's about 14 minutes of just "won't you try/saturday afternoon". the rest of the 45min is "martha" and "it's alright".

fronobulax said:

adorshki said:

I find it interesting that Jack is already playing his Guild in this clip, yet a few months ago an inquiry through Mgod resulted in reply that he used a P-bass in the "Baxter's" sessions.

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I'm YouTube challenged at the moment so I may be missing something obvious that makes my observation moot but I see no contradiction or reason for concern. Baxter's was recorded in 1967. The clip is labeled as rehearsals in 1967. So everything fits nicely so long as the "rehearsals" occurred after recording Baxter's. With 12 months is the year there is a reasonable chance that is true.

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I just wondered about it, obviously he could have been alternating instruments that year, although I would have expected him to prefer the Guild. Or maybe it (they?) was in the shop a lot getting mods? I don't remember when all that was happening. What I DID notice on mellow's link were listings about recording sessions for some of the Baxter's cuts taking place as early as June '67 and as late as October. I just thought the question was relevant given the evidence. I'd still be willing to bet that some of those cuts used a (the?) Guild. They just have that sound compared to "Pillow".
Does anybody remember what Jack was playing at Monterey Pop? That'd be a nice reference point too.

capnjuan said:

Thanks Mello; you have impeccable tastes in Airplane ... and the skill to handle and share the media; thanks for keeping the memories alive! 8)

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Cap'n, this one's for you:
1967. Airplane's taken up recording residence at RCA in Hollywood and meanwhile, down on "the strip":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0zgIzqgxFU
Guess things were a little wild before they got that "regulated dosage" thing down, huh? :lol:

adorshki said:

... and meanwhile, down on the strip...

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Hi Al; down on the strip, these guys were gigging ... while others chose chicks who didn't sweat :wink:

mellowgerman said:

Glad you guys dig it!
These rehearsal clips are actually not available on any commercial releases that I'm aware of.
There are a crazy amount of live sets out there. Check out the Airplane live base:
http://obie.homesite.net/jefferson_airp ... e_base.htm
The one's I find online are usually free torrents on the internet recorded into flac files from cassettes if I'm not mistaken. Then there's wolfgangsvault.com which has a lot of stuff too. On that site you can listen to (stream) a large collection live shows for free that aren't out on hard copies (for lack of a better term). You can buy the mp3s of shows that you like and want for your own collection. Of course, there are also ways of attaining those same shows for free--though these take a little more searching and effort

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If any of you are interested (and don't have them already), I've put a couple of the more widely-distributed Airplane boots in my Dropbox:

Golden Gate Park 5/7/69 and
At the Family Dog SF CA 9/6/69

IIRC both of these bills were shared with the Grateful Dead, which makes them "Betty Boards", and better that a lot of the stuff contained in "Hal's Death by Jefferson Airplane", which I have too.

These I believe are sanctioned by the band, so there's no copyright worries that I'm aware of. Great stuff, and they're good high bit rate mp3s with ID3 tags. I hope this doesn't violate any of the rules here.

twocorgis said:

These I believe are sanctioned by the band, so there's no copyright worries that I'm aware of. Great stuff, and they're good high bit rate mp3s with ID3 tags. I hope this doesn't violate any of the rules here.

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HI Sandy: Since I only have a computer at work I don't normally download stuff to it. What catches my eye though is the second title, it can't possibly be accurate for venue and time. "The Fanily Dog" was actually a collective that staged concerts at the Avalon Ballroom and a couple of other locations until about early '68. Bill Graham and internal friction basically put 'em out of business.
What I'm really curious about, since I couldn't see 'em, is the track listings. The only two Airplane bootlegs I was aware of until I found this place were on vinyl. One is titled "Up against the wall...." and is live ca '69 but uncredited as to venue and features, as may be guessed, mostly "Volunteers" material and is pretty crunchy sounding style wise, similar to their Woodstock sound. It has a version of "Up and Down". The other one is actually a transcription of a PBS studio show the Airplane did which is also "Volunteers" era and is much more polished in terms of performance. It has a GREAT take of "Wooden Ships". During the time I was always on the watch for bootlegs, say '72 thru about '77, vinyl was the the only medium I ever saw. We had a store here in San Jose called "Underground Records" which was a pretty well known destination for bootleg seekers. I'm pretty sure if any other JA material had been available during the era I would I would have found it there in my frequent visits. I never even heard of tapes being circulated until my buddy started coming up with Grateful Dead material in the early 80's when it became fairly simple to copy and circulate cassettes. As far as I know they were the first to set up a special "taper's section" in their shows and I never heard of anyone else formally condoning taping until much more recently (Pearl Jam). So I have to wonder where this material has been all these years and whether the ones you cite are in fact re-titled versions of the two "original" JA bootlegs, as it's an extremely common circumstance in that community. Just curious 'cause I can't see the track listings which might confirm it. Also, obviously there HAS been "officially" recorded material (ie soundboard tapes) in the vaults somewhere for these last 35 years because I've seen it on legitimate CD releases, and it's entirely possible this material has been somehow obtained from those types of sources, but from what I hear the security in place to prevent bootlegging such material has become pretty solid in the last 10 years or so.
Just my 2 cents for any who might be curious about the issues and JA bootleg history in particular.

adorshki said:

HI Sandy: Since I only have a computer at work I don't normally download stuff to it. What catches my eye though is the second title, it can't possibly be accurate for venue and time. "The Fanily Dog" was actually a collective that staged concerts at the Avalon Ballroom and a couple of other locations until about early '68. Bill Graham and internal friction basically put 'em out of business.
What I'm really curious about, since I couldn't see 'em, is the track listings.

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This is actually a quasi-legitimate release now, and as far as I can tell the information is pretty accurate. Here's the Amazon page. I was all of 10 when this was recorded, and living on the east coast to boot, so I can't really attest to the veracity of the info.

Sure is good stuff, though!

twocorgis said:

Sure is good stuff, though!

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I bet it is! The more I started looking at those dates the more I started remembering. Yeah, I guess there actually was a "Family Dog" venue. It was actually the old Avalon Ballroom's last incarnation. I was 13 and even though it was just up the road my folks wouldn't let me out at that age, but I used to follow the ads and Ralph Gleason's and Joel Selvin's reviews in the S.F. Chronicle. There were some wild TV/radio "simulcast" experiments broadcast back then too. Veer within a veer: I can remember Ralph Gleason's column telling everybody that the new band "Derek and the Dominoes" due in town in week was a "MUST SEE!" because they featured a special guest star he was not at liberty to name.... :lol:
Now I gotta go compare those Amazon listings to the CD's I picked up over the last couple of years! Thanks!

twocorgis said:

This is actually a quasi-legitimate release now

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Now that I'm back to analytical mode from nostalgia mode, I would venture that what's really going on is that the copyrights are finally up and are being offered at attractive enough prices for the next set of publishers to want to print the material with the hope of making some profit. Thus the sudden uptick in available commercially produced material, which is what I like to collect now. I think most of the stuff on Amazon is actually legitimate, I don't think they want to knowingly alienate their clientele with unlicensed material.

adorshki said:

Now that I'm back to analytical mode from nostalgia mode, I would venture that what's really going on is that the copyrights are finally up and are being offered at attractive enough prices for the next set of publishers to want to print the material with the hope of making some profit. Thus the sudden uptick in available commercially produced material, which is what I like to collect now. I think most of the stuff on Amazon is actually legitimate, I don't think they want to knowingly alienate their clientele with unlicensed material.

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My bad for using the term "quasi". Of course everything Amazon sells is legitimate. My problem now is that I need another CD like a hole in the head. It's a dead format as far as I'm concerned, and if you need any proof of that take a look at the ever-shrinking CD section of your local best Buy or equivalent. DVDs won't be far behind, either.

Now that hard drives are ultra cheap (and small!), that's my preferred vehicle these days. I also have a real problem with buying the same music four or even five times over. The music industry is notorious for that. "Oh yeah, well we blew the first master when it went from LP to CD so you'll buy the remaster again, won't you?" Yeah, right...

twocorgis said:

It's a dead format as far as I'm concerned, and if you need any proof of that take a look at the ever-shrinking CD section of your local best Buy or equivalent. DVDs won't be far behind, either.

Now that hard drives are ultra cheap (and small!), that's my preferred vehicle these days.

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I don't think it'll be dead for a while, because there's a lot of audiophiles out there like me who still prize the quality they're getting from their traditional systems. My Sony CD player has a magnificent pre-amp and I've actually heard a couple of CD's now that can actually outclass 99% of my vinyl, and I'm one of those vinyl purists!. I haven't heard anything to compare from a hard drive storage system yet, or maybe the real culprit is the sound card, you know what I'm saying. But I'm a tech dinosaur so there very well could be stuff out there I'm just not aware of. I know when my buddy plugs his Ipod into my system it's "pretty darn good" but still not quite as good as the vinyl or CD when comparing the same material. In that case I attribute it to the mp3 file format.
I think it's just the fact that so much CD distribution is internet driven that's diminishing its retail presence. Tower on line is an example. Their flagship store used to be just a couple of miles from my house. I'd love to be able to browse the covers before I buy but there's not enough people like me to support the retail overhead.

capnjuan said:

Thanks Mello; you have impeccable tastes in Airplane ... and the skill to handle and share the media; thanks for keeping the memories alive! 8)

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Yup, I'll be burnin' some leisure time this weekend checking out all the stuff mentioned in this thread.


I'm a huge Airplane fan, but was a bit too young to have seen them live. Saw Starship on their second tour, and words cannot describe how disappointing that was. The soul of Airplane went to Tuna. Grace and her pals seriously over estimated their own talent, creativity, and energy. Jack and Jorma made the right move, IMO.