Customer Reviews: Read 21 more reviews...
 A Masterpiece At The End of the Sixties August 30, 2004
Juan Mobili (Valley Cottage, NY USA)
40 out of 42 found this review helpful
This is Jefferson Airplane at its peak, political and trippy, at the end of the Sixties. Before their legendary squables would, finally, make them implode, they managed one last great album, and here it is.
Each of them seem to have hit their stride, Kantner's writing -which predominates here- has achieved a new maturity, Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Cassady play together like one -which is no surprise given that Hot Tuna will be next for both of them- and Slick and Balin sing their hearts out.
This is a document -a masterpiece, really- of the Rock being written and played in California at the turn of that decade, while Vietnam raged and Haight Ashbury was beginning to fall apart. Whether it's the anthemic "We Can Be Together" or the tender Folk of "Good Shepperd," the fierce "Volunteers" or their evocative rendition of David Crosby's "Wooden Ships," this is vintage Airplane.
Regarding this reissue's worth, I must say that the remastering has done its job, it enhanced the original rather than destroyed it. As far as the extra tracks are concerned there has been a number of strong opinions about them, prior to my review. If you are on the sentimental side, you are likely to find them a major plus, if you are not, you might still like them or, worse comes to worst, you can program only the ten original album songs.
This is music when young people were convinced that their music could make the world a peaceful place. Listen to it ... who knows, you may feel that way too.
The Best It's Ever Sounded October 5, 2004
Coloratura (Cincinnati, OH)
15 out of 15 found this review helpful
I haven't done a side-by-side comparison with the Mobile Fidelity CD, but I think RCA have done VOLUNTEERS proud. The band's first 16 track recording, the album's dense production always suffered on vinyl (especially on Dynaflex) but it has been substantially sorted-out here thanks to the state of digital recording technologies.
I was relieved to hear, from the get-go, a palpable bass presence, and as with the new remaster of BLESS ITS POINTED LITTLE HEAD, the multiple strands of instrumentalists are so clearly delineated that you can listen to the whole canvas or decide which musician you'd care to focus on, and follow. I never quite realized what a percussive performance "We Can Be Together" is given: Spencer Dryden's drums are competing with Paul's Kantner's acoustic and Nicky Hopkins' piano, and probably Marty Balin's tambourine, but as I say, all are audible now, giving the track an impressive sonic complexity. The acoustic guitars on "Good Shepherd" and "Turn My Life Down" sound as clear as river water chuckling over rocks in the flow, and all of the drums in Spencer's kit have clearer definition, so that we not only hear a backbeat but lots of jazz-flavored fills and percussive coloring. The most impressive tracks, sonically, are the ones that are most sparsely instrumentalized, such as "Eskimo Blue Day," and the extra space introduced in the sound of the recording gives Jack Casady's bass that much extra room in which to sound fuller, more rounded. (If this album has any seminal fault, it's that the band went overboard filling those 16 tracks, not realizing that less can be more, as is demonstrated here.) Even weaker tracks like "The Farm" and "A Song for All Seasons" become more interesting given the more pronounced and appreciable interplay of the musicians, especially Hopkins and Casady. Still, I have to accord MVP rating on this album to Jorma Kaukonen, never more impassioned in the studio than during his searing solo on "Wooden Ships" and never more mind-boggling than in his duet with himself on Grace Slick's "Hey Fredrick." The outstanding quality of his performance has shone through the murkiest mixes and masterings RCA could hurl at this album, and it's just breathtaking here.
Unlike the live bonus tracks on BLESS ITS POINTED LITTLE HEAD, the live bonus tracks on VOLUNTEERS -- same venue, one year later -- are superb and a boon to the overall package. The band is well-mixed and they play as if they know they are being recorded, and it matters to them to be at their best. Some audience members have clearly heard the new album and respond warmly when "Wooden Ships" is introduced, and this, "Good Shepherd" and the title track are all given near-definitive live recitals.
Warmly recommended.
Pet warning: The rumbling iceberg sounds that close "Eskimo Blue Day" sent my cats running out of the room.
The Final Jefferson Airplane Album Of The 60's! July 23, 2004
highway_star (Hallandale, Florida United States)
14 out of 14 found this review helpful
"Volunteers" is the last 60's album The Jefferson Airplane recorded and what a classic it is. Merging folk and psychedic sounds, The Jefferson Airplane had a unique sound to say the least. "Volunteers" was full of well crafted songs such as "We Can Be Together", "Wooden Ships" (also recorded by Crosby, Stills and Nash), the honkytonkish "The Farm" and the anti-establishment tune "Volunteers" to name a few. Guest artists include Nicky Hopkins on piano, Steven Stills on Hammond Organ, David Crosby (no mention of what instrument he played but I'm assuming it's guitar) and Jerry Garcia on pedel steel guitar This remastered edition of "Volunteers" also includes five excellent bonus tracks, "Good Shepahrd", "Somebody To Love", "Plastic Fantastic Lover", "Wooden Ships" and "Volunteers" all recorded "live" at The Fillmore East November 28th and 29th, 1969. An excellent cd anyway you look at it.
Anthem for the Revolution, Still alive after all these years April 8, 2005
B. Marold (Bethlehem, PA United States)
32 out of 38 found this review helpful
`Holy Counterculture, Batman', what is the world coming to?' The Rolling Stones started it all when they lent one of their songs to sell Windows '95. Now Mick is shilling for digital cameras. Songs by Pete Townsend and The Who have been selling allergy medicine and have fronted every CSI show from coast to coast. Not that this is all bad. Half the reason I watch CSI is the jolt of adrenaline I get from their opening themes performed by The Who.
But now, who of all people but the Jefferson Airplane is lending one its songs to ads for a STOCK TRADING company, of all things. And, not only is it just any old Jefferson Airplane song, it's `Volunteers of America', the closest thing there is to being an anthem for the counter culture in 1969, when it first appeared on the `Volunteers' album. To the sponsor, E*Trade's credit, they use the song in a very imaginative way, playing exactly on the fact that the song is literally a suggestion for revolution. Of course, like the Beatle's `Revolution', there is just a little artistic license here, as the song is more exactly a reflection of `60s attitudes than it is a literal call to the barricades.
As a long time Jefferson Airplane fan, and a person who literally did exactly what the `Airplane' suggests in the song `The Farm' for a short time, E*Trade's appropriation of this most sacred of texts from that most sacred of decades comes as a major surprise. I just hope Gracie and Paul and Martie and Jorma and Headband Jack and the rest of the `Airplane crew are getting paid very, very well for their selling off this piece of my heritage to Wall Street.
To get to the point of reading what is supposed to be a review, let me say that while `Volunteers' may represent the high water mark of American artistic aversion to the Vietnam war and what it was doing to this country, it is probably not their best album. Their most important work that established them as THE San Francisco psychedelic band was `Surrealistic Pillow'. Their fullest work, with the greatest number of original songs is `Crown of Creation'. The album which I really believe is the most fun is the live recording `Bless It's Pointed Little Head'. But, `Volunteers' is the very last real `Airplane album before Gracie and Paul did their `Blows Against the Empire' project billing the band as the `Jefferson Starship', all based on a SciFi classic by Robert A. Heinlein. Explaining the irony of Heinlein quoted by the `Airplane is just too deep to go into here.
After `Blows...' I believe the band became much less interesting for a very long time. This may have been due to the alienation of Marty Balin and the spin-off of Jorma and Jack to the blues group Hot Tuna. So, this is the last of the truly great `Airplane albums, the apotheoses of the counterculture reaction to the very unpopular war. Aside from `Volunteers' itself, there are two other classic anti-war / anti-establishment songs in `We Can Be Together' by Paul Kantner and the great `Wooden Ships' by Kantner, David Crosby, and Stephen Stills which also appears as the first cut on the second side of the Crosby, Stills, and Nash debut album. Grace contributes the song `Eskimo Blue Day' which stylistically previews the themes of `Blows Against the Empire'. Jorma contributes three works, two of which are arrangements of traditional tunes and one original, `Good Shepherd'. Drummer Spencer Dryden contributes the country and western novelty `A Song for All Seasons'.
With all this anarchy, its curious that the very little `bad language' is so badly mumbled that you can hardly know what they are saying, and, in the copy of the lyrics in the LP, these words are changed to something much less objectionable. I thing Frank Zappa actually called them out on the timidity of hedging their bets with these dodges.
All in all, this is still an extremely powerful album that still resonates over the last thirty-five years. If you really want to know about music in the `60s counterculture, trade in your Grateful Dead for this classic.
Airplane at their Apex! September 9, 2004
Ron H. Larocque (Orleans, Ontario Canada)
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
As a drummer,singer,songwriter, who was a teen in the late sixties, I can remember the day I bought this album,(and After Bathing At Baxters!). If you like The Airplane, there are several cuts on this album that are their absolute best. The way ' Hey Frederick ' shifts gears,literally;Grace Slicks vocals, the tightness of the band make this song a classic. It grabs me everytime I listen to it. And we actually play,(though we don't do it proper justice), the Airplanes' version of Wooden Ships,which is on my top 10 list of all time favourite songs. Songs like Wild Tyme,Saturday Afternoon and Young Girl Sunday Blues etc. demonstrated that NOBODY did acid rock like Jorma Kaukonen! And Jack Cassidy is still one of my favourite bass players! The live cuts ,from the Filmore East,ARE a real bonus! - Ron ' Rock ' Larocque,Orleans,Ontario,Canada.
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