Volunteers

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2007-05-16 rating:
volunteers got to revolution with parental guidance(language)
Why does it fall to me to review this? It's the times we're living in. Bad is good. Peace is war. Occupation is democracy. Well, here's the antidote to that. A dispatch from the American anti-vietnam-war movement of the late 60s - San Francisco's Jefferson Airplane ( hits: white rabbit, somebody to love) in their revolutionary political activist mode. Except that they by-and-large aren't, and when they are it can be very tongue in cheek like on 'Volunteers' itself. 'We should be together' however is an anthem for all time for all who want to see the people run the world - hard to imagine anyone these days singing " up against the wall Brother Tucker(*)..." especially in such sweet harmonies. Often derided(especially by punks and people who have never heard them) as middle-class posers - well at least they were on the right side when it came to it, and at least they were talented(unlike the Clash for instance). br / The last album to feature Marty Balin (one of their 2 outstanding singers, the other being Grace Slick, of course. " Few bands had one singer as good as Grace or Marty. NO other band had 2") and the last great album from the greatest of all rock bands; they had their share of hit singles over the years, though not as many instantly catchy songs as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who or the Doors, but when it all came together they flew higher than anyone - all the wild rock guitar energy, rarely combined with uncliched, original songs, and the best singers ever. Ok, Cream and Jimi Hendrix had good songs, and Hendrix and Jack Bruce were good singers, but Grace and Marty are GREAT singers, and there's 2 of them; and from 'Baxter's' onwards JA guitarist Jorma Kaukonen compares very favourably with Hendrix or Clapton - rock guitar has got slicker since, but it's oh so tame now. About half of this is up with their very best - standouts: We should be together, Wooden ships, Turn my Life down, Good Shepherd (guitarist Jorma sings) and Volunteers. The rest is better than almost anyone else's best, and none of it sounds at all dated - timeless rock music. This is also the first album with the new drummer Joey Covington replacing Spencer Dryden which gives it a different feel to the earlier albums - different, certainly not better or worse (no,longterm they WERE better with Spencer's subtler, hipper jazz-edged drumming, but it doesn't really show here). br / A standout contribution is from legendary English session piano man Nicky Hopkins who'd come from working with the Kinks and the Small Faces and the Jeff Beck group and practically being a member of the Rolling Stones for a while to be practically a member of Jefferson Airplane for a while, playing with them at Woodstock, and then went on to be a member of Quicksilver Messenger Service, and played on the Steve Miller Band's sublime "Your Saving Grace" album - in fact, he played on about half of my top 20 fave albums - must mean something! Listen to him rock behind Jorma's storming riffs on the track 'Volunteers' (one of the great play it loud moments - it may be tongue in cheek but few tracks express the joy of life like this - have a revolution, got to revolution...yeah!), and providing a rolling sea of arpeggios to buoy up Jorma's soaring solo on 'Wooden Ships'! br / Buy it. Love it. And buy '.. Baxter's' and 'Crown of Creation' too. br / Oh.. . the bonus material is alright, too.

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