Jefferson Airplane - Last Flight
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CD Details
Artist: Jefferson AirplaneEdition: Music CD
Format: Import, Live, Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 2007-02-26
Music Label: Snapper UK
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
- Introduction by Bill Graham - Bill Graham
- Somebody to Love
- Twilight Double Leader
- Wooden Ships
- Milk Train
- Blind John
- Come Back Baby
- Son of Jesus
- Long John Silver
- When the Earth Moves Again
- Papa John's Down Home Blues
- Eat Starch Mom
- John's Other
- Trial by Fire
- Law Man
- Have You Seen the Saucers?
- Aerie (Gang of Eagles)
- Feel So Good
- Crown of Creation
- Walking the Tou Tou
- Medley: Diana/Volunteers [Medley]
Music reviews of Last Flight
Music Review: Almost Essential Airplane
Rating: 4 Stars
First, my biases, so you know where I'm coming from. I saw Airplane in college in '67, so I'm old. I prefer the classic lineup. Dryden is critical; without him, the band was just louder, and lost the magic that jazz-based drumming provides. Balin was important too, when he was not out of control. The other four are all absolutely essential, but they never left the band before it was all over. This band had 2 great singers and 2 good ones, so singing was important. But the jams were equally important. I don't get it when people complain that the Airplane's live albums drag due to long jams; the jams made this band what it was. I'm speaking of the real 6-member jams (including voices). I admit when Jorma does a long blues number he sometimes drags it out too much, but that's because he's often playing by himself, almost. Given all that, I think Baxter's is their best studio work, with Crown close behind. Pillow was important, but it was almost still a teeny-bopper record, with short tracks and lots of echo. Pillow was done right on live releases like Pointed Head and Fillmore East. Half the tracks on Volunteers were the equal of Crown. After that there were good songs, but they were no longer played by a fully integrated band. They were more like solo tracks with other members backing up.
Now, to this Last Flight release. I bought it because of the set list, with it having numerous songs not covered by their other official live releases. When I first played this, it was a massive disappointment. I made the mistake of playing this right after Pointed Head. The performances seemed fine, but the sonic quality was awful. "Where's the bass?" I asked myself. I couldn't hear Jack at all. The sound was so trebly and shrill it was painful and tiring to listen to. There was no body to the music, no depth, no warmth, and the band sounded like they were playing really loud in the next room. So I did more web research, and noted that this is an "official bootleg" release, whatever that is. I guess it means less-than-the-best source tapes, and/or non-professional or sloppy mixing/mastering. My ears hurt so much, I almost put this album on the shelf where it might have stayed forever.
But then I fiddled with it and managed to coax it into a very worthy live show. First, I ripped it into waves and removed all 7 songs that had already been released on 30 Seconds Over Winterland (on first listen, I felt the 30 Seconds versions were better in every case, mainly due to sound quality). I also deleted Papa John's Down Home Blues because it doesn't really feel like Airplane music to me (Hot Tuna, maybe). Then I blended the remaining songs together with cross-fades in a wave editor, fixing a few badly abrupt transitions as well. Finally, I used the wave editor to boost the bass and lower-middle range frequencies by 6 dB (actually I cut the high frequencies by 6 dB and cut the mid frequencies by 1-6 dB, because there was no headroom in these over-compressed waves to boost the bass). Then burned CDs for my personal use. The result was a great, very listenable concert, with nicely balanced sound. Now my hears don't hurt, the sound is full, and I can still hear every high voice, high guitar, and fiddle note just fine. And there is Casady, in full bloom! Now, I need to recover the 7 songs I "deleted" and see how they sound with equalization applied.
So, for me, I feel like I rescued this concert from obscurity. I'm sure that a real sound engineer with real pro equipment could have made a much better balanced, non-compressed mix or master from the original source tapes. I can only ask why didn't the producers of this release do so themselves? They either had no sensible budget or no respect at all for the music. It saddens me that the few people who decide to buy this album will be greeted with such low sound quality, when it could have been so much better--especially when there are so few Airplane live releases of post-1969 shows. Such a quick and dirty release as this will likely guarantee poor sales and "prove" there is little demand for JA products. This band was among the top 5 bands in the world in its prime, and deserves better treatment. Too bad one of the surviving band members doesn't take a keen interest in the band's legacy and oversee some high quality handling of their material. Why, for example, did they not take the 1970s Quad releases of the Volunteers, Bark, and Worst albums and put them out on multi-channel SACD or DVD-audio, or even dts-CD or dts-DVD formats? Bark is a much better, less muddy album, in my opinion, in Quad than in stereo. Just listen to what Genesis did with their early albums for their recent box set releases, and how those were transformed from somewhat blurry stereo LPs into multi-channel bliss.
Anyway, I managed to convert this album from a trash bin candidate to one of my favorites, and I wrote some details above so others might do the same, if they choose to. If you have a decent stereo, maybe it's as simple as walking over there and just TURNING UP THE BASS! Or use the equalizer in foobar. Good luck whatever you do.
Five stars for the performance and historical context, 3 stars for the actual product with poor sound quality, 4 stars for how it ended up when I fixed it.
Description of Last Flight
2007 digitally remastered two CD release of Jefferson Airplane's complete final show recorded at the Winterland in San Francisco in September of 1972. 21 tracks in all mainly taken from their final two studio albums. Includes: 'Wooden Ships', 'Have You Seen The Saucers?', 'Crown of Creation', 'Somebody To Love', 'Papa John's Down Home Blues' and more. Charly.Live Albums CDs
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