Jefferson Starship - Earth
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Artist: Jefferson StarshipEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2008-03-01
Music Label: Sbme Special Mkts.
Soundtracks:
- Love Too Good
- Count on Me
- Take Your Time
- Crazy Feelin'
- Skateboard
- Fire
- Show Yourself
- Runaway
- All Nite Long
Music reviews of Earth
Music Review: Down To EARTH
Rating: 5 Stars
I gather there were reasons for Paul Kantner's were relatively low profile on this record. There was always internal strife in the House of Jefferson, of course, and it wasn't all that surprising when a previously dominant figure suddenly downplayed his or her role (think of Marty Balin's merely contributing a single song to BAXTER'S some 10 years before this album's realease). Kantner's political and sci-fi anthems were getting a little dated by the mid-70s, and Jefferson Starship's newfound popularity was scarcely based on his kind of music. Actually, even though Grace remained something of a figurehead for the group and easily their most identifiable member, the group's 70s renaissance had relatively little to do with her quirky tunes either. Instead it had everything to do with Balin's return to the fold AND to his ability to generate soft-rock hits (either self-penned or sought out by and for himself). It must have been a delicious irony for him after seeing the group that he founded some 10 years before (the Airplane) largely taken away from him, only to become something quite different under Slick and Kantner's influence.
Of course, any group with a long enough history turns into a soap opera at some point. And while any given fan might relish the irony of Balin's triumphant return in 1975 and the mega-success of the newly roconstituted group's RED OCTOPUS thereafter, those same fans might find things getting a tad too formulaic a few years and couple of similarly structured albums later. "Miracles" was something of a miracle to be sure, but was this album's Top-40 hit, "Count On Me" really of the same caliber? Well, it still sold well, but critics (and some fans) were starting to mutter about Marty as a "lounge singer." "Runaway,"while a better, hookier tune, also sold pretty well but did little to stop his critics' carping. I dunno if Marty paid all that much attention to the rock press back then, but if he did he'd be entitled to wonder, once again, how he could have gone from hero to goat quicker than Charlie Brown.
I personally didn't mind Marty's occasional sappiness all that much. I'm a fan of both Grace and Marty, and while I don't want a steady diet of mush, I knew you'd never get that within the context of a group co-helmed by Grace Slick. Yeah, I've often said it's a source of some ironic pleasure for me--and I'm sure for other fans as well--that in the Airplane and Starship of the Balin years, the starry eyed, sensitive dreamer was the GUY and the hardnosed, sarcastic cut-up was the WOMAN. It made for an interesting tension.
So this record pretty much alternated Slick and Balin tracks, and was all the better for it. The opener "Love Too Good" was a sharp-as-a-knife Slick vocal that numbers among the most distinctive songs she's ever recorded. At the time, one critic wrote that she delivered a "body blow" with each chorus, and it's hard to think of a more apt phrase. (Maybe Grace's interest in the martial arts was paying off musically). Her other tunes on the album were also top notch (although "Skate Board" was really just a bit of a goof). "Show Yourself" is the kind of political number that's really for the ages. Yeah, she alludes to the "bicentennial," so it could be called dated in that regard. But its theme of sinister and invisible forces in one's government is actually pretty universal and pretty compelling stuff some 30 years on.
And Marty, always a great rock'n'roll singer when he wanted to be, did get a chance to rock out a bit on "Fire" a tour-de-force force for him that recalled the glory days of BLESS ITS POINTED LITTLE HEAD. By the time we reached the closer, "All Nite Long," Grace and Marty have had enough moments to shine, so they trot Paul back out. As the album's sole Kantnerian number (although co-written with Grace and Marty), it's almost a refreshing reminder that the Starship was, at this point, still a group, not just a back-up act for two distinctive, but very different singers. And given his low profile throughout the rest of the record, one can kind of get into the spirit of a Kantner march to close things out. The lyrics are a typically vague Starship spiel that would seem to have something to do with a "gathering of the tribes" and maybe individual or group transcendence. Not much in the way of political themes really, although the title suggests a firm commitment to spelling reform at least.
In their different ways, Slick, Kantner and Balin were all mercurial personalities. EARTH seemed like a transitional album at the time, although clearly, no one could have predicted just what they were transitioning to. Within a year, Slick and Balin would leave the group, the Mickey Thomas years would begin and (even though Grace would eventually return) the commercial fix was pretty much in. And people thought the Marty Balin years were too commercial!
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