Volunteers

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Volunteers
Jefferson Airplane studio album

Publication
(s)

November 1969

admission

April 1969

Label (s) RCA Records

Format (s)

LP

Genre (s)

Psychedelic rock , country rock

Title (number)

10

running time

44:28

occupation

production

Al Schmitt

Studio (s)

Wally Heider Studios, San Francisco

chronology
Bless Its Pointed Little Head Volunteers Barque

Volunteers is the sixth album by the American psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane . The album was released in 1969 and reached number 13 in the US charts, the decoupled single Volunteers number 65.

Emergence

The album was recorded in the spring of 1969 in Wally Heider's studio in San Francisco, which was equipped with a then new 16-track recorder. Volunteers was one of the first recordings to be made using this technique.

On the right an Ampex MM1000 16-track recorder, such a device was used during the recording.

A number of guest musicians were involved in the recording of the album: Jerry García , the English pianist Nicky Hopkins , who became known as a studio musician for the Rolling Stones and Kinks , as well as Stephen Stills and David Crosby . The song Wooden Ships they recorded together with Graham Nash for their debut album in the same year. Joey Covington, who was to replace Spencer Dryden on drums shortly afterwards, was also there as a guest musician . The singer and Airplane co-founder Marty Balin also left the band after this album. The band played three of the tracks on the album Eskimo Blue Day, Wooden Ships and Volunteers during their performance at the Woodstock Festival . The album was quite controversial. The original title Volunteers of America or Volunteers of Amerikkka - the triple K was an allusion to the Ku Klux Klan - was rejected by the record company. Lines such as Up against the wall, motherfucker from We Can Be Together delayed the release of the album, which was only released in November 1969. Ed Ward wrote in Rolling Stone in 1970 , "If there was a political message, it would be between the lines" and "... whoever buys the album to hear them say 'motherfucker' will listen to the rest and maybe musically, if not be politically radicalized ” .

Style and reception

The album contains a mixture of psychedelic rock songs with polyphonic vocals typical for Jefferson Airplane, country rock songs ( A Song for All Seasons, The Farm ) and the adaptation of the Russian folk song Polyushko Pole as an instrumental under the title Meadowlands .

Allmusic's Jim Newsom highlights the musical arrangements, the piano playing by Nicky Hopkins and the razor-sharp sound of Jorma Kaukonen's guitar playing.

The album reached number 370 on the list of the 500 best albums of all time by the music magazine Rolling Stone .

Track list

page 1

  1. We Can Be Together ( Paul Kantner ) - 5:48
  2. Good Sheperd (Traditional, arranged by Jorma Kaukonen ) - 4:23
  3. The Farm (Kantner, Gary Blackman ) - 2:55
  4. Hey Fredrick ( Grace Slick ) - 8:31

Page 2

  1. Turn My Life Down (Kaukonen) - 3:30
  2. Wooden Ships ( David Crosby , Kantner, Stephen Stills ) - 6:00
  3. Eskimo Blue Day (Slick) - 6:31
  4. A Song for All Seasons ( Spencer Dryden ) - 3:30
  5. Meadowlands (Traditional, arranged by Slick & Kantner) - 1.01
  6. Volunteers ( Marty Balin , Kantner) - 2.03

Additional musicians

more publishments

In 1973 a quadruple mix of the album was released. The 2004 CD release also includes five live recordings from the Fillmore East ( Good Sheperd, Somebody to Love, Plastic Fantastic Lover, Wooden Ships, Volunteers ) and in 2009 the album was released along with the band's full performance at the Woodstock Festival under the Title Jefferson Airplane Woodstock Experience .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Volunteers in the US charts at Allmusic (English)
  2. ↑ a b Jim Newsom on allmusic about the album on Allmusic (English)
  3. ↑ Ed Ward in Rolling Stone on the album
  4. ↑ Volunteers on the RS list

Web links