Dragon Fly | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | October 1974 [1] | |||
Recorded | July 1974 | |||
Studio | Wally Heider Studios, San Francisco | |||
Genre | Rock, progressive rock | |||
Length | 42:25 | |||
Label | Grunt/RCA Records | |||
Producer | Jefferson Starship / Larry Cox | |||
Jefferson Starship chronology | ||||
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Grace Slick chronology | ||||
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Paul Kantner chronology | ||||
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Dragon Fly is the debut album by Jefferson Starship,released on Grunt Records in 1974. It peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard 200,and has been certified a gold album. Credited to Grace Slick,Paul Kantner,and Jefferson Starship,the band itself was a turning point after a series of four albums centering on the partnership of Kantner and Slick during the disintegration of Jefferson Airplane through the early 1970s.
After Jefferson Airplane's 1972 tour supporting Long John Silver ,the band went on hiatus. Paul Kantner,Grace Slick and David Freiberg worked on Baron Von Tollbooth and the Chrome Nun while Slick made her first solo album Manhole ;both albums used various members of the Airplane,including Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady,along with new players like guitarist Craig Chaquico and bassist/keyboardist Pete Sears. Neither album cracked the top 100 on Billboard,and Jack and Jorma seemed disinterested in returning for a new Airplane album and tour. This prompted Kantner and Slick to form a new band without them,consisting of all the members of the last lineup of the Airplane except for Chaquico replacing Kaukonen on guitar and Jorma's brother Peter Kaukonen replacing Casady on bass. [2] The new band,named Jefferson Starship after the credit on Paul's 1970 solo album Blows Against the Empire (manager Bill Thompson also thought it made good business sense to keep the Jefferson name),undertook a spring 1974 tour playing a set list drawn largely from the Airplane-related albums of the early 70s including Blows, Sunfighter ,Baron Von Tollbooth and Manhole. [2] The tour was critically and commercially well-received,which set the stage for the band to record a studio album. Just before this happened,Peter Kaukonen was dropped from the lineup and replaced by Pete Sears.
Recording on the album commenced in July 1974 at San Francisco's Wally Heider Studios,where the last three Airplane studio albums had been cut. The sessions were produced by Larry Cox,who had recently produced the Climax hit "Precious and Few" and been recommended to the group by Maurice Ieraci,the manager of Grunt Records. Cox had a contentious initial session with the group,which in his words consisted of "Slick immediately testing me. She'd dish it out until you'd stop her and she'd found your limit. But she never found my limit because I'd always carry it as far as she would go until she got tired of it". [3] That first session,on July 1,produced the Kantner rocker and opening track "Ride The Tiger",with lyrics co-written by Slick and Byong Yu,Grace and Paul's Tae Kwon Do teacher. Kantner later noted that Yu "gave us the reflection on the differences between Asian and Western cultures". [2] "Ride The Tiger" proved a popular number that often opened Jefferson Starship shows for many years. Slick also wrote another song in tribute to Yu using the pun title "Be Young You". Other songs completed early in the sessions included "Come To Life",featuring words by Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter,Chaquico's "That's For Sure",and the Papa John Creach number "Devil's Den",with lyrics by Slick,which showcased his electric violin work. [2]
The sci-fi closing number "Hyperdrive" originated with a series of lyrics Slick had penned several years prior,inspired by her reading the work of architect and futurist Buckminster Fuller. [3] She had been looking for music to go with them but did not find it until rehearsals for the new album when Sears sat at the piano to play some new music he had written. Slick instantly recognized that her words would fit,later noting "I could not believe it because you hardly ever get lyrics to fit music when both of them have been written independently". [3] The song was a complex,multi-sectional progressive rock composition with harpsichord,mellotron,and lengthy solos from Chaquico and Creach.
The lengthy progressive power ballad "Caroline" originated from music by Paul Kantner. Wanting it to have romantic lyrics,he ended up tapping ex-Airplane singer Marty Balin to supply them. [2] Balin had not appeared on an Airplane or Airplane-offshoot album since Volunteers in 1969,but the results were so artistically satisfying that he also volunteered to sing the song as a guest artist;his photo even appeared with that of the rest of the band members on the back cover. This collaboration ultimately paved the way for Balin to rejoin his old band mates full time in Jefferson Starship the following year,where he would remain until 1978. For the fall 1974 tour promoting Dragon Fly,just prior to Marty rejoining as a full time member,Freiberg took lead vocal on the song.
Overall,while the sound of the album still displayed some of the psychedelic and progressive rock stylistic tendencies of the group's past it was more focused and streamlined,with the looser improvisational tendencies of Casady and Kaukonen replaced by tighter,pop-oriented arrangements revolving around more forceful hooks. [2] Similarly,while the lyrics often still retained a philosophical bent ("Ride The Tiger","Hyperdrive"),the socio-political concerns of the Airplane were largely absent,and "Caroline" foreshadowed a move to more romantic material.
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Allmusic | [4] |
Christgau's Record Guide | C+ [5] |
Released in October 1974,Dragon Fly charted at number 11 and received an RIAA gold certification within six months,becoming the biggest success any of them had since Jefferson Airplane's Bark in 1971. [3] Two singles were released from the album:"Ride the Tiger" reached #84 on the Billboard Hot 100 and while the follow-up single "Caroline" did not chart,it became an FM staple and was acclaimed as the album's centerpiece,with many listeners excited by Balin's return. In addition,the song "Hyperdrive" was used in the opening ceremonies of the 1976 World Science Fiction Convention,MidAmeriCon,in Kansas City,Missouri.
Critical reaction to the album at the time was mixed to positive. Billboard observed there were "several superb rock cuts in the best tradition of Jefferson Airplane and some equally well done ballads",concluding it was the best work the members had come up with in a long time. [6] Bud Scoppa at Rolling Stone scoffed that Paul and Grace were "unknowing self-parodists" although he positively concluded that the album was "at worst listenable and at best surprisingly engaging". [7] Cashbox enthused "this new Starship LP is well worth a listen as the aforementioned talented people collaborate in making a proactive record",marking "Hyperdrive" as a favorite. [8] Robert Christgau gave the album a C+ but also singled out "Hyperdrive" as a key cut "in which supertechnology (spirit-powered,perhaps?) cuts through corners in time". [5] Retrospectively,William Ruhlmann at AllMusic thought that although the material was uneven,it sounded like the work of a seasoned band;he praised "All Fly Away","Hyperdrive" and especially "Caroline",which he called "one of the best songs the Airplane/Starship ever did." [4]
No. | Title | Lyrics | Music | Length |
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1. | "Ride the Tiger" | Byong Yu, Grace Slick, Paul Kantner | Paul Kantner | 5:11 |
2. | "That’s for Sure" | Jerry Gallup | Craig Chaquico | 4:58 |
3. | "Be Young You" | Grace Slick | Grace Slick | 3:49 |
4. | "Caroline" | Marty Balin | Paul Kantner | 7:29 |
No. | Title | Lyrics | Music | Length |
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5. | "Devil's Den" | Grace Slick | Papa John Creach | 4:03 |
6. | "Come to Life" | Robert Hunter | David Freiberg, Steven Schuster | 3:46 |
7. | "All Fly Away" | Tom Pacheco | Tom Pacheco | 5:25 |
8. | "Hyperdrive" | Grace Slick | Pete Sears | 7:44 |
Chart (1974–1975) | Peak position |
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Australian albums (Kent Music Report) [9] | 60 |
Canada Top Albums/CDs ( RPM ) [10] | 18 |
US Billboard 200 [11] | 11 |
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
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United States (RIAA) [12] | Gold | 500,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band formed in San Francisco, California, in 1965. One of the pioneering bands of psychedelic rock, the group defined the San Francisco Sound and was the first from the Bay Area to achieve international commercial success. They headlined the Monterey Pop Festival (1967), Woodstock (1969), Altamont Free Concert (1969), and the first Isle of Wight Festival (1968) in England. Their 1967 breakout album Surrealistic Pillow was one of the most significant recordings of the Summer of Love. Two songs from that album, "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit", are among Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".
Jefferson Starship is an American rock band from San Francisco, California, formed in 1974 by a group of musicians including former members of Jefferson Airplane. Between 1974 and 1984, they released eight gold or platinum-selling studio albums, and one gold-selling compilation. The album Red Octopus went double-platinum, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart in 1975. The band went through several major changes in personnel and genres through the years while retaining the Jefferson Starship name. The band name was retired in 1984, but it was picked up again in 1992 by a revival of the group led by Paul Kantner, which has continued since his death in 2016.
Hot Tuna is an American blues rock band formed in 1969 by former Jefferson Airplane members Jorma Kaukonen (guitarist/vocals) and Jack Casady (bassist). Although it has always been a fluid aggregation, with musicians coming and going over the years, the band's center has always been Kaukonen and Casady's ongoing collaboration.
Paul Lorin Kantner was an American rock musician. He is best known as the co-founder, rhythm guitarist, and a secondary vocalist of Jefferson Airplane, a leading psychedelic rock band of the counterculture era. He continued these roles as a member of Jefferson Starship, Jefferson Airplane's successor band.
Red Octopus is the second album by American rock band Jefferson Starship, released on Grunt Records in 1975. Certified double platinum by RIAA in 1995, it is the best-selling album by any incarnation of Jefferson Airplane and its spin-off groups. The single "Miracles" was the highest-charting single any permutation of the band had until Starship's "We Built This City" a decade later, ultimately peaking at No. 3 on the Billboard singles chart; the album itself reached No. 1 for four non-consecutive weeks on the Billboard 200. As was common in the era, stereo and quadraphonic mixes of the album were released concurrently.
Bark is the sixth studio album by American rock band Jefferson Airplane. Released in 1971 as Grunt FTR-1001, the album is one of the Airplane's late-period works, notable for the group's first personnel changes since 1966. The album was the first without band founder Marty Balin and the first with violinist Papa John Creach. Drummer Spencer Dryden had been replaced by Joey Covington in early 1970 after a lengthy transitional period in which both musicians had performed with the band.
Long John Silver is the seventh studio album by the American rock band Jefferson Airplane, and their last album of all new material until 1989. It was recorded and released in 1972 as Grunt FTR-1007.
Jefferson Airplane is the eighth and final studio album by San Francisco rock band Jefferson Airplane, released on Epic Records in 1989. Marty Balin, Paul Kantner, Grace Slick, Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady all returned for the album and supporting tour, though Spencer Dryden did not participate. The album and accompanying tour would mark the last time Jefferson Airplane would perform together until their 1996 induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Spitfire is the third album by American rock band Jefferson Starship. Released in 1976, a year after the chart-topping Red Octopus, it quickly scaled the charts, peaking for six consecutive weeks at No. 3 in Billboard and attaining an RIAA platinum certification. Stereo and quadraphonic mixes of the album were released.
Flight Log (1966–1976) is a compilation album by the American rock band Jefferson Airplane. Released in January 1977 as a double-LP as Grunt CYL2-1255, it is a compilation of Jefferson Airplane and Airplane-related tracks, including tracks by Jefferson Starship and Hot Tuna, as well as solo tracks by Paul Kantner, Grace Slick, and Jorma Kaukonen. Although primarily a compilation album, the album includes one previously unreleased song: "Please Come Back" written by Ron Nagle and performed by Jefferson Starship. "Please Come Back" is not available on any other release.
Gold is a compilation album by American rock band Jefferson Starship, released on Grunt Records in 1979. It collects the band's four Top 40 hit singles from the 1970s, as well as three additional singles that charted on the Billboard Hot 100, a single that missed the chart, one b-side, and one album track. All tracks were also featured on their four studio albums to date: Dragon Fly from 1974; Red Octopus from 1975; Spitfire from 1976; and Earth from 1978. It peaked at No. 20 on the Billboard 200, and has been certified a gold record by the RIAA.
Last Flight is an authorized recording released in the United Kingdom, taken from the last live performance of the San Francisco rock group Jefferson Airplane prior to the band's dissolution in 1972. The concert was held at the Winterland Arena in San Francisco, and selected tracks were released on the 1973 album Thirty Seconds Over Winterland. Last Flight consists of the entire concert with the exception of the encore, Marty Balin's "You Wear Your Dresses Too Short", previously released on the Jefferson Airplane Loves You box-set. Balin sings lead vocals on "Volunteers" much to the surprise of the audience since he left the band in late 1970.
Jefferson Airplane Loves You is a three-CD boxed set of recordings by the San Francisco rock band Jefferson Airplane with extensive liner notes by Jeff Tamarkin, author of the Jefferson Airplane history Got a Revolution: The Turbulent Flight of Jefferson Airplane.
Manhole is the first solo album by Grace Slick, released in 1974 by Grunt/RCA Records.
Sunfighter is a 1971 album created by Paul Kantner and Grace Slick from Jefferson Airplane. The album was released shortly after the Airplane album Bark was released, and is the second record released on the Airplane's own Grunt vanity label, distributed by RCA Records. The album features a picture of their baby daughter, China Wing Kantner, on the cover. Many Bay Area musicians perform on the album, including all of the then current lineup of Jefferson Airplane, members of the Grateful Dead, Crosby, Stills, and Nash, and the horn group, Tower of Power. This album is also the first time a 17-year old Craig Chaquico recorded with Paul Kantner and Grace Slick. He would go on to become the lead guitarist for Jefferson Starship.
Baron von Tollbooth & the Chrome Nun is a collaborative studio album by Jefferson Airplane members Paul Kantner, Grace Slick, and David Freiberg, released in May 1973.
Grunt Records was a vanity label founded in 1971 by Jefferson Airplane and distributed by RCA Records. Initially created to sign local Bay Area acts, the label later was used only for Jefferson Starship and Hot Tuna releases. The label ended use in 1987 after Grace Slick left Starship.
Peter Roy Sears is an English rock musician. In a career spanning more than six decades, he has been a member of many bands and has moved through a variety of musical genres, from early R&B, psychedelic improvisational rock of the 1960s, folk, country music, arena rock in the 1970s, and blues. He usually plays bass, keyboards, or both in bands.