The Worst of Jefferson Airplane | ||||
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Greatest hits album by | ||||
Released | November 1970 [1] | |||
Genre | Rock | |||
Length | 46:11 52:54 (2006 bonus tracks) | |||
Label | RCA Victor | |||
Compiler | Jefferson Airplane, Bill Thompson, Pat Ieraci [2] | |||
Jefferson Airplane chronology | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Allmusic | [3] |
Christgau's Record Guide | B+ [4] |
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [5] |
The Worst of Jefferson Airplane is the first compilation album from the rock band Jefferson Airplane, released in November 1970 as RCA Victor LSP-4459. [1] The "Worst" in the title is ironic, as the album features all of Jefferson Airplane's hit singles up to that point. It peaked at #12 on the Billboard 200 in 1971 [6] and has since gone platinum. [7]
In 1970, the band underwent a period of inactivity because of internal personnel conflict and pursuit of individual projects. Drummer Spencer Dryden was ousted from the group, Marty Balin found his commitment to the band he had started becoming tenuous, Grace Slick was pregnant with her daughter for a good part of the year, Paul Kantner released his solo album Blows Against the Empire , and Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady busied themselves with their side project, Hot Tuna. With no group project in sight, RCA Records assembled this album centered upon the group's hit singles, with input from the band. "The Ballad of You & Me & Pooneil", "Crown of Creation", and "Volunteers" all made the lower reaches of the Billboard Hot 100. "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit" were the band's only Top 40 hits, reaching #5 and #8 respectively. To ensure a full picture of the group's musical interests, and possibly to ensure solidarity in the publishing income, the band included instrumentals by Dryden and Kaukonen, a country blues/gospel cover arranged by Kaukonen, and Balin's straightforward ballad "Today". This would be the final album featuring what is considered the "classic" line-up of the band, after Slick and Dryden joined, and before Balin and Dryden left.
Original LP copies of the album featured Victor "scroll" record labels from the late 1920s. The paper inner sleeve was a reproduction of a 1918 vintage Victor record sleeve. The interior of the gatefold cover featured a large color reproduction of the painting "His Master's Voice", the famous RCA Victor trademark. Later reissues of the LP were housed in a regular, non-gatefold cover and did not include the reproduction of the painting nor the 1918 inner sleeve, but the record still bore the vintage Victor labels.
On July 29, 1997, RCA reissued a remastered version of Worst on compact disc. On June 6, 2006, RCA reissued the album again, this time with two bonus tracks which had both been released as singles, "Watch Her Ride" and "Greasy Heart".
The tracks for side one and side two listed here are those of the original LP. The cassette version features the same songs, but arranged in a different order.
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Original release | Length |
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1. | "It's No Secret" | Marty Balin | Jefferson Airplane Takes Off (1966) | 2:37 |
2. | "Blues from an Airplane" | Balin, Skip Spence | Jefferson Airplane Takes Off | 2:10 |
3. | "Somebody to Love" | Darby Slick | Surrealistic Pillow (1967) | 2:54 |
4. | "Today" | Balin, Paul Kantner | Surrealistic Pillow | 2:57 |
5. | "White Rabbit" | Grace Slick | Surrealistic Pillow | 2:27 |
6. | "Embryonic Journey" | Jorma Kaukonen | Surrealistic Pillow | 1:51 |
7. | "Martha" | Kantner | After Bathing at Baxter's (1967) | 3:21 |
8. | "The Ballad of You & Me & Pooneil" | Kantner | After Bathing at Baxter's | 4:30 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Original release | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | "Crown of Creation" | Kantner | Crown of Creation (1968) | 2:53 |
2. | "Chushingura" | Spencer Dryden | Crown of Creation | 1:17 |
3. | "Lather" | G. Slick | Crown of Creation | 2:55 |
4. | "Plastic Fantastic Lover" (live 1968) | Balin | Bless Its Pointed Little Head (1969) | 3:39 |
5. | "Good Shepherd" | traditional, arranged by Kaukonen | Volunteers (1969) | 4:22 |
6. | "We Can Be Together" | Kantner | Volunteers | 5:50 |
7. | "Volunteers" | Balin, Kantner | Volunteers | 2:03 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Original release | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
9. | "Watch Her Ride" | Kantner | After Bathing at Baxter's | 3:16 |
10. | "Greasy Heart" | G. Slick | Crown of Creation | 3:27 |
Note: CD bonus tracks were inserted after Side one in the track list, with Side two renumbering to tracks 11-17.
Chart (1970–1971) | Peak position |
---|---|
Australian Albums (Kent Music Report) [8] | 28 |
Canada Top Albums/CDs ( RPM ) [9] | 11 |
US Billboard 200 [10] | 12 |
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
United States (RIAA) [11] | Platinum | 1,000,000^ |
^ 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".
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.
Surrealistic Pillow is the second studio album by the American rock band Jefferson Airplane, released on February 1, 1967, by RCA Victor. It is the first album by the band with vocalist Grace Slick and drummer Spencer Dryden. The album peaked at number three on the Billboard 200 and has been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It is considered to be one of the most influential and quintessential works of the early psychedelic rock era and 1960s counterculture.
After Bathing at Baxter's is the third studio album by the San Francisco psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane, released in 1967 as RCA Victor LSO-1511 (stereo) and LOP-1511 (mono). The cover art is by artist Ron Cobb.
Volunteers is the fifth studio album by American psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane, released in 1969 on RCA Records. The album was controversial because of its revolutionary and anti-war lyrics, along with the use of profanity.
Crown of Creation is the fourth studio album by the San Francisco psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane, released by RCA Victor in August 1968. The album saw the band continuing their development of psychedelic music, emphasizing acid rock with science fiction themes.
Bless Its Pointed Little Head is a live album by Jefferson Airplane recorded at both the Fillmore East and West in the fall of 1968 and released in 1969 as RCA Victor LSP-4133. The album reached #17 on the Billboard Top LP's chart in March 1969.
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.
Early Flight is a 1974 compilation album by the American psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane, released as Grunt CYL1-0437. It features previously unreleased material from 1966, 1967, and 1970 as well as both sides of a non-album 1970 single.
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.
Blows Against the Empire is a concept album by Paul Kantner, released in 1970 under the name Paul Kantner and Jefferson Starship. It is the first album to use the "Starship" moniker, a name which Kantner and Grace Slick would later use for the band Jefferson Starship that emerged after Jack Casady and Jorma Kaukonen left Jefferson Airplane. From a commercial standpoint, it performed comparably to Jefferson Airplane albums of the era, peaking at No. 20 on the Billboard 200 and receiving a RIAA gold certification. It was the second album to be nominated for a Hugo Award in the category of Best Dramatic Presentation.
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.
"Mexico" is a single released in May 1970 by San Francisco rock band Jefferson Airplane, produced by the band at Pacific High Recording Studios with Phill Sawyer as the recording engineer. Written and sung by Grace Slick, it is a tuneful rant against then-President Richard Nixon and his anti-drug initiative, Operation Intercept, that he had implemented to curtail the flow of marijuana into the United States from Mexico. The song closes with an exhortation for the young to realize the power of their numbers, as shown by the gathering of "half a million people on the lawn" at Woodstock.
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.
At Golden Gate Park is an authorized release in the United Kingdom of a recording of the concert given on May 7, 1969, by the San Francisco, psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.
At the Family Dog Ballroom is a recording of a 1969 performance by the San Francisco rock band Jefferson Airplane at the Family Dog Ballroom in San Francisco. Released on CD in the United Kingdom, the album is a digipak offering of material only recently rediscovered. A poster is included.
Live at the Monterey Festival is a live album by the San Francisco rock band Jefferson Airplane, which was released in the United Kingdom and Europe by Thunderbolt Records in 1991. The album was authorized by the band and features the entire set from the group's June 17, 1967, performance at the Monterey Pop Festival. The album marked the first time that Jefferson Airplane's entire Monterey Pop Festival performance had been given a release by a legitimate record company.