Volunteers | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | November 1969 | |||
Recorded | March 28–June 12, 1969 [1] | |||
Studio | Wally Heider (San Francisco) | |||
Genre | Psychedelic rock [2] | |||
Length | 44:19 69:36 (2004 reissue) | |||
Label | RCA Victor | |||
Producer | Al Schmitt | |||
Jefferson Airplane chronology | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Robert Christgau | B [4] |
The Daily Vault | A [5] |
Encyclopedia of Popular Music | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Rolling Stone | (favorable) [7] |
The Rolling Stone Record Guide [8] | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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. The original album title was Volunteers of Amerika, but it was shortened after objections from Volunteers of America, a religious charity.
This was the last album with the group for both Jefferson Airplane founder Marty Balin and drummer Spencer Dryden (although they did both appear on the "Mexico" single released in 1970 and its B-side "Have You Seen the Saucers?"). The album signifies the end of their "classic" lineup of musicians. It turned out to be the group's last all-new LP for two years. Jack Casady and Jorma Kaukonen devoted more of their energy to their embryonic blues group Hot Tuna, while Paul Kantner and Grace Slick released Blows Against the Empire and Sunfighter with various guest musicians and celebrated the birth of their daughter China in 1971.
Volunteers was the group's first album recorded entirely in San Francisco, at Wally Heider's state-of-the-art 16-track studio. Guest musicians included Jerry Garcia on pedal steel guitar, veteran session pianist Nicky Hopkins, future Airplane drummer Joey Covington on percussion, David Crosby and Stephen Stills. The album was among the earliest 16-track recordings, and its back cover shows a picture of the Ampex MM-1000 professional tape recorder used to record the album.
The album was marked with strong anti-war and pro-anarchism songs. The theme of nature, communities and ecology was also explored with the songs "The Farm" and "Eskimo Blue Day". The title was inspired by a Volunteers of America (a religious charity similar to the Salvation Army) truck that woke singer Marty Balin one morning. The original title was Volunteers of Amerika; spelling "America" as "Amerika" was a common practice used by leftists at the time to emphasize their dissatisfaction with the American government, as it usually references both German fascism and the Kafka novel Amerika . After Volunteers of America objected, the title was shortened to Volunteers. [9]
The album provoked even more controversy with lyrics such as "Up against the wall, motherfucker," which appeared in the opening song, "We Can Be Together". The offending word was mixed lower on the 45 RPM release of that track to partially obscure it, but it was still audible. However, the word "motherfucker" was censored on the album lyric sheet as "fred". [10] RCA Records had refused to allow the word "fuck" on the album until confronted with the fact that the label had already set a precedent on the Hair cast recording album. "Eskimo Blue Day" was also a point of contention, with its chorus line of "doesn't mean shit to a tree" repeated throughout.
The album is characterized by Jorma Kaukonen's lead guitar parts (the dueling solos on "Hey Fredrick", plus the traditional gospel-blues song "Good Shepherd" and "Wooden Ships") and Hopkins' distinctive piano playing. It also featured the band experimenting with a country rock sound, particularly on "The Farm" and "Song for All Seasons".
Despite its controversies, the album was a commercial success. It peaked at No. 13 (becoming the band's fourth Top 20 record) on the Billboard album chart album chart and received a RIAA gold certification within two months of its release. [11]
Though the album was released in late 1969, the cover photo dates back to 1967; it features the band wearing disguises and was taken during the filming of a promotional film made for the "Martha" single.
In addition to the usual two channel stereo version, a specially remixed four channel quadraphonic version of the album appeared in 1973. This was released on LP using the Quadradisc system. It was also released in quad reel-to-reel and 8-track tape tape formats. The quad mixes are different from stereo; "Hey Fredrick" has a completely different lead vocal along with different guitar lines and coda, "Volunteers" is a totally different recording, Kaukonen's guitar lines are different on "We Can Be Together", "Wooden Ships" lacks the opening sailboat sound effects and the backing vocals by Ace of Cups on "The Farm" are more prominent. A few tracks from the quad version were included in the three CD box set Jefferson Airplane Loves You , though on this release the four channel recordings are reduced to two channels due to the technical limitations of CD.
The 2004 CD re-release features five additional bonus tracks from the group's annual Thanksgiving concert at the Fillmore East, New York in 1969.
In 2003 the album was ranked number 370 in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, and at 373 in a 2012 revised list. [12] Volunteers was omitted from the 2020 list.
In 2003, David Keenan included Volunteers in his The Best Albums Ever...Honest from the Scottish Sunday Herald. [13]
The album was released again in 2009, along with the entirety of the group's live performance at the Woodstock Festival in 1969, as Jefferson Airplane Woodstock Experience .
Credits from original stereo and quadraphonic LPs. [14]
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Quadraphonic Mix Length | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | "We Can Be Together" | Paul Kantner | 5:56 | 5:48 |
2. | "Good Shepherd" | Traditional; arranged by Jorma Kaukonen | 4:21 | 4:21 |
3. | "The Farm" | Kantner, Gary Blackman | 2:32 | 3:15 |
4. | "Hey Fredrick" | Grace Slick | 9:00 | 8:26 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Quadraphonic Mix Length | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | "Turn My Life Down" | Kaukonen | 2:54 | 2:54 |
2. | "Wooden Ships" | David Crosby, Kantner, Stephen Stills | 5:50 | 6:24 |
3. | "Eskimo Blue Day" | Slick, Kantner | 6:15 | 6:31 |
4. | "A Song for All Seasons" | Spencer Dryden | 3:28 | 3:28 |
5. | "Meadowlands" | Lev Knipper | 1:04 | 1:04 |
6. | "Volunteers" | Marty Balin, Kantner | 2:21 | 2:08 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
11. | "Good Shepherd" (live, recorded November 28–29 at Fillmore East) | Traditional; arranged by Kaukonen | 7:20 |
12. | "Somebody to Love" (live, recorded November 28–29 at Fillmore East) | Darby Slick | 4:10 |
13. | "Plastic Fantastic Lover" (live, recorded November 28–29 at Fillmore East) | Balin | 3:21 |
14. | "Wooden Ships" (live, recorded November 28–29 at Fillmore East) | Crosby, Kantner, Stills | 7:00 |
15. | "Volunteers" (live, recorded November 28–29 at Fillmore East) | Balin, Kantner | 3:26 |
Per liner notes. [14]
Chart (1969-1970) | Peak position |
---|---|
Canada Top Albums/CDs ( RPM ) [15] | 7 |
UK Albums (OCC) [16] | 34 |
US Billboard 200 [17] | 13 |
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
United States (RIAA) [18] | Gold | 500,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band based in San Francisco, California, that became one of the pioneering bands of psychedelic rock. Formed in 1965, 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".
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Surrealistic Pillow is the second studio album by the American rock band Jefferson Airplane, released by RCA Victor on February 1, 1967. 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 the 1960s counterculture.
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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.
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Recording dates for each track are given in liner notes of CD release--see 14th image.
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