Consumer Guide Album

Jefferson Airplane: Early Flight [Grunt, 1974]
Artists are always claiming embarrassment at the unauthorized release of their early work, but this group owns the company, so I guess they know no shame. They ought to--not about these nine cuts, six recorded in 1965-66 and three in 1970, but at how played out the band has become. The two originals with Signe Anderson are early Airplane at their folkie-trippy worst, although "High Flying Bird" is fine, but even the six-minute blues jams, one with Jorma and one with Marty, sound more alive than all their space operas. The 1970 single "Mexico," about Nixon's dope crackdown, is their finest recording of the decade. And "Have You Seen the Saucers," the B side, sounds more alive than all their space operas too. B