Rating: 
Summary: You Say You Want a Revolution, Wehell You Know...
Review: What a great read this book is! It is hard to put down as the author keeps you hooked on the next installment so that you just motor on smoothly to the end.Sitting on my shelves is the first book I ever read on Jefferson Airplane, a 1969 book by Ralph Gleason, sandwiched between Hank Harrison's book on the Grateful Dead and the inevitable Electric Kool Aid Acid Test. Tamarkin's excellent tome now joins it and will probably become the definitive word on the subject. It certainly fills the void that has existed for some years since the Gleason book was published and the Airplane metamorphosed into Starship. Coming relatively soon after Dennis McNally's biography of the Dead, these books between them shine a spotlight on the musical and social revolution that was spawned in the 1960's and for which San Francisco assumed the mantle of world leader. Jeff Tamarkin, as others have alluded too, bases his book on his prior research and knowledge of the central characters involved. He has done a tremendous job in being fair to everyone which is to be lauded. He does not skip over the relationships between the band members and the cast of others who flit throught the story, he does not glorify nor condemn the use and abuse of chemicals nor does he try to do anyone down. His writing displays his skill with words which he has honed over the years in his other job and the end result is an excellent read, informative with an insider's view and an outsider's perception. To me the most telling part of the tale is the story of Matthew Katz whom the author notes would not be interviewed but answered e-mails. That must be an extraordinary tale in of itself. Personally I find thet the author has a gift of bringing the characters alive so that we feel that we know them. Indeed there are many diehard fans who follow the band as it is presently constituted almost everywhere and are long past being considered starstruck. This book is the story of a community. It places the band in the context of the times and yet at the same time portrays them as human beings as well as star musicians. It is a story of fame and closeness, of rivalry and emnity, of individuality and shared companionship. I am sure that some who read this will be shocked, perhaps awed, by some of the events contained within the book and that many will be fascinated by the twists and turns described therein. Jeff Tamarkin has certainly succeeded with this labour of love in bringing the inside story of Jefferson Airplane to the world. His story deserves every success and it is a story that anyone interested in the era or the music should read. At least twice.
Rating:
Summary: They were giants
Review: What a terrific book this is! I was fortunate to be present (I was a carpenter working on jobs at BOTH Pacific High Studios and Heider studios in San Francisco) at a few Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane recording sessions in the very early seventies and they were all mind-blowing experiences. I watched from the sidelines at Pacific High studios as a guy named Phil Sawyer recorded and mixed the Airplane's "Mexico" in the most chaotic environment you could imagine. In the middle of the session, some engineer erased the master multi-track tape!!!! and yet they all cheerfully re-did the tracks and Sawyer did a balls out mix on a many colored wacked-out state-of-the-art mixing console. Maybe the most aggressive mix the Airplane ever had. A few months later I am at Heider studios taking a break from framing as this same guy knocks everybody away with amazing sound effects for the "Blows Against the Empire" album. Then many months later I am out in Bolinas working for a man that is doing custom wood planking for Grace and Paul's swimming pool. One afternoon we watched as Paul Kantner and Jerry Garcia worked on a song I think is called "Wolfpack" and it was the coolest guitar work I ever heard from Garcia. Then we watched as this guy Sawyer strapped a microphone onto his chest, dragged a long cable out to the beach, and ran-in-place while listening to these horrendous roaring sounds coming out of the basement windows. We couldn't fathom what the heck was going on. Then later that year I hear this sound-composition on the Sunfighter album and there's this electronic thumping heartbeat sound. These guys were way out there! But I was hooked. I changed careers about 2 years later and became a recording engineer - eventually owning a studio and retiring with ease. These guys - and Grace, changed my life. This book brings it all back.
Rating:
Summary: Got a Revolution is Revolutionary
Review: While I've never really been a fan of Jefferson Airplane, I've always been fascinated by Grace Slick. What woman rocker was cooler or more outrageous? So I began the biography to read about her, and found myself equally fascinated by the others--especially Marty Balin whose gorgeous love songs were the very songs the rest of the band hated! The whole trajectory of the band--the giddy rise and the inevitable fall--was brilliantly done. Tamarkin writes like a dream and he gives you a window into the times, from the Summer of Love to Altamont. Come on, Tamarkin, write something else!
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