''Blows Against the Empire'' is a concept album by
Paul Kantner
Paul Lorin Kantner (March 17, 1941 – January 28, 2016) was an American rock musician. He is best known as the co-founder, rhythm guitarist, and vocalist of Jefferson Airplane, a leading psychedelic rock band of the counterculture era. He con ...
, released 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
Grace Slick (born Grace Barnett Wing; October 30, 1939) is an American singer-songwriter, artist, and painter. Slick was a key figure in San Francisco's early psychedelic music scene in the mid-1960s. With a music career spanning four decades, ...
would later use for the band
Jefferson Starship that emerged after
Jack Casady
John William "Jack" Casady (born April 13, 1944) is an American bass guitarist, best known as a member of Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna. Jefferson Airplane became the first successful exponent of the San Francisco Sound. Singles including " S ...
and
Jorma Kaukonen
Jorma Ludwik Kaukonen, Jr. (; ; born December 23, 1940) is an American blues, folk, and rock guitarist. Kaukonen performed with Jefferson Airplane and still performs regularly on tour with Hot Tuna, which started as a side project with bass ...
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
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...
certification. It was one of the first two albums to be nominated for a
Hugo Award in the category of Best Dramatic Presentation.
Overview
Beginning in 1965, Paul Kantner had recorded five studio albums with Jefferson Airplane, but by 1970 internal problems had begun taking their toll on the band, including the departure of drummer
Spencer Dryden
Spencer Charles Dryden (April 7, 1938 – January 11, 2005) was an American musician best known as the drummer for Jefferson Airplane and New Riders of the Purple Sage. He also played with Dinosaurs, and the Ashes (later known as the Peanut B ...
in 1970 and a rift that was forming between founder
Marty Balin
Martyn Jerel Buchwald (January 30, 1942 – September 27, 2018), known as Marty Balin (), was an American singer, songwriter, and musician best known as the founder/leader and one of the lead singers and songwriters of Jefferson Airplane and J ...
and the rest of the band that would eventually result in Balin's departure from the band in April 1971.
The group released only one single in 1970, and Kantner took advantage of the hiatus to work on a solo album. ''Blows Against the Empire'' is his concept album recorded and released in 1970, credited to Paul Kantner and Jefferson Starship. This marks the debut of the Jefferson Starship moniker, though not of the band of that name itself, since ''Blows'' predates the actual formation of the band
Jefferson Starship by four years.
The album was recorded at Pacific High Recording Studios and
Wally Heider
Wally Heider (''né'' Wallace Beck Heider; 20 May 1922 Sheridan, Oregon – 22 March 1989) was an American recording engineer and recording studio owner who refined and advanced the art of studio and remote recording and was instrumental in recor ...
Recording Studios in San Francisco. The result derives from a period of cross-collaboration during late 1969 through 1971 by a collection of musicians from various San Francisco bands including Jefferson Airplane,
the Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in Palo Alto, California. The band is known for its eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, country, jazz, bluegrass, blues, rock and roll, gospel, reggae, world music, ...
, and
Quicksilver Messenger Service
Quicksilver Messenger Service is an American psychedelic rock band formed in 1965 in San Francisco. The band achieved wide popularity in the San Francisco Bay Area and, through their recordings, with psychedelic rock enthusiasts around the globe, ...
, along with
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Crosby, Stills & Nash (CSN) were a folk rock supergroup made up of American singer-songwriters David Crosby and Stephen Stills and English singer-songwriter Graham Nash. When joined by Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young as a fourth member ...
recording at the time in the city. These musicians included Jack Casady,
Joey Covington
Joseph Edward Covington (born Joseph Edward Michno; June 27, 1945 – June 4, 2013) was an American drummer, best known for his involvements with Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna and Jefferson Starship.
Early life
Though best known for his work w ...
,
David Crosby
David Van Cortlandt Crosby (born August 14, 1941) is an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of both the Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash.
Crosby joined the Byrds in 1964. They got ...
,
David Freiberg
David Freiberg ( ; born August 24, 1938) is an American musician best known for contributing vocals, keyboards, electric bass, rhythm guitar, viola and percussion as a member of Quicksilver Messenger Service, Jefferson Airplane, and Jefferson ...
,
Jerry Garcia,
Mickey Hart, Paul Kantner,
Bill Kreutzmann
William Kreutzmann Jr. ( ; born May 7, 1946) is an American drummer and founding member of the rock band Grateful Dead. He played with the band for its entire thirty-year career, usually alongside fellow drummer Mickey Hart, and has continued to ...
,
Graham Nash
Graham William Nash (born 2 February 1942) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, photographer, and activist. He is known for his light tenor voice and for his contributions as a member of the Hollies and the supergroups Crosby, Stills ...
, and Grace Slick. Excepting Covington, all of these musicians would also play or sing on
Crosby's debut album recorded at the same time in the same studios. Bassist
Harvey Brooks of
Electric Flag
The Electric Flag was an American soul rock band, led by guitarist Mike Bloomfield, keyboardist Barry Goldberg and drummer Buddy Miles, and featuring other musicians such as vocalist Nick Gravenites and bassist Harvey Brooks. Bloomfield f ...
, and guitarist
Peter Kaukonen Peter Kaukonen (born Benson Lee Kaukonen on September 23, 1945) is an American guitarist/multi-instrumentalist/songwriter based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is the younger brother of Jorma Kaukonen from Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna. Peter Ka ...
, brother of Airplane guitarist Jorma Kaukonen, also appear.
Stylistically, the songs range from the light folk of "The Baby Tree", the
musique concrète passages of "Home" and "XM", and proto-grunge in "Mau-Mau (Amerikon)". Mostly, however, the songs are delivered in the kind of improvised, free-form rock & roll representative of the Bay Area bands of the day. Lyrically, the album celebrates countercultural idealism; it is set in a future where the counterculture is able to unite and decide their own fate far away from planet Earth. Written in 1970, Kantner describes in "Hijack" the construction of a starship beginning in 1980, which "ought to be ready by 1990".
Concept
The credit to Jefferson Starship reflected many things: the ''ad hoc'' all-star line-up; the album being an evolutionary progression from Jefferson Airplane; and finally the story it relates of the hijacking of a starship. The album is a narrative concept album that tells the story of a counter-culture revolution against the oppressions of "Uncle Samuel" and a plan to steal a starship from orbit and journey into space in search of a new home. The original vinyl release is divided into two album sides. "Mau Mau (Amerikon)" launched Side One, a counter-culture manifesto and call to arms. In the context of the narrative, this is the free music being performed in the park, drawing everyone together.
:: ''"Put your old ladies back into bed,''
:: ''Put your old men into their graves,''
:: ''Cover their ears so they can't hear us sing,''
:: ''Cover their eyes so they can't see us play."''
:: ''"Get out of the way, let the people play,''
:: ''We gotta get down on you,''
:: ''Come alive all over you,''
:: ''Dancing down, into your town."''
It celebrates late-sixties counter-culture, depicting people celebrating mind expansion and free love, "We'll ball in your parks, insane with the flash of living...calling for acid, cocaine and grass." They've had enough of the military, domestic and abroad, and make one of the earliest references to
Ronald Reagan in popular music in the line, "You unleash the dogs of a grade-B movie star Governor's war...so drop your fuckin' bombs, burn your demon babies, I will live again!" They condemn the divisive strictures of conservative society, and dream of finding a Utopia.
"The Baby Tree", written by
Rosalie Sorrels
Rosalie Sorrels (June 24, 1933 – June 11, 2017) was an American Folk music, folk singer-songwriter. She began her public career as a singer and collector of traditional folksongs in the late 1950s. During the early 1960s she left her husband an ...
, is about an imaginary island where babies grow on trees and are collected by happy couples when they fall. The scene develops over the remaining album side, in "Let's Go Together" and "A Child Is Coming", that a couple is among the gathering in a park outside Chicago the night before the hijacking, tripping on acid as dawn approaches. She reveals that she's pregnant, and predictably they resolve to free their child from the government's "files and their numbers game" by joining the hijackers. In this setting, "The Baby Tree" can be seen as their acid-induced daydream about pregnancy, and so fits neatly into the narrative. The allegory of "Let's Go Together" and "A Child Is Coming" symbolizes Paul Kantner and Grace Slick's romantic relationship and Slick's pregnancy by Kantner, which would result in the birth of their daughter,
China Kantner
China Wing Kantner is an American actress in television, theatre and film. She is also a former MTV VJ, sometimes credited on-screen as China Slick Kantner.
Biography
Kantner was born in San Francisco, California, the daughter of two Jeffers ...
, the following year.
Side two is an integrated suite of songs which opens with "Sunrise", Grace Slick's allegory describing the breaking dawn the couple was awaiting, while also symbolizing the dawn of a Utopian civilization, freed from conservative mores and violent influences. "Sunrise" leads directly into "Hijack", in which the revolutionaries storm the transport to the orbiting starship and head off into space, boarding the ship by the end of "Hijack" and leaving orbit in "Home". As the story progresses with "Have You Seen the Stars Tonite", hopes and misgivings are revealed. After the ship's engines and systems are readied in "X-M", "Starship" relates a mutiny fought for control of the ship, to determine whether to surrender and return, or to continue. Eventually the idealists win control, and the ship is flung by gravity sling-shot around the sun and out of the solar system.
By Kantner's admission, the underlying premise of the narrative was derived in part from the works of science fiction author
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein (; July 7, 1907 – May 8, 1988) was an American science fiction author, aeronautical engineer, and naval officer. Sometimes called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was among the first to emphasize scientific accu ...
. In Heinlein's novel ''
Methuselah's Children
''Methuselah's Children'' is a science fiction novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein. Originally serialized in '' Astounding Science Fiction'' in the July, August, and September 1941 issues, it was expanded into a full-length novel in 1958. ...
'', a group of people hijack a starship. In the song "Mau Mau (Amerikon)" Kantner quotes a line from the novel where the hijackers turn on the ship's drive. At this point the main character of the novel,
Lazarus Long says "Push the button, pull the switch, cut the beam, make it march."
Kantner went so far as to write to Heinlein to obtain permission to use his ideas. Heinlein wrote back that over the years many people had used his ideas, but Paul was the first one to ask for permission, which he granted. In 1971, ''Blows'' was the first rock album ever nominated for a
Hugo Award in the category of Best Dramatic Presentation. Although it received the plurality of the vote among the five nominated works, the majority of voters elected not to issue the award that year.
Arrangements and instrumentation
Throughout the album, Slick's acoustic piano is highlighted. She has said that her chord-heavy technique at the time developed from watching session player
Nicky Hopkins
Nicholas Christian "Nicky" Hopkins (24 February 1944 – 6 September 1994) was an English pianist and organist. Hopkins performed on many popular and enduring British and American rock music recordings from the 1960s to the 1990s, most notably ...
during his many recordings with the Airplane. Most of the tracks add standard rock instrumentation to her piano, including electric and acoustic guitars, drums and bass. Thick vocal harmonies backing Kantner and Slick in duet are a signature quality of many of the songs.
A notable exception is "The Baby Tree", which has Kantner singing to a solo banjo accompaniment by Jerry Garcia. "Sunrise" is Grace Slick's self-penned solo vocal showcase, in part a duet with herself thanks to multitracking. Here she is predominantly accompanied by Jack Casady playing bass in a series of overdubs. "Have You Seen the Stars Tonite?" features lush vocal harmonies over acoustic instruments with subdued electric guitar overlays. The acoustic parts throughout the second side are centered on Kantner's detuned
12-string guitar
A twelve-string guitar (or 12-string guitar) is a steel-string guitar with 12 strings in six courses, which produces a thicker, more ringing tone than a standard six-string guitar. Typically, the strings of the lower four courses are tuned in o ...
, using a tuning consisting of octaves and fifths of open C, which David Crosby has likened to the droning tones of bagpipes.
Two tracks of the side 2 suite consist entirely of sound effects simulating the starship engines and the flight through space. Scattered among the other songs of the Suite are heavily processed background vocal tracks and sound bites. During the hijack scene, an audio excerpt from the 1953
George Pal
George Pal (born György Pál Marczincsak; ; February 1, 1908 – May 2, 1980) was a Hungarian-American animator, film director and producer, principally associated with the fantasy and science-fiction genres. He became an American citizen after ...
film version of ''
War of the Worlds
''The War of the Worlds'' is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells, first serialised in 1897 by '' Pearson's Magazine'' in the UK and by ''Cosmopolitan'' magazine in the US. The novel's first appearance in hardcover was i ...
'' is used: a woman is heard to call out "Let me through!" followed immediately by the sound of a ray gun firing.
Release
The original vinyl album was a single platter in a gatefold sleeve. The cover featured a piece of Russian folk art from a painted lacquer box, attributed to CCCP (U.S.S.R. in Russian). Kantner said he enjoyed stealing the art from Russia because many Jefferson Airplane albums were bootlegged on the Russian black market. The back cover painting depicts a partially opened parcel revealing a room inside with Jerry Garcia peeking out. Behind him is a naked woman standing on an American Flag. The parcel is being carried aloft on a string by a trio of breasts with wings. Inside the gatefold is more artwork with track listings and credits, done in silver ink on black background and featuring a Paul Kantner caricature with a head of marijuana-leaf hair rising over a mountainous planetscape and inkblot pair of marijuana leaves in the lower fold. A mushroom on the left hemi-sphere pyramid on the right and the mountainous planetscape is nearly a mirror image. The inner dust jacket was decorated with collages of musician photos, writings and doodles. Original pressings included a full-color booklet as well, with lyrics, poetry and drawings mostly done by Slick during the recording sessions and collected daily by Kantner. Subsequent pressings included a black & white version of the booklet. A small number of promotional copies of the album were released to radio stations on clear translucent vinyl; these are now coveted by vinyl record collectors.
Compact disc reissues
The original compact disc release had mildly dull, slightly under-volume sound quality, and reproduced the gatefold cover art and parts of the inner gatefold, neglecting the booklet and dust jacket art entirely. The remastered CD release has superior sound at improved volume levels. The fold-out CD booklet includes the cover art and provides much of the inner gatefold and dust jacket artwork by including it among the extensive liner notes. Also included is a CD-sized reproduction of the black & white booklet. Finally, the remaster includes bonus tracks of alternate takes, demos and a live recording of ''Starship'' with radio promos appended. Note that the editing glitch at 4:00 in the opening song, "Mau Mau (Amerikon)", is not an error in the digital transfer; it goes back to the original album release.
Vinyl reissues
Z2 Comics announced a graphic novel called ''Jefferson Starship: Blows Against the Empire'' to be released in March 2022.
Deluxe and super deluxe editions include a limited edition ''Blows Against The Empire'' LP on colored vinyl.
Reception
Reviewing in ''
Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies'' (1981),
Robert Christgau found Kantner's singing and melodies "murky" while believing, "for all the record's sci-fi pretensions (does
Philip K. Dick actually ''like'' this stuff?) it never even gets off the ground." He graded it a C-plus. It was voted number 850 in the third edition of
Colin Larkin
Colin Larkin (born 1949) is a British writer and entrepreneur. He founded, and was the editor-in-chief of, the ''Encyclopedia of Popular Music'', described by ''The Times'' as "the standard against which all others must be judged".
Along wit ...
's ''
All Time Top 1000 Albums
''All Time Top 1000 Albums'' is a book by Colin Larkin, creator and editor of the ''Encyclopedia of Popular Music''. The book was first published by Guinness Publishing in 1994. The list presented is the result of over 200,000 votes cast by th ...
'' (2000).
In ''
The Rolling Stone Album Guide
''The Rolling Stone Album Guide'', previously known as ''The Rolling Stone Record Guide'', is a book that contains professional music reviews written and edited by staff members from ''Rolling Stone'' magazine. Its first edition was published in 1 ...
'' (2004), Paul Evans said while its experimental quality may have impressed in 1970, the album "now suffers from concept-album creakiness". William Ruhlmann was more enthusiastic, giving it four out of five stars in his review for
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...
. "Kantner employed often dense instrumentation and complex arrangements", he wrote, "but there were enough hooks and harmonies to keep things interesting."
Track listing
;Notes
The original cassette and compact disc releases contained alternate lyrics for "Let's Go Together" that differed from the vinyl version. The 2005 reissue restored the original lyrics as track three and included the alternate lyric version as a bonus track.
Personnel
*
Paul Kantner
Paul Lorin Kantner (March 17, 1941 – January 28, 2016) was an American rock musician. He is best known as the co-founder, rhythm guitarist, and vocalist of Jefferson Airplane, a leading psychedelic rock band of the counterculture era. He con ...
– vocals,
electric
Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by ...
and
acoustic guitars,
banjo, bass machine
*
Grace Slick
Grace Slick (born Grace Barnett Wing; October 30, 1939) is an American singer-songwriter, artist, and painter. Slick was a key figure in San Francisco's early psychedelic music scene in the mid-1960s. With a music career spanning four decades, ...
– vocals,
piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...
*
Jerry Garcia – banjo
on "Let's Go Together" and "The Baby Tree";
pedal steel guitar on "Have You Seen the Stars Tonite"; sound effects and vocals
on "XM"; lead guitar
on "Starship"
*
David Crosby
David Van Cortlandt Crosby (born August 14, 1941) is an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of both the Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash.
Crosby joined the Byrds in 1964. They got ...
– vocals and guitar
on "A Child Is Coming" and "Have You Seen the Stars Tonite";
backing vocals
A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are ...
on
"Mau Mau" and "Starship"
*
Peter Kaukonen Peter Kaukonen (born Benson Lee Kaukonen on September 23, 1945) is an American guitarist/multi-instrumentalist/songwriter based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is the younger brother of Jorma Kaukonen from Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna. Peter Ka ...
– lead guitar
on "Mau Mau"
*
Jack Casady
John William "Jack" Casady (born April 13, 1944) is an American bass guitarist, best known as a member of Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna. Jefferson Airplane became the first successful exponent of the San Francisco Sound. Singles including " S ...
– bass
on "A Child Is Coming" and "Sunrise"
*
Harvey Brooks – bass
on "Starship"
*
Joey Covington
Joseph Edward Covington (born Joseph Edward Michno; June 27, 1945 – June 4, 2013) was an American drummer, best known for his involvements with Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna and Jefferson Starship.
Early life
Though best known for his work w ...
–
drums and vocals
on "Mau Mau";
congas on "Hijack"
*
Bill Kreutzmann
William Kreutzmann Jr. ( ; born May 7, 1946) is an American drummer and founding member of the rock band Grateful Dead. He played with the band for its entire thirty-year career, usually alongside fellow drummer Mickey Hart, and has continued to ...
– drums
on "Let's Go Together"
*
Graham Nash
Graham William Nash (born 2 February 1942) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, photographer, and activist. He is known for his light tenor voice and for his contributions as a member of the Hollies and the supergroups Crosby, Stills ...
– congas
on "Hijack"; sound effects
on "Home"; backing vocals
on "Starship"
*
Mickey Hart –
percussion
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...
on "Have You Seen the Stars Tonite"; sound effects and vocals
on "XM"
*
David Freiberg
David Freiberg ( ; born August 24, 1938) is an American musician best known for contributing vocals, keyboards, electric bass, rhythm guitar, viola and percussion as a member of Quicksilver Messenger Service, Jefferson Airplane, and Jefferson ...
– backing vocals
on "Starship"
*Phill Sawyer
– sound effects
on "Home" and "XM"
Production
*Paul Kantner – producer, design
*CCCP – cover
*Patti Landres – books
*Jim Goldberg – space, design, all the work
*Tony Nagamuma – title
*Allen Zentz, Pat Ieraci, Graham Nash, David Crosby, Phill Sawyer, Bob Shoemaker – engineers
*Thanks to
Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was an American writer known for his satirical and darkly humorous novels. In a career spanning over 50 years, he published fourteen novels, three short-story collections, five plays, and ...
,
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein (; July 7, 1907 – May 8, 1988) was an American science fiction author, aeronautical engineer, and naval officer. Sometimes called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was among the first to emphasize scientific accu ...
, Michael Cooney,
Jean Genet, Mike Lipskin,
Buckminster Fuller
Richard Buckminster Fuller (; July 12, 1895 – July 1, 1983) was an American architect, systems theorist, writer, designer, inventor, philosopher, and futurist. He styled his name as R. Buckminster Fuller in his writings, publishing mo ...
,
Theodore Sturgeon
Theodore Sturgeon (; born Edward Hamilton Waldo, February 26, 1918 – May 8, 1985) was an American fiction author of primarily fantasy, science fiction and horror, as well as a critic. He wrote approximately 400 reviews and more than 120 sh ...
,
A. A. Milne
Alan Alexander Milne (; 18 January 1882 – 31 January 1956) was an English writer best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh, as well as for children's poetry. Milne was primarily a playwright before the huge success of Winni ...
,
John Lear and
The Bear – James Boyd, thanks
See also
*
Ronald Reagan in music
The appearance of Ronald Reagan in music includes mentions and depictions of the actor-turned-politician in songs, albums, music videos, and band names, particularly during his two terms as President of the United States. Reagan first appeared ...
References
;Notes
;Bibliography
*
*Cost, Jud. "Blows Against the Empire" liner notes, remaster CD, 2005
*Mamarkin, Jeff Tamarkin. ''Got a Revolution! The Turbulent Flight of Jefferson Airplane'', 2003
*Miller, Jim. (ed.), ''The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll'', 1980 (Jefferson Airplane Discography, p 274)
External links
*
Jefferson Starship website
{{Authority control
1970 debut albums
Science fiction concept albums
Jefferson Starship albums
Paul Kantner albums
RCA Records albums
Rock operas
Albums produced by Paul Kantner
Albums recorded at Wally Heider Studios