Signe Toly Anderson ( ;
born Signe Toly; September 15, 1941 – January 28, 2016) was an American singer who was one of the founding members of the American
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
band
Jefferson Airplane.
Early life
Anderson was born Signe Toly in Seattle, Washington on September 15, 1941.
At age three, her parents divorced, and she moved with her mother to Portland, Oregon, where she was raised. Anderson sang in a band with three male musicians whom she had known in high school under the name Three Guys and a Gal. The group performed at a campaign event for
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...
in November 1959.
Jefferson Airplane
Anderson was a locally known and well-respected jazz and folk singer in San Francisco, where
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 ...
heard her perform and invited her to join his band, soon named
Jefferson Airplane.
Soon after joining the Airplane, she married one of the
Merry Pranksters
The Merry Pranksters were comrades and followers of American author Ken Kesey in 1964.
Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters lived communally at Kesey's homes in California and Oregon, and are noted for the sociological significance of a lengthy roa ...
, Jerry Anderson, a marriage that lasted from 1965 to 1974. She sang on the first Jefferson Airplane album ''
Jefferson Airplane Takes Off
''Jefferson Airplane Takes Off'' is the debut studio album by the American rock band Jefferson Airplane, released on 15 August 1966 by RCA Victor. The personnel differs from the later "classic" lineup: Signe Toly Anderson was the female vocali ...
'', most notably on the song "
Chauffeur Blues".
Anderson distrusted the Airplane's original manager
Matthew Katz
Matthew Katz (born 1929) is an American music manager and producer, most notably as the former manager of Jefferson Airplane, Moby Grape and It's a Beautiful Day. He is the owner of the record label San Francisco Sound, and the owner of Matthew Ka ...
and refused to sign a contract with him until he inserted a special
escape clause
An escape clause is any clause, term, or condition in a contract that allows a party to that contract to avoid having to perform the contract.
If an agreement was drawn up for the sale of a house, for example, the purchaser could include some k ...
freeing her from him if she left the band for any reason.
In July 1966, Anderson informed
Bill Graham that she was quitting the band after a series of shows they were playing in Chicago, realizing that bringing her newborn child, with then-husband Jerry Anderson, on the road was not feasible. Graham, however, asked her to stay with the band through the October shows at the
Winterland Ballroom
Winterland Ballroom (more commonly known as Winterland Arena or simply Winterland) was an ice skating rink and music venue in San Francisco, California. The arena was located at the corner of Post Street and Steiner Street. It was converted for ...
in San Francisco, to which she agreed.
[ This gave the band time to search for her successor, eventually choosing ]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, s ...
after Sherry Snow declined their offer. Allegedly there were other factors, such as the hostility of other band members toward her husband.
Anderson's last live performances with Jefferson Airplane were two sets on October 15, 1966, at The Fillmore
The Fillmore is a historic music venue in San Francisco, California.
Built in 1912 and originally named the Majestic Hall, it became the Fillmore Auditorium in 1954. It is in Western Addition, on the edge of the Fillmore District and Upper Fil ...
. Both performances were recorded (as were most Fillmore shows) and have surfaced on some bootleg albums. At what seemed to be the end of the second set, 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 ...
announced that Anderson was leaving the group. Her farewell to the audience was: "I want you all to wear smiles and daisies and box balloons. I love you all. Thank you and goodbye." At several fans' requests, Anderson and the band performed her signature number "Chauffeur Blues". They finished the night with " High Flying Bird". In August 2010, Collector's Choice music in cooperation with Sony released this show as ''Live at The Fillmore Auditorium 10/15/66: Late Show – Signe's Farewell''.
Later life
After leaving the Airplane, Anderson returned to Oregon, where she sang for nine years with Carl Smith and the Natural Gas Company. In the mid-1970s, she recovered from cancer. In 1977 she married local building contractor Michael Alois Ettlin, and continued to sing with Carl Smith.
In the mid-1990s, Anderson suffered more health problems, including a broken neck and bypass surgery, which led to serious financial problems for her family. She made guest appearances with the KBC Band
KBC Band (also sometimes referred to as The Kantner Balin Casady Band) was formed in 1985 by former Jefferson Airplane (later Jefferson Starship) members Paul Kantner (guitar and vocals), Marty Balin (vocals and guitar) and Jack Casady ( bass). ...
and Jefferson Starship
Jefferson Starship is an American rock band from San Francisco, California, formed in 1974 by a group of musicians including former members of Jefferson Airplane. Between 1974 and 1984, they released eight gold or platinum-selling studio albu ...
. Anderson's husband Michael Alois Ettlin died at the age of 62 on February 21, 2011.
Death
Anderson died at her home in Beaverton, Oregon
Beaverton is a city in Washington County, in the U.S. state of Oregon with a small portion bordering Portland in the Tualatin Valley. The city is among the main cities that make up the Portland metropolitan area. Its population was 97,494 at the ...
, at the age of 74 on January 28, 2016, from the effects of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). She died a few hours after Jefferson Airplane co-founder 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 cont ...
died, also at age 74.
Her former bandmate 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 bassist J ...
wrote a public tribute honoring her, stating: "Signe was one of the strongest people I have ever met. She was our den mother in the early days of the Airplane...a voice of reason on more occasions than one… an important member of our dysfunctional little family. I always looked forward to seeing her when we played the Aladdin
Aladdin ( ; ar, علاء الدين, ', , ATU 561, ‘Aladdin') is a Middle-Eastern folk tale. It is one of the best-known tales associated with ''The Book of One Thousand and One Nights'' (''The Arabian Nights''), despite not being part of ...
in Portland. She never complained and was always a joy."
References
External links
Anderson's biography of the Jefferson Airplane website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, Signe Toly
1941 births
2016 deaths
American women rock singers
Jefferson Airplane members
Musicians from Portland, Oregon
Deaths from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Respiratory disease deaths in Oregon
20th-century American women singers