Jefferson Airplane - Rejoyce

[Trollificusv2]

Surrealistic Pillow was beyond perfect for hippie wannabes like me and my hippy krew back in the '60s, but I've always had a soft spot for the more intense and darker tunes on Baxter's. We may not have had access to a lot of the good drugs, but we had this.

So many lines in this went into our personal lexicon...lyrics so bizarre and yet she's so fucking declarative...awesome!

[huitzil07]

I love this song. Ive played it so many times and different situations and it is just so ethereal and intense. my fave,

[ycanada]

All I knew of Jefferson Airplane growing up were the two signature mega recordings "White Rabbit" and "Somebody to Love". However, I took a renewed interest in the group, particularly Grace Slick and find myself desperately searching for the few songs by Grace at lead vocals. It's disappointing and perplexing that the greatest female vocalist of all time would be reduced to backup. It's almost criminal. By far, her songs were the best. Obviously context of that generation must be considered .

[pq02lamzo]

@ycanada, you think that's bad, my knowledge of them growing up was of the Starship songs from the 80s - We Built This City, Sara, Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now. I had no clue that the original Jefferson Airplane used to be one of the best of all time. I found out about them when I googled '10 best albums of all time' in 2009. I found a site by this guy who ranked Crown of Creation as #1. I listened to Lather and my jaw hit the floor. The rest was history.

[willbar11]

happy b day slick

[pq02lamzo]

Wow, Jack rocks this one. What a bass line.

[ujnawierzbie]

@pq02lamzo Have to agree! His dynamics and sense of time (how he plays around the beats) are unsurpassed.

[FatoushDosEmirados]

there is flute inthis music?

[ujnawierzbie]

@FatoushDosEmirados Definitely some kind of wind instrument. I think it's an oboe, but I'm not an expert.

[FatoushDosEmirados]

@ujnawierzbie muchas gracias

[zambiland]

@ujnawierzbie It is an oboe. Used to be my primary instrument before electric bass took over. Needless to say, Casady on this album was a huge influence.

[ujnawierzbie]

@zambiland Good to know my ears still work properly...

And speaking of Jack, he recently won a Lifetime Achievement award for his bass playing. He sure deserved it!

[highflyender]

Grace Slik is like an ancient Greek oracle.

[willbar11]

One of the greatest unknown song they have made

[MegaNhenhe]

recorder, I mean*

[jackhillty]

@MegaNhenhe I asked the same question a few months ago and got a very good, specific answer. keep scrolling down and you'll find the dialogue

[MegaNhenhe]

Do you people know who played this indian-oriented recorded at the end?? Thanks

[NicksandSlick]

The incomparable Grace Slick

[ceridwengwyon]

That's one of their most beautiful songs ever! Thanks for posting it!

[LennonMoonPlant]

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound...

[BiGxSmoke420]

I would pound grace slicks twat

[TurtleWeasle]

Blazes Boylan was hung, per ULYSSES.

Grace wouldn't have gotten this point wrong.

[pardyhardly]

Fire and Ice= Janis and Grace

[MegaNhenhe]

@pardyhardly Man, I guess Grace was the fire...

[katydebra]

@jackhillty- I meant that Cip "improvised" the part. I had never written that before. Guess I'll have to use the entire verb next time or use a double v? This was all very serendipitous! Came up in conversation night before with a friend who knows him who thought it was hilarious that he would have played with them. Sent me the video on youtube to hear the song, and then I saw your question. (I often find the comments on youtube videos to be as entertaining if not more than the videos.)

[katydebra]

@jackhillty (sorry, tagged u incorrectly) see my comment below about oboe part.

[katydebra]

@Jack Hillty Gene Cipriano (aka Cip) played the oboe part--improved it. He's a top LA studio musician since 1950s. Has played with everybody. Amazing woodwind player!!

[jackhillty]

@katydebra - wow thanks for finally answering a question which has dogged me for years. you should be a historian. do you mean that Cip "improved" a part that was given to him by grace and spencer or do you mean he "improved" as in improvised his part?

[ferdinandthecrow]

Sounds to me like she's saying "Boylan's crouch amazes" not "crotch"

Also I wonder if the throwing up on the leg business refers to an incident in the novel, it certainly sounds Joycean. Freddie Malins (the biggest drunk in ULYSSES) does it at some point, maybe?

[NIkephoros]

All you want to do is give, but somehow it all falls apart...

[amberlover678]

Ah this song is fucking awesome, Jefferson Airplane were so great

[MegaSoulSearcher]

I hear the Grateful Dead on that combo of guitars esp. bass. This is a chill song. You must let it take over and chill you out.

[pardyhardly]

Every song on this album is like a sound painting. It's almost like being in a mental sound painting gallery.

[bwanna23]

@pardyhardly I understand completely.

[jakeenan]

I agree, it is a timeless masterpiece. Glorious melody and wicked time changes. Grace at her peak. Jack and Spencer backing her up ain't too shabby either! I only wish it was longer.

[hal9000lovesdaisy]

This is the best JA record. I've had it since it came out. The whole thing is such a trip, better than Bless Its Pointed Little Head. I only wish I could get a CD version. I don't have anything to play my eight tracks!

[britbunk]

This has to be the best song ever about James Joyce’s “Ulysses” …with an anti-war slant “War is good business so give your son. I’d rather have my country die for me.”

After 1967 rock began to included college educated intellectuals who were equally irreverent as their working class heroes.

[tomas18081993]

the best song I've heard in my life.

[tapeduk]

Grace's Masterpiece

[BakinBacon91]

I always listen to this album to help me fall asleep.. this is the song I always fall asleep to. Good song to sleep to, great song to stay awake for.

[cybal12]

I am 56 years old. I got this mono lp for Christmas. This Is one of the great records of all time. If you are a fan notice that on all Airplane records the best songs ARE Grace tunes. Jack is a heart attack!

[jackhillty]

does anyone have any idea who played the oboe part? wiki says grace but I don't believe it. she played great recorder but the oboe is another thing entirely. spencer is always credited as arranging the horns but the name of the player remains unmentioned in any JA book I've read.

[StealthKiller123]

This is my all time favourite Jefferson Airplane song, so experimental and moving. Thank you Grace.

[Juanplate00]

even her voice is psychedelic!

[pescaterian11]

The change in music around the "I've got his arm" part is so amazing.

[jackhillty]

Vin Scelsa recently played this on Bloomsday. I sent him a thank you email because it was the first time in 43 years I'd heard this song on the radio

[rareflorence]

this and "white rabbit" are my favourite jefferson airplane songs of all time... and that's saying quite a bit.

[geekorthodox9]

Looking up more about this song just now, I guess I should wish everyone a happy Bloomsday today.

[Lewis1key]

hadn't heard this song in years...fucking unusual tune man!

[x0cHiPiLLi]

I didn't live in their age, i grew in the 80s/90s but i gre up with the Jefferson Airplane and the hippie ideals.

I LOVE this track, in fact i love this album as a all, this one and the Crown of Creation are their best, and Volunteers also but in Volunteers they are changed, they are more mature..

Jefferson Airplane for me represents all the beauty, mystery, love of my life.

[bushwhacksit]

One of the best written and least known songs they ever wrote. And it includes one of the most often quoted lyrics in rock:

"Steven won't give his arm...for no Gold Star Mother's farm

War's good business so give your son...and I'd rather have my country die for me"

[JoshuaTaylor]

There's....so many of you.....

[metempsicosi100]

only jefferson

[Linguaphonie]

If humanity can come up with a better-sounding phrase than 'saxon-sick on the holy dregs' I would love to hear it.

[ascheepe]

ah, spring is in the air, time for jefferson airplane :)

[TonyRoq]

Boylan's crotch amazes/Any woman whose husband sleeps with head all buried down at the foot of the bed.

[flamesounds]

"Chemical change, you've shattered the amber warning light" the first verse is about dropping Acid...I can only say I know exactly what this means.

"There's so many of you, white shirt and tie, wedding ring, wedding ring...."

Still true.....the majority, who are destroying everything and will see us in slavery for bits of paper if we don't have the guts to walk away from their systems.

[zombiestars42]

about the first verse...I do understand it very clearly too...haven't dropped acid for years and don't mean to do it again, tho it still frequently happens to me : each time i cross the border between words, representations, concepts, and reality, i could say these words...

[hiperf289]

Most of this is drawn from Joyce's "Ulysses," especially: "You die for your country. Suppose.... Not that I wish it for you. But I say: Let my country die for me. Up to the present it has done so. I didn't want it to die. Damn death. Long live life!"

Mulligan, Molly, Bloom, Boylan, Stephen are all characters within...

[DocGeorge4U]

fer sure...nice....

[JoaniePH51]

Very tacitly Hippie in the way it depicts the stereotypes of our culture of the time. "War's good business so give your son, but I'd rather have my country dis for me." One thing that is sine qua non is that one really needs the entire album cover and inner sleeve to fully appreciate the album and what it truly represents. A little herb or Orange Sunshine couldn't hurt as well... ;-)

[mobyboy]

Grace Slick has the one of the most mysterious voices i Have ever heard.

Dark and wonderful !

[JoaniePH51]

Ain't it the truth! She could also project a biting sarcasm that I have never seen before or since as well.

[lardmonk]

@mobyboy ya its really strange, at first it almost sounds ugly, but then she finds a really fine and delicate sound but at the same time it's very forceful

[stratocaster0725]

the bass line and piano from 2:48 to 3:17 is incredible....damn, slick and casady were some talented musicians

[kharmakreep]

they are...that part is superb.

[OmeletteThePuppy]

Does anybody else think that musically, this may be Grace's homage to Laura Nyro or something? The weird chord changes and crazy time shifts are very Eli And the thirteenth confession or new York tendaberry. Except Grace's voice is a lot more impressive, and she's probably not quite as great with the composing as Laura Still, great stuff.

[orgo65]

The only problem with that is that this album was released before Eli and the 13th Confession and New York Tendaberry

[darbacour]

Thank you

[jackhillty]

I think its influenced more by Miles Davis

[Ratchetchan]

I've been listening to Laura over the past week and just listened to ABAB today and I thought the same thing... but it can't be, ABAB was released in 1967 when Laura was just recording Eli. Interesting similarities though.

[gbcallahan]

@OmeletteThePuppy As someone else noted, this preceded ELI, but I do agree w/ you that there's a kind of spiritual kinship between Grace and Laura. I think both were enigmatic figures, whose lyrics were often difficult and sometimes a bit skewed (beautifully so, I think). Lyrically, I relate them both to Nico as well. You didn't always know what these women were singing about, it was often dark and mysterious. Different from, say, Joni who was a strightforward storyteller.

[tapeduk]

Rejoyce James Joyce

[skyseye]

ahead of their time. period.

[darbacour]

by about 2 decades

[NitaBMe]

This is the song I was looking for!! My absolute favorite from this album :-)

I hadn't jammed it in so long I'd forgotten the name but man, it brings me back!

Thanks for posting this incredible album and keeping it alive for posterity!!

~Peace, REnita

[elthambarrel]

Really wasn't a big fan of this album. However by chance I got a copy of their "Ignition" collection which I think had the original album remastered.

Must be the remastering, cause now I really love this album

[booksteve]

Thanks for posting this. This is beautiful song-writing from Grace and the band is at a peak. Wonderful and timeless

[sirigi22]

why can`t they play this great music on the radio?

[ascheepe]

This song is so wonderful I can't even describe it. Thanks grace and thanks jukebox ;)

/me likes a bit too much :D

[ambientplanechunks]

can anybody find the chords to this

ive been searching yet to find anything at all

[jackhillty]

believe it or not, i used to have the sheet music for this. there was an entire "baxter's" book w/ all the music in it. i can still play this on the piano. i'd send it to you if i still had it. it starts on D w/ the weird Eb mode on top. the last chord is particularly nuts. good luck.

[kdonofrio22]

Grace's best song.

[ajf12525]

Just another masterpiece from the greatest female rocker ever.

[sarasailor]

This song is a total masterpiece and Grace Slick an immense singer !!

[jackhillty]

this fucking song has not left me alone for 40 years. I still listen to it all the time and it makes me just as lonely, elated, mystified,

and enthrawled as it did the first time.

"I got his arm, I got his arm... but sometimes it all falls apart"

[sderoski]

Rejoyce, what an amazing song. Unequaled by any band.  Just the idea of adapting James Joyce's Ulysses into a rock song. Unprecedented.

[TurnOffTard]

The problem is that it's so hard to condense such a complicated book into a four minute song...