Jefferson Airplane with Signe Toly Anderson

By 1966 the seeds of psychedelia were firmly planted in Rock & Roll music, especially the music scene in San Francisco.

In this clip, the Jefferson Airplane performs "It's No Secret" with Signe Toly Anderson, their original female vocalist. When Signe left in late 1966 she was replaced by Grace Slick.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Jefferson
• Airplane
• Signe
• Toly
• Anderson
• Grace
• Slick
• It's
• No
• Secret
• psychedelic
• lightshow
• psychedelia
• Fillmore

[mercuriusdoble]

Thank you for this reminder of The Airplane with Signe. I was 17 and was an avid fan hardly missing a Friday or weekend concert. I even have their first album, "Jefferson Airplane Takes Off".It was in fact quite a mixed crowd in appearance. Sometimes I put on my English mod look. Other times I was in full hippie regalia, facepainted and beaded.Great times!

[tunenito]

@mercuriusdoble Wonderful recollections, for sure! Thanks for sharing ... yes, those were great times ...!

[Baden1]

I was 16 in '66....what a great time to be alive.

[tunenito]

@Baden1 Agree 101% !

[BobBerkeley]

1966...a transitional time...interesting crowd...looks like half of them are longhairs, and half are straight San Francisco State College students who drove up to the Fillmore Auditorium for a night with their favorite dance band.

[tunenito]

@BobBerkeley Yup ... 1966 was definitely a transition year, the counter culture thing was still pretty underground. By 1967, the whole "Summer of Love" scene was in full bloom.

[SeattleLA]

Katz = putz

[sidk6]

What's vaguely disturbing is that most everyone you see dancing in this video is old enough to retire. Sigh. Well, we still have Haight-Ashbury.

[mollyipowers]

Fall '66. Wow. I was 19, my first year at Cal, and going to the then just opened Fillmore almost every weekend. It's all but certain I was there this night; Jefferson Airplane was my favorite band that wasn't the Beatles, and, with Signe, maybe the best folk rock band i ever heard. Okay, maybe the Byrds, maybe Buffalo Springfield. What a year. to me, 66 was purer, although the summer of love lived up to its name. By then, tour buses were in the Haight. That sucked. Anybody got some zigzags?

[videomaniac108]

It's hard for me to say who is the better singer, Grace or Signe. I recently heard one of the Great Society's live Fillmore recordings of "Somebody to Love" (ca. 1966) and was absolutely blown away with the quality and power of Grace's vocals.

[clarkewi]

@tunenito The real "Summer of Love" was '66. LSD was being sold on the street in the Haight, on the Sunset Strip and in the Village as it was not illegal yet and was of a very high quality (Owsely). The music was amazing - especially in California and England. Still not equaled - a "Golden Era" for music but bad for young men getting shipped off to Viet Nam.

[wolfwomon9]

I was not yet born when this song was released, but am a huge Signe Anderson fan. I was fortunate enough to see her in 1993 with Jefferson Starship: The Next Generation. Signe did indeed tour briefly with Jefferson Airplane after her daughter Lilith was born, but found traveling with a newborn t difficult. Despite Bill Graham's offer to provide her a nanny, she declined

("Nobody's watching my kid but me'). Her daughter was lucky. Music fans not so lucky.

[videomaniac108]

Yeah, I was 15 at the time - a magical time. What a long , strange trip it's been.

[jesusrocks4111]

@straycatttt The court finally ruled that her and Jack's contracts were invalid.

[straycatttt]

@hermounts Toly was her maiden name.

[straycatttt]

@casadyrocks I believe Signe did end up signing with Matthew Katz as well due to pressure from the rest of the band not to be a holdout. However, I think the court ruled in her favor in the end along with Skip as having been defrauded by Katz. I think Signe actually had given birth before leaving the band. Touring with her kid became a hassle.  More than that, the band felt that her husband was an ass and felt he interfered too much. Signe had been wavering about quitting anyway.