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Jefferson Airplane
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Miami Vice Performer
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"White Rabbit" ("Duty and Honor")
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Members
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Grace Slick (born 1939, vocals, piano)
Paul Kantner (1941-2016, guitar) Marty Balin (1942-2018, vocals) Jorma Kaukonen (born 1940, guitar) Jack Casady (born 1944, bass) Spencer Dryden (1938-2005, drums) |
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Active
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1965-1974 (as Jefferson Airplane)
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Jefferson Airplane was an American psychedelic band whose song "White Rabbit" appeared in the episode "Duty and Honor" of the series Miami Vice.
Career[]
The band was formed in 1964 by vocalist Marty Balin, who brought in guitarist Paul Kantner, vocalist Signe Anderson, drummer Jerry Peloquin (replaced by Skip Spence within a year) and bassist Bob Harvey, and began playing the club scene in the San Francisco area, which at that time was turning into the epicenter of the "counter-culture" of the mid and late 1960s. The group's debut album, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off, was released in 1966, but after the album's release Anderson and Spence left, to be replaced by vocalist Grace Slick and drummer Spencer Dryden. By 1967 Jefferson Airplane was headlining events in San Francisco, including the "Human Be-In" which led to the Summer of Love, and their second album, Surrealistic Pillow, was releaed, the first with Slick on vocals, their singles "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit" both made the Billboard Top 10. Later in the year they performed at the Monterey International Pop Festival, on television's The Ed Sullivan Show and The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. But the band never recaptured their magic and their songs, with thinly veiled drug references included, were ignored by Top 40 radio. They did have a renaissance in 1969 with their appearances at Woodstock and at Altamont, though the Altamont appearance and its' violence permanently crippled the band in its' original form. Dryden left in 1970, Slick and Kantner began a relationship that resulted in a daughter, China Wing Slick Kantner (born 1971, later became a MTV VJ) and Balin left in 1971 as well, plus the social events that made the band relevant (the Vietnam War, drug experimentation, etc.) began to wind down. Their final studio album as Jefferson Airplane, Long John Silver, was released in 1972. The band broke up completely in 1974.
They later reformed as Jefferson Starship in the mid 1970s and the group regained some of their successes, reaching the Top 20 with their singles "Miracles", "Count on Me", "With Your Love", and "Runaway", with Balin and Slick singing lead on most of them. In 1978 Balin and Slick left again, replaced by Mickey Thomas ("Fooled Around And Fell In Love") and in 1979 they released their single "Jane" and several other minor hits, then in 1985 the group, now just called Starship, reached #1 with "We Built This City" and "Sara" as a pop-sounding group. They continued to tour as Jefferson Starship until Kantner's death in 2016. Marty Balin died in 2018.