I said quite a lot in my write-up for the first album I posted from this festival, the Youngbloods set. I recommend you read that, because most of that applies to this set too. Most importantly, note that this is sourced from an audience bootleg, so the sound quality isn't up to my usual standards. I had to do a lot of work to fix all sorts of flaws. The final results sounds pretty decent for a 1968 concert, in my opinion, but you need to be tolerant about the flaws that still remain.
Jefferson Airplane was the headlining act of the first day of the festival, and thus were given the most covered final set of the day. As you can see from the cover photo and text, the festival was scheduled to go each day from 11 A.M. to 6 P.M., and it seems the kept that schedule fairly well because it was still light outside at the time of this set.
It makes sense that Jefferson Airplane was one of the headliners, along with the Doors being the headliners for the second day. Out of all the musical acts performing at the festival, those two had had the biggest commercial success at this point, by far. Jefferson Airplane had two Top Ten hits in the U.S. in 1967 with "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit." And the Doors went all the way to Number One with "Light My Fire" in 1967.
At this point in 1968, the band was already moving towards their fourth album, "Crown of Creation." It wouldn't be released until September. But they played two songs from it in this concert, "Greasy Heart" and "Star Track."
I mentioned previously that some of these recordings were bedeviled by a high buzzing noise. Unfortunately, this set suffers from that probably the most. I especially had a hard time with the song "Today." Since it's a quiet, acoustic song, the buzz is particularly noticeable. I tried my best to reduce that, but I couldn't completely get rid of it.
This album is 46 minutes long.
01 White Rabbit (Jefferson Airplane)
02 Plastic Fantastic Lover (Jefferson Airplane)
03 talk (Jefferson Airplane)
04 Watch Her Ride (Jefferson Airplane)
05 talk (Jefferson Airplane)
06 Today (Jefferson Airplane)
07 The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil (Jefferson Airplane)
08 talk (Jefferson Airplane)
09 Greasy Heart (Jefferson Airplane)
10 Fat Angel (Jefferson Airplane)
11 Star Track (Jefferson Airplane)
12 Won't You Try - Saturday Afternoon (Jefferson Airplane)
13 Somebody to Love (Jefferson Airplane)
https://pixeldrain.com/u/qsCMiLYg
alternate:
https://bestfile.io/en/wEZI5zoxZcpJbE5/file
The cover photo is from this exact concert. From right to left: Paul Kantner (he appears small and near the bottom of the image, on guitar), Marty Balin (holding the tambourine), Jorma Kaukonen (on lead guitar), and Grace Slick (holding maracas and wearing a pink top).
The original was in black and white. However, I was able to find some color images of the band at this concert. It's just that they had problems, so I preferred to use this one. But because I saw some color ones, I was able to get the colors correct. For instance, I was able to get the color of Slick's top correct, as well as other colors.
That is not Jack Casady, but it is Paul Kantner of the Airplane. Jack's hair was really long by this time. I was at this festival, and it was great.
ReplyDeleteOkay, I made the change. You were at this festival? Cool! You should tell us your impressions. And what do you think of these recordings?
DeleteI went to many free open air events & concerts from 1966 - 1970. I do recall that the Santa Clara Fairgrounds were hot, dusty and filled with pot. Due to the latter, my memory is not that strong. I zoned out on much of the show and can't remember many of the acts at all (including Kaleidoscope who I really wanted to see). I had seen many of these groups many times, and (I went to The Fillmore and/or the Avalon Ballroom almost every weekend in 1967 & 1968) their sets here did not outshine other performances. Nothing horrible, but nothing that blew me away except the Doors on Sunday. The Dead were a bit hard to take since they did not get a chance to ease you into their weirdness (I can listen and appreciate their set now). The recordings sound quite good,, once you get used to the sound, they are very enjoyable. Thank you for taking the time and effort to clean them up.
DeleteOne of the best sets I saw by Big Brother was on Green Street, in front of the KMPX studios. BBHC was playing in support of the strike by the staff. BBHC got onto a flatbed trailer and played a few of their typical songs at the time. Then they said we've got a new singer joining us, and they started with Down On Me and played for about another hour. A few days later I ran into James Gurley at the Print Mint, and he spoke about how exciting it was to have Janis join the band.
Sorry I don't recall much about the festival, but I was pretty wasted and mainly interested in my new girlfriend, and not the bands.
Thanks for sharing. I was too young to catch any of that 1960s and 70s stuff. It must have been great to see all those shows! And I'm glad you like the recording.
DeleteThis is only marginally related to this set, but I'm recalling the short-lived Airplane reunion in 1989. The album was decent but not well-received, but they also performed some shows covering a lot of the band's long history. The few recordings I've run across have been pretty poor. Maybe there is something better out there?
ReplyDelete