Jefferson Airplane – ‘Woodstock Sunday August 17, 1969’ (50th anniversary) (2019)
While the exact 50th anniversary of the Woodstock music festival of August of 1969 has long passed, interest in the festival, and particularly in the musical artists who performed there, shows no signs of slowing down.
Throughout 2019, a slew of reissues and previously unreleased and never-heard-before recordings, as well as newly repackaged releases have been issued. One of the best of those reissues is Woodstock: Sunday August 17, 1969 (Real Gone) from the Jefferson Airplane. While previously released on CD in 2009 in a limited-edition, numbered package along with a CD of what was then the group’s latest album, 1969’s Volunteers, as part of The Woodstock Experience series, the recent reissue features that entire disc of what is billed as the group’s complete Woodstock performance on three colored vinyl albums and is limited to 1000 copies.
There are 14 tracks on this set, with the first one introducing the group. The original recordings were engineered by the legendary producer, engineer, photographer and primary recording engineer for Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Kramer. The iconic album packaging photographs (except for a Life magazine back-stage shot of Jorma Kaukonen riding a motorcycle) were by the premier rock photographer Henry Diltz.
The group had released a live album prior to the Woodstock festival in February of 1969 entitled Bless Its Pointed Little Head, that included performances from the Fillmore’s East and West from the fall of 1968.
The Airplane was one of six San Francisco bands who performed at Woodstock, along with Country Joe and the Fish, Santana, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Sly and the Family Stone, and Janis Joplin. Joplin had stopped working at this point with Bay Area’s Big Brother and the Holding Company, but would forever be associated with the San Francisco music scene. On her most recent album of that time, I Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again Mama!, she continued to work with Sam Andrews from Big Brother and was joined by San Francisco guitarist Mike Bloomfield, who appeared on three tracks.
The Airplane’s Woodstock appearance very much reflects the end of the group’s classic lineup of Marty Balin, Grace Slick, Paul Kantner, Jack Cassady, Jorma Kaukonen and Spencer Dryden. The group’s next album Volunteers, the last for Balin and Dryden, would be the finale with this lineup and the group would not release another album for two years. For this performance they were also joined by session keyboard ace, Englishman Nicky Hopkins, who started playing with fellow San Francisco band Quicksilver Messenger Service around this time.
“This historic document is a true collector’s package and is worthy of the festival and the year 1969 in music.”
“Volunteers” from this set was the only appearance by the Airplane on the original 3-LP Woodstock soundtrack released in May of 1970. “Won’t You Try/Saturday Afternoon” and “Eskimo Blue Day” were first released on the Woodstock Two double LP which came out in July of 1971. “Somebody to Love,””Uncle Sam Blues” and “White Rabbit,” along with the already released “Volunteers” and “Won’t You Try/Saturday Afternoon” were released on Woodstock: Three Days of Peace and Music, a four-CD set released in 1994. All five of these tracks, along with the stage announcement “We Got A Whole Lot of Orange” from Grace Slick, appeared on the six-CD set Woodstock 40 Years On: Back to Yasgur’s Farm, released in 2009.
This sprawling, six-sided set offers up the group’s ragged, brash and occasionally psychedelic set in all its hippy glory. While sometimes the performances are out of tune, with vocals that become thundering howls and sound that was at times distorted or muddy, the idiosyncrasies only add to the charm of what was clearly a distinct period of time for rock music. There is no denying the power of this group. The vocal interplay, particularly between Slick and Balin, is pure magic. Jack Cassady’s bass was always the secret weapon of the group and often anchors what could have been even more of a chaotic sound.
There are lots of highlights including an extended “Wooden Ships” that takes up one whole side. The songs performed here that would end up on the upcoming Volunteers album would most likely have been unfamiliar to the Woodstock audience. There are also songs included here that didn’t appear on previous studio albums, including a cover of “The Other Side of This Life” by Fred Neil; “Won’t You Try/Saturday Afternoon”; and two blues covers, “Uncle Sam Blues,” which would eventually be recorded by Kaukonen and Cassady’s spin-off group Hot Tuna, appearing on their live, self-titled debut album; and “Come Back Baby.”
This historic document is a true collector’s package and is worthy of the festival and the year 1969 in music.
– Steve Matteo
Jefferson Airplane – Woodstock Sunday August 17, 1969 (50th anniversary) (Real Gone Music, 2019)
