Jefferson Starship

Jefferson Starship is an American rock band formed in the early 1970s by several members of the former psychedelic rock group Jefferson Airplane. The band has undergone several major changes in personnel and genres through the years while retaining the same Jefferson Starship name. The current Jefferson Starship, led by co-founder Paul Kantner until his 2016 death, more closely resembled its original mix of psychedelic and electric folk music than the pop-driven tunes it was widely known for in the early to mid-1980s. It is not to be confused with Starship, a spin-off of the group featuring former co-lead singer Mickey Thomas that also periodically tours.

History

Origins

During the transitional period of the early 1970s, when Jefferson Airplane was in the process of disbanding, singer-guitarist Paul Kantner recorded Blows Against the Empire. This was a concept album featuring an ad hoc group of musicians (centered on Kantner, Grace Slick, Joey Covington, and Jack Casady of Jefferson Airplane; Crosby & Nash; and members of Grateful Dead and Santana) credited on the LP as "Paul Kantner/Jefferson Starship", marking the first use of that name. This agglomeration was informally known as the Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra, a moniker later used on a Kantner album in the early 1980s.

Starship

A starship, starcraft or interstellar spacecraft is a theoretical spacecraft designed for traveling between stars, as opposed to a vehicle designed for orbital spaceflight or interplanetary travel.

The term is mostly found in science fiction, because such craft have never been constructed though some credit the word being first used in the Oahspe: A New Bible bible (1882)

Whilst the Voyager and Pioneer probes have travelled into local interstellar space, the purpose of these unmanned craft was specifically interplanetary and they are not predicted to reach another star system (although Voyager 1 will travel to within 1.7 light years of AC +79 3888 in approximately 40,000 years). Several preliminary designs for starships have been undertaken through exploratory engineering, using feasibility studies with modern technology or technology thought likely to be available in the near future.

Research

To travel between stars in a reasonable time using rocket-like technology requires very high effective exhaust velocity jet, and enormous energy to power this, such as might be provided by fusion power or antimatter.

Jefferson

Jefferson often refers to Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States and the principal author of its Declaration of Independence.

Jefferson may also refer to:

Places

Red Octopus

Red Octopus is a 1975 album by Jefferson Starship. It was the best-selling album by any incarnation of Jefferson Airplane and its spin-off groups, and the single "Miracles" hit #3 on the Billboard chart, being the highest-charting single the band had until that point. This album was mixed and released in both stereo and quadraphonic. The album itself reached #1 on the Billboard 200.

Marty Balin, the founder of Jefferson Airplane, returned as a fully integrated member and either wrote or co-wrote five of the ten tracks, including the hit "Miracles". The album paved the music direction of the band for their next two albums. The group attempted to create a commercialized sound which was a total contrast to their past works.

Track listing

Personnel

Grace Slick

Grace Barnett Slick (née Wing; born October 30, 1939) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, artist and former model, widely known as the first female diva in rock and roll history and a searing voice in the mid-1960's San Francisco psychedelic renaissance. Her iconic career spanned all or parts of four decades, most notably with the ground-breaking Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship and Starship band. She started with The Great Society and also had stints as a solo performer.

Biography

Early life

Grace Barnett Wing was born October 30, 1939, in Highland Park, Illinois, to Ivan W. Wing (1907–1987), of Norwegian and Swedish descent, and Virginia (née Barnett; 1910-1984), a lineal descendant of passengers of the Mayflower. In 1949 her brother Chris was born. Her father, working in the investment banking sector for Weeden and Company, was transferred several times when she was a child and, in addition to the Chicago area, she lived in Los Angeles and San Francisco, before her family finally settled in Palo Alto, California, south of San Francisco, in the early 1950s.