jefferson starship freedom at point zero tour

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When Jefferson Starship Plugged In For ‘Freedom at Point Zero’

The twin departures of both Marty Balin and ( briefly ) Grace Slick gave Jefferson Starship an opportunity to update its sound in advance of new decade. That's how Freedom at Point Zero , issued on Nov. 1, 1979, ended up with a more straight-forward, more metallic approach.

Oddly enough, it also put the band on a collision course with a name-changing breakup , and then mega-popstardom. But that was later. For now, there was the success of their third highest-charting single ever, and a Top 10 finish for the crunchy Freedom at Point Zero .

Their shift toward arena rock was best heard on "Jane," a lead single that shot to No. 14 behind the fiery guitar work of stalwart Craig Chaquico. His co-writers included Paul Kantner and Dave Freiberg, who along with Chaquico and Slick had been with Jefferson Starship since it grew out of the old Jefferson Airplane configuration in January 1974. Multi-instrumentalist Pete Sears joined the original lineup of Jefferson Starship later that summer – as did Balin, their original lead singer.

Balin's replacement was as offbeat as it was instantly successful: Mickey Thomas had made his name on the breakout ballad " Fooled Around and Fell in Love " with Elvin Bishop, after working for years in R&B and gospel groups prior to that.

"I had just left the Elvin Bishop Band, and I was preparing to do a solo album. I was down in Miami with Bill Szymczyk (of Eagles fame) producing, and that’s when I got the call from the Jefferson Starship," Thomas admitted in 2013 . "I’m thinking, based on my influences and where I was coming from at that point in time: 'How in the world is this going to fit?' I had recently left the Elvin Bishop Band, which was all about the blues and soul music and R&B and country and every other kind of roots or organic music you could think of. But I was flattered to get the call, and I at least owed them the courtesy of going over there and seeing what’s up. [Laughs.] We had several meetings, and couple of jam sessions. I was still rather hesitant. A few months went by, really. Finally, I thought: 'As crazy as this is, and as unlikely as it would be that this would work, there’s something there.' Where they were coming from, and where I was then, it was a meeting of styles that created something original."

Jefferson Starship ultimately settled on an approach more in keeping with new drummer Aynsley Dunbar's former band Journey . Notably, Freedom at Point Zero was the first of two projects with producer Ron Nevison, who had similar success smoothing out the edges of '70s products like Chicago , Kiss and Heart in this same era.

Listen to Jefferson Starship Perform 'Jane'

"We got a new singer, Mickey Thomas, who had blues and gospel roots to him," Chaquico said in 2012 . "I always liked that style, with someone like Lou Gramm and Foreigner – or Bad Company and Paul Rodgers . I always like those kind of bluesy singers in rock. Mickey really had that going on. Whether or not he wanted to do rock was a big question, but when we had him over for a rehearsal, one of the first songs he did was one I wrote with that in mind, and it was perfect timing to get into songs that featured more guitar."

Occasionally, flashes of Jefferson Starship's former hippie-rock weirdness would appear. We hear, for instance, the beginnings of a concept featuring the character Lightning Rose, who would return for 1984's Nuclear Furniture . "Jane" itself features a lengthy guitar solo that might have been edited down by any other band hoping for airplay. Chaquico admits he fought tooth and nail to keep it just the way it was.

"I remember arguing over the guitar solo with our manager at that time," Chaquico said in a separate 2012 talk . "His point was, he came in with a stop watch and the guitar solo was too long. It will never get played on the radio, right? If you listen to the solo, I arranged it in such a way that when I came in there’s really not a lot going on – except for me and Aynsley. Everybody else is laying out, so you have to hear the guitar solo. It’s all that’s there! [Laughs.] The band backed me up, and we left the solo the way that it is, but our manager swore it would never be a hit. So, every time I hear it on the radio, it puts a smile on my face, because I knew I had to fight for every second of it! Literally. Our manager had a point about one thing though: I ran into some of the guys from Metallica and they said: 'Hey, man, that was one of our favorite songs, because no songs on the radio had long guitar solos back then.' [Laughs.} We pushed the envelope, and it actually did get played – thank God."

More often, however, Freedom at Point Zero unfolded like a canny play for broad acceptance, blending soul influences, a bit more guitar and a sound that mostly left behind the San Francisco-based influences that had defined Jefferson Starship to that point.

"They were going for a harder edge at that point in time," Thomas added. "Before that, it was all about 'Count on Me' and 'Miracles' – which are all fine, but all of them were sort of softer, mid-tempo ballads. Then, here we come with 'Jane.' That was quite a statement. And it worked, because when you think about it, a lot of what we think of as hard-rock bands from back in the day, it all goes back to the blues. With Led Zeppelin , Aerosmith , all of those bands, it was about the blues, really. So, it really kind of made sense. We got together and were really able to forge a new style that worked as Jefferson Starship."

Watch Jefferson Starship Perform 'Girl with the Hungry Eyes'

"Jane" also represents a crossroads moment in sorting through the ugly breakup that followed Nuclear Furniture , when the late Kantner left – taking the "Jefferson" portion of the band's moniker. A core group featuring Thomas, Slick and Chaquico would go forward as Starship, scoring a string of huge pop hits with a still sleeker, synth-focused direction into the mid '80s.

"If you wanted to survive, if you wanted to continue to be a viable band and make records, and to stay together, then you better conform to the times," Thomas said. "At that point in time, it has reached a point that if you didn’t get Top 40 airplay, and you weren’t on MTV, then you just weren’t part of the game. You had to have that presence."

Nasty court cases ensued between members of the band and Kantner, though at this point he still took the lead on tracks like "Girl with the Hungry Eyes" (which charted at No. 55) and "Things to Come." Freiberg lasted until 1985 with Starship, then returned to Kantner's Jefferson Starship in 2005. (The late Balin also occasionally worked with Kantner beginning in the '00s.) Sears was gone by 1987. Slick split again in 1988, and Chaquico – who to that point was the only member to have played in every different Jefferson Starship/Starship lineup – followed in 1990, just after the release of 1989's Love Among the Cannibals .

"Grace had left the band, and then Paul was suing the band," Thomas said. "Then Grace was suing Paul, and Paul was suing Grace – and they were suing our manager. That’s kind of what made me come up with the title and song 'Love Among the Cannibals.' I thought: 'Wow, these people kind of exemplify the whole love generation of the late '60s, peace and love and wearing flowers in your hair and let’s change the world – and now all they want to do is sue each other.' [Laughs.] So, 'Love Among the Cannibals' was my statement about all of that."

Later, a shaky truce emerged. Both Thomas and Kantner toured with their own versions of Jefferson Starship / Starship until Kantner's death in 2016 . "Jane" was the only song that both editions regularly included in their set lists.

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"Neither particularly good or particularly bad. It's just bang average": Freedom At Point Zero by Jefferson Starship

Grace slick and marty balin were gone but jefferson airplane had jane, an aor landmark, and riffs from craig chaquico that would guide the band into the gleaming 80s.

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Jane Lightning Rose (Carry the Fire) Things to Come Awakening Girl with the Hungry Eyes Just the Same Rock Music Fading Lady Light Freedom at Point Zero (Climbing Tiger Mountain through the Sky)

After spectacularly imploding during their 1978 European tour, losing singers Grace Slick and Marty Balin, plus a drummer in the aftermath, Jefferson Starship returned a year later sporting a youthful, clean-cut Mickey Thomas on vocals and a single, Jane , that would define AOR alongside Toto ’s Hold The Line , both characterised by high, taut vocals and ubiquitous hammered piano triplets. 

In fact, Jefferson Starship had already cornered the market in rock ballads with hits like Miracles and Count On Me , but Jane raised the bar dramatically thanks to Ron Nevison, the first producer the band had used, who insisted that Craig Chaquico’s blitzing 28-second lead guitar break be included, in an era when guitar solos were distinctly unfashionable.  

“Whenever I hear the solo to Jane on the radio, it makes me so happy,” Chaquico told us. “We fought for every second of that thing.”

Jane  charted at the end of 1979 and took Jefferson Starship seamlessly into the 80s and the new decade of  AOR . Its parent album  Freedom At Point Zero went Top 10 in the UK, and spent nearly three months knocking around the charts. And while nothing else on the album comes close to Jane , aRock Music tries valiantly and Paul Kantner’s Girl With The Hungry Eyes at least has the passion. 

What saves the album is Nevison’s hard-rock instinct that puts guitarist Craig Chaquico on a pedestal, allowing him to let rip at will. He brings a steely edge to Jefferson Starship that they scarcely deserve. It was the beginning of a transformation that would soon find the band building this city.

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Other albums released in November 1979

• Machine Gun Etiquette - The Damned
• The Soundhouse Tapes - Iron Maiden
• Night in the Ruts - Aerosmith
• Setting Sons - The Jam
• In Concert - Emerson, Lake & Palmer
• Joe's Garage Acts II & III - Frank Zappa
• Live Rust - Neil Young & Crazy Horse
• Metal Box - Public Image Ltd.
• The Wall - Pink Floyd
• Degüello - ZZ Top
• Down on the Farm - Little Feat
• No Nukes: The Muse Concerts for a Non-Nuclear Future - Various Artists
• Phoenix - Dan Fogelberg
• Real to Real Cacophony - Simple Minds
• Sometimes You Win - Dr. Hook

What they said...

"Since the band's previous album, the Top Ten, million-selling Earth , the group had lost its two lead singers, Grace Slick and Marty Balin, and they had been replaced by Mickey Thomas. Jane , released as a single in advance of the album, displayed the result: even before Thomas' soaring tenor entered, it sounded like Foreigner . But it also made the Top 20, which helped the album into the Top Ten and to a gold record award." ( AllMusic )

" Hawkwind -goes-commercial leads off one side, Foreigner-hurries-home the other; both cuts are catchy, both sexist tripe. The rest of the album is a familiar muddle of fixations: space travel, good-time, the deluge, the possession of pretty girls. Personal to Mickey Thomas: ain't nobody gonna boogie to the moons of Saturn." ( Robert Christgau )

" Freedom at Point Zero  has plenty of impact on first hearing: the production is dense and vigorous, undiluted by conflict or experimentation. Given these songs, however, it’s all wasted energy. After a few listenings, all the arpeggios and sound effects and shouts seem like the pitiful flailings of a band that knows it’s obsolete. The album’s final words are “It’s gonna be all right.” Who is Paul Kantner trying to convince?" ( Rolling Stone )

What you said...

Mike Canoe : Of course I know Jane . That song was all over rock radio. The rest of Freedom at Point Zero ? Not so much. Anyway, I was more inclined to follow-up Modern Times with its MTV-ready videos for Find Your Way Back and Stranger .

While nothing hits as hard as Jane , there are plenty of things to like about the full album. I certainly have a better appreciation for the musicianship and songwriting of this incarnation of Jefferson Starship. Singer Mickey Thomas helps give the band a melodic rock makeover and having journeyman Aynsley Dunbar on drums doesn't hurt. Craig Chaquico's more commercial songwriting actually blends surprisingly well with Paul Kantner's sci-fi/New Agey numbers. Epic Awakening is a great contribution by the husband/wife team of Pete and Jeanette Sears. And a band that can sell a lyric (and sentiment) as simple as " Rock'n'roll is good time music " has to be able to deliver and they generally do.

Kudos also to saxophonist Steven Schuster, who contributes to so many of the songs that it almost feels like he should have been a full-time member. His playing on Just the Same and Things to Come is fantastic (although I probably wouldn't have had a similar appreciation in 1979.)

While I'm generally ambivalent about Jefferson Starship (too much music, too little time), I'm glad one of their albums made the cut. Like them or not, they're one of those "classic" classic rock bands and in good company with other classic rock acts that made their club debut this year, including April Wine, Kansas, Molly Hatchet, Elton John, Joe Cocker, Supertramp, and Montrose (a 2-for-1 since it also included the club debut of Sammy Hagar). I look forward to what Year 7 (!!!) will bring.

Evan Sanders: I like how this late 70's album kicks off with the radio-friendly Jane , showing that Jefferson Starship could stay relevant without Marty Balin or Grace Slick. Unfortunately, that song is the highlight until the title song and closer, as the rest of the album is a set of generic rock numbers that would have fit well as classic rock B sides. The musicianship is good, but without memorable lyrics or melodies. 6/10

Pete Webb : Because of my age, I was aware of Jefferson Starship before I knew about Jefferson Airplane. I bought Freedom At Point Zero when it came out, mainly for Jane , which was all over the radio in 1979. That song, with a sound reminiscent of Foreigner or Toto, is uncharacteristic of the album as a whole.

Listening back decades later, Freedom At Point Zero stands up surprisingly well, especially Paul Kantner’s songwriting contributions on Lightning Rose and Girl With The Hungry Eyes . The playing is solid – no surprise considering Aynsley Dunbar is on drums and David Freiberg (formerly with Quicksilver Messenger Service) shares bass and keys with Pete Sears. Overall, a good but not great album. I’d rate it 7/10.

David Cichocki: Maybe a huge arena attraction of 1970s/80, if I wasn’t a nipper then they still would not have coaxed me there. I think this the first listen in my 61 years that I could not work out if this was purposely a progressive album, blended with whatever they wanted – jazz, gospel and FM. Not that bands and music should be placed in appropriate boxes – but sometimes it helps if you can’t work it out from the album sleeve. 

Awakening is genuinely a great epic and really helped the listen but this album is really about Jane – the rock discos of 80s Bristol were quite rightly banging this out. However, I’m not sure where most of Freedom At Point Zero is going.

A mostly female-fronted Starship headlined a low-key Heroes Of Woodstock tour in the UK in 2009. It was a mixture of Airplane/Starship material - although Kantner was there, I would have loved to have seen Grace Slick.

Graham Tarry : Love this album. There’s so much more to it than just Jane ! Awakening is immense

Gus Schultz : This album seems to follow the same sort of formula as the previous Jefferson Starship albums, except for a harder sound and modern production for the time. Mickey Thomas does a good job of replacing their main balladeer Marty Balin and the notorious Grace Slick. They’ve always seem to have a hit or two on most of their albums especially Red Octopus with the massive crossover hit Miracles and may have been their top selling LP. 

I’m not so sure we would be reviewing this album if Jane were not on it, obviously the strongest track on the LP. Rock music and Freedom at point zero were minor hits that received decent airplay but didn’t have the same power as Jane. Modern Times seemed to follow a similar pattern with Find Your Way Back as a fairly big hit on radio. Still it’s a very listenable album albeit a little dated in sound. Not an album I would play very often preferring some of their older recordings.

Happy New Everyone!!

Bill Griffin : I can't reappraise it because I never bothered to listen to it before. That having been said, a number of the tracks were played on FM radio besides Jane so I am not totally unfamiliar with it. It's inoffensive music for sure, even enjoyable. I still don't think I missed anything though.

Gary Claydon: When the Airplane had crashed and burned, the new, interstellar, version of Jefferson discovered an ability to produce polished AOR but had never been willing to fully embrace it. A democratic approach to song writing plus the idiosyncratic talents of their frontwoman often resulted in a lack of clarity and direction. They came across as a band who were totally unsure of their place in the scheme of things, unable to move forward. So, how would their Grace-less offering, Freedom at Point Zero , fare in a pretty turbulent flight path?

There is a clear effort to move towards a slightly harder, more commercial sound but with a reluctance to completely sever ties to their hippy-fied past. The results are somewhat muddled, not helped by the usual plethora of song writing credits. Bestriding the whole album is Jane , one of the great pop-rock songs. Nothing else really comes close, although the pomp of Awakening has a damn good try, even if it could have done with editing down by a couple of minutes. 

Girl With The Hungry Eyes always makes me think the band had been listening to Hawkwind at some point. The rest of the album is mainly unremarkable, fairly generic AOR - throughout Freedom at Point Zero there are a number of "where have I heard that before?" moments. The best parts of Freedom at Point Zero come courtesy of Craig Chaquico's guitar, aided and abetted by Ron Nevison's propensity for pushing the guitars further forward in the mix, often at the cost of some bottom end wallop. This, in turn, adds to the overall lightweight feel of proceedings.

In the end, Freedom at Point Zero is neither particularly good or particularly bad. It's just bang average, which still makes it better than anything that would come in the future from the various Starship enterprises.

Dale Munday : After the brilliance that were the Airplane, I thought that the move to big bucks territory was awful. A generic AOR sound redolent of so many over produced faux rock bands of that period.

Greg Schwepe: Just how catchy is Jane , the leadoff track from Jefferson Starship’s 1979 offering; Freedom at Point Zero ? Well, catchy enough that 1979 Me went out and bought that album after hearing Jane many times on the local FM rock station. And this is from someone who had passing knowledge of prior Jefferson Starship (and Airplane, for that matter) albums and the band’s lineup and history, but had no interest in actually purchasing anything of theirs. But Jane seemed to change all that.

Now when I got home and plopped that album on the turntable and began to check out the liner notes, did I initially realise that Mickey Thomas was the new lead singer and Martin Balin and Grace Slick were no longer in the band? Probably not. Did I realize that this album was a bit of a departure from Earth , Red Octopus and Spitfire ? Definitely not at the time, I just knew that this one seemed to really jump out of the speakers. Like, really jump. And because I had an ear for "slick and polished" (no "Grace pun" intended), this seemed to really fit in with other bands I listened to.

The ironic part of this week’s selection is that I had heard a track from Earth this summer in a playlist I had found, then began to explore more of the Jefferson Starship catalogue, revisiting Freedom once again. And by looking back at the prior albums, I realised for me, how much of a departure this album was. And in a good way. “Let’s swap out all our vocalists, and really update and modernize our sound and let the chips fall where they may!” And I think this happens at about 2:16 into Jane , where Craig Chaquico rips off a guitar solo that seems to say “here’s the updated Jefferson Starship!”

About half the songs have Mickey Thomas’s vocals harmonised with another band member (Paul Kantner, I believe?), so you have that layered approach. And while it doesn’t sound like a female vocal, the layering gives the illusion that it is. So, for those wondering how things will sound without Grace Slick, it’s still dang good.

The eight minute plus Awakening takes you on a winding instrumental journey first, before the Mickey Thomas vocal finally kicks in after 2 and a half minutes.

Girl with the Hungry Eyes could be a song by The Cars. Modern keyboard sounds and layered vocals make it sound like something off of Candy-O .

Rock Music gets my vote for the best cymbal clanging song on the album. Flat out rocker with a repeating guitar riff. Thomas shows his voice has range and it can soar.

Freedom at Point Zero earns Jefferson Starship the “Arena Rock” tag, and you could add them to any list of bands which included Journey, Foreigner, Boston, Styx, and the like. Releases after this album would cement that moniker even more, which is not a bad thing. It wasn’t the 80s just yet when this album was released, but Jefferson Starship was prepping themselves for it with their updated sound. 8 out of 10 on this one for me.

Mark Herrington: Back in 1979 , this album was my first encounter with the band , not having heard the Grace Slick era , at that time. It sat naturally for me with the Foreigner, Styx and Journey side of my album collection back then.

There is a really good spread of Epic rock songs, standard rockers, ballads and folky tracks here, at logical intervals, creating good listening contrast throughout. Awakening is a thrilling tour de force, Just the Same another great epic, and Jane just rocks.

Mickey Thomas has a fine set of lungs , and I like the style of guitar playing here. I used to prefer all the rockier tracks back then - but over the years the folky stuff grew on me too .

Truth be told , I went on to explore their earlier output , but always preferred this. Overshadowed somewhat by what had come before , and miles better than when they became Starship and produced pop , this stands up as a fine piece of work on its own .

John Davidson: Alongside the classic rock acts (Purple, Zep, Rush, Sabbath, Priest, UFO, Lizzy) and NWOBHM I dabbled in a bit of 'pomp rock' in the late seventies. Early Styx, Magnum, Kansas all got a good old listen, but there was something about the more AOR leaning bands like Journey, REO Speedwagon and Foreigner that never really floated my boat. It didn't help that Jefferson Starship were a legacy band that had transformed several times and in the days of "one album a month" there was no obvious jumping on point for a 16 year old with limited funds (worse still a friend had unwisely invested in the previous album Earth and we all hated it).

If memory serves this album got panned in Sounds when it came out, certainly none of my friends bought it either. I might have borrowed it from the local library but, if i did, I didn't make a tape copy which tells a story in itself.

All that set aside, on listening to the album now it's not bad. Its more eclectic than many of its contemporaries which isn't a bad thing in retrospect, but they were so out of sync with late 70s tastes that it doesn't really surprise me this didn't make a big impact on me.

Listening now, its light, frothy fair with some decent melodies but it has no emotional resonance for me and without that there isn't enough to hold my attention for long.

Jane is the kind of thing I'd play in the car, Things to Come is a decent understudy in the same vein and Awakening appeals to my proggier instincts but after that it all blends in to one. Even Rock Music lacks the zip of similar songs from the likes of Boston. Either a 6 or a 7. 

Philip Qvist : I can't say I'm a huge fan of the music of Jefferson Airplane, while the less said about the disaster that was Starship the better. However, there was something about Jefferson Starship that appealed to me - and considering that during the late 70s and early 80s I was gravitating towards AOR acts like Journey, Toto and Foreigner, it is hardly a surprise.

So what do I think of Freedom At Point Zero ? The highlights are definitely the voice of new recruit Micky Thomas, the drumming of the other new recruit Aynsley Dunbar, the general songwriting and the guitar interplay between band leader Paul Kantner and lead guitarist Craig Chaquico.

Jane is the obvious stand out track (and it is still one of my all time favourite AOR songs); along with the eight minute epic Awakenings , the title track and the Girl With The Hungry Eyes . The other tunes are good but they didn't really stand out for me, although there isn't anything resembling a dud on here either.

If you are a fan of AOR music then this album should be in your collection; although I expect Freedom At Point Zero to be dismissed by many who are not fans of this genre. A 7, possibly an 8, for me.

Final score: 6.57 (90 votes cast, total score 592)

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Freedom At Point Zero

By Al Sperone

Without Grace Slick or Marty Balin, the Jefferson Starship is a hulk of a band, desperately in need of worthwhile material and marching inexorably toward oblivion. Literally marching: the one song that de facto leader (and sole original Jefferson Airplane member) Paul Kantner has been rewriting since Blows against the Empire is a dance-proof march that generally carries laughable, grade-C science-fiction lyrics. On Freedom at Point Zero , this song appears in the guise of the title track, “Girl with the Hungry Eyes,” “Lightning Rose” and “Things to Come.” Only the latter is rendered passable because of its keyboard arrangement. Kantner, as usual, tries to bury his inability to write melodies under some thick group-harmony vocals, with new member Mickey Thomas wailing away at a valiant Grace Slick imitation. But the tunes still sound like warm-ups.

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Yet Kantner’s compositions are at least recognizably his. That’s more than can be said for the characterless heavy-metal cuts by Pete Sears (specialty: predictable dirges) and Craig Chaquico (specialty: riff borrowing — the Allman Brothers’ “Revival” in “Rock Music,” Blue Öyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear the Reaper” in “Just the Same”). Groups as lame as Judas Priest or Journey could manage the music, but they’d probably reject Jeanette Sears’ ohwow lyrics. By default, the LP’s high point is “Jane,” a four-man committee effort that boasts actual syncopation and a few moments of believable tenderness.

Freedom at Point Zero has plenty of impact on first hearing: the production is dense and vigorous, undiluted by conflict or experimentation. Given these songs, however, it’s all wasted energy. After a few listenings, all the arpeggios and sound effects and shouts seem like the pitiful flailings of a band that knows it’s obsolete. The album’s final words are “It’s gonna be all right.” Who is Paul Kantner trying to convince?

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Songs played by tour: Freedom at Point Zero

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Freedom at Point Zero

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Freedom At Point Zero

November 1, 1979 9 Songs, 42 minutes ℗ 1979 Jefferson Starship, Inc., under exclusive license to Rhino Entertainment Company, a Warner Music Group Company.

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Jefferson Airplane Was Relaunched as Jefferson Starship 50 Years Ago

O n March 19, 1974, Paul Kantner and Grace Slick of the influential San Francisco psychedelic band the Jefferson Airplane began a new chapter when they launched a new group called the Jefferson Starship.

The Jefferson Starship emerged out the final lineup of the Jefferson Airplane, and out of a number of side projects Kantner and Slick recorded during the early 1970s.

[Buy Jefferson Starship Concert Tickets]

Joining Kantner and Slick in the original Jefferson Starship incarnation were singer/multi-instrumentalist David Freiberg, guitarist Craig Chaquico, drummer John Barbata, bassist Pete Sears, and electric violinist Papa John Creach.

Freiberg, Barbata, and Creach had been members of the Jefferson Airplane when the group disbanded in 1972.

The name Jefferson Starship was first used as the moniker for the star-studded collective of musicians who accompanied Kantner on his 1970 solo side project Blows Against the Empire . That album also featured a song called “Starship.”

[RELATED: The Marshall Tucker Band and Jefferson Starship Team Up for 2024 Tour]

Various future Jefferson Starship members also contributed to the 1971 Kantner-Slack collaborative album Sunfighter ; the 1973 album Baron von Tollbooth & the Chrome Nun , which was credited to Kantner, Slick, and Freiberg; and Slick’s 1974 solo effort, Manhole .

The Jefferson Starship’s Early Years

Jefferson Starship’s debut album, Dragon Fly , was released in October 1974. The album featured the song “Ride the Tiger,” which became a popular tune on rock radio. Meanwhile, Jefferson Airplane co-founder Marty Balin contributed lyrics and lead vocals to the song “Caroline.”

Dragon Fly peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard 200, and was certified gold by the RIAA for sales of more than 500,000 in the U.S.

Balin, who had quit the Jefferson Airplane in 1971, wound up becoming a member of Jefferson Starship in 1975.

With Balin in the group, Jefferson Starship reached its commercial peak with its second album, Red Octopus , which spent four non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in 1975. It included the No. 3 Billboard Hot 100 hit “Miracles.”

Lineup Changes

Creach left the band in 1975. Prior to the recording of Jefferson Starship’s 1979 album Freedom at Point Zero , Balin, Slick, and Barbata also departed, while singer Mickey Thomas and former Journey drummer Aynsley Dunbar joined the fold. That album featured the hit “Jane.”

By 1981, Slick had rejoined the band. As the 1980s progressed, Kantner became unhappy with the commercial direction of the Jefferson Starship, and he left the group in 1984.

Jefferson Starship Becomes Starship

The band continued on with a reconstituted lineup, and dropped the “Jefferson” from its name, becoming Starship . That band had huge commercial hits in the mid-to-late 1980s with the Hot 100 chart-toppers “We Built This City,” “Sara,” and “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now.”

The Jefferson Starship Returns

After the Jefferson Airplane got back together for a reunion album and tour in 1989, Kantner launched a new version of Jefferson Starship in 1992 that also featured Balin, Creach, and Jefferson Airplane bassist Jack Casady. Creach played with the group until his death in 1994 at age 76.

More lineup changes occurred over the ensuing years, with Freiberg returning to the band in 2005, and Balin exiting for a final time in 2008. Kantner passed away in 2016, and Balin died in 2018, but the Jefferson Starship has continued on. The current lineup features Freiberg, drummer Donny Baldwin, singer Cathy Richarson, keyboardist Chris Smith, and guitarist Jude Gold. The band’s latest album, Mother of the Sun , was released in 2020,

Jefferson Starship’s 2024 Tour Plans

The Jefferson Starship has a bunch of concerts lined up for 2024, including a series of joint shows with The Marshall Tucker Band. You can check out all of the band’s upcoming dates at JeffersonStarship.com .

Tickets for the group’s concerts are available now via various outlets, including StubHub .

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

The post Jefferson Airplane Was Relaunched as Jefferson Starship 50 Years Ago appeared first on American Songwriter .

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Freedom At Point Zero

Jefferson Starship

9 SONGS • 42 MINUTES • NOV 01 1979

• TRACKS TRACKS
• DETAILS DETAILS

Jefferson Starship were among the most successful arena rock bands of the 1970s and early '80s. Guitarist Paul Kantner and singer Grace Slick started the group after the disbandment of Jefferson Airplane, adding former Airplane vocalist Marty Balin not much later. Red Octopus, their second album, established Jefferson Starship as a mainstream rock powerhouse. It topped Billboard's album chart and its smooth single "Miracles" gave the band a number three hit that crossed over to the adult contemporary charts. Many Airplane fans decried the Starship's more mainstream musical direction, especially after Airplane singers Grace Slick and Marty Balin departed in 1978. But with shifting personnel still anchored by Kantner and bassist David Freiberg, the group managed to please its new fans, and some old ones, over a period of a decade before shifting gears into even more overtly pop territory and changing names again to simply Starship. Kantner revived Jefferson Starship in the '90s, bringing Freiberg back into the fold in the mid-2000s, and the bassist kept the band going into the 2020s after the 2016 death of Kantner.

Jefferson Airplane, the seminal San Francisco psychedelic rock band of the '60s noted for its hits "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit," began to fragment in the early '70s. Lead guitarist Jorma Kaukonen and bassist Jack Casady were increasingly preoccupied with their spin-off group Hot Tuna, while the band's other creative axis, rhythm guitarist/singer Paul Kantner and singer Grace Slick became a couple and had their own musical and political interests, while singer Marty Balin, the odd man out, became so disenchanted with the band he himself had formed that he quit Jefferson Airplane at the end of a tour in 1970. Kantner's debut solo album, Blows Against the Empire, featured a long list of musician friends from Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead, and Crosby, Stills & Nash, among others. To pay tribute to this loose-knit studio ensemble and refer to the album's science-fiction theme, Kantner co-billed the album to "Jefferson Starship," even though there was, as yet, no such permanent entity. Nevertheless, the album featured performers who would be members of Jefferson Starship when it was established as a real band, in particular Kantner, Slick, and Quicksilver Messenger Service member David Freiberg.

A year later, in late 1971, Kantner and Slick released a duo album, Sunfighter. One track, "Earth Mother," was written by Jack Traylor, a high school English teacher and friend of Kantner's, and on lead guitar was teenager Craig Chaquico, a student of Traylor's and a member of his band Steelwind. Jefferson Airplane gave what turned out to be its final performance in September 1972, by which time Freiberg had joined the group. The next album from Jefferson Airplane was Baron von Tollbooth & the Chrome Nun, credited to Kantner, Slick, and Freiberg and released in the spring of 1973; the album featured the other members of Jefferson Airplane in subsidiary roles, and Chaquico also appeared. Many of the same musicians appeared on Grace Slick's debut solo album, Manhole, released in early 1974.

When it became apparent that Kaukonen and Casady were not interested in reconvening Jefferson Airplane, Kantner decided to form a permanent touring band without them. The name "Jefferson Airplane" was co-owned by Casady, Kantner, Kaukonen, Slick, and the band's manager, Bill Thompson. Kantner determined to call the revised unit Jefferson Starship. The new band began with the remaining elements of the old one: Kantner on rhythm guitar and vocals; Slick on vocals; Freiberg on vocals and keyboards; Papa John Creach on electric violin, and John Barbata on drums. Chaquico, still a teenager, was the logical choice for lead guitarist. Jorma Kaukonen's brother Peter (who had appeared on Blows Against the Empire, Sunfighter, and Manhole) was brought in on bass. The band began rehearsals in January 1974 and opened its first tour in Chicago on March 19. The tour ran through April, after which the band prepared to go into the studio. Peter Kaukonen did not work out, however, and he was replaced in June by British veteran Pete Sears, who had worked on Manhole.

During the recording sessions in July, Kantner reunited with Marty Balin to write the power ballad "Caroline," which Balin agreed to sing on the album. Kantner and Slick hedged their bets by putting their names on either side of the name "Jefferson Starship" on the cover of the album Dragon Fly when it was released in October 1974. They needn't have worried. Even though the single "Ride the Tiger" petered out at number 84, Dragon Fly just missed the Top Ten and went gold within six months, selling as well as Jefferson Airplane albums generally did. Balin joined the band on-stage at its performance at the Winterland ballroom in San Francisco in November (four years after his final Jefferson Airplane appearance) and agreed to join Jefferson Starship as a permanent member.

With Balin aboard, the eight-member Jefferson Starship went back into the studio in February 1975 to record its second album; Red Octopus turned out to be the best-selling album of the entire Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship/Starship's career, largely due to the presence of Balin's ballad "Miracles," which became a Top Ten hit. (Slick and Sears' "Play on Love" was also a singles chart entry.) The album first hit number one (which no Jefferson Airplane album had ever done) in September, and bounced in and out of the top spot for the next two months. Eventually, it sold over two million copies. (At this point, Creach quietly exited the band.)

Red Octopus set a pattern for the next two Jefferson Starship albums. Balin, whose love songs had dominated the early days of Jefferson Airplane, but who had been shunted aside by the more political and abstract interests of other bandmembers, returned to a major role thanks to the commercial success of "Miracles." Unlike Jefferson Airplane, which valued the individual expression of its members, however bizarre, Jefferson Starship was interested in making commercial music, even if it was written by people outside the band. Spitfire, released in June 1976, was another million-seller, boasting the Balin-sung Top 20 hit "With Your Love." Earth, released in February 1978, also went platinum, spurred on by the Top Ten hit "Count on Me" and its Top 20 follow-up, "Runaway."

The band's commercial success masked increasing personnel problems, however, and those problems came out during their European tour in June 1978, when Slick, suffering from some combination of illness and substance abuse problems, missed shows and gave substandard performances. She left the tour early, and at its conclusion Balin also quit the band. After the remaining members returned home to regroup, Barbata was involved in a serious automobile accident that forced him to drop out. This left remaining members, Kantner, Freiberg, Chaquico, and Sears to figure out what to do next. In January 1979, they brought in veteran rock drummer Aynsley Dunbar to replace Barbata. In April, Mickey Thomas, who possessed the soaring tenor voice behind the Elvin Bishop Group's 1976 hit "Fooled Around and Fell in Love," was drafted in to replace both Slick and Balin. This revamped sextet went into the studio in June 1979, and in October the pointedly titled fifth Jefferson Starship album, Freedom at Point Zero, was released. Critics carped that with Balin and Slick gone and Thomas installed, the band's sound was indistinguishable from that of arena rock stalwarts like Boston, Foreigner, and Journey. But those bands were selling in the millions, despite what the critics thought, and Chaquico even took the comparisons as a compliment. The album spawned a Top 20 hit in "Jane" and, while it did not match the success of its predecessors, reached the Top Ten and went gold, validating the new version of the band, at least in commercial terms.

Kantner addressed the criticisms on the next Jefferson Starship album, Modern Times, released in the spring of 1981 with a song called "Stairway to Cleveland (We Do What We Want)." The album, a gold-selling Top 40 hit featuring a Top 40 single in "Find Your Way Back," was also notable for background vocals by Slick (and a duet with Thomas on "Stranger"). Slick, having overcome her personal problems, had launched a full-fledged solo career, issuing albums in 1980 and early 1981. But when Jefferson Starship toured in the summer, she went along, and was soon back as a full-fledged bandmember.

In September 1982, Aynsley Dunbar left Jefferson Starship and was replaced by Donny Baldwin, another former member of the Elvin Bishop Group. The band's next album, Winds of Change, was released the following month. It sported two Top 40 hits, "Be My Lady" and the title song, and it eventually reached gold-record status. Nuclear Furniture, released in May 1984, enjoyed comparable success, spawning the Top 40 hit "No Way Out." By this point, however, Kantner was no longer willing to defend the band's arena rock tendencies. Feeling that he had lost control of the group, he determined to leave it, playing his last show on June 23 before quitting. He also felt, however, that the band should dissolve without him, and when the other members disagreed, he sued over money and the rights to the name Jefferson Starship in October 1984.

Kantner's suit was settled in March 1985 with a cash payment and the compromise that Jefferson Starship, a name to be owned 51% by Slick and 49% by manager Bill Thompson, would be retired in favor of Starship. Starship went on to considerable commercial success in the second half of the '80s before splitting up in the early '90s. Kantner went on to form the K.B.C. Band, featuring Marty Balin and Jack Casady, which made one self-titled album in 1986, and participate in a one-off reunion of Jefferson Airplane in 1989. In 1992, he organized a new band with which he toured under the name Jefferson Starship. (He sometimes billed it as "Jefferson Starship: The Next Generation.") He did not have the legal right to do this, but neither Slick nor Thompson took action to stop him. In fact, Slick, though she had declared herself retired after the Jefferson Airplane reunion, made occasional appearances with Kantner's band. Marty Balin, Jack Casady, Papa John Creach, and even original Jefferson Airplane female singer Signe Anderson also performed in it at various times. As of the 1995 live album Deep Space/Virgin Sky, the band's lineup included Kantner, Balin, and Casady, plus Darby Gould (formerly of World Entertainment War) on vocals, lead guitarist Slick Aguilar and keyboardist Tim Gorman (both of the K.B.C. Band), and Prairie Prince (from the Tubes) on drums, with Grace Slick as guest vocalist. As of 1999's studio album Windows of Heaven, vocalist Diana Mangano and keyboardist T. Lavitz of the Dixie Dregs had joined. The two-CD live album Across the Sea of Suns, issued in 2001, featured Kantner, Balin, Mangano, Aguilar, Prince, and keyboardist Chris Smith. On January 28, 2016, Kantner died of multiple organ failure in San Francisco at the age of 74 (the same day, and at the same age, that original Airplane singer Anderson died at her home in Beaverton, Oregon). On September 27, 2018, Marty Balin died in Tampa, Florida at the age of 76.

Two years after Balin's death, guitarist David Freiberg assembled a new version of Jefferson Starship -- one fronted by lead singer Cathy Richardson -- to record Mother of the Sun, an EP that appeared in August 2020. Mother of the Sun featured "It's About Time," which was co-written by Grace Slick. ~ William Ruhlmann

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Soviet Tour in Moscow

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Description

Highlights:.

• Explore a massive Soviet Park VDNKh (or VVC);
• Experience this special feeling of the good old Soviet times & dark and gloomy Cold War era;
• Get to the highest spot in Moscow city and one of the deepest metro in the world;
• Find out the rough truth about the insane 900-day siege of Leningrad (present St Petersburg);
• Take in the Triumphal Arch;
• Capture an extraordinary sculpture-memorial to the Holocaust;
• Join a guided Bunker-42, Cold War Museum tour (optional, not included in the price).
• See a harmony trio: an orthodox church, a synagogue and a mosque all in one park.

Tour Itinerary

With the 1000-year history, Russia has had a rich portfolio of conflicts, battles, wars. On this Soviet tour, we'll talk about various wars that happened in Russia, focusing on WWII.

Mother Russia has undergone a lot in its long life. Since ancient times, Russian rulers have taken nearly all political power into their own hands. By the beginning of the 20th century, the Russian oppositional movement was deadly set for the total destruction of the ever-lasting tsarist regime. All of Russia got involved in the bloody revolution of 1917 in an effort to abolish the current state of the government and gain freedom for the ordinary people.

You will learn about the every-day life of the Soviet people during the bloody Second World War with the Nazis, including the legendary Battle for Moscow, the 900-day siege of Leningrad, the hardships that local citizens went through, the consequences of the war and the scars it left on the Soviet people, as well as why the Cold War happened and what was the fundamental reason.

Our mission on the Soviet Russia tour is to find out

• - How much this 1917 revolution cost the people;
• - Whether they actually got the freedom they wanted and was it worth it;
• - What happened over the next 74 years;
• - Who were the main political communist leaders of the Soviet Union;
• - Were Russians happy and satisfied with the Soviet Union?

Our tour itinerary will lie in most Soviet areas of Moscow, which are quite spread throughout the city, as very few of them are left. You can choose how much you are ready to live this Soviet life on a 5, 7 or 10-hour tour. Depending on the duration of the tour, you will see part or all of the places below:

If you want to extend the tour, you are welcome to do so by paying $20/extra hour in cash on the tour.

Time stands still in Red Square. The Red Square is the heart of Moscow (and whole Russia). Saint Basil's Cathedral will make your mouth drop. If it is from May-October, have a cocktail on the outside terrace and simply people watch! The massive square offers so much to enjoy.

Lenin's Mausoleum

The burial place of one of the most influential communist leaders in the world.

Revolution Square Metro Station

Rub the Soviet dog's nose for good luck and admire the 76 bronze sculptures, devoted to the passionate, strong-willed and patriotic Soviet people.

Poklonnaya Hill

The highest point in Moscow, where Napoleon waited for keys of the city.

All-Russian Exhibition Center (VVC)

With its giant arch, amazing fountain, and huge pavilions of different Soviet Republics.

Victory Park Metro Station

The deepest undeground station in Moscow and one of the deepest in the world.

Victory Park

For an open-air museum as big as 135 ha (1 350 000 square meters), Victory park sure doens't lack diversity. The park is dedicated to the Russian victory in WWII, and was laid out in 1995 in commemoration of 50-year anniversary of victory.

Stalin had planned for its construction already in 1941, being sure of victory from the very start of the war.

Greeting Hill

The highest points in Moscow (172 meters), where Napoleon waited for keys of Moscow in vain.

Triumphal Arch

Stunning monument consisting of 12 cast-iron columns, each 12 meters high, and weighing 16 tons. Built to mark Russia's victory over Napoleon in 1812.

Museum of the Great Patriotic War

In the city that is as much about wars as it is about victories, there is one essential stopover - the Museum of the Great Patriotic War (that's what WWII is called in Russia). Must-do for those wishing to understand Russia's past and look at the whole war from the different perspective - Russian.

The museum is not for the faint-hearted. Here you can see films about the partisan experience, the scenes that will haunt you forever (no subtitles, but they are not necessary).

Museum of Contemporary History (from outside only)

We'll have a glance at Russian life of the XX century in the  Museum of Contemporary History , which houses bits of everything from Russian history of XXth century: from English club to a storage of Stalin's presents.

Memorial to the Holocaust,

devastating and breath-taking!

Unleash your inner spy. Highly recommended  Bunker-42 ,  Cold War Museum , explore the place where Khrushchev lived during the Cuban Crisis. Go down 18 floors to a gigantic bunker under Moscow that was designed to withstand a nuclear attack. Watch a short film about the severity of the Cold War. If you lived through the Cold War, you will hardly believe it is possible that you are in Bunker 42!

Wander through  Sparrow Hills  and climb up to the highest observation deck of Moscow with stunning views of all seven Stalin’s skyscrapers, including  Moscow State University . After that, experience the excitement of taking a  river cruise  on the Moscow river and catch the views of the Kremlin and Soviet times.​

What you get:

• + A friend in Moscow.
• + Private & customized Moscow tour.
• + An exciting tour, not just boring history lessons.
• + An authentic experience of local life.
• + Flexibility during the tour: changes can be made at any time to suit individual preferences.
• + Amazing deals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner in the very best cafes & restaurants. Discounts on weekdays (Mon-Fri).
• + A photo session amongst spectacular Moscow scenery that can be treasured for a lifetime.
• + Good value for souvenirs, taxis, and hotels.
• + Expert advice on what to do, where to go, and how to make the most of your time in Moscow.

*This WW2 and Cold War tour can be modified to meet your preferences.

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A History of Moscow in 13 Dishes

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