BLOWS AGAINST EMPIRE

Liner Note Author: Jud Cost. Recording information: The Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA (09/14/1970); Wally Heider Recording Studio, Hollywood, CA (09/14/1970); The Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA (1970); Wally Heider Recording Studio, Hollywood, CA (1970). Photographer: Robert Altman. Jefferson Airplane guitarist Paul Kantner's first solo album is also credited to Jefferson Starship. Though the Jefferson Airplane was still active and popular in 1971, Kanter presaged the band's transformation into the Starship by four years. Members of the Airplane do appear, but the group here is more a loose aggregate of friends including David Crosby and Graham Nash, members of the Grateful Dead and Quicksilver Messenger Service, and assorted others. A sci-fi fan, Kantner had the idea of constructing an album around the idea of a group of radicals hijacking a spaceship and taking off to colonize the galaxy. Though the concept is fleshed out only loosely, the album was a success critically and commercially. Highlights include the slower acoustic melodies such as "A Child Is Coming" and "Have You Seen The Stars Tonite." Musically interesting and noteworthy for the collaborative energy from some of the San Francisco scene's leading musical lights, BLOW AGAINST THE EMPIRE is an intriguing, overlooked early-'70s treasure.