Jefferson Airplane - Polo Field, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA, 9-30-1989
Paul says: Jefferson Airplane is reknowned for the great music they did in the 1960s and early 1970s. But the band also got back with all the key members for a reunion album and tour in 1989. That's pretty much been forgotten because the album (cleverly titled "Jefferson Airplane") was pretty bad. But the same couldn't be said of the tour, since they mostly played their older classics. It turns out there's a recording of the very last concert the band ever played together. Unfortunately, it was merely a good audience bootleg. But I did a lot of work on it. Now, it sounds close to soundboard-level quality, in my opinion.
The key five members of Jefferson Airplane were Grace Slick, Paul Kantner, Marty Balin, Jack Casady, and Jorma Kaukonen. After the band broke up around 1972, they continued to play in various combinations. Slick, Kantner, and sometimes Balin played in Jefferson Starship, then later just Starship, for most of the 1970s and 80s. Meanwhile, Casady and Kaukonen spent most of their time at Hot Tuna. But there were exceptions. For instance, in 1986, Kantner, Balin, and Casady joined forces as the KBC Band and put out an album with that same name.
By the mid-1980s, Slick was the only original Jefferson Airplane member in Starship. That band had big commercial success, with the song "We Built This City" reaching Number One on the U.S. singles chart in 1986, and then "Nothing's Going to Stop Us Now" also reaching Number One in 1987. But the songs were critically panned, with "We Built This City" in particular sometimes appearing on worst songs of all time lists. Slick decided she wanted out, and left Starship in 1988. (It continued with other band members, led by lead vocalist Mickey Thomas.)
Slick actually decided to leave the music business altogether. She later stated, "All rock-and-rollers over the age of 50 look stupid and should retire." But before quitting, she agreed to one last album and tour with the original Jefferson Airplane. This concert pretty much was the end of her music career. She only made occasional brief appearances in concerts after this. For instance, she sang with a revived Jefferson Starship (now led by Kantner) for a few songs for a 1995 concert, and then again for a 2001 concert. But that was about it. So kudos to her for sticking to her principles.
Interestingly, this concert completely skipped all the Starship hits, and only played one Jefferson Starship hit, "Miracles." All the other songs were from the 1960s or early 1970s or the band's 1989 reunion album.
This final concert came about due to a benefit project led by Paul Kantner. The idea was to have a free concert at Golden Gate Park. But everyone who attended was supposed to bring a can of food to give to the San Francisco Food Bank. About 60,000 people attended, and donated about 45,000 pounds of food.
Here's what a newspaper review said about the concert at the time: "Jefferson Airplane rocked the Polo Field, their sound ringing through the massive infield, bouncing off eucalyptus and cypress trees and echoing deep into the woods. The crowd was a jumble of aging hippies and second-generation tie-dye teenagers, smiling cops and mellow Hells Angels, babies, dogs and old-fashioned Park winos." I believe the only opening act was Hot Tuna. But I don't have that recording.
Here's an interesting article about the concert from a local newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, at the time. The quote above comes from it:
To improve the sound quality, I edited every single song. I ran the songs through the MVSEP program once to get rid of crowd noise during the songs (but keeping the cheering at the ends). I then ran all the songs through that program again to boost the lead vocals relative to the instrumental portions. Then I ran the songs a third time to reduce the reverb. The original version sounded decent, but I think this sounds a lot better.
This album is two hours and 18 minutes long.
01 talk by Bill Graham
02 She Has Funny Cars
03 Somebody to Love
04 talk
05 Plastic Fantastic Lover
06 talk
07 Won't You Try - Saturday Afternoon
08 talk
09 Today
10 talk
11 Good Shepherd
12 talk
13 Lather
14 talk
15 Solidarity
16 Wooden Ships
17 talk
18 America
19 Freedom
20 talk
21 Third Week in the Chelsea
22 talk
23 Panda Song
24 Miracles
25 The Wheel
26 talk
27 Ice Age
28 talk
29 Summer of Love
30 talk
31 True Love
32 Planes
33 White Rabbit
34 Volunteers
35 talk
36 It's No Secret
37 Rock Me Baby
38 Crown of Creation
39 3-5ths of a Mile in Ten Seconds
40 talk by Bill Graham
(all tracks Jefferson Airplane)
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