Song of the Day 12/29: Jefferson Airplane, “Volunteers”
Some political scientists say the U.S. meets all the conditions for a country on the brink of a revolution. Much as I’d like to believe it, I’ve heard all that before. The last time the country was on the brink of a revolution was 50 years ago, when the peace movement realized that love was, in fact, not all you need, and that stronger measures would be needed. That scared middle America so badly that the backlash to the ’60s is still going on — modern “conservatism” and Trump are the logical end-product of the counter-revolution the hippies unleashed. But in 1969, after the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy the year before, the future of the country was still in doubt, leading the Airplane to debut this call to arms at the Woodstock Festival, six months prior to its release on the “Volunteers” LP in December 1969.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzHBr0ndKus
Cool song, all two chords of it.
Double the number George Thorogood needed.
The live Woodstock album includes Grace Slick’s introduction as the Airplane come on.
“Alright friends, you have seen the heavy groups. Now you will see morning maniac music. Believe me. Yeah, it’s a new dawn.”
A new dawn…. Like an Aurora. A Delaware Aurora. Hmm. That’s interesting.