The group was the first from the Bay Area to get a national record contract and achieve mainstream success, thanks to the classics “Somebody to Love” and “White Rabbit”.
Advertisement
It was prophetic. With the breakup of the Jefferson Airplane in the early 1970s, Kantner began exploring his pet themes on a solo album, “Blows Against the Empire“, which had a sci-fi mini-epic on one side, and in the albums he recorded with Jefferson Starship, notably “Freedom at Point Zero” and “Modern Times”.
After Jefferson Airplane broke up, Kantner and Slick regrouped and formed Jefferson Starship in 1974. Kantner and Slick were a couple for several years.
Jefferson Airplane guitarist Paul Kantner has died from a combination of septic shock and organ failure.
“Our condolences go out to the friends, family and fans of Paul Kantner of Jefferson Airplane on the news of his passing”, the surviving Doors members wrote on their Facebook page. The academy, which oversees the Grammy awards, announced earlier in January that Jefferson Airplane would receive an honourary Grammy for lifetime achievement. With their sound softened and Balin returned in 1975, the band had hit singles with “Miracles” and “Count On Me” and a No. 1 album, Red Octopus.
By the mid-1980s, Mr. Kantner thought the music so “mundane” that he left the Jefferson Starship and successfully forced the remaining members not to use the name “Jefferson”.
Born Paul Lorin Kantner in San Francisco in 1941. He dropped out of college to pursue a career in folk music and became friendly with Crosby and future Starship member David Freiberg, spending days and nights on the beach, strumming guitars and indulging in Crosby’s premium stash of marijuana.
With Balin, Kantner wrote four songs for “Jefferson Airplane Takes Off”, the group’s first album: “Come Up the Years”, “Run Around”, “Bringing Me Down” and “Let Me In”, all in a pop-folk vein. He had three children; sons Gareth (film producer) and Alexander (musician), and daughter China (actress). It featured such anthems as “Somebody to Love” and “White Rabbit” and became one of the de facto soundtracks to the Summer of Love in 1967. (The correct number is closer to 47).
Advertisement
“Which, needless to say, it was”, he liked to add.
