Yeah I've been listening to heaps of Jefferson Airplane (and Jefferson Starship, and Starship) lately and revisiting a lot of their stuff. My earliest memory is seeing that famous Smothers Brothers performance of Grace Slick doing 'White Rabbit' on a NZ tv show called Shazam in the mid-80s, curiously at the same time she was enjoying renewed chart success with 'We Built This City' (I actually enjoy the Starship stuff!).
One thing I noticed though, every now and then you will hear out-of-tune vocals on the Jefferson Airplane recordings, and they're not coming from Grace Slick, nor Marty Balin (he's a great vocalist) - the elephant in the room is Paul Kantner. And all the way-out groovy solos are played by Jorma. Paul is usually seen just plugging away playing very basic chords and not with the fire that you hear going on in the song. It mystifies me how he actually played such a pivotal role in the group as he is no doubt the most recognisable figure next to Grace.
Y'know what I mean? Take a heavy-rockin' song like 'Somebody to Love' - the band are playing hard-out right? Yet you see Paul, not even playing power chords, just gently strumming his Rickenbacker and barely in time with the prevailing music. Somehow though he made it all work.
Anyway, here's the White Rabbit clip - mastered beautifully here!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9zO1tVnLl0
