Jefferson Airplane Takes Off

Studio album by Jefferson Airplane

Released

August 15, 1966

Recorded

December 18, 1965 – March 31, 1966

Studio

RCA Victor's Music Center of the World, Hollywood, CA, USA

Genre

Folk rock

Length

29:19

Label

RCA Victor

Producer

Matthew Katz and Tommy Oliver

Jefferson Airplane chronology

Jefferson Airplane Takes Off
(1966)

Surrealistic Pillow
(1967)

Singles from Jefferson Airplane Takes Off

"It's No Secret" b/w "Runnin' Round This World"
Released: February 1966
"Come Up the Years" / "Blues from an Airplane"
Released: May 1966
"Bringing Me Down" / "Let Me In"
Released: August 1966

Professional ratings
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Allmusic

Jefferson Airplane Takes Off is the debut album of American rock band Jefferson Airplane, released in August 1966 as RCA Victor LSP-3584 (stereo) & LPM-3584 (mono). The personnel differs from the later "classic" lineup, Signe Toly Anderson was the vocalist and Skip Spence played drums. Both left the group shortly after the album's release and were replaced by Grace Slick and Spencer Dryden, respectively.

RCA executives found some of the lyrics too sexually suggestive. They had the band change the lyrics in "Let Me In" from "I gotta get in, you know where" to "You shut your door, now it ain't fair", and "Don't tell me you want money" to "Don't tell me it's so funny". In "Run Around" they had the line "Blinded by colors come flashing from flowers that sway as you lay under me" altered to "that sway as you stay here by me". With "Runnin' 'Round This World" the executives insisted that "trips" in the line "The nights I've spent with you have been fantastic trips" referred to taking LSD, though the band insisted it was merely common slang. Even replacing the word "trips" with a guitar apreggio did not placate RCA's concerns with the line's sexual connotations and refused its inclusion on the album, and the recording remained unreleased for the next eight years.

The album's release drew little press attention at a time when mainstream newspapers did not normally cover rock releases and the rock press was yet in its infancy. Crawdaddy! highlighted the album on the cover of its January 1967 issue, which included a three-page review by the magazine's assistant editor Tim Jurgens, who called the album "faulted" yet "the most important album of American rock" of 1966.

All lead vocals by Balin except where noted.

Album

Works cited

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Wikipedia