the best songs ever

[gabrielle]

(07-03-2016, 07:49 AM)Eric the Green Wrote: Next in my best songs picks, I choose Jefferson Airplane and the original Jefferson Starship with two songs by the late, great Paul Kantner. These would probably repel the anti-boomer right-wingers here, but what I like about these two songs are the melodies, rhythm, instrumentation, collective energy, uplifting feeling and exquisite vocals by Paul and Grace Slick. But it was also one of the first "supergroups" that included Crosby and Nash and others. The original version of Let's Go Together in 1970 referred to "wherever I go, I see you people" meaning his fellow left-wing hippies. 
https://youtu.be/53WPcHogkRk?t=8m16s
"Whatever you do, I want to do." The message of these two songs was, however, to do more than "stand around" but to make the dreams real, to get together to do something great for the world and keep the hopes of the love-ins alive. "Wave Goodbye to Amerika, say hello to The Garden."

Jefferson Starship went on to greater success, but not greater artistic achievement, than Jefferson Airplane, with lots of personnel changes from the original. Blows Against the Empire was one of the first concept albums. Here's a description from the video:

Review by William Ruhlmann [-] Allmusic

Paul Kantner's debut solo album actually was credited to Paul Kantner/Jefferson Starship, the first use of the Starship billing, predating the formation of the group with that name by four years. Kantner used it, extrapolating on the name of his current band, Jefferson Airplane, to refer to Blows's science fiction concept: A bunch of left-wing hippies closely resembling his San Francisco Bay Area compatriots hijack a government-built starship and head off to re-start the human race on another planet. Kantner had presaged this post-apocalyptic colonization idea on Wooden Ships on the last Airplane album, Volunteers, and here he expanded it out to album length with the help of members of The Airplane, the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and Crosby, Stills and Nash, plus assorted others, a shifting supergroup informally known as PERRO, The Planet Earth Rock And Roll Orchestra. (Kantner later would borrow that name for a subsequent solo album.) Blows actually was a little loose as concept albums go, seeming as concerned with the arrival of Kantner and Grace Slick's baby as with the departure of the starship. Kantner employed often dense instrumentation and complex arrangements, but there were enough hooks and harmonies to keep things interesting. Blows eventually went gold, and it was even nominated for a science fiction award usually reserved for novels.

Also released was a version that referred to Poo instead of "you people," to give it an appeal beyond hippie core boomers.





Let's Go Together was a follow up to "We Can Be Together," the revolutionary apologia and musical incendiary opening song from Volunteers (of America) by Jefferson Airplane (1969), which they performed at many rock festival be-ins, and included the now-censored slogan "up against the wall, motherfucker." It has similar melodic/rhythmic construction and cool harmonies to the follow up.

What about the right wing boomers?  And the left wing anti-boomers?  I know a number of these in both categories, IRL (the latter group being mostly Millennials).  

BTW, I like Jefferson Airplane.  Jefferson Starship not as much, but I'm mostly just familiar with their crappy 80s songs.  Aerosmith, Rush and Queen had a number of good songs, but I can't really think of a single Kiss song that I like, so I agree with you there.  Though I can see how they might have been an entertaining live performance.  Grunge was awesome!  I guess it was one of those things where you had to live it to know it.