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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/blows_against_the_empire_9748.jpg]]
2[[caption-width-right:350:''Wave goodbye to Amerika. Say hello to the garden''.]]
3
4->''What you gonna do when you see your lady rolling?\
5How you gonna feel when you see your lady strolling\
6On the deck of a starship with her head hooked into Andromeda?''
7--> -- "Starship", Paul Kantner, Grace Slick, Marty Balin, Gary Blackman
8
9''Blows Against The Empire'' is the debut studio album by [[Music/JeffersonAirplane Paul Kantner]], released in 1970. A sci-fi concept album, it was released as his band Music/JeffersonAirplane began its downward spiral. The album was described as being by "Paul Kantner and Jefferson Starship", but this was before the official formation of the band known as Music/JeffersonStarship, and the album featured various friends of Kantner's, including Jerry Garcia of Music/TheGratefulDead, David Crosby of Music/TheByrds, Graham Nash of Music/TheHollies, and, of course, several former members of Jefferson Airplane, including Grace Slick who wrote or co-wrote several of the songs on the album.
10
11The album was very loosely based on the novel ''Literature/MethuselahsChildren'' by Creator/RobertAHeinlein. It tells the story of a rag-tag band of hippies, free-thinkers, and radicals who, frustrated with an increasingly oppressive America, decide to hijack the first-ever starship, which is just being completed, and set off to create their own utopia in the sky. The protagonist, a musician and rebel, whose wife is pregnant with her first child, decides to join the hijackers rather than raise his child in an increasingly dystopian world.
12
13It was nominated for a UsefulNotes/HugoAward for Best Dramatic Presentation, a category normally used for movies. Probably due to the influence of the controversial NewWaveScienceFiction movement, it came in second to "No Award", beating every other entry, but still not receiving the award.
14
15----
16!! Tracklist:
17
18[[AC: Side One]]
19
20# "Mau Mau (Amerikon)" (6:33)
21# "The Baby Tree" (1:42)
22# "Let's Go Together" (4:11)
23# "A Child Is Coming" (6:15)
24
25[[AC: Side Two]]
26
27# "Sunrise" (1:54)
28# "Hijack" (8:18)
29# "Home" (0:37)
30# "Have You Seen The Stars Tonite?" (3:42)
31# "XM" (1:22)
32# "Starship" (7:07)
33
34----
35!! Bonus Tracks (CD Remaster):
36
37# "Let's Go Together (Alternate Version)"
38# "Sunrise (Demo)"
39# "Hijack (Demo)"
40# "SFX"
41# "Starship (Live)"
42# "Radio Spots"
43
44----
45!!Tropes against the empire:
46
47* {{Arcology}}: The GenerationShip which the protagonists hijack is an arcology:
48--> ''Hydroponic gardens and forests\
49Glistening with lakes in the Jupiter starlight.''
50* TheCaper: The protagonists' plan: steal Earth's first starship for themselves.
51* ConceptAlbum: One of the earliest, and one of the first to be based on a specific novel.
52* FreeLoveFuture: One of the things the protagonists are seeking as they set of with their freshly-stolen starship.
53* GenerationShip: A [[RagtagBunchOfMisfits Ragtag Bunch of Hippies]] hijack a generation ship and set off for the stars.
54* LaResistance: The hijackers have been members of America's ''La Résistance'' for decades before deciding on a new plan.
55* LyricalColdOpen: "Sunrise", written entirely by Grace Slick, opens with her singing the title before any instruments join in.
56* NewWaveScienceFiction: Although it was loosely based on a classic SF novel, the protagonists were replaced by a rag-tag band of hippies in search of free love and free music, and the musical experimentation on the album, especially the section where the Generation Ship launches, made it a favourite among New Wave SF fans.
57* OneWordTitle: "Sunrise", "Hijack", "Home", "XM", "Starship".
58* OppressiveStatesOfAmerica: The increasingly oppressive and fascistic government of the US, which has outright declared rock-and-roll illegal, inspires a rag-tag band of hippies to hijack a starship.
59* ProtestSong: The album's opener, "Mau Mau", is a classic anti-war protest song of the sort the Jefferson Airplane had done several times previously.
60* PsychedelicRock: The entire album is a psychedelic epic, filled with drug references and the like. The song "XM", in particular, is an experimental piece designed to represent the launching of the great starship.
61* QuestioningTitle: "Have You Seen The Stars Tonite?"
62* RockOpera: One of the earliest, released only a year after ''Music/{{Tommy}}''.
63* {{Sampling}}: During the hijack scene, an audio clip from Creator/GeorgePal's ''Film/TheWarOfTheWorlds1953'' is used.
64* TakeAThirdOption: Faced with continuing a seemingly never-ending battle against an increasingly oppressive American government, or surrendering and giving up their ideals and dreams, the protagonists decide instead to hijack the first-ever starship and set off for themselves.
65* WarIsHell: "Mau Mau (Amerikon)"
66--> ''You unleash the dogs''
67--> ''Of a grade-B movie star governor's war''
68--> ''While you sit in the dark''
69--> ''Insane with the fear of dying''
70

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