Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship/Starship

I was wondering why Jefferson Starship/Starship are squished together with Jefferson Airplane in one page. In my opinion, I think the three bands deserve their own individual pages as they are each notable for their own achievements. Though Starship is a successor to Jefferson Starship, which itself is a successor to Jefferson Airplane, they are musically (and in terms of members) different enough to warrant their own pages.

Currently, most of the page consists of information on each incarnation, and not nearly enough tropes to balance it out.

Aren't they all the same band who underwent two different name changes?

To say that would be a bit of a stretch. They are essentially different bands in their own right, spiritual successors. Like The Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin, though they certainly have separate pages. Hell, by the time Starship came along, all the founding members of Jefferson Airplane had left (Grace Slick wasn't a founding member, though she was the only member of Starship to have been in any incarnation of Airplane - aside from David Freiberg, though he left Starship before they recorded their first album).

Right now, If you search up Jefferson Starship or Starship, it automatically redirects to Jefferson Airplane. If people around here are alright with it, I could change that so those two bands get their own pages. I don't know who decided to do this and when, but it's certainly a flawed system.

I agree with this completely- not only were the personnel different for each band (and, indeed, smaller lineup changes even occurred within each one, but the biggest switchups were the transitions from one to the next), but the music was pretty radically different as well- JA specialized in Folk-and-Blues-influenced Psychedelic Rock, JS were a bit more Arena Rock and Starship were Soft Rock with some Arena Rock elements in the mix...

It was all enjoyable, but my favorite is still Jefferson Airplane. Surrealistic Pillow (of course), After Bathing At Baxter's (their best, IMO, but not according to most people), and Crown Of Creation are my favorite albums by the band, but they're all pretty great.

I’d throw Volunteers in there as well, and there you have JA’s essential quartet of albums. Takes Off is Early-Installment Weirdness; for a band that was the “leading light of the San Francisco underground,” they sounded awfully commercial/poppy at this stage, more The Mamas and the Papas than anything dangerous and revolutionary (and I kind of wanted to hear early singer Signe Anderson more, it’s mostly Marty Balin’s show).

The early JS albums were actually pretty good, though definitely in a different style than earlier albums. Dragon Fly had a very sophisticated modern rock sound with some progressive influences. Red Octopus and Spitfire followed suit, but with more of a commercial pop/rock bent obviously influenced by the contemporaneous success of Fleetwood Mac. Earth was pretty cringeworthy, though, and I’ll be kind and not even mention anything with M_____ T_____ on it.

I've separated Jefferson Starship/Starship from the Jefferson Airplane page and created their own pages, as seen here: Jefferson Starship, Starship

Some extra tropes for each would be nice as well. As for Jefferson Airplane albums, I quite like their first two albums and Crown Of Creation the most. I created a page for Jefferson Airplane Takes Off and Surrealistic Pillow not long ago, and while the former is indeed Early-Installment Weirdness, it's not by much. One listen and you can easily tell it's the same band. The first track is brilliant as well, quite dark.

Actually, I agree- Volunteers is quite good, I simply haven't listened to it as much as the others. Hence not mentioning it. I really like Takes Off, but it is different, for sure- it's Folk Rock with some Psychedelic Rock influences rather than the other way around. I find that the remaster, which includes some extended versions of a few songs and such, is superior to the original- they cut a lot of it out for the original release...

The first few JS albums are pretty solid, I'll admit. It's a good take on that sound, for sure.

Excellent. And I'd say the seeds of greatness are already very much present on Takes Off, absolutely. But Surrealistic Pillow is where they completely achieved it, IMO.

It'd be great if somebody added After Bathing At Baxter's and Red Octopus. Both essential albums to add, but unfortunately I'm not familiar enough with them.

Seconding the above, for sure- I can't not. Red Octopus is the best JS album, IMO, and After Bathing... is my favorite JA record and, as far as I'm concerned, their Magnum Opus.

Crown of Creation has just been added. Still waiting for someone to "Volunteer" on creating the After Bathing At Baxter's page...

edited 11th Feb '15 5:09:07 AM by bluesno1fann

I might do it if no-one else does...

I just wonder if there's a tribute band named for John Adams.

It'd be funny if there was lol. In the case of the Airplane/Starship though, the "Jefferson" comes from Blind Lemon Jefferson.

I just wanted to mention that I love Surrealistic Pillow.

I once had a book called Legends of Rock that was published by VH 1 Classic that treated all 3 of them as the same band, especially when listing notable songs by all three of them.

Which is a bit hilarious. Try to find any common ground between “White Rabbit,” “Miracles” and “We Built This City,” the biggest hits by each act.

That's a slightly unfair comparison, though. The JS's "Miracles" wasn't that dissimilar to other songs Marty did with JA. And "White Rabbit" was Grace being Grace. Which she continued to be even after the band changed names.

Now Starship was pretty different, especially from JA. But I can name other bands which didn't change their name but which still changed more than JA did when they morphed into JS.

(Even though my true loyalty is to Jorma, who was never really part of JS. And why don't we have a Hot Tuna page?)

Just wondering, what would those bands be?

Drifting off-topic, but Journey started as a jazz-rock group! :D

(To keep this vaguely on-topic: the drummer on their first four albums, Aynsley Dunbar, formerly of Frank Zappa, left when they changed musical direction, and joined...Jefferson Starship!)