21 Facts About Jefferson Airplane

Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band based in San Francisco, California, that became one of the pioneering bands of psychedelic rock.

October 1966 to February 1970 lineup of Jefferson Airplane, consisting of Marty Balin, Paul Kantner (guitar, vocals), Grace Slick, Jorma Kaukonen (lead guitar, vocals), Jack Casady (bass), and Spencer Dryden (drums), was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.

Slick, Kantner, and the remaining members of Jefferson Airplane recruited new members and regrouped as Jefferson Starship in 1974, with Marty Balin eventually joining them.

Jefferson Airplane was presented with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016.

In November 1965, Jefferson Airplane signed a recording contract with RCA Victor, which included a then unheard-of advance of US$25, 000.

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On December 10, 1965, the Jefferson Airplane played at the first Bill Graham-promoted show at the Fillmore Auditorium, supported by the Great Society and others.

The Jefferson Airplane appeared at numerous Family Dog shows promoted by Chet Helms at the Avalon Ballroom.

In December 1966, Jefferson Airplane was featured in a Newsweek article about the booming San Francisco music scene, one of the first in a welter of similar media reports that prompted a massive influx of young people to the city and contributed to the commercialization of the hippie culture.

Grace Slick biographer Barbara Rowes called the album "a declaration of independence from the establishment [-] What Jefferson Airplane originated was a romanticism for the electronic age.

Unlike the highly homogenized harmonies of the Beach Boys, Jefferson Airplane never strived for a synthesis of its divergent sensibilities.

Jefferson Airplane benefited greatly from appearances on national network TV shows such as The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on NBC and The Ed Sullivan Show on CBS.

Key influences on the group's new direction were the popularity and success of Jimi Hendrix and the British supergroup Cream, which prompted the Jefferson Airplane to adopt a "heavier" sound and to place a greater emphasis on improvisation.

Jefferson Airplane's fourth LP, Crown of Creation, was a commercial success, peaking at No 6 on the album chart and receiving a gold certification.

Hot Tuna began during a break in Jefferson Airplane's touring schedule in early 1969 while Grace Slick recovered from throat node surgery that left her unable to perform.

The album continued the Jefferson Airplane's run of Top 20 LPs, peaking at No 13 and attaining a RIAA gold certification early in 1970.

In December 1969, the Jefferson Airplane played at the Altamont Free Concert at Altamont Speedway in California.

Jefferson Airplane felt burned out by four years on the "acid merry-go-round" and was deeply disillusioned by the events of Altamont, which, he later recalled, "did not look like a bunch of happy hippies in streaming colors.

Jefferson Airplane ended 1970 with their traditional Thanksgiving Day engagement at the Fillmore East and the release of their first compilation album, The Worst of Jefferson Airplane, which continued their unbroken run of post-1967 chart success, reaching No 12 on the Billboard album chart.

Manager Bill Thompson had struck a deal with RCA to allow Jefferson Airplane to run Grunt Records as they saw fit while retaining RCA's distribution.

The single "Pretty As You Feel", excerpted from a longer jam with members of Santana and featuring lead vocals by Joey Covington, its principal composer, was the last Jefferson Airplane chart hit, peaking at No 60 in Billboard and No 35 in Cashbox.

Jefferson Airplane held together long enough to record one more album, entitled Long John Silver, begun in April 1972 and released in July.