|
''Bark'' is the sixth studio album by Jefferson Airplane. Released in 1971 as Grunt FTR-1001, the album is one of the Airplane's late-period works, notable for the group's first personnel changes. The album was the first without band founder Marty Balin and the first with violinist Papa John Creach. Drummer Spencer Dryden also had departed, being replaced by Joey Covington. ''Bark'' was the Airplane's first all-new release in two years, the previous being 1969's ''Volunteers''. It was also the first album to be released under the Jefferson Airplane-owned Grunt Records label. Lead guitarist Jorma Kaukonen received four songwriting credits on the album, indicative of his growing importance as a composer. At the time, he and bassist Jack Casady had already recorded two albums for their spin-off blues group Hot Tuna. The album reached #11 on the ''Billboard'' album chart (outperforming both ''Volunteers'' and Kantner's Hugo Award-nominated 1970 solo album ''Blows Against the Empire'') and was certified gold by RIAA. An accompanying single, the Covington-led "Pretty as You Feel"—excerpted from a longer jam on the LP with members of Santana—was the band's final Top 100 American hit, peaking at #60. == Recording history == Recording for the album began in 1970 following the commercial failure of Grace Slick's "Mexico", a single that railed against the Nixon administration's anti-marijuana Operation Intercept initiative. Planned tracks included live versions of "Mexico" and its B-side (the Kantner-penned "Have You Seen the Saucers?"), Balin's "You Wear Your Dresses Too Short" and "Emergency", Peter Kaukonen's "Up or Down" (sung by Balin), and Covington's "Whatever The Old Man Does (Is Always Right)" and "The Man (The Bludgeon of the Bluecoat)", a 1950s rhythm and blues pastiche inspired by the contemporaneous murder of Rubén Salazar by a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputy.〔http://www.gotarevolution.com/littlerichard.htm〕 A tour of the United States continued through the autumn of 1970 with violinist Papa John Creach joining the band on the day of Janis Joplin's death. Balin did not perform at the band's concert at Winterland Arena on October 5 in remembrance of Joplin but continued with the tour; nevertheless, he was growing increasingly frustrated with the band's drug use and "playing that messed up cocained music."〔 Jefferson Airplane stopped touring in November 1970 as Grace Slick and Paul Kantner were about to have a child. China Kantner was born on January 25, 1971. During Slick's convalescence, the Covington-led "Pretty as You Feel" (the band's last ''Billboard'' Top 100 hit, culled from a longer jam with members of Santana) was recorded in January 1971, while Hot Tuna continued touring and recorded the live ''First Pull Up, Then Pull Down'' in March. Recording sessions resumed in the spring of 1971, but Balin—who had not spoken with his bandmates since the end of the 1970 tour—formally left the group in April. Kantner later admitted that the band didn't really know what direction to go in without Balin; although "The Man" was recorded with Little Richard on piano (much to the consternation of Casady) during this period, new songs were ultimately composed by Kantner, Slick, Kaukonen, & Covington in lieu of retaining the 1970-era material.〔 The recording sessions finally concluded at the beginning of July 1971, with the resulting album featuring the core five-member band augmented by Creach on several tracks. "Up or Down" and the studio versions of "Mexico" & "Have You Seen the Saucers?" were later released on the ''Early Flight'' compilation. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Bark (album)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|