Jefferson Airplane: Early Flight : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Not surprisingly, what could well be the best Airplane album since the four-year-old Volunteers consists mainly of tracks from the mid-Sixties. To be sure, there is a boring blues jam, and the rejects from Takes Off, while competent, are not on a par with the original LP. But the two outtakes from Surrealistic Pillow are hardly throwaways. Skip Spence's "J.P.P. McStep B. Blues" is a welcome reprise of the softer, acoustic Airplane, and Marty Balin's pile-driving "Go To Her" is both similar to and as excellent as its contemporary "Somebody To Love." What happened after Balin relinquished direction of the group is shown by the 1970 Grace Slick and Paul Kantner single, "Mexico" / "Have You Seen the Saucers," two of the more worthy examples of the often banal posturing they soon drifted into.