Grace Slick: Vocals, PianoMarty Balin: Guitar, VocalsPaul Kantner: Guitar, VocalsJorma Kaukonen: Guitar, VocalsJack Casady: BassSpencer Dryden: DrumsBill Thompson: ManagerAdditional and ex-members:Papa John Creach: ViolinJohn Barbata: DrumsJoey Covington: DrumsDavid Freiberg: Vocals, Bass, KeyboarsSigne Anderson: VocalsAlex "Skip" Spence: DrumsInducted into Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 (Performer).
After the release of their first studio album, Takes Off (only released in the USA), Anderson and Spence left the band. They were replaced by Grace Slick and Spencer Dryden, respectively. Grace Slick brought with her an amazing voice, attitude and two songs from her former band The Great Society. Both songs, "Somebody To Love" and "White Rabbit", received much airplay and helped make the band's second album Surrealistic Pillow a big seller, and also to pretty much define San Francisco's "Summer of Love" zeitgeist, just as the psychedelic era was coming into full bloom.
Surrealistic Pillow is an interesting mixture of largely folk-rock vocals, acoustic guitar and songs that reflected the changes emerging in youth culture as the world was beginning to become aware of the Haight-Ashbury scene.
Influenced by the new sounds of Jimi Hendrix and Cream, their next album After Bathing at Baxter's swung radically toward a heavier electric and much more experimental sound, largely provided by guitarist Jorma Kaukonen and bass guitar player Jack Casady.
On the next couple of albums, Crown of Creation and Volunteers, Kantner and Slick's influence came to the foreground and these albums included political, anthemic songs strongly critical of mainstream social values.
This collaboration continued after the 'unofficial' breakup of Jefferson Airplane, as exemplified in such albums as Long John Silver and Baron Von Tollbooth and the Chrome Nun, released after the classic (unofficial) 'break up album' (titled Blows Against the Empire).
Jefferson Airplane never "officially" broke up, but, beginning in 1974, the group "mutated" into other configurations in Hot Tuna and Jefferson Starship (which later morphed into an almost entirely different band called "Starship") in the 1970's and 1980's, before reuniting for an album and tour in 1989 (without drummer Spencer Dryden).
Rock historians have suggested that Grace Slick helped to break the mold of the typical female musician. Previously, women were only prominent in girl groups and seen primarily as teen idols. However, Slick's powerful and recognizable vocals began to reshape this image and helped pave the way for other female rock and rollers, such as Janis Joplin.
Jefferson Airplane was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.
From Wikipedia:Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band formed in San Francisco, California, in 1965. A pioneer of the psychedelic rock movement, Jefferson Airplane was the first band from the San Francisco scene to achieve mainstream commercial and critical success.
The band performed at all three of the most famous American rock festivals of the 1960s ? Monterey (1967), Woodstock (1969) and Altamont (1969) ? as well as headlining the first Isle of Wight festival. Their recordings were internationally successful, and they scored two US Top 10 hit singles and a string of Top 20 albums. Their 1967 record Surrealistic Pillow is regarded as one of the key recordings of the so-called Summer of Love and brought the group international recognition. Two chart hits from the album, "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit", are listed in Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".
Successor bands to Jefferson Airplane include Jefferson Starship and Starship; spinoffs include Hot Tuna and KBC Band. Jefferson Airplane was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.