Published on Jan 27, 2000
I seem to remember seeing Grace Slick say in an interview that
she refused to play live anymore because she didn’t want to be a
spectacle, or an image of an old person trying to be young. After
hearing the last Jefferson Starship album
Windows Of Heaven, I thought she just might have been on to
something.
But I’m blindly allegiant to bands in that I’m willing to give
them second, third… hell, even tenth chances. Enter the picture,
from stage left:
Greatest Hits – Live At The Fillmore, a show recorded in
1998, broadcast on New Year’s 1999, and released on CD in late
1999. Everyone got that so far?
There are times when Jefferson Starship sounds like they are
within a hair’s width of recapturing the spaced-out glory of their
early days, and there are other times where they sound like a
nostalgia act desparately clinging to glories of the past. In the
end, this disc paints a rather uneven picture of Paul Kantner and
crew, and it is quickly relegated to the “for diehard fans only”
file.
Singer Diana Mangano has possibly the toughest job in the whole
act: trying to fill Grace Slick’s shoes. There are a few times
where she sounds like she’s quite capable of doing just that –
namely, on the version of “Somebody To Love” featured in this set.
At other times, such as on “White Rabbit,” Margano sounds like she
just doesn’t have the range necessary to pull off the vocal tricks
that Slick became known for – even to the point where she sounds
flat at times. But for the most part, Mangano seems to be the
modern-day Donna Jean Godchaux when she was in the Grateful Dead –
a pretty face, but for the most part, not a vital part of the
band.
That’s kind of a shame, because Paul Kantner occasionally sounds
like he’s still living in an acid trip (though his amblings are
nothing compared to the bullshit-laden rants that permeate
Windows Of Heaven), while Marty Balin does the unthinkable
by failing to give his own songs the justice they deserve. Balin
plows through a half-assed version of “Miracles” that fails to live
up to the magic that this song has had over the years. In Balin’s
defense, the song has been overplayed to the point where it’s the
only thing anyone knows from Jefferson Starship – but that doesn’t
mean he shouldn’t show us why we should still care about this
song.
The more magical moments on
Greatest Hits – Live At The Fillmore come, ironically, from
the songs you might not know unless you have followed the band
since their days as Jefferson Airplane. Tracks like “Plastic
Fantastic Lover,” “Crown Of Creation,” “Count On Me” and
“Volunteers” – as well as a cover of “Wooden Ships” – all show that
Jefferson Starship still knows how to turn on the magic. If only
they had been able to do this throughout the bulk of the show.
Incidentally, the two songs taken from
Windows Of Heaven – “The Light” and “Let Me Fly” – are not
as horrendous as their studio counterparts, but they also don’t
stand out on this disc.
As long as there are people who wax ecstatic about the ’60s and
the Haight-Ashbury scene, there will be an audience for Jefferson
Starship (or whatever the hell they choose to call themselves
depending on what quadrant of Mars that Jupiter is in). But unless
you feel you can’t live without it,
Greatest Hits – Live At The Fillmore isn’t the must-own disc
that sums up this band’s vast career. Then again, it could have
been much worse.
2000 Christopher Thelen and “The Daily Vault”. All rights
reserved. Review or any portion may not be reproduced without
written permission. Cover art is the intellectual property of the
record label, and is used for information purposes only.