Jefferson Airplane - Volunteers (MFSL)

Jefferson Airplane - Volunteers (MFSL UDCD 540)

wv.scans

Autenticos precursores de la psicodelia de la costa oeste, la Jefferson junto a Grateful Dead son las megabandas mas importantes del movimiento hippie de los 60. Comenzaron con un disco de onda folk rock, incluso en su mejor disco, "Surrealistic Pillow", a mas gloria de Marty Balin la psicodelia se combina con temas mas acusticos y liricos. En 1969, en plena guerra de Vietnam, "Volunteers" podria ser el ultimo disco de una era hippie que estaba moribunda, ademas de ser el disco postumo de la Jefferson como gran banda, ya que los posterioes "Bark" y "Long John Silver" bajan bastante en cuanto a calidad se refiere. Aqui colaboraron Garcia, Stills, Hopkins... Un gran disco con canciones memorables y una carga social de mucha enjundia.

Controversial at the time, delayed because of fights with the record company over lyrical content and the original title (Volunteers of America), Volunteers was a powerful release that neatly closed out and wrapped up the '60s. Here, the Jefferson Airplane presents itself in full revolutionary rhetoric, issuing a call to "tear down the walls" and "get it on together." "We Can Be Together" and "Volunteers" bookend the album, offering musical variations on the same chord progression and lyrical variations on the same theme. Between these politically charged rock anthems, the band offers a mix of words and music that reflect the competing ideals of simplicity and getting "back to the earth," and overthrowing greed and exploitation through political activism, adding a healthy dollop of psychedelic sci-fi for texture. Guitarist Jorma Kaukonen's beautiful arrangement of the traditional "Good Shepherd" is a standout here, and Jerry Garcia's pedal steel guitar gives "The Farm" an appropriately rural feel. The band's version of "Wooden Ships" is much more eerie than that released earlier in the year by Crosby, Stills & Nash. Oblique psychedelia is offered here via Grace Slick's "Hey Frederick" and ecologically tinged "Eskimo Blue Day." Drummer Spencer Dryden gives an inside look at the state of the band in the country singalong "A Song for All Seasons."

The musical arrangements here are quite potent. Nicky Hopkins' distinctive piano highlights a number of tracks, and Kaukonen's razor-toned lead guitar is the recording's unifying force, blazing through the mix, giving the album its distinctive sound. Although the political bent of the lyrics may seem dated to some, listening to Volunteers is like opening a time capsule on the end of an era, a time when young people still believed music had the power to change the world. Volunteers was reissued in late 2001 by BMG Records' Spanish division in a crisply remastered edition containing 30 minutes of outtakes, which consist mostly of early versions, usually with very different lead guitar -- often a lot louder -- and vocal parts, of "Wooden Ships," "Volunteers," "We Can Be Together," "Turn My Life Down," "Good Shepherd," and "Hey Frederick." Some of these are very different from their official released versions and all are certain to please fans of Jorma Kaukonen, whose electric playing is heavily showcased on all of them.

Volunteers

Mire lo que esta pasando en las calles
Tiene una revolución llegué a la revolución
Hey estoy bailando por las calles
Tiene una revolución llegué a la revolución
No es sorprendente que todas las personas que cumplen y
Tiene una revolución llegué a la revolución
Obtuvo una generación de edad
Una generación con alma
Esta generación no tienen destino para celebrar
Recoger el grito
Hey ahora es el momento para que usted y yo
Tiene una revolución llegué a la revolución
Venid ahora estamos marchando al mar
Tiene una revolución llegué a la revolución
Que tendrá de ti
Nosotros y quienes somos
Somos voluntarios de América

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