Jefferson Starship at your local casino bar

Talk about misleading advertising --

The "Jefferson Starship" played a gig last night
at a bar at a local casino. This is not
particularly unusual -- lots of groups and stars
who used to be big names play at local casinos.

Heck, people play at local casinos who're still
basically stars, though not ones that still draw
the big stars.

But something about the radio ads got under my
skin. They name Paul Kantner and Marty Balin,
and they say something about everybody else
from Jefferson Starship. And it talks about
bringing the San Francisco sound to the casino.

Now that's downright odd in a way.

Marty Balin left the group about the time it
went from being the Jefferson Airplane to the
Jefferson Starship.

Grace Slick is not named, so obviously she's
sticking to her determination not to be an
aging rock star looking ridiculous on stage.

(Actually, I think that's ageist. I have no
problems with anybody of any age being on
on stage with a rock group. You don't become
physically incapable just because you're
50 or 60. And I'm glad that The Rolling
Stones are proving her wrong.)

Still, what kind of Jefferson "Starship" has
Marty Balin but not Grace Slick?

And the Starship didn't really put out
a "San Francisco" sound. Music was too
fragmented by then. That was the Airplane,
back when you could speak of them and
the Grateful Dead and Quicksilver Messenger
Service and Moby Grape in the same breath.

By the time Paul and Grace launched their
space age starship fantasy of their babies
wandering naked through the universe,
nobody was talking about sounds of cities.

And some of the other members can't be the
same -- the group had some severe personal
differences.

Though, if Balin and Kantner can work together
for the money, maybe they could include some
of the other original members also, or it
doesn't matter to the crowds at the casino
bar anyway.

After all, "We Built This City on Rock and
Roll," didn't we?

Let's see, I wonder how long was it that
Balin was mocking that song?

Maybe I'm being sarcastic since I was never
idealistic enough to give free concerts in
the park and sing and "Got to Revolution."

If listening to a group with a 40 year old
tradition that goes back to promoting
the psychedelic age turns you on, maybe
Paul and Marty will bring the 40 year old
San Francisco sound to a bar in your town.

And maybe I'm being unfair. After all,
it's reasonable that professional musicians
should want to keep making music. And who
can blame them for taking the obvious route
of building on the greatness that they did
have back then.

If it sometimes seemed odd for Elvis to go
from rock and roll star to Las Vegas club show . . .
how much stranger for Paul and Marty to go
from acid tests at Bill Graham's Fillmore West
to a bar in a casino in St Louis, MO?



artists workshops

Real oldies in the underground garage

There're two official "oldies" stations in St. Louis.
One, KHITS, plays mostly 70s rock, with occasional
songs from the 60s by The Beatles and The Rolling
Stones.

KLOU plays mostly 60s stuff, but a lot of soul and
silly ass shit that I didn't much care to listen to
back then. Like Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit in the
Sky" which is actually OK compared to a lot of stuff.

(He is currently raising ostriches and lives off the
$100,000 or so a year he makes off the royalties of
that song being played on the radio.)

So KLOU is mostly disappointing. KHITS has a lot of
good stuff but it's standard rock from 70s.

Neither one of them really focus on the good stuff
from the early to mid-60s or the late 60s. (Both
eras were great in their own way, though distinctly
different.)

They never play the kind of stuff my friends and I
used to sit around and listen to -- The Standells
(still famous for their song about the muddy water
of the Charles River in Boston, but I always
preferred "Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White." I
consider that one of the all-time great garage rock
songs.), The Kinks and The Yardbirds.

Yes, they were conventional British Invasion but
very little of the BI is aired now except for The
Beatles and Rolling Stones. Not the fun stuff such
as Herman's Hermits or the hard-edged stuff.

These "oldies" shows play very little Bob Dylan or
The Byrds.

But Little Steven plays all this stuff, plus some
of the later good stuff such as "We Ain't Got
Nothing Yet" by the Blues Magoos (And I liked his
comment that if you don't like the title of their
album, "Psychedelic Lollipop" -- you shouldn't be
listening to his show.), I Had Too Much Dream
Last Night and much more.

Plus, he plays stuff from the 70s punk era that I'd
forgotten about such as The Dictators.

Little Steven's Underground Garage is on at 8:00 PM
Sunday night Central Standard Time. I think it's
pre-recorded so you'll have to look for it in your
local area.

But if you like the REAL oldies from the 60s, plus
the best of punk from the 70s and beyond, that's
your show.

If you don't, what're you reading this blog for?


architecture travel

Little Steven's Underground Garage

I think I've mentioned this show before,
but it deserves its own special posting.

Every Sunday night, I listen to the best
music show on the radio -- Little Steven's
Underground Garage.

Little Steven is in The Boss Bruce Springsteen's
E Street Band, so he's had plenty of success
in the music business in his own right.

But his roots are in the garage or punk sound
of his youth -- as is true of every rock
musician from that time period.

So he highlights that kind of music, both from
the past -- the cuts from modern garage bands.

He describes the basic setup as this:

He plays music that probably influenced The Ramones.

He plays music that was influenced by The Ramones.

So the entire show revolves around The Ramones.

In between playing sets of 5 or 6 songs, he
has features regarding the "Freak of the Week,"
historical background on whatever holiday or
timely special event is going on, rants, beat
poetry etc.

He brings up some politics -- he's clearly anti-Bush --
but keeps it sort of general and in connection with
the music, and gives a shout out to the troops in
Afghanistan and Iraq, where the show is apparently
carried by Voice of America, so it's tolerable.

If nothing else, you can listen just to hear what I
think of the "real" oldies.

art history travel