Saturday, January 09, 2016

Careful where you tread

Saturday Cheeze (that I actually heard yesterday):



This has it all: headbands, keytar, rock duck lips, a first verse sung sotto voce and wide-eyed, a wind machine, sunglasses inside, a wall of amps indicating ROCK and awkwardly choreographed movements amid columns.

This was the beginning of the end for Jefferson Starship--during the recording of the follow-up album to Winds of Change, Paul Kanter kidnapped the master tapes for a few days to protest the band's changing sound. I like the single off of Nuclear Furniture, but when I watch the video, I can't say I blame Kanter for his shit-fit.

And it just keeps getting better. Until we reach the second single from Knee Deep in the Hoopla, "Sara," which is a synth-pop ballad that reeks of '85--right up my alley.

By this album, though, they aren't even writing their own songs, with newcomers like these--hence Kantner's departure, probably. And Peter Wolf (not that one) arranged/played on other 1984-86 singles that, come to think of it, sound a lot like "Sara."

And now we've come full circle: more duck lips, sotto voce first verse, band playing amid columns, and wind machines.

I'm going to have to revisit my copies of memoirs by Slick and the Wilson sisters. I know for a fact that Slick had quite pretty stream of sarcasm for (Jefferson) Starship after 1980. Funny how the raw and authentic sound and personalities of the 70s got swept up in the hairspray-and-electronic-drums turbine of the 80s.

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