Al, I always loved that tune as well. I can easily see how people may be polarized about his vocal style, but to me it was always just pure soul and passion.
It's a funny thing, in my youth I was all over the ultra-heavy material on the album, especially Jorma's work on "Hey Frederick" and "Good Shepherd" although there were a couple of little touches in "TMLD" I really liked.
It was only about 10 years ago when I put it on one day that the light bulb went on and I really finally "got" just how excellent the entire cut really was.
Played it 3 times in a row that day....and have you ever noticed that no matter how many times you open and close the album cover the peanut butter and jelly never get all smashed together?
And did they ever catch that guy who was wanted for putting jelly in people's shoes?
And have they announced exactly what happened to Marty yet?
All I can find is "ongoing but undisclosed illness".
Oh well. I can respect the family privacy with that.
As for the later Starship stuff it's tough for me to get into... between sounding dated instrumentally (to my ear) and also lyrically far less substantial
Yep. For me, "Ride the Tiger" was the closest the new band ever got to Airplane, and I did like "Jane", but after listening to
Dragonfly once, guitarist Craig Chaquico's mostly uninspiring work and the basically limp compositions were the weak links for me.
Kind of like "Journey light" and "Fooled Around and Fell in Love" era Elvin Bishop all rolled into one, and I didn't bother trying to listen to anything new from the bands follow-ups.
Whereas Paul and Grace had been my counter-culture heroes up there with Lennon and Ono during the
original Jefferson Starship era, by the release of
Red Octopus I considered 'em sellouts.
Arrogant of me perhaps but I'm just bein' frank.
Since then I did come around to understanding that hey they deserve to make a living like anybody else.
Maybe it was the baby.
I hear they can change things.
Oh yeah, there's another often-overlooked Balin-Kaukonen collaboration that deserves better recognition:
"She Has Funny Cars", the opener for
Surrealistic Pillow.
I humbly submit that tune may have more responsibility for the success of the album than has ever been acknowledged.
That Krupa-inspired drum intro leading into the first chord changes reaches out and grabs your ears and never lets go.
Then there's the middle 8. Pure Balin excellence again.
And what's up with this myth I cam across about what a "Plastic Fantastic Lover" is?
Doesn't anybody remember that Corvette were originally called "Plastic Fantastics"?
The lyrics prove it's obviously another tune about cars.
They were pretty big in '60's youth culture, remember?