Jefferson Airplane Wrote a ‘Space Opera’? And Jerry Garcia, David Crosby & Graham Nash Helped Sing It?
If you mostly only know Jefferson Airplane’s hits, you might be surprised to find out that in 1970, the band’s main creative forces ditched the white rabbits and headed into outer space. Guitarist and cofounder Paul Kantner wrote the sci-fi space opera Blows Against the Empire, and during some of Jefferson Airplane’s downtime, recorded it with a who’s who of the San Francisco rock scene, including Airplane members Grace Slick, Jack Casady, Joey Covington, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Jerry Garcia and Mickey Hart.
A new version, including demo tracks and live versions, will be released on Sept. 20 and you can preorder it here. In honor of that re-release, let’s get into everything you didn’t know about this strange piece of sci-fi and psychedelic rock history.
1. When It Was Recorded, Jefferson Airplane Was Falling Apart
Jefferson Airplane in 1970. Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Jefferson Airplane created some of the most iconic sounds of the ’60s; their 1967 album Surrealistic Pillow yielded two top 10 hits, “White Rabbit” and “Somebody to Love.” But by 1970, the band was beginning to pull in separate directions. Spinoff band Hot Tuna began playing shows in 1969, the year Jefferson Airplane performed at the infamous Altamont Free Concert — a concert at which singer Marty Balin was knocked unconscious by a Hell’s Angel, shortly before an audience member was murdered. In 1970, drummer Spencer Dryden was fired, and Balin was beginning to pull away from the group (he’d leave in 1971). Slick and Kantner had also become romantically involved, and Slick was pregnant with their first child.
Considering all that chaos — and that Airplane would split up for good in 1972 — it makes sense that Kantner wanted to put his energy into a side project instead.
2. It Was Inspired By A Classic Sci-Fi Novelist
Though Luke Skywalker wouldn’t bullseye womp rats for another seven years, the plot of Blows Against the Empire shares a few similarities with Star Wars films, mainly in its focus on a group of young revolutionaries who want to overthrow a society run by evil authoritarians. But the album was actually directly influenced by sci-fi writer Robert Heinlein, most famous for his 1962 novel Stranger in a Strange Land.
The album derives its plot point of characters stealing a spaceship to leave Earth for outer space from Heinlein’s 1958 book Methuselah’s Children, even quoting from the book in song lyrics. Kantner supposedly wrote to Heinlein for permission to create an album inspired by his ideas; Heinlein replied that many people had used his ideas as inspiration in the past, but Kantner was the first to ask for his permission (he granted it).
3. It Was Credited To Jefferson Starship (Before The Band Existed)
Paul Kantner (L) and Slick Aguilar at 40th anniversary of Woodstock in 2009. Mario Tama/Getty Images
Blows Against the Empire is credited to Paul Kantner/Jefferson Starship, a band that at that moment did not yet exist. In 1970, Jefferson Starship was simply an affectionate name for the group of friends and frequent Jefferson Airplane collaborators who appeared on the album, including Crosby, Nash and Garcia. The informal group was also sometimes known as the Planet Earth Rock ‘n’ Roll Orchestra, and members appeared on albums including David Crosby’s If I Could Only Remember My Name and Graham Nash’s Songs for Beginners.
A few years later, the name Jefferson Starship would refer specifically to a new band, formed after the dissolution of Jefferson Airplane, who released their first album, Dragonfly, in 1974.
4. The Album Was Nominated For A Sci-Fi Award
The Hugo Awards are the sci-fi community’s greatest honor, typically awarded to outstanding sci-fi books, scripts, publications and artists. Blows Against the Empire was the first music album to be nominated for a Hugo Award and remained the last until 2017.
5. It Is Considered The First Sci-Fi Concept Album
Sci-fi concept albums, from David Bowie‘s 1972 The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust to Rush‘s 2112 in 1976 to Styx‘s 1983 Kilroy Was Here, are a huge part of prog rock and 1970s pop music. But Blows Against the Empire is widely considered to be the first album to tell a sci-fi story all the way through. So if you love classic rock albums with freaky cover art and songs about visitors from other worlds, you might want to give this original a spin.
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