Takes Off – JEFFERSON AIRPLANE****

Blues From An Airplane/Let Me In/Bringing Me Down/Its No Secret/Tobacco Road/Come Up The Years/Run Around/Let’s Get Together/Don’t Slip Away/Chauffeur Blues/And I Like It

Takes Off was the debut album from celebrated San Francisco underground group Jefferson Airplane, featuring vocalist Signe Anderson who would leave before the next album. (US:128)

"The fact that Grace Slick isn't here is sometimes seen as a problem with this album, but for my money, it's difficult to tell that Signe Anderson isn't Slick anyway - she has a similar timbre and singing style."

"Let me talk about Signe Anderson. She wasn't quite as good as Grace but she still has a marvellous voice that's downright stunning at times, most notably on Chauffeur Blues, her only solo spot on the album."

"This legendary band began here with a mix of folk and power melodic pop. It's pure mid sixties music which is probably one of the best times of musical history ever. Bands loved melodies and singing in unison. The first female vocalist Signe Anderson does a great job too. This is pre psychedelia and it reminds me of the many great groups around in 1966 who just wanted to make good melodic music. It's too bad people don't make music like this much anymore, it soars and lays down great layers of beautiful sound. This though is 1966 stylings, not the later type of more polished songs made just a year later, and that's why this one is the raw start of a true giant legend."

"Here the early Grace Slick-less Jefferson Airplane incarnation is all about playing in that sort of woozy version of the current rock that morphed into psychedelia the next year. They do it well enough though you can't begin to convince me that this is a classic album. It lacks personality, the songs as well as the singers."

"A forgotten gem. Not as groundbreaking as The Byrds' early work, but solid original folk rock nonetheless."

"The album itself is really wonderful. The main difference from The Byrds is in that it's dark. The songs are, actually, rather simple: love ballads, hippie anthems, old blues covers, etc. But the way they sound was something new around 1966. How do they get that gloomy, murky sound, is something I still can't explain.