Conspicuous Only In Its Absence – THE GREAT SOCIETY***

Sally Go Round The Roses/Didn’t Think So/Grimly Forming/Somebody To Love/Father Bruce/Outlaw Blues/ Often As I May/Arbitration/White Rabbit

The Great Society are remembered as the group that launched the career of vocalist Grace Slick who found fame with Jefferson Airplane. Conspicuous Only In Its Absence was recorded at the San Francisco Matrix Club in 1966 and includes the original versions of Somebody To Love and White Rabbit. (US:166)

“Conspicuous Only In Its Absence was recorded live at the Matrix back in 1966 but was not released until 1968. Before the Airplane released their huge hits Somebody To Love and White Rabbit The Great Society performed them live in San Francisco. Their White Rabbit is unbelievably great, even more psychedelic than the more famous Airplane version. Apart from these two songs the ultimate highlights are Sally Go Round The Roses, which is just mind-blowing. Didn't Think So and Often As I May are also impressive. The rest of the songs are solid too without any filler. Just great psychedelic rock jamming, enhanced by Grace Slick's awesome vocals.”

“Grace Slick is my all time favourite female singer and here is one hell of a strong psychedelic rock album by her and The Great Society. The whole group plays tight and that can’t be anything else but awesome."

“Primitive versions of Somebody To Love (a dull take indeed) and White Rabbit; mostly live, the first of two archival records from Columbia put out to exploit Grace Slick's success as singer of the Airplane. Raw performances, improvised solos, but the musicians are not very skilled and most of the material is generic psych-pop.”

“I am a fan of Jefferson Airplane, and though this band is not as sophisticated it is still an important one. It was definitely experimental, one that pushed boundaries, something that not too many were brave enough to do. The songs are edgy for the time and obviously a building block for Grace Slick's later greatness.”

“Recorded live on what appears fairly rudimentary equipment in San Francisco's Matrix Club in 1966, the sound quality is much better than you could reasonably expect, but still pretty basic. The group can certainly play, but their sound is closer to a highly competent garage band than the sophisticated musical interactions of Jefferson Airplane which, of course, with the exception of Grace Slick, they're not.”