Volunteers – JEFFERSON AIRPLANE****

We Can Be Together/Good Shepherd/The Farm/Hey Fredrick/Turn My Life Down/Wooden Ships/Eskimo Blue Day/A Song For All Seasons/Meadowlands/Volunteers

Volunteers was the final memorable album from Jefferson Airplane before internal squabbles caused them to gradually disintegrate. The group would undergo a renaissance in the mid 1970s as Jefferson Starship. (US:13 UK:34)

“This is Jefferson Airplane at their peak, political and trippy, at the end of the sixties. Before their legendary squabbles would, finally, make them implode, they managed one last great album, and here it is. Each of them seem to have hit their stride, Kantner's writing has achieved a new maturity, Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Cassady play together like one and Slick and Balin sing their hearts out.”

“The last overall great album by this band. Interesting songwriting on We Can Be Together and Eskimo Blue Day, a nice folk-rock version of the traditional Good Shepherd, far out psychedelic jams with Hey Fredrick, a great version of Wooden Ships and at last, there is the outshining hymn Volunteers, which brings the fading idealistic sixties to an worthy ending.”

“This is a classic album in every sense of the word. It has wonderful vocals from Slick and strong guitar work form Kaukonen. It is surely one of the best records from 1969 and without a doubt the band’s finest moment.”

“This album is epic, going from country to psychedelic, the music and lyrics really embrace the spirit of that crazy decade.”

“If you have a sweet tooth for folky pop, the Airplane reach some nicely ethereal places here. Some moments on this album are so dreamy that they hypnotize me with nostalgia for a time that I didn't even live through. Songs like Eskimo Blue Day, with its dopey lyrics and the nearly nine-minute Grace Slick belter Hey Fredrick are made powerful by the music's dramatic and spectral rocking.”

"Volunteers is the last 60s album Jefferson Airplane recorded and what a classic it is. Merging folk and psychedelic sounds it is full of well crafted songs such as We Can Be Together, Wooden Ships the honky-tonkish The Farm and the anti-establishment tune Volunteers to name a few.”